Mumsnet Talk

Lydia is my middle name and I have always loved it and wished it was my first name. If my baby is a girl we are going to call her Lydia Belle.

Lydia - pretty, until you start thinking that it sounds remarkably like Chlamydia...

Josephine - lovely, this is my favourite out of your choices. And I love the nickname Sephie.

Frances - OK, but I prefer Francesca.

Harriet - Makes me think of Harriet Harman / Harperson / Harridan - yuck!

OP -Harriet was a surprise choice for us too -wasn't even on my radar until she was born

She is Hats for short - don't like hattie personally

Of your other names - I also love Lydia.....

I have a baby Josephine and also love Lydia.
Not keen on Harriet/Hatty or Frances/Fran.

Gah - where did that rogue apostrophe come from??

I like them all. I'd put them in this order:
Harriet
France's
Josephine
Lydia. I've met quite a lot of small Lydias recently.

I like Josephine and Frances, not so keen on Lydia and Harriet.

Harriet is my favourite by far.

Can I throw another name into the mix... Francesca??

Harriet for me too. Josephine next, and then not keen on the other two.

Harriet is my favourite.

Harriet is lovely. The shortened version is Hattie which I like less. Not keen on your other choices though I'm sorry.

We're having a Hattie is this DC is a girl. Sunday name Harriet. Love it!

Harriet but not Hattie or Hetty.

i love Lydia sounds nice

Like it as a boy's name

I like Hattie personally. Hetty is nice too. I'm not a fan of Harry. Don't know why, as I like it as a girl's name. I always think of posh sloany types for Harry <getting more random by the moment>

What would you shorten Harriet to? I like Hetty and Harry...

My favourites are probably Lydia and Harriet. Frances is nice.

Not keen on Josephine personally - I'm not that fond of female variants of male names myself. You know, Paula, etc. I don't know if Josephine developed separately from Joseph, but I'd think of it in that category <random reason to reject a name alert>

Like all of them.

Probably in this order. It's a close run thing between the top two though...

Harriet, Lydia, Josephine, Frances 

I like Lydia and Josephine. My Dd has Josephine for her middle name after my Mum! So yes i like it very much. I do call my Dd . . . Josephina sometimes too which i think is softer. Good luck.

I would pick Harriet. for me it has a certain style and elegance, i also like Hattie as nn. I also like Frances, very understated, but i am not so keen on Fran.

Love them all. Josephine is my gran, Lydia is my cousin, Harriet is my middle name and Francis (male version) is a traditional family name on my dad's side going back generations, so if I had a DS or DD I'd be very tempted by Frances/Francis.

So, all of them are good!

yy to Joey.

My gran was Frances. We're from the West Country so she was Fraaaaaaaances or Fraaanse. Still love it!

Sorry, now it strikes me as chic.

Mixed feelings about Harriet then. When I was a kid I thought it was ugly. But now it feels strikes me as chic. But I'm wondering if it's good to pick a name you've done a complete 180 on, maybe you're better off picking something you've always loved...On the other hand your name tastes change over time - I used to think Donna was the height of sophistication!