Lilith?

@JE17 desperate to know which now! 😆

This thread is great! Some fab ideas. Not too keen on Lilith but love Bernadette and Marina.

Another one who automatically thinks of Frasier .

What about:
Victoria
Bernadette - means brave as a bear
Millicent - means strong in work
Harper - I think of Harper Lee rather than the Beckhams
Bronte - Greek, means thunder
Imogen
Megan

I love Lilith.

I named a DC after a Frasier character, but not this one.

I wouldn't use Lilith because of its meaning and origin story.

But also, it always sounds to me as though it's being pronounced by someone with a lisp.

I guess the key is to find a name that you like with a story that resonates with you. If that's Lilith, then go with it. People will always have personal opinions or preconceptions of any name.

I like the suggestions of Emmeline and Christabel.

What about Margaret or Maggie (as in Atwood)?

Boudicca/Boadicea

I love the name Lilith, even knowing some of the negative connotations.
I suspect a large portion of the general public wouldn’t know the background and would just think it’s a pretty name.

I've some South/Central Asian and a couple of Middle Eastern examples too if that's appropriate for you.

Oi, nothing wrong with ageing goths!

Lilith just makes me think the parents are ageing goths

You'll need to look up their bios but here are some different women to the usual examples given:

Agnes, Countess of Dunbar, badass!
Mary Bowser, fought against slavery at great personal risk
Victoria Drummond, early woman marine engineer (read her story, she wasn't any old engineer)
Josephine Butler, Suffragette and social worker
Andrée Geulen Herscovici, rescued ~1000 children during the Holocaust

Of course, who you shape her to be will be infinitely more important than any name. Even those who do amazing things will have done bad things or held unpleasant views too. But I understand the idea of giving your DD someone to inspire her, I used to google my own name to see what my namesakes had done.

I know some MNers view it as a bit twee but I named my daughter Emily after Emily Wilding Davison (who is buried about 30 miles from where we live) I also wanted a name that had a strong feminist connection

Yael would be great imo. And you might like the biblical Yael...

I personally find the associations surrounding Lilith too dark and dire. Yes, some feminists have recently tried to reclaim her but the other traditions are much older and imo still quite pervasive.

"From the four specific references to Lillith in the Talmud, we learn that she is a wild-haired and winged creature with nymphomaniac tendencies (Eruvin 100b, Nidah 24b, Shabbat 151b). She is the mother of demons (Bava Batra 73a) and is said to "kill 100 of her demon children daily."

www.aish.com/atr/Lillith.html?mobile=yes

"The evil she threatened, especially against children and women in childbirth, was said to be counteracted by the wearing of an amulet bearing the names of certain angels."

www.britannica.com/topic/Lilith-Jewish-folklore

And this is the hasidic (well, Chabad) perspective. You obviously don't have the same perspective (perfectly fine and your right) but if you haven't already read it I'd personally advise you to at least have a looi
Simply because your child will meet many people with various ideas and worldviews.

www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/555601/jewish/Achieving-Man-20.htm

I was thinking of Angelou, although what a lovely meaning it has!

Maya means water in Hebrew and Arabic - were you thinking of Angelou?

If you're not averse to strong biblical women, you could do worse than Judith. Now she was badass!

Esther is biblical too, though.

Maya?

I would go for Sylvia (as in Plath) or Esther (as in The Bell Jar) but that's probably not to everyone's taste!

Actually I have a daughter and I wanted to call her Shulamit (as in Firestone, the feminist) but was vetoed. I wasn't even allowed it for the Hebrew name, but we did get my second choice.

Lilith has definite Frasier associations: 'If you kiss her too fast, you get an ice cream headache'.

Lilith Alice is a bit of a tongue twister.

Not sure about Lilith. She has been ‘reclaimed’ by feminists but is also a kind of female Satan.

I met a woman named Lilith once. She had a very strong character. She was very sweet but also had this strange dark side, much like her name! I don’t personally like the sound of it or the story behind the name.

I like it but there are also connotations with vampires.

I don't have children so my view is a bit skewed. I like Grace (Darling and Hopper).

Charity Adams, African american woman in the then segregated US army who declined to have a white male superior and led the first African American women to serve overseas.

One of my favourites, Valentina, the fist women in space.

Marina (Raskova) persuaded Stalin to let women serve on the front line and led the 'Night Witches' women undertaking bombing runs in old bi planes and without parachutes.

How about Emmeline or Christabel?
Germaine?
Rosa?

Erica?