Hazel, Matilda or Felicity?

I have a Mathilda (Mat for short), so I asked her, & she said she'd have rather liked Hazel. She's an auburn haired dark eyed girl so it would have worked...it always feels somehow autumnal?

Felicity is the prettiest.

Hazel - this is the most marmite one of your choices. I like it. But it will date your child, as it's been a bit of a hipster parent trend recently and I doubt if that will be a long term thing.

Matilda - was popular when my young adult was born, still popular now, is fairly widespread if that bothers you. Would classify this as a bit boring but inoffensive.

Felicity - isn't hugely popular now and hasn't been popular for a while. But I see a lot of suggestions of this name so it may become more popular. Out of the three this would be my choice because it ticks all my boxes - real name, not super popular, everyone knows how to spell and pronounce, not too high in the rankings.

Matilda hands down.

It's a great balance of strong but quirky and vintage too.

It's really not that popular either. 2024 is was number 43 and 1,417 were born.

With the massive pool of names that people choose from now (unlike back in our day when it was just a select pool of about 30 that just got repeated), it means that even if a name is in the top 20 it doesn't mean your kid will be in class with 5 others, if any.

My daughters best freind is a felicity, it's gorgeous, fliss/ flic is her nickname .. I love her name ...matilda is nice shortend to tilly but felicity is far nicer ...

Hazel is very popular on Mumsnet at the moment, but where I live it's very strongly associated with women in their 60s, so not quite ready for a comeback as a retro granny name.

I have a Felicity so am biased, I’d pick that again. She is insistent on no nickname so
it’s never shortened.

My name is Hazel- I’m not frumpy and I am a leader type, definitely not a pony haha. Hazel gets my vote! X

I have a niece called Felicity, shortened to Fizzy (she's 9). So that gets my vote

Not super keen on any of them.

But if you choose Matilda, be aware she'll get Tilda/Tilly/Matty

And Felicity is often Fliss or Flick

So you have to like those as that's what she'll probably end up being known as....

Hazel my favourite and so surprised to see people say it’s “awful”

Felicity is gorgeous.
I really like Hazel but it a marmite name!
I'm not keen on Matlilda.

Not a fan of Hazel at all. Matilda and Felicity both great names- if I was choosing right now I’d go with Felicity I think.

I like Hazel, like Matilda/Tilly, though it's used a lot atm. Not very keen on Felicity as a name, but recently started teaching a Felicity who is an absolute dream, so that's helped sway me!

I'd go for Hazel of the three, but it's not terribly exciting.

I like them all!

Hazel is lovely and not likely to be shortened. Ive heard of Matildas going by Tilly or Tilda, which is quirky. Felicity has a great meaning and history, shortens well to Flick or Fliss. I voted Felicity but can see why you wanted help shortening the list.

Elegant, yet slightly quirky Felicity sounds the most classic to me and thus probably the least likely to date (which is important to me personally but may not be to you) - I think because it has very rarely been in the Top 100 historically so it’s difficult to guess a Felicity’s age. It also has a lovely meaning if that matters and some cute nn options if wanted.

Matilda would be my second choice simply as the Empress Matilda was such an impressive, strong namesake that the name itself just feels “strong” to me (and the eponymous Dahl book is pretty cool for young girls too). But it definitely ebbs and flows in fashion which I’m less keen on - there’s a lot of young Matilda’s about now but I only know one older one.

Hazel is similar in that it very much rises and falls with the trends - until recently it was mostly a much older persons name. But I guess since Ivy has come back with a vengeance, Hazel was bound to follow too and it does have a pretty sound.

Hazel reminds me of ponies, I'm sorry!
Matilda - Nice, very trendy though
Felicity - My mum nearly called me this and I am really happy she did not.

Hazel is gorgeous and she will be known as Hazel.

Matilda is quite nice as long as you like Tilly (I like Tilly for a child, not an adult)

Felicity is too long with no good short versions imo

They are all lovely names :) I have friends with all 3. So they are lovely middle aged women :)

Hazel is sweet and a beautiful name. Matilda is boring and Felicity is frumpy, annoying and reminds me of a 75 year old librarian.

Lovely list

There are a lot of Matildas around. I don't like "Matty" or "Tilly" - do you have an abbreviation you can live with?

Felicity is lovely but also seems to be rising in popularity.

I'd therefore go for Hazel

As we seem to have similar tastes in names I'd also suggest Rowan and Emily.

Hazel is pretty, I know a little girl called Hazel though so my perception could be skewed.
Love Matilda.
Love Felicity even more.

None, but Tilly if it has to be one of those.

TBH I don't like any of them for different reasons. I'd go back to the drawing board.

Matilda is a dreadful name. it's old fashioned, ugly sounding and has now got associations with Matilda from the Roald Dahl story/musical/film and abusive parents. Every child in the world seems to be called Matilda as well - god knows why.

I associate with liars - from that Hilaire Belloc poem Matilda told such Dreadful Lies
https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/matilda

Hazel = very frumpy, hippy dress made out of wheat, type of name. It's very undynamic and drippy. I suppose that depends on what you want for your child but a child called Hazel is never going to be a leader.

Felicity - probably the least bad of the three but old fashioned, fussy when you say it and icity is not a nice sound.

Hazel