Ella, Evelyn, Elizabeth, Ava or Anna!

Ella

Elizabeth is becoming popular again and not to my taste. Nor is Anna or Evelyn. All make me think old fashioned. But that's just me.

I do love Ella thou, very pretty IMO

Based on your names, how about Annabel or Evangeline?

Really dislike Margaret - it makes me think of an old lady. Claire is lovely imo. I really like Ava, but agree it is very popular at the moment. Love Anna.

I have an Anna, (she's called after a Great Aunt). I just love her name, always getting compliments. Evelyn is also beautiful. Elizabeth is timeless.
I'm not so keen on Ella or Evie.

Sandydunes, did you have her yet? What did you choose?

I would go for Elizabeth nn Eliza

I adore the name Evelyn - to be shortened to Evie and think this would have been my first choice for name, middle name to be Grace.
However, about 5 years ago a family friend had a stillbirth at 7 months, with a dd she had called Evelyn Mary. So I think it would be disrespectful and hurtful to call my baby this....
So my fave for you is defo Evelyn good luck choosing! X

From a slightly different perspective, I have an Anna who is now 15. She loves her name, there is never any confusion over how to pronounce it (here or abroad), and there has never been another Anna in her class. It was also very easy for her to learn to spell and write her name!!

Elizabeth or Anna
Evelyn is OK - but every other baby seems to be Evie.
Not the other two.

I love Evelyn, then Anna. The others on your list are a bit ugly IMO. If you and DH like Ella but worry about it being too common, how about Etta? puts to top of list for possible DC2 Or based on your choices, Eleanor, Eleanora, Evangeline, Annabel, Elana, Elaine?

Anna. No question.

My dd Anna is nearly 5 and we love her name. Have only met one other and had so many compliments........

I have an Evalyn. When my dd was born we went for Evelyn but wanted it pronounced ev-Lin. We ended up changing the spelling to try and get people to pronounce it properly. I know some people don't agree with chaging the spelling but we love it! I don't know any other little ones with the name Evelyn. Good luck

I have a little girl called Evelyn (pronounced eve-lyn not ev-lyn) so that's obviously my favourite. I agree Evie is really common at the moment, but she's not ever called that. She's also the only one at her nursery/toddler groups etc - in fact I've only ever met old ladies called the same and people always comment on what a lovely name it is.
Elisabeth's nice enough but a bit bland, same as Anna really. Ella and Ava are both nice too, I'd go for either of those three!

Mine is an Anna Claire, think her middle name has been used once - when she was baptised My older childrens middle names are never used either, in fact if I hadn't been using family names I don't think I'd bother with middle names.

Evelyn or Anna. Like both equally. Ella is lovely but too common for me. I know a couple of evelyn's both over 50 who don't shorten to anything and if I had that name i wouln't shorten it to anything either.
For middle names, love Claire, dislike Margaret (have an irrational dislike of Margaret and Martha, not sure why, think of boring librarians)

Oh Anna definitely - lovely name. Margaret over Claire as a middle name - unless you have a particularly sweet tooth - an eclair!

Similar to names I am considering for DC2 should it be a girl.

Maggie, Eliza, Ellie, Eva.

Quite liking Eliza at the moment.

But that's probably not much help

I have an Ella; there really aren't many round here, there is only one other in her whole school (put in the same class!)
Ella Margaret/Evelyn Margaret are both lovely.

Love all the names on your list, although Anna and Evelyn are my favourites. Could you use Linny as a nn for Evelyn?

I considered all of those names for my DD (went with something else though).

Evelyn was my favourite, but I decided against because I didn't want the confusion over how to pronounce it. A minor detail though.

I had a shortlist of 3/4 by the time she was born, and didn't know the sex of the baby beforehand. We decided quickly which name she 'was' once I could see her little face, and her middle name just came to me there and then and wasn't one we'd previously thought of. Maybe just wait until you have a face to put to the name and go with your gut?

I think Anna and Elizabeth are in another league to Ava and Ella. The sound of all four names is quite nice but Anna and Elizabeth are timeless names whereas Ava and Ella are the Claire and Louise of the new generation. They are everywhere and of course they will date.

Ava is also massively popular in the US at the moment so it will date globally.

I cannot decide what I think of Evelyn. I keep thinking of Waugh and can't seem to get beyond that.