Feedback on Molly please

[MrsSleepyhead]

DC2 due in a couple of weeks. We have a couple of possible names for a girl but nothing that we are completely in love with.

At the moment the top runner is Molly, but I'm slightly put off by its meaning, 'Sea of bitterness'. I'm also not overly keen on abbreviated names - but is Molly established enough now as a name in its own right, rather than just a nickname for 'Mary'?

The other possibility is Lily but the huge popularity of this does worry me (not that popularity is a deal breaker, DD is 'Ella' which we loved from day one).

Any thoughts, feedback or other suggestions would be most welcome!

Molly is more popular than Lily around here, so if popularity is a worry it might not be a good name.

My Molly is 5 and she's th only one we know, so it's not hugely used round our way! Our eldest is Maisie, and we now really they are both diminutives of Margaret so actually we have two Margarets!!

I know a 26 year old Molly - and it suits her and doesn't seem too cutsy! She's a teacher, is very cool and has the sort of effortless style that makes Alexia Chung look like she's kitted out in Per Una... So for me it's got great associations.

Fine for a little girl, not so sure for a professional adult woman.

My Aunt (now in her 70s) is Molly and I never really thought of it as a cutesy name.

I like it and agree it could be used in its own right but recently discovered my Aunt is really called Mary Georgia which is beautiful. She never chose to use this (even as professional adult woman etc.) but I guess she had that option.

Definitely not for me - it's one of those twee little girl names Molly/Millie/Holly. Can't ever imagine a middle aged Molly or Millie. It's really only good for little girls and very old ladies.

Sorry.

I really don't like Molly. Sorry. It's not pretty at all.

Reminds me of Milly Molly Mandy. Funnily enough, I do like Milly though.

Molly sounds 'fat' to my ears, perhaps because 'mollig' means fat in German...

I like molly. moll for short.

PMSL Does it really mean "Sea of bitterness"??

That's funny. It's a sweet 6sounding^ name, I like it.

Molly is lovely

I know an 11yo Molly and a 10yo Molly (both gorgeous bright articulate girls) and a lovely matronly 50yo Molly.

Nothing 'cutesy' about it as far as I'm concerned.

I love Millie too.

Lily I like less so, mainly because I know soooooo many of them. In a recent group of 20 girls (aged between 4 and 11) 5 of them were called Lily/Lilly/Lillie!

Think Molly and Lily are fine, nobody would bat an eyelid. Not my taste though, too housemaidy for me, same with Polly. Prefer upstairs names

It's a great name. So is Lily. Dd2 is Molly and if we have a dd3 she'll be Lily. I loved Milly Molly Mandy when I was wee. I don't think it's too little girl cutesy like Poppy for example. My friend has a cat called Molly though!

I love Molly. Popular in this area though, in my postnatal group there are 2, as well as 2 Eve/Eva's, 1 Ava, 1 Alice...

My mum is called Molly and has always hated it. Short for (well, sort of) Mary. She complains there's always dogs/cats/ponies called it. I love it though.