Please, tell my wife that her names suggestions are awful!

Apart from Helen you are both way off the mark. Those are dreadful names

spelling of BradLeigh is dreadful

Isn't it just! Awful. Bradley spelt the normal way isn't quite so dire, although an odd choice for a girl. But spelled 'leigh' is like a guest on the Jeremy Kyle show. Just no.

Those names she has chosen might be cute for a future pet but the kid has to grow up and go to work one day,
keep looking
spelling of BradLeigh is dreadful

I don't think the OP's names are as bad as her wife's non Helen names. Romy is really pretty (no, I don't care about Boris, he has so many children that if you avoided any of the names he chose there'd be no names left!) I don't love Dahlia or Neva, but Neve (as in Neve Campbell) is gorgeous. The wife's choices, on the other hand, are straight up chav/stripper. Bradleigh? Dallas? Paris? Those are 'CV straight in the bin' names TBH. And Lisandry is absurd, I don't care how popular it is in Argentina.

Hector? I think that they know the child is a girl, unless I completely misunderstood.

Maybe discuss what type of a name you both would like and agree some parameters before discussing specific names. Eg do you like traditional, biblical, alliterative, family names etc. it might make it a bit easier on creating a short list you both like?

Howabout Hector and Maeve

Helen is by far the best name. Helena and Helene are other versions which are also nice.

please do not go with any other name on her list.

Your wife's ideas are catastrophic (apart from Helen).

Yours are no better.

HTH.

Sophia and Flora are my favourites from your posts. I think Manon is quite stylish. Gabrielle, Cristina and Emma are fine too (you might spell Christina the English way as unless she moves to Italy or somewhere Spanish speaking she'll get it misspelled a lot).

Never said anything of the sort. My position is film/books/opera are as irrelevant as your view.

Manon is a widely used name in France that’s the whole point!

Nancy is a famous prostitute from one of Dickens’ most popular novels - but is that the primary connotation of the name, does it define it? Absolutely not.

Well you seem to care very much that your interpretation re the film is the only thing one should think of. No one's asking anyone to "care" - doesn't stop someone thinking "odd name to pick"

There's no comparison with Emma - Emma is one of the most common (in the sense of widely used) names. It's so widely used it's meaningless.

Why would anyone care what the first things you thought of are?

It’s a relatively common name in France & to tie it closely to two fictional characters is indeed a reach. It’s like saying there was once a fictional prostitute called Emma. So what?

Lisandry sounds like a disease 😩 Romy is sweet, as is Neva - the others are absolutely awful. Dallas and Paris are tacky 🙈 As a secondary school teacher please, please think about how the child will feel with that name later in life!

It also sounds like a typo / mishearing/ misunderstanding of Lysander, which is a male name and a character in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I'd assume it was misheard/ misunderstanding (like the child named "Giselle" but pronounced with a hard G)

Depends which part of the UK of course, Manon is also a Welsh name. Maybe you should move here :)

The problem with Lisandry, which I had never heard before, is that it sounds too close to “misandry” (the male equivalent of misogyny).

As a same sex female couple you’d have to be really bold to name your child a word that could be heard by people as meaning “man-hating”!

I hate the name Helen 😂.

Romy or nothing for me.

My favourites of your suggestions so far are Emma and Sophia and I think I saw Gabrielle too?

You mention about liking French names, how about something like Lisette?

Emma is by far the best name on your list; works in English and French too.

Clement and Levi are great names - maybe your next baby will be a boy?!

What about:
Alice
Clementine
Louise

It used to be associated with Stoke City football club, but was better known as one of the anthems of Welsh rugby. Both have now dropped it because of the unpalatable lyrics about a man killing his female partner (or possibly ex-partner). Some fans probably still sing it but the clubs have officially distanced themselves from it.

The not particularly nice character from the novel , 2 operas, and the ballet were the first thing I thought of. There's no reach involved.

I think your wife's suggestion of Helen could actually date really well, names come back around and there's a sufficient gap now from when it was popular. Helen of Troy makes it a very strong name. Going against the grain of PP, as much prefer it to Helena, unnecessarily pretentious.

Romy is a bit more whimsical, there is also Romy Fraser who founded Neal's Yard, still the best of your list and musings.

Delilah as some PP have suggested is becoming the most common current name, I personally really dislike it and can't help thinking of the dark undertones of the Tom Jones song, also having 5 of them in the class will be very annoying. Dahlia has similar connotations, with the infamous historic murder, I could see how it could become more common too, if Delilah has.

It’s a novel by Pagnol published 1962.

The idea that the name of the opera in any way shape or form affects a very old name diminutive of Marie is massively reaching.

And of course there's Puccini's and Massenet's operas. Puccini's is probably more regularly performed nowadays but all 3 "Manons" are rep standards.