Our name choices don’t seem very liked

FWIW OP I know 3 Gigi’s with no longer version of their name, all under 5.

1. My sister in law is the child’s nanny, they live in a massive townhouse in central London, the father is a solicitor at a top law firm, the mother works at a global think tank. They are very “old money”
2. Another goes to pre-school with my son in leafy south west London
3. The child of a girl I went to uni with who did her undergrad at Sorbonne in Paris and postgrad at UCL

I wouldn’t be worried about what “class” people associate Gigi with as all the ones I know are comfortably middle or upper middle class!
There is a Lola at my son’s pre-school and the only Lila I know is a Dutch girl in her teens.

Well yes, both names together are a bit, odd- given the image of both of them, but remember it’s a very short time in their lives that their names will be said as a pair.

Right now they are “the twins” but given most secondary schools aim to put twins in separate classes, it’s not a big part of their lives that the names will be said together.

Personally I would go for a “grown up” name that could be shortened to Gigi (or two names that both begin with G), but you don’t want to do that, so really you just need to accept by going for something a bit unusual, you’re going to get comments and that’s something you’ll get used to.

As for Lola - the only reason I can see to change it is that you clearly love Gigi as a name, so your other DD should have a name you /your DP feels equally as passionate about, and you seem a bit “meh” about Lola’s name.

Oh, it's opera, everybody ends up dying or having an affair, or having an affair then dying. It's an occupational hazard of being a female character in an opera.

Didn't she end up having an affair?!
At any rate, you're obviously a lot more high brow than me 😂

I prefer Lila to Lola. I also like full names with the option of nicknames, rather than putting a diminutive on a birth certificate. But those are my personal preferences.

I think that some posts on this thread are a bit ridiculous (e.g., the argument that these names wouldn’t suit a doctor or that an employer wouldn’t hire a woman with a certain name). But your strong responses seem to indicate that perhaps you have doubts about the names you’ve chosen after all? If so, that’s something to ponder.

You likely won’t change anyone’s mind here, and the associations people have with certain names can’t be changed either. I personally think changing Lola to Lila was a good call. But really, ignore everyone’s opinions, including mine! Enjoy your lovely little ones.

Exactly, the world is not fair, and people are not always kind. Everyone has their own (conscious or unconscious) biases and we make our initial judgement about someone based on the things we can see and hear, including things like the clothes they wear, their accent and their name. It's incredibly unfair because children have no control over any of these things. But they will still be judged for them and placed into a certain mental category by everyone they meet. It's human nature and it's staggeringly naive to think that people won't still be doing this in 20 or 30 years' time.

There might be thousands of Evies and Rosies applying for jobs as heart surgeons and astronauts in 20 years' time. But that doesn't mean that Gigi would be perceived in the same way just because it's a two syllable name ending with an "ee" sound. If you want to know how people will perceive a particular name, you need to figure out what kind of people are calling their child this name. Because whatever social class they are, people will assume your child is too.

My mums goddaughter is Gigi (not short for anything) and she is the most brilliant, strong, fierce woman (She's also an award winning lawyer for all those concerned) and she suits her name fabulously.
I nannied a Lola who is also freaking fabulous, strong, cool and effortlessly brilliant.

It doesn't matter what someone else thinks, YOU chose them for your daughters and you love them, if anyone has a problem or a dislike of their names well they don't have to worry themselves with seeing them do they.

My name is one of the most popular girls names in the uk for my age (think Sarah or Emma), its completely inoffensive and et its constantly bashed for being boring or too popular.

You are NEVER going to please everyone with your name choices so choose what you both want, they're lovely names and im sure suit them beautifully. Congratulations and welcome to the world Lola and Gigi!

Seriously, nobody under fifty is thinking 'showgirl' when they hear Lola, please don't let all the old fogies on here convince you otherwise! I would be amazed if even any of the other parents of your daughters contemporaries have ever heard the Barry Mannilow song, let alone that it would be their first thought on hearing the perfectly lovely name Lola.
When I think of the name I think of the singer Lola Young and the peer of the same name, or maybe I think of the lovely children's programme Charlie and Lola. Not that that matters, but please don't take the old-fashioned posters on this thread as a fair representative sample of people you will encounter in real life. Their reference points are so out-dated that they are hardly going to chime with those of yours and your children's contemporaries!
Also, what's wrong with being a showgirl? As a devoted Swiftie, I am very much in my showgirl era right now and loving it!
If anyone in real life ever was so crass as to make a crack about Copacabana or The Kinks I'd be tempted to give them a withering look and tell them that, of course, you had named your daughter after the character in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, which they would obviously know if they weren't such a philistine!

