Name for possible sister of Ava

[julietbat]

I'm 35 weeks pregnant with dc2 and although we seem to have quite a few boys names we like, girls names are much more of a problem. Our 18 month old dd is Ava Rose and our surname begins with M. Ideally we'd like a relatively uncommon name - mind you, we thought we'd found that with Ava (funnily enough I really didn't like it until she popped out and then it just 'seemed right') and now it turns out that the name is becoming more popular with every second!

I'm a big fan of not having any sort of pattern to siblings names (ie, I'd rather not have another beginning or ending in A). I am also not a fan of using an obvious nickname as the whole name, I'd like to try and find a 'proper' name I like even if the nn was the one we used by default.

At the risk of being told we have terrible taste, these are our measly ideas:

Esme
Elizabeth (Bess)
We really like Nell as a nn but not sure about Helen/Eleanor/Elena as full version.
We also like Claude as nn but don't like Claudia/Claudine/Claudette.

Help!

To make matters worse, dp and I both teach in a girls school so most names we come up with already have a connotation attached to them!

[Doozie]

Ava & Violet. Cute!

[titfertat]

Bess/Beth/Libby are all good nn for Elizabeth

How about Ellen (shortened to Nell)?

[claraquack]

Honor

Megan

Romilly

Robyn

[dizzydixies]

Celeste
Ismay
Saskia
Violet
Penny
Eleanor nn Nell
Cara
Cleo
Nina
Nancy
Corinne
Kitty
Niamh
Verity
Constance

[florence2511]

You can also shorten Penelope to Nell.
Esme is cute, but how would you pronounce it. I know 2, one pronounces it Esmay and the other Esmee.

[squeaver]

I know an Ava with a sister called Vivi. Don't think it's short for Vivien/Vivienne/whatever

[SilentBob]

I know a Claude whose full name is Cordelia?

[florence2511]

vivi could be short for Genevieve

[dizzydixies]

SilentBob I know a Cordelia who's known as Dylan

what about Hebe

[cookielove]

My sister is Neva which my dad shortened to nelly which could be shortened to nell in a round about way

though you could just call her nelly shortened to nell if you like the name

[Rachmumoftwo]

Not Maria

[pippel]

Josephine

[lowrib]

Other possible Nell names:

Ornella
Cornelia
Fenella
Helena

[lin125]

My DD is also an Ava, if we have another girl would love to call her Sylvie - think it goes really well.

[dizzydixies]

I heart Sylvie - DH wouldn't let me have it

[julietbat]

Thanks for your replies - food for thought!

Dp and I have been really warming to Romilly recently and I have always loved Sylvie too (I insisted it was on our list first time round) but dp is refusing to consider it this time. And I agree, I think it sounds lovely with Ava.

Florence - I like Esme pronounced Esmay, as if it has an acute accent on the second e.

I quite like Genevieve (dp doesn't) and we think we might like Constance (Connie), but it doesn't jump out at us!

Another name we both quite liked first time around was Dulcie. Again, I think it goes really well with Ava but dp has 'gone off it'. sigh

It's soooo much harder second time around!

[julietbat]

Oh, and Violet is definitely cute with Ava but not sure about the diminutives - Vi (pronounced Vee or Vi) neither of us likes.

We're thinking about just naming him or her the same name as our surname (it is actually a Welsh first name for either sex) and being done with it