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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Eva or Grace?

43 replies

Minty82 · 03/02/2012 13:05

Having trawled through the Mumsnet archives, I know the consensus on both of these seems to be that they're a bit boring/too on-trend, but we both love both of them and think we're pretty much settled on one or the other (if it's a girl!).

Very torn between the two though, and just wondered whether one of them is seen as more 'all the other girls in nursery will be called that' than the other?

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Wigeon · 05/02/2012 08:53

Slinking - er, because it's our daughter's name and therefore is the best ever name and can't possibly date in any way Grin

OP - actually, if you are Christian, and the meaning of "grace" is meaningful to you, then I think it's a rather lovely choice.

SlinkingOutsideInFrocks · 05/02/2012 04:13

Minty - I'm not the name police Grin - choose whichever name you want. I'm just giving my opinion and throwing a few ideas/theories out there, and explaining why I'd personally never choose a very popular name.

Wigeon - OK, if you don't think the plethora of Eve/Eva/Evie variations will become this generation's Claire and Joanne, which names do you think will be? And why those names and not Eve/Eva, etc?

Because you can guarantee that when our own children have babies, there will be a sub-set of names in the baby name lists that they will completely gloss over in the same way that there are certain names we 20/30-somethings have no interest in, due to their ubiquitousness and inherent dated-ness.

I'm not deriding your choice - if you love a name you should go with it - but it's obtuse not to see that certain very popular names do eventually fall out out of fashion, and also that many names immediately conjure up a person of a certain generation simply because they were so popular with that generation.

suebfg · 04/02/2012 21:43

Both are lovely names - I don't think you can go wrong with either.

sammie74 · 04/02/2012 21:41

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Original poster
Minty82 · 04/02/2012 20:36

Slinking, oh I've come across Graces born in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s...I don't think it's ever really gone away. And with Eva, there's Eva Wiseman who writes for the Observer (30ish); Eva Green, same sort of age; Eva Cassidy (b.1963), so it's not come totally out of nowhere either. But yes, of course names have cycles of popularity. Even my own, which was my grandmother's (born in 1920), and which I thought was quite stable in its level of usage - ie. there's another one in both my NCT class and my yoga group, but the world's not overrun with us - has fallen out of the top 100 girls names altogether in the past few years. It is interesting, especially as you don't always know what factors are influencing your taste.

Wigeon, we are actually, which is why the 'graceful' connotations don't bother me so much as I think of it more as referring to 'Grace of God' etc. Good to know your Eva isn't too surrounded by others!

Thanks all of you for bothering to comment - still totally undecided but it's fun to gauge reaction (even the negative ones!).

OP posts:
Wigeon · 04/02/2012 19:36

I like Eva best (but I have one so am biased). I think it's a lovely name and certainly won't be the Tracy / Caroline of her generation . I actually have never met another (although we do have an Evie, Eve and Ava...obviously completely different names Smile)

Grace is a bit too religious for me. Which is fine if you are Christian, but I'm not. You might be?

RabidEchidna · 04/02/2012 19:27

Grace

MaggieAtwood · 04/02/2012 19:24

I like Evangeline nn Eva, otherwise I would choose Grace.

SlinkingOutsideInFrocks · 04/02/2012 19:20

Interesting that someone's great-grandmother was called Grace, and we had Grace Kelly born in 1929, and then the name pretty much disappeared in the intervening years, only to have a resurgence now.

This is exactly what I'm talking about - names go in and out of fashion, they have cycles of popularity and non-popularity.

I remember when the mother on an Australian television show from the 80s was called Grace Sullivan, my Mum who was born a decade after Grace Kelly said, 'oh, what an old-fashioned name!'...

Everyone choosing Joanne back in the 1970s thought it was a lovely timeless name - and it is a lovely name - that's why they chose it en mass. Doesn't stop it from sounding dated to our ears now.

To be clear - I don't have a problem with the name - it's very pretty to my ears (at this point in time!). I just find the whole culture around names, why we choose them, why some are so popular and the fashions and trends around them really fascinating.

Original poster
Minty82 · 04/02/2012 15:00

Eva Grace is lovely as a combination, but the middle name's already fixed, as our mums conveniently have the same name as each other so that was an easy choice. And not too keen on hyphenated in general (I actually have a slight illogical hankering for Mary-Kate, but was never going to get my own way on that one...)

