>Not all French feminine names with an *el* sound at the end end in "-elle." Example:
Adele,
Gisele.
you're right. I wasn't saying that all french names on -el were made up the same way. But I wanted to say that "
Noelle" isn't any more made up than f.ex.
Michelle,
Danielle, Emanuelle or
Gabrielle. Because ...
>
Noelle is a made up "Americanized" French name. No one in
France would use it.
This is not the case. It has been made up in
France. Since in
France "Noël" is male and male only. So when the word "Noël" turned into a first name, they came up with "Noëlle" as the female variant.
I know there are female names that have been "french"-isized outside of
France by adding -elle or -le (or -ette), but Noëlle isn't one of them. That's what I wanted to say :)
In fact, using Noël or
Noel as female names is the "americanized" way.