Venus, Story, Ember or Apricot?

@CyranoCyrano erm...no. I didn't say when I see novels I think of stories. I said I like the name Story on an adult because I picture novels and libraries. It feels mature and grown up, exciting, other worldly. I like the feel of names and am quite visual. I like a name to make me picture something or feel something.

And for what it's worth I work at a large National law firm and we have a lawyer called Coco and have had a Princess before so no, names dont hold you back!

Tory/Tori/Rory are diminutives of Victoria. Might work better with Jean than Story?

OP - Ember is the nicest out of your suggestions, IMO. I know an Ember, MTF trans who wanted a relatively unisex name. I haven't encountered anyone called Venus, Apricot or Story.

I would look at Korean names, nice to reflect her heritage and likely to be relatively unusual in the UK.

If you like nature names look at names based on herbs, plants, flowers, stars, constellations, gemstones, water etc.

Laurel
Cassia
Seren (SERR-en, en as in hen, Welsh word for star used as a name)
Iris
Eden
Luna
Faye
Lyra
Larissa
Melody
Cadence
Fern
Brooke
Holly
Rosa
Juniper
Clementine
Opal
Samphire
Sabrina (water nymph of the River Severn)
Eira (EY-ra, ey as in hey and ra as in rabbit, means snow)

Venus, Story, Ember or Apricot?

Venus is ok
Story I LOVE. It's on my name list as I'm an avid reader and i just love the feel of it. It feels mystical and whimsical as a child but I think of novels and libraries with it on an adult.

Ember I'm not keen on but I know a family who are quite...erm...chavy with a little girl called Ember.

I dont like Apricot. I think it's quite harsh sounding (the p, c and t are all quite harsh to me) and it's quite a long name but difficult to shorten. I can imagine they would end up as April

I don't particularly like any of those as they all seem a bit out there but at a push then Venus. I get that you don't want to go for too names etc and I'm the same. I have boys but I'll share a few girls names we considered if it was a girl

Heidi was number one choice. You rarely hear it I find

Rosie we loved - not Rosa or rose which seem to be popular but just Rosie

Niamh
Kimberley
Zoe

These are genuinely four of the worst suggested names I’ve ever seen on Mumsnet, and I’ve seen some howlers over the years.

Ember - awful. A burnt-out piece of wood. Dying embers. Ashes. Really miserable connotations

Rather unimaginative. The glowing embers of a fire have good connotations to me. I wouldn't use it as a name, but not for that reason.

Ember is the only one of the four that isn't too 'much.' Sorry, OP. You're way more adventurous than me.

Ember Jean is the name of one of the grandkids on a reality show called Little People, Big World. They beat you to it!

Nina Apricot Surname 😉

Oh come on now I can think of plenty of people in more esteemed positions than secretary who are absolutes cretinous butt heads lol.

Anyway. Congratulations OP! 🌼❤

I think your list of names is sweet and creative but in all honesty perhaps better suited to characters in a fantasy book than real life. I wouldn't like to be called Apricot.

How about:
Celeste
Summer
Cicely
Lucia
Quinn
Nina
Edie
Eliza
Hazel
Sylvia

Good luck I'm sure you'll do fab and if you do decide on a less unusual first name you could always use one from your current list as her middle name?

I think you need to remember that you're not actually naming a baby - you're naming a person who will spend a tiny fraction of her life as a baby, a fairly small part of it as a child, and then possibly 80 years plus as a grown woman.

Apricot - I think it's awful, but I can just about see how you might think it would suit a cuddly, round, dimply little baby. But imagine it on a 6 foot tall soldier who runs ultramarathons in her spare time - it doesn't work so well, does it? I've known three people with fruit names, and all hated them, with two changing them as soon as they were allowed.

Venus - probably the least awful of the batch, but it's a lot to live up to. I think people will think of the goddess of beauty first, and Venus Williams second.

Story - I don't like it, but if you really have to go with something that's not usually a name, it's not offensive.

Ember - awful. A burnt-out piece of wood. Dying embers. Ashes. Really miserable connotations.

There are a lot of lovely, unusual names out there. Like someone else said, it's not a binary decision between top 10 name and not-actually-a-name.

This is so true. There is a poem by Kahlil Gibran in which he declares ‘Your children are not your children… though they are with you yet they belong not to you’. You are not naming a pet. You are not naming a dolly. You are naming a person who, if lucky, will live in this world for 80 plus years. The naming of a child is for them not for you. I wanted a less usual spelling of my daughter’s name, but chose the common spelling in the end to save her a lifetime of hassle. She will have the name all her life, long after I am gone. You are young, OP, but please think carefully about the name you give your child.

This is a lovely post @lizziesiddal79 and I love that poem - must look it up again. It seems to be a thing now that parents forget what it is they’re doing when they bring a child into the world.

I’m sorry but all the names on that list are awful.

I have a friend who has called her children Cos, Arugula and Romaine, she has just had a new baby who is adorable and who has been called Little Gem.

Bronte was a made up surname, I think it was originally Brunty

I know a Melody who is actually a professor of music, so her parents did well there!

I was 19 when I had my first and his name was in the top 30 at the time (now just out of the top 100). There are likely many mothers here who aren't 38+. I know plenty of younger mums who use older names (my pregnancy-brain names were archaic) and plenty of older ones who try to be unique.

Trying to think of similar sound names:
Ember reminds me of Emory, Amery, Avery

For cute nature-y names, Mirabel has been suggested though with Encanto that might be an issue.

If going for a noun - remember that birthday presents of the future will probably be based on it. Apricot soap could get boring.

Yes, I had that being raised with a mythological name. People thought they were so clever (even when they were discussing the wrong one) and assumed I must have an interest.

In the nicest possible way why didn't you just change it?

The person you asked, but I did change my name. The name on my birth certificate is still on my naturalization certificate alongside . It and the name I was raised with are on my DBS paperwork.

I'm well aware that as much control as I try to take of my name, society treats the name I was given at a week old as essential or my real name, even having immigrated and changed it at 18 and not raised with it.

poster not posters.

I remember an interview with Peaches Geldof where she said kids took the piss out of her name - “oi, Peaches - are your parents bananas And I'm confident she went to one of those expensive private schools where a previous posters thought the suggested names would be acceptable.