Iona???

[angels1]

We found out at the week end we are having a little girl :) So excited but struggling with name ideas (we had a boys one all picked out...).

We both like the name Iona but feel it's similar to Isla - which is becoming really popular (up about 250 places in the past 10 years on most popular list).

Our preferences to a baby name is that it needs to be something not too popular (pref not top 50), something that a child or adult wouldn't be embarassed to have or use,a bit unusual but not odd or pretentious, something that isn't chavvy or of it's time/a bit of a fad and something we like of course.

Isla seems to be both popular and potentially faddy. Do you think Iona might fall into the same category as it is so similar?

If it helps, our other current ideas are
Felicity
Mirabel
Alice
Lydia
Beatrice
Primrose
Abigail

We did also have ophelia as a finalist but then I found a mn thread about it not being so good if your surnames 'bottom' (which ours isn't btw), which made me giggle and I can't say the name without a grin

I like Iona :)

My favourite from your list is Lydia and we would use it ourselves except it doesn't go with our surname (too many "d" sounds!)

Also like Felicity, Alice and Beatrice from your list.

I love Mirabel, Alice and Beatrice from your list; I also love Iona, and I don't think it will go the way of Isla.

It doesn't have the L sound that makes Isla go hand in hand with all those names like Elle, Ella, Ellie, Isabelle, Lila, Layla, Lola, etc.

Iona sounds much more Scottish and I think it has a more classic feel to it.

Love Iona best of all.

This is the order, I put your names in, with Iona being at the top:

Iona
Lydia
Alice
Mirabel
Abigail
Beatrice
Felicity
Primrose

Iona is beautiful.

Iona is a beautiful name and a beautiful place too

Iona is lovely as long as your surname is not a noun (someone told me about someone called Iona who married a man with the surname Kitchen). It was one of our choices but would have sounded silly with our surname for this reason.

Isla has always been a well-known name in Scotland (there were two in my regional youth orchestra and I am in my thirties) it is only in England where it has become known about very suddenly and thus perceived by some as faddy.

From your other choices I like Alice and Beatrice but would stick with Iona if it does not clash with your surname.

Love Iona , but only so long as your surname is not a place or thing because then it becomes, for example 'I-own-a Carr'. For this very reason we could not call DD Iona :-(

My DD3 is an Iona, she's nearly 3 and apart from a girl I went to school with, (too many years ago to mention) I have never met another one.

I love it!

Iona is lovely :)

Dislike Mirabel LOTS. Just makes me think "Its time for Mama Mirabels home movies"

I love Iona....!

Do you live in Scotland...? I've seen a link somewhere giving the breakdown of names in Scotland, ie: Inverness, Glasgow and Edinburgh areas etc etc and which are the top names. Might be useful, but only if you live there...!

No, I'm not in Scotland, but I have been to the little island of Iona many years ago!

Iona is pretty.

Go for it....wicked name. On our list but DH didn't want anything to Scottish...odd since he married me...!!!

Go for Iona - much more unusual than Isla(y)

but then, highland is it odd to pick such a scottish name when we live near london and have no scottish roots??

Iona is lovely. I don't think it matters that you don't have Scottish roots.

Iona is a lovely name. I also like Primrose.

I loved Iona, both the name and the island.

My only worry is if she ever ends up with an object surname. As in Iona Carr for example.

In order of preference:

Iona
Felicity
Alice
Beatrice
Primrose
Lydia
Abigail
Mirabel (reminds me of 'mirror ball')

Iona is a beautiful name,I dont really like the others on your list but i think Iona is fab :)

Iona is really gorgeous

you could always use it but pronounce it the Welsh way - yon-a?

I have loved that name ever since I met a lovely girl caled Iona when I was about 10! I then went and married someone who not only has a noun for a surname, but is so paranoid about it that he invents problems with virtually every name ever invented. Hence my little Iona will never come into being

I like Alice and Mirabel...

Love Iona and then Alice next. Dislike Lydia and Beatrice I am afraid.