My husband and I are expecting our first baby, a girl. We still need to name her. It's not that we disagree about names really, we just don't ever decide! If I were to characterize our name choices though, I would say that I typically like more unique names while he likes names a little more on the traditional side.
Names we like:
Ella (I like this one a lot, my husband a little less so. Eloise is my mother's name so that's another reason I like it.)
Elle (Same as above)
Brynn
Quinn
Aubrey (my husband's current favorite)
Virginia (I don't like this at all but my husband does...I should rephrase, this is my Grandmother's name and I love her very much I don't want Virginia as my daughter's name...AND we both have sisters named Jennifer/Jenny/Jenn.
My only problem with Ella is that I don't want a name that becomes the next Jessica or Jennifer so that she's always Ella J in school b/c there are like 4 of them in her class. How did it become so popular?!?!?!? boo!! Are any of these other names on the verge of that popularity too? Maybe we could do Ella or a form of it as a middle name and still honor my mother that way? Just a thought.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
We've discussed before (too hurrying-to-catch-up to find links right now, but eventually we'll have a FAQ) that even the very most popular names today are only about 1/4th as popular as names such as Jennifer were when THEY were the most popular. So there isn't any such thing right now as the next Jessica or Jennifer: if there were four Jennifers in a classroom before, there would now be only one of today's #1 name.
But I get what you mean: even if Isabella isn't as common as Jennifer was, even if it's only 1/4th as common, it still can easily result in being Isabella R. and so forth. Although even this situation (1) isn't too awful, and (2) can happen even with a name that's statistically unlikely to duplicate within a classroom.
Ella is indeed getting very popular:
(screenshot from the Social Security Administration website)(click to biggify)
(a = not in the top 1000 for that year)
Would you consider actually making your daughter a namesake and naming her Eloise? It's a wonderful name, and much much much less common than Ella:
(screenshot from the Social Security Administration website)(click to biggify)
(a = not in the top 1000 for that year)
You could even nickname her Ella, but she could use Eloise if there was another Ella in her class.
If Eloise is not your style, the name that comes to mind looking at your list is Brielle---but that doesn't work with your husband's list at all. Hm.
One of my friends named her daughter Audra. It has the sound of Aubrey/Audrey, and it's good established name, but it's uncommon. Audra Eloise, maybe.
A very unusual choice would be Aquinnah, which is what Michael J. Fox named one of his daughters. It has the Quinn you like, but it's...well, it's longer. It has the rhythm of the name Virginia and some of its sound, so maybe it would be a name you'd both like. Aquinnah Eloise.
Another very unusual choice is Elodie. (It rhymes with Melody.)
Aubrey and Brynn have so many letters in common, I'm tempted to combine them---and it feels like there MUST be a name that sounds like both of them.
Name update 10-14-2010! Brooke writes: "We ended up with a name we both adore, Quinn Eloise (Eloise is my mother's name)."