Hmmm........Lola always reminds me of the transvestite subject of The Kinks song, and Lola Ferrari from Eurotrash days. Gigi gives me similar vibes.

Tbf it's not really relevant if other children don't think those names are weird, people don't interact only with people of their exact age.
I'm afraid if I were interviewing someone called Khaleesi I would have to actively fight my subconscious bias against such a stupid name. I would of course remind myself that it's not the woman's fault that her parents decided to call her that and I hope I would set that aside in my own decision, but I would also be thinking "if we employ her what will our clients think of this name". Maybe that's all surmountable but it's a hurdle which I imagine most people won't want to create for their children.

Ae they showgirls?

I've only read your posts not the whole thread but for what it's worth I think a lot of people are being ridiculous.

Personally my kids have longer names, 3 syllables each! But there's absolutely nothing wrong with Lola (or Lila) or Gigi.

Perfectly good names. Less nicknamey than Ellie, Katie, Evie, Archie as you've said yourself.

Plus you're picking names to suit your international background not just what some people in the UK think. I would ignore the comments about strippers and nicknames and feel confident in your choices.

I don’t get why you’re arguing with all these commenters, though? People don’t like the names (for whatever reason). You do. You’ve made your decision. That’s fine.

What’s the point in justifying said names and decision to strangers on the internet? It achieves nothing, you’re not going to change anyone’s mind, and you’ve said yourself that this thread is now upsetting you. So, perhaps it might be a good idea to hide it?

OP, I think you should keep the names you loved.

The would it suit a surgeon, scientist, Judge?
narrative is just so small minded and outdated now.

My children have grown up with all sorts of names in their school from fictional characters like Khaleesi, names from different cultures "posh" names and names people on MN consider chavvy and made up names like Nevaeh.

None of the kids at school bat an eyelid. My dad said my daughter's name sounded like a cow's name. I rolled my eyes and ignored him.
Your family will get used to the names and soon they won't be able to imagine them called anything else.

Exactly
I actually like them but in a lot of English speaking countries they have negative connotations and sound a bit "stripperish"

Ok but you are getting comments already, which should tell you that you’ve gone a bit further down the “nickname” route than the normal.

And you are the one who’s upset enough by the “is it a nickname?” Question to start a thread.

You’ve picked names that sound like nicknames- it doesn’t help that the two Gigi’s people will think of (the one from the film and the model Gigi Hadid) for both it’s a nickname.

So the question needs to be - is this a problem you need to fix or is it something you need to get a thicker skin about?

Changing Lola’s name won’t stop people assuming Gigi is a nickname. But the question therefore is - does it matter? You don’t think it does, so why bother asking about changing Lola’s name?

Yes very small minded and parochial as well. My children don't go to school with a parade of Olivers and Olivias but children from a very wide range of ethnic backgrounds so Lola and Gigi would not be considered unusual in the slightest.

Fab names!!

Given how incredibly small-minded and reactionary most of these comments are I would say that the, now thirteen pages, of mostly negative comments should make you more determined than ever to use your original names OP! Would you really want to saddle your girls with the sort of prosaic, unimaginative names that the nervous nellies posting on here, horrified by names as tame and commonplace as Gigi and Lola, would find acceptable! What an incredibly boring and beige world these people must live in.

As an aside, I’d never think to pronounce GiGi the way you have said, and would think it GeeGee.

Oh dear, you’ve had a battering here. I wonder if you’d felt the negativity IRL and hoped that would be contravened here. Unfortunately there is a reason it’s good not to share baby names before birth or invite opinions. People here are reflective of RL, but far more honest and straightforward that anyone in RL would be. I remember starting a baby thread on a particular name that got roundly criticised and I couldn’t shake that off, but made sure not to ask opinions again. Like others have said. Your beautiful babies, you pick the names, and they will inhabit those names as they grow.

Exactly this! Some of the posts are downright bloody rude.

Please could people remember that @Friteskyhas already had her babies, and they already have their names, and that 3 weeks postpartum is a fragile place to be at the best of times.