@luanna801 said: Okay, I like Etienne and Mireille, and for the others I’m going with Laurent, Seraphin, Theophile, and Thibault. (Judging by ‘Lestat’ Gabrielle liked somewhat unusual names, so I tried to reflect that in some of these. ‘Theophile’ is also a reference to 19th-century French writer Theophile Gautier, who published one of the first vampire stories in 1836.)
@luanna801 said (re: Louis de Lioncourt): @mntyaggrssn Oh man, that would’ve been awkward! I’m sure he’d get over it, but it would probably be really weird at first to be calling your lover by the same name as a sibling. (I tend to think not, though – Lestat probably would’ve mentioned it at some point if Louis had the same name as his brother.)
Bonjour! I’m well, thank u, thanks for the blog lurve! <333
I don’t think his other brother was ever mentioned by name, no 😛
I don’t really love this bit of canon but it’s an interesting explanation; in Blackwood Farm, Lestat says his name is “compounded of the first letter of each of my six older brothers’ names,” so they’d have to have started with L, E, S, or T, bc A was for Augustin. And two of his brothers started with T.
I was working on a ficlet at one point and wanted to include this unnamed brother, talking about him in a PM with someone, and came up with “Étienne,” which is a French equivalent of Stephen/Steven.
Proooobably it’s bc I headcanon him as looking like Steve Zahn and I CANNOT explain why that is, but I am 99% married to this headcanon.
^This is from Joy Ride.
I think it’s bc he’s somewhat attractive, but only bc of his cartoonish attitudes, very smarmy but simple-minded, seems like the younger of the two brothers, desperate to please the older one, Augustin could easily lead him around, he wouldn’t question being ordered to beat on his younger brother, even if he didn’t take much pleasure in it.
So the brother’s names (not necessarily in birth order) would be:
L-?
E- (I am really attached to Étienne!??)
S-?
T-?
Augustin
T-?
Lestat
Off-topic but still, I like to think the eighth de Lioncourt was a girl, bc really, 8 boys in a row is unusual. @viaticumforthemarquise named her Mireille, I think *u*
On the whole pronunciation of Lestat (LestAHt vs Lesaught) my theory is that it’s both. If we accept Lestat’s story from Blackwood Farm that his parents made up his name from the first letters of his brothers’ names, then maybe they never came up with an exact way to pronounce it. Maybe Gabrielle always called him by one, while his father would use the other. This has led to Lestat changing up they way he introduces himself for 250 years.
//or maybe they just called him “you” since their relationship wasn’t too… affective
^Ya, I like all this. I don’t LOVE Blackwood Farm but that explanation is as good as any. I’m sure his family called him all kinds of bad stuff including purposely
making
his name sound bad, and yes, maybe they never came up with a specific way to pronounce it. I think part of his self-deprecation comes from getting so little affection in his formative years, and not even having a consistently pronounced name is pretty mean ;A;
Anyone can pronounce his name however they want, I think he would be pretty chill about that. Especially considering that people have native accents that affect their pronunciation of words anyway, given how much international travel/business/etc. he does, I don’t think he’d be making an issue with every single person he encounters about the pronunciation of his name.
AR had intended to write his name as “Lestan” after her husband “Stan” + the French word for “the” which is “Le” when preceding masculine words. She’s said that “Lestat” was a typo that she ended up liking.
ANYWAY, since “Stan” is pronounced like “stand” and not “ton” my preference is to go with the ‘a’ of Lestat as like “stand” or “cat.” I kinda feel like AR’s whole obsession with pronouncing it like “Les-TOT” is another way she divides the “real fans” from the rest of the fans; if you don’t pronounce it her preferred way then you’re not really talking about HER character. But that’s just a theory.
I headcanon that Lestat likes nicknames based on his name, especially “’Stat,” a medical term: “Stat, used as a directive to medical personnel during in an emergency situation, is from the Latin word statim, which means “instantly” or “immediately.”” [X]
I always figured when Anne says “lesTOT” she’s just trying to write/say it in a way that – based on American English vowel pronunciations – approximates European [a], which is much closer to what English has in e.g. “father”, and kinda close to what American English has in “tot”, since that’s the sound it would have been in French. A French person would not say [lestæt] like “cat”.
