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Baby names

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

Original poster

Margaret or Lavinia

79 replies

Summer8summer8 · 08/01/2025 11:30

Hi which name is better for daughter: Margaret or Lavinia?

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WhatATimeToBeAlive · 18/09/2025 15:01

EverardDeTroyes · 18/09/2025 14:59

Margueritte (not sure I have the spelling right) is a flower that looks like, or botanically is maybe? a daisy. Daisy has long been a nickname for Margaret.

https://stock.adobe.com/uk/search?k=margueritte

Edited
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Thanks, never heard of that.

Curiossir · 18/09/2025 15:01

Marge or Lav? not a fan of either.

CollectedStories · 18/09/2025 15:01

EverardDeTroyes · 18/09/2025 14:59

Margueritte (not sure I have the spelling right) is a flower that looks like, or botanically is maybe? a daisy. Daisy has long been a nickname for Margaret.

https://stock.adobe.com/uk/search?k=margueritte

Edited
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Yes, traditional via Marguerite (daisy flower).

EverardDeTroyes · 18/09/2025 14:59

WhatATimeToBeAlive · 18/09/2025 14:55

How are people getting Daisy from Margaret?

Margueritte (not sure I have the spelling right) is a flower that looks like, or botanically is maybe? a daisy. Daisy has long been a nickname for Margaret.

https://stock.adobe.com/uk/search?k=margueritte

WhatATimeToBeAlive · 18/09/2025 14:55

How are people getting Daisy from Margaret?

Purplecatshopaholic · 18/09/2025 14:48

Both bloody awful. I really hope you have/had a rethink, there are so many nice names out there…

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 18/09/2025 14:42

Summer8summer8 · 18/09/2025 14:34

Thank you all for your ideas :)

What did you go for in the end?

GonnaeNoDaeThatJustGonnaeNo · 18/09/2025 14:38

Love Margaret

Loathe Lavinia

Original poster
Summer8summer8 · 18/09/2025 14:34

Thank you all for your ideas :)

OP posts:
fairislecable · 15/05/2025 09:18

I like Margaret best but it does bring back memories of a TV sketch where the shop assistant shouts out “ Margaret, Margaret have we got any pirate number puzzles?”

That was so long ago it will have no relevance to your little Margaret 😊

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 15/05/2025 09:15

Margaret is a great choice.

Fearfulsaints · 15/05/2025 09:14

Margaret

I like Lavinia but the Lav connection takes the edge of fior me.

Comedycook · 15/05/2025 09:14

I like Lavinia...it's very glamorous

abracadabra1980 · 15/05/2025 09:12

Neither.

FiguringOutMy20s · 14/05/2025 16:04

I’m currently deciding on baby names and Lavinia is top of my list! My Nan is called Lavinia and all her life she has been know by ‘Lovey’ which I think is adorable and timeless. Don’t let people put you off, kids will always find a way to shorten names and be mean!

abracadabra1980 · 09/01/2025 20:49

In my brain only:
Margaret = classy, lots of nice shortened versions
Lavinia = only one I knew locally was a traveller and a horrible woman to boot!

AthleteW · 09/01/2025 20:33

I love the name Margaret. Gorgeous!

ByQuaintAzureWasp · 09/01/2025 08:12

Margaret

MirandaBlu · 09/01/2025 08:09

My mother was also a Margaret, shortened to Ret - her dad agreed to the name only if she would be Margaret with no shortenings like Maggie or Meg, and she was Margaret for a long time - but of course her uni classmates knew better! In the Scottish tradition, she was Margaret after her maternal grandmother because she was a first daughter - and as it turned out I was second daughter and so got my paternal grandmother's name, also Margaret, as my middle. Two of my cousins got Margaret as a first name - one has always been and still is Daisy, the other was Maisie and now Margaret professionally and May personally. There are certainly a lot of choices with this name!

Emanwenym · 09/01/2025 07:57

I know a few Maggies and never associated it with Thatcher. I must know dozens of Margarets and the same.
I wouldn't associate David with Cameron or Tony with Blair either.

Aintnobodygottime · 09/01/2025 07:27

I know a Maggie in her 20s. It felt an uncomfortably close to Thatcher when she first acquired her name in the late 90s but it’s just her now, and she gets no judgement on the name.

Emanwenym · 08/01/2025 23:22

Margaret. I like it. Lavinia shortens to Lav.

AllPlayedOut · 08/01/2025 20:49

Those who say it is dreadful could do well to remember that there are more polite ways of saying it isn't to your taste

If people ask for opinions on a name on a baby board name then they’re going to get them so if I think it’s awful I’ll say so and I did. It’s no more or less valid than your assertion that Margaret is a great name.

There’s little point in asking if you(generic you) just want mealy-mouthed platitudes and not what people really think(Both positive and negative) And of course there are real people out there with those names but that doesn’t mean that I have to love their names. Plenty of people would hate my name. That’s fine. It doesn’t bother me.

SallyWD · 08/01/2025 20:42

sesquipedalian · 08/01/2025 11:34

I think Margaret is a great name, and a choice of diminutives - Maggie, Margot, Meg, Daisy (Margaret = Marguerite = Daisy).

And Peggy!

shoopshoopdedoo · 08/01/2025 20:39

Margaret. I don’t like Lavinia.

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