Rochel vs Rachel spelling

amother

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 3:42 pm

We want to use this name but pronounced with an emphasis on the CHEL. What do you think makes sense re the spelling?
“Rochel” looks like “RUH-chul”
“Rachel” looks like “Raychel” the English name.
And “Rochelle” or “Rachelle” looks like either “Ra-shell” or even “Ra-cheli”.
What do the ladies on here think? What have you seen? And any of you have the name and can share from personal experience?
Thanks!

amother

Cantaloupe

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 3:44 pm

My name is spelled Rachel and pronounced Ra-Chel
I love it because its easy to just say my name is Rachel when dealing with non Jews
In the frum world everyone knows how to pronounce correctly too based off the spelling

amother

Yolk

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 3:53 pm

Spell it Rachel.
Rochel will for sure be pronounced Ruh-chul.
Yes, non-Jews will say Raychel the English way, but this is probably your best bet!

AllThings

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 3:54 pm

I always think of Rochel as being pronounced Rochel and Rachel the way you want (or the english name Rachel, context dependent).

LK1

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 3:57 pm

I would do Rachel since you could change the pronunciation for non-jews.

Rochel looks very much like Ruh-chel

amother

Ginger

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 4:16 pm

amother [ Cantaloupe ] wrote:

Another Rachel here! Agree with the above.

amother

Ecru

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 4:25 pm

I'm Rachel pronounced Ra-CHELL.
I know another Ra-CHELL who spells her name Rachelle but that looks like RaSHELL to me, like rochelle

essie14

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 7:53 pm

I know people who spell it Rachelle, Rachell, Rachael and Rachayl. I would just spell it Rachel.

amother

Chartreuse

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 8:35 pm

I’ve had a bunch of students spelled different ways. Rachel is almost always ra-CHEL and rochel is rochel. I also have a Rachelle also pronounced raCHEL and a Racheli

amother

Bisque

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 9:06 pm

amother [ Eggplant ] wrote:

I know someone who's name is spelled Rachael.

I get so annoyed when I see this (and it's becoming more common). I think it's an overgeneralisation from the spellings of other names like Michael, Daniel, Gabriel, etc that have a vowel + el. However, if you look at the original names in Hebrew, the vowel+el names have א-ל at the end. Rachel doesn't. It just has kumitz under the ח and then a lamed. רחל. Rachel doesn't have hashem's name in it, it means "sheep".

Perhaps I'm wrong about why the name is suddenly being spelt that way but it's the only reason I can figure out and it's annoying to me.

zaq

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 9:14 pm

Spell it Wraughelle. Because no matter how you spell it, manyones will pronounce it differently from the way you want them to. Spell it Wraughelle and you have a sliver of a chance of happiness, because at least some people will bother to ask you how to pronounce it rather than guess wildly.

Rachael is linguistically wrong. People spell it this way because they think it's analogous to Michael, which it isn't remotely.

amother

Currant

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 9:19 pm

amother [ Eggplant ] wrote:

I know someone who's name is spelled Rachael.

Mine is. My coworkers have no idea how to pronounce it. And among frum people, it’s more Rachayl than Ra-CHEL. Not my druthers.

amother

Chambray

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 9:34 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I know both and it depends on the pronunciation. In your case I would spell it Rachel. Also legally, it makes it easier for non Jews.

amother

Wed, Jun 08 2022, 11:55 pm

Thanks everyone (op here)
I appreciate these posts
Does it make a difference that I strongly dislike the name Ray-chel? And don’t care about non-Jews being able to pronounce it- our main sphere is frum. I don’t dislike “Rochel” and would rather someone mistakenly pronounce it that way than say “Raychel” (but my husband doesn’t like the sound of “Rochel”)

amother

Thu, Jun 09 2022, 1:48 pm

Also- we are in more right wing circles
Is it typical to have a Ra-chel ? Will she feel like it’s a more modern name growing up in more yeshivish school system etc ?

amother

Brass

Wed, Jul 06 2022, 2:56 am

I know people who wanted the Hebrew pronunciation so they named their daughter with the spelling Rachelle. I think it’s your best bet.

amother

Bisque

Wed, Jul 06 2022, 3:30 am

amother [ Brass ] wrote:

I know people who wanted the Hebrew pronunciation so they named their daughter with the spelling Rachelle. I think it’s your best bet.

This will almost certainly be pronounced as Rochelle by many many people and will have to be corrected each time.

Mayflower

Wed, Jul 06 2022, 3:33 am

zaq wrote:

You made me actually LOL!

Seriously though OP, if you are in right-wing circles, people will automatically assume it's Ra-CHEL, not Raychel. There's no other way to spell it really.