A reader named Liz is expecting a baby girl and she’d like some help coming up with a name. Here are some details:
- Liz likes “traditional names that are not the type of name the person wearing it will be teased for,” such as Amalia, Charlotte, Sofia and Louisa/Louise.
- Liz’s husband like “names that sound cute for a little kid but good for an adult,” such as Grace, Beatrice and Nathalie. (Liz doesn’t care for Beatrice/Beatrix, though.)
So far, Louise/Louisa is the only name both Liz and her husband can agree on.
Here are some other names that I thought might work:
| Adele Alice Althea Caroline Celia Claire Clarice Coralie Emmeline | Genevieve Felice Gillian Greta Helena Irene Isabelle Johanna Josephine | Lavinia Leona Lucy Lydia Madeleine Margaret Mary Naomi Nicole | Pauline Patrice Philippa Rosalie Sabina Susannah Sylvia Thea Theresa |
No name is immune to teasing, but I did bump Harriet, which is dangerously close to “hairy.”
What other names would you suggest to Liz?
I’ve heard from a friend with a Gillian that people seem to have a hard time with the soft G. That might be a regional thing, though.
My preK kids have lots of girls with traditional, maybe vaguely British names lately: Amelia, Rosemary, Annabelle.
I am very partial to Rosalie, it’s traditional but a bit less old lady sounding that Rosemary.
For some reason am loving Cecily right now.
How about Deborah? Yeah, it’s my name, but I love it and it’s very traditional (Biblical roots–the story of Deborah in the Bible is one of my faves) and in Hebrew, it means “bee”. Plus, it works with tons of middle names.
Lynn, May, Jane, Anne, Sue/Susan, Eloise, Elinor/Eleanor, Joanna, Marie, Joan, Margot, Bethany, Charlotte
If they both like Louise/Louisa, why don’t they go with that?
Oh… so many choices! I’m still looking through, and so far I like a couple of the suggestions: Irene, Johanna/Joanna, Pauline, Sylvia and Rosalie. I’ll talk to DH about them.
@Elizabeth-
We like Louise/Louisa, but we decided to use it for the middle name, so we still need a first name :).
So I mentioned the names and these were DH’s comments:
Irene: He said it’s too close to Renee which he really doesn’t like (I don’t think Irene sounds like Renee, but DH said that it’s spelled close enough) . So scratch this one.
Joanna/Johanna: If we’ll use Louise instead of Louisa, we could definitely use Joanna as the first name.
Pauline: It’s a sad no.
Sylvia: This is another name to which he said that if we used Louise instead of Louisa we can use this.
Rosalie: He said the nickname Sally would be cute (instead of a nickname like Rose or Rosa). No other comment, though.
@Liz – I’m happy he likes a few of them! That’s good news. :)
@Liz–
How about Alison/Allison, Claudia, Diana, Victoria, Margaret, Frances or Isabel?
How about…
Megan, Emily, Michelle, Melissa, Helen/Helena, Kimberly, Magdalena, Samantha, Evelyn, Susannah, Ingrid or Rebecca?
Most names that end in a consonant sound good with a middle name that either starts or ends with “a”.
In my opinion, Megan, Emily, Michelle, Helen and Ingrid sound good with “Louisa” as the middle name (note none of them end in “a”) and Melissa, Helena, Kimberly, Magdalena, Samantha, Evelyn, Susannah and Rebecca sound good with “Louise” as the middle name.
And, Liz, how about Louisa May? After Louisa May Alcott :).
DH suggested another name: Francesca. I like this name a lot, surprisingly, more than “Frances”. I like this name enough to use it, but not with Louise/Louisa. So we changed the middle name to the second name we liked the most: Sylvia (we’re using the French version, Sylvie).
So her name will be: FRANCESCA SYLVIE. (Francesca Sylvie )
Francesca Sylvie is lovely — very nice choice!
DH and I both love traditional names that also have a “cute” diminutive. We are naming our LO Philippa Jeanne, but will be calling her “Pippa”. We love that Pippa is a cute, spunky nickname for a child yet Philippa provides a very classic and sophisticated alternative for an adult.