BluddyMoFo - thanks, both for the reassurance that a Grace can pull off not being 100% graceful, and that it won't date even if its popularity comes and goes. I'm inclined to think that holds true for both of them; they may be having a peak now, but they do crop up in each generation.

NadiaWadia - love the antiGrrr sentiment! I happen to disagree, but see where you're coming from!

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NadiaWadia · 04/02/2012 14:32

Eva is lovely.

Grace .... don't like names that start with Grrrrrrr .......

ver0nika · 04/02/2012 14:18

how about both?Eva-Grace;-)like Ann Marie?

BluddyMoFo · 04/02/2012 11:46

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BluddyMoFo · 04/02/2012 11:44

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NatureAbhorsAHoover · 04/02/2012 11:33

Slinkingoutside - brilliantly put, agree very strongly with you.

It broke my heart but I had to give up on Sophie for that reason, and think it was the right thing to do. Would have driven me mad for DD to be one of 4 in her class.

Hulababy · 04/02/2012 09:39

I prefer Grace.

Newtothisstuff · 04/02/2012 07:11

Why don't you use both ?? Eva Grace ?

CurlyCasper · 04/02/2012 06:41

I love Eva, but it would not work with our surname.

I'm not a fan of Grace, or any virtue names really. What happens if cute little Grace grows into the least graceful person you have ever met? Grin

Montsti · 04/02/2012 06:38

I like both names, but Eva edges it for me. There do seem to be more variations of girls names than boys I.e. Ava, Eve, Eva, Evie etc.. (all pretty) names in usage whereas other than a few, even the most popular boys names seem to be more unique (with maybe 1/2 nns) in that they're not similar to others I.e. Oliver, William, Thomas, James etc..

I prefer longer names that can be shortened but the names I like are also often criticized on here for being terribly boring/widespread but personally I think it's more important to name your child a name you love (whether popular/unusual) than discounting names because there might (not always) be several in a year at school. There are certain names that seem to be universally disliked on here solely due to popularity but often other equally popular names are suggested as strong/classic etc...e.g. I know so many babies/toddlers/teenagers/adults called James/Nicholas/Matthew but they seem to be acceptable on here whereas god forbid you name your child Thomas/Oliver/William as there will be hundreds in your child's class....

I agree with littlepandabear re: if the only purpose of a name was to identify you then surely the best way would be to be given a number at birth...no name will be unique and there is always a chance that there are 2 or more in 1 class.

Just go with the name you love best (within reason!)!

tammytoby · 03/02/2012 21:46

Minty, you need to add together all the Eves, Evies, Evas, Evelyns and other Eve related names to get a feel for how popular they are. And I agree completely with slinkingoutside - fashionable, top 10 names sound lovely and trendy NOW but will start to sound dated as they fall out of fashion again (which anything that has been mega popular WILL inevitably).

I'd rather have a name that is not 'fashionable' but timeless and classic and that identifies me.

birdofthenorth · 03/02/2012 21:44

I know heaps more Grace and Gracies than Evas. I also know loads of Avas. I think the combined popularity of Evie & Ava makes you think Eva is more common than it is.

I prefer Eva. You could always go for something less used like Evangeline or Evelyn, with Eva as a nickname, to give her options later on if Eva turns out to be the new Tracey?!

SlinkingOutsideInFrocks · 03/02/2012 21:34

It's not perception - it's reality. One year's statistics don't mean much in isolation - but if an entire generation of girls are called the same names, then the surge in numbers and popularity becomes more apparent.

I mean, it wasn't just girls from 1978, say, that were called the names I listed above, but girls from 1970 through to the early 80s. That's a lot of girls with a small group of oft-repeated names. Wink

Anything that is very popular will inevitably drop out of style and sometimes even become positively eschewed in the hunt for the next big thing. That's fashion...

Original poster
Minty82 · 03/02/2012 21:25

Really intrigued by this. I totally agree with not wanting to name your child the same as every other baby of their sex born that year (and am slightly irritated that my long-term favourites are suddenly so boring), but the perception of overuse seems to be greater than is actually backed up by the statistics - Eva was number 37 in the most recently available list (2010). It's well below Ava, Isla and Mia, as it happens...though Evie was number 10, so I guess that skews it.

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RobinSparkles · 03/02/2012 21:14

I like Grace better than Eva and I like Eva better than Eve

kerala · 03/02/2012 21:12

Applauds slinkingoutside. There are so many pretty, strong, gorgeous girls names am fascinated why the majority pick the same 10. Why are we (i.e. our generation) all drawn to the same names?