Personally I like the more French/European pronunciation over the American [lestæt], because I’m not an English speaker, so I’m used to European pronunciation. And I’m not sure he would have Anglified his first name that much. But in the end it just comes down to how much you think he’s “gone native” tbh. But ya after 200 years in the US I doubt he minds people pronouncing his name the English way.
When he was very young, his brothers (not known for their kindness), told him this story. They made it quite clear to him that his parents, having no love left for him after six children, took the laziest route possible in naming him.
This is, of course, an utter lie. I’ve already told the story here of Lestat’s naming—and I’ve also explained this to him many times (he tends to accept this story as a part of his own mythology, unfortunately).
He does, from time to time, need reminding that his name, just like my love for him, was not accidental in nature. He is, and ever will be, my Lestat. Thus I named him, and thus I keep him.
And his brothers are dead. So there’s that.
(he tends to accept this story as a part of his own mythology, unfortunately).He picks and chooses his own mythology, for SURE.
“Lestat’s name doesn’t mean anything. It is a name that I made up. I search hard and long for names that are unique, and Lestat is, in a way, a mistake. There is an old French name in Louisiana, “Lestan”, and my husband’s name is Stan, and I thought I was using the old French name when I wrote Lestat . It was only later that I realized I had added a “t” for an “n”, and created a name that didn’t exist, so you might call it a Freudian slip. Lestat was definitely like Stan. His self confidence, his blonde hair, his blue eyes, his feline grace — all of that was inspired by my husband, Stan. So maybe it means ‘the Stan’.“
On the whole pronunciation of Lestat (LestAHt vs Lesaught) my theory is that it’s both. If we accept Lestat’s story from Blackwood Farm that his parents made up his name from the first letters of his brothers’ names, then maybe they never came up with an exact way to pronounce it. Maybe Gabrielle always called him by one, while his father would use the other. This has led to Lestat changing up they way he introduces himself for 250 years.
//or maybe they just called him “you” since their relationship wasn’t too… affective
^Ya, I like all this. I don’t LOVE Blackwood Farm but that explanation is as good as any. I’m sure his family called him all kinds of bad stuff including purposely
making
his name sound bad, and yes, maybe they never came up with a specific way to pronounce it. I think part of his self-deprecation comes from getting so little affection in his formative years, and not even having a consistently pronounced name is pretty mean ;A;
Anyone can pronounce his name however they want, I think he would be pretty chill about that. Especially considering that people have native accents that affect their pronunciation of words anyway, given how much international travel/business/etc. he does, I don’t think he’d be making an issue with every single person he encounters about the pronunciation of his name.
AR had intended to write his name as “Lestan” after her husband “Stan” + the French word for “the” which is “Le” when preceding masculine words. She’s said that “Lestat” was a typo that she ended up liking.
ANYWAY, since “Stan” is pronounced like “stand” and not “ton” my preference is to go with the ‘a’ of Lestat as like “stand” or “cat.” I kinda feel like AR’s whole obsession with pronouncing it like “Les-TOT” is another way she divides the “real fans” from the rest of the fans; if you don’t pronounce it her preferred way then you’re not really talking about HER character. But that’s just a theory.
I headcanon that Lestat likes nicknames based on his name, especially “’Stat,” a medical term: “Stat, used as a directive to medical personnel during in an emergency situation, is from the Latin word statim, which means “instantly” or “immediately.”” [X]
While working out the VC gift exchange, @i-want-my-iwtv and I discussed ship names. Yeah, yeah, Loustat. But Armiel? Danand? D…Darius? Loumand? Do we have a consensus on VC ship names, guys? 🤔
From the VC Discord forever ago…
Yeah no, we don’t lol
I love this goddamn fandom
#This r serious discussion
But wow, I did not even consider the pronunciation issue re: Armaniel. “Arm-ayn-yul,” or “Arm-Ahn-yul”?!! So I’m more on the “Darmand” side, which follows more of a Bennifer or Brangelina logic.
Also I am throwing in my vote for Louis/Armand as “Loumand” bc Louis/Lestat is “Loustat.” Louis takes precedence! Did it used to mean something special about the ship when one’s name was first? anyways “Armouis” sounds like a very weird and distasteful kind of soup??
I-want-my-IWTV 