Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

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

Original poster

Alexandra Lily or Lily Alexandra - which order do you prefer?

38 replies

runningandjumping · 24/06/2015 22:02

Which should be first, which second name?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
TidyDancer · 28/06/2015 13:49

Alexandra is a more beautiful name. Lots of options for shortening if your DD wishes. Alex is the most logical and by far the nicest one.

Lily Alexandra does flow quite nicely but Lily is so overused now.

Mehitabel6 · 27/06/2015 07:28

Alexandra Lily

lazydog · 27/06/2015 05:13

I'd choose Alexandra Lily, definitely. I don't agree that it's ever going to be an issue of you (or her) saying her name as "Allie Lily Surname". Alex is my own chosen shortening of Alexandra, but if I'm ever asked to give my full name, I'd use Alexandra Middle-name Surname.

musicalendorphins2 · 27/06/2015 04:52

I immediately nicknamed her Lexi Lily in my head, and it was mentioned in this thread as well, so perhaps with that in mind, Lily Alexandra may be better for you?
(I think Lexi Lily is a cute nickname though.)

afink · 27/06/2015 04:05

Alexandra Lily.

Alexandra is a beautiful name and has some great shortenings. Just don't shorted it to Lexi. There's loads of them!

Flowerkid2 · 26/06/2015 22:03

Lily Alexandra, I think Lily is really lovely :)

hawkmcqueen · 26/06/2015 21:26

Do you want to call her Lily or Alex? Or other shortening for Alexandra as it will prob be shortened? Lily is quite soft sounding whereas Alex is quite strong.

Benchmark · 26/06/2015 19:24

Alexandra is beautiful and goes well with Lily. Its the sort of name i would choose to be called myself. It's strong, elegant and has lovely shortenings. Do you like the names Lexi and Alex? As there is a high chance she will choose to go by one of these.

FrankUnderwoodsWife · 26/06/2015 11:42

My daughter is called Alexandra. So I vote for Alexandra Lily.

Regarding people shortening her name, she hates it when her full name is not used, and is quick to correct them!

I will admit, her father and I rarely use her full name as we have lots of nicknames for her, including our favourite which is "pants"

DoloresLandingham · 26/06/2015 11:37

Lily may be pretty but Alexandra is strong and beautiful. Alexandra Lily for me; as pp have said, Lily is ubiquitous.

sweetheart · 26/06/2015 11:15

Although I think Lily Alexandra flows better I agree with loads of other posters here that Alexandra is the better first name. It is much less common and has lots of different abbreviation which would be lovely to use as pet names. I am one of 3 girls and my mum gave us all 1 syllable names because she dislikes the idea of names being shortened. Despite this none of us get called by our actual names - we all have pet names for each other and very rarely use our "proper" names. I really like Alex, Lexi or Ali too and to be honest the 2nd name will hardly ever get used anyway.

badRoly · 26/06/2015 11:10

You say you can't shorten Lily but my Lily is known by everyone as 'Lil'!

Ausflug · 26/06/2015 10:37

I think if you have Alexandra as the first name, you'll almost certainly end up shortening it. So then she'll effectively be Ally Lily, or Alex Lily, or Lexi Lily, and Alexandra won't really seem like "her" after a while . You'll have two short (maybe a tiny bit cutesy both together?) names.

Whereas you probably won't shorten Lily, and you'll keep the gravitas of Alexandra, because you won't be shortening it either.

So I might be tempted to go with Lily Alexandra. But either way round is beautiful imo.

Original poster
runningandjumping · 26/06/2015 10:29

Why Angelina ballerina? Alexandra isn't very "girly" imho

OP posts:
KLou1105 · 26/06/2015 10:21

Alexandra lily :)

Owllady · 26/06/2015 10:03

It sounds very Angelina ballerina

reuset · 26/06/2015 10:01

Alexandra Lily flows well and is more timeless with Alexandra as the first name

Mygardenistoobig · 26/06/2015 09:56

Alexandra lily .

Cliffdiver · 25/06/2015 17:40

Alexandra Lily.

Unthoughtknown · 25/06/2015 17:13

Alexandra lily is lovely

FatSwan · 25/06/2015 13:56

I prefer the sound of Lily Alexandra

Original poster
runningandjumping · 25/06/2015 13:52

our surname goes with both. I love Alexandra but as I find Lily prettier than Allie (my fave shortening of Alexandra)

OP posts:
changingagain · 25/06/2015 13:36

To me, Alexandra Lily flows better, but your surname might affect that.

whatsagoodusername · 25/06/2015 13:34

I prefer the sound of Lily Alexandra, but the pp make a very good point about the popularity of Lily.

Original poster
runningandjumping · 25/06/2015 13:31

we like both names but as some posters pointed out, Lily is very popular, otherwise it would be my favorite as it's more feminine.

OP posts: