cecilia or arabella ?

[OldMrsAnxious]

we have at last narrowed it down to 2 names

cecilia nn cecily love but not sure about the meaning ie blind. dp keeps mentiong cecilia your breaking my heart .is the graduate link a cause for concern or am i thinking about this too much?

arabella nn bella/belle love the meaning but think it might be too posh/hard .dp has vetoed annabel /annabella /annabelle and can't use isabella and it's variants

our surname is westwell so think cecilia might be too siblant with our surname and Arabella possibly sounds better .

dp also has a very , very slight could this be a problem with cecilia

Cecilia is lovely. Saint Cecilia was the patron saint of music. It think it flows nicely with your surname.

Arabella Westwell - there's a lot of the e/ell sound.

I love cecily - go with cecilia

I like both, but think Cecilia is more unusual and has a classier feel about it (rather than Sloaney feel).

Arabella is a bit too "on trend" imo. I think it'll date very quickly.

Cecilia is lovely though, definitely classy. Cecily is lovely too, I prefer it actually, bu that doesn't help you :) .

I wouldn't worry too much about the meaning. As Pepsi says Saint Cecilia is a lovely figure, focus on the music :)

I prefer Cecilia. I like the song as well.

Cecilia is beautiful. And the patron saint of music.

Cecilia Westwell is fine, as is Cecily Westwell. Not too

Only people over a certain age will have any knowledge of the song Cecilia You're Breaking My Heart- it came out 10 years before I was even born and I'm no teenager. Who in your daughters life is seriously going to remember it? People over 55 maybe. And even if they do they'll think it for about a month until the novelty wears off and Cecilia comes to mean your delightful baby and nothing else. As for The Graduate? That came out in 1967, you'd have to be 62 now for that to have been contemporary, to everyone else it's a forgotten relic.

According to The Oxford Names Companion: The Definative Guide To Surnames, First Names and Place Names Of The British Isles (which is a doorstep of a book) Cecily and it's variant Cecilia are a feminised version of a Latin male name which preceeds Cecil. Cecily and Cecilia were popularised by a 2nd or 3rd century martyr who was cannonised and inspired works such as Purcells Ode On St Cecilia's Day. So I checked Cecil... Transfered use of a surname of a great family of Welsh origin which rose to prominance in England in 16th century (anglicised from the old Welsh Seissylt which in turn was the Brythonic form of the latin Sextillus from Sextus or sixth). Alternatively Cecil is from that Latin name I meantioned above- Caecilius which is derived from Caecus, which means blind and was borne by a minor sait who's major claim to fame was being mates with a much better saint called St Cyprian. Can't remember him? Neither can anyone else.

So actually, the route from the word sixth to Cecilia/Cecily is a lot less convoluted, 13 centruries more recent and just as likely as the route from blind to Cecilia/Cecily. Sixth is a neutral word.

St Ceclia as has also been mentioned is the patron saint of music, surely theres a lot more obvious a link between St Cecilia and Miss Cecilia Westwell than there is between the word caecus which means blind in a dead language.

I think you've been overthinking this. I hpe the research helped. I must confess Cecily is on my shortlist too so it wasn't an entirely selfless act.

if dp wasn't around she'd be cecily without any question . unfortunately he doesn't have yours and mine excellent taste. so unfotunately i'm going to have to give up and go with arabella nn arabel but i'll continue to try and persuade him moan until he give in admits defeat

Cecilia/Cecily definitely.

Arabella is just a bit too try-hard sloaney, look at us, aren't we posh? Unless you are posh, then you might get away wit it. Even so, not very cool. Also she will get Bella and then just blend in with the mass of Isabellas who have taken over my part of London.

Go on, be brave!

it's not a case of being brave ,it's a case of trying to persuade my pigheaded dp that cecilia is a beautiful name

Arabella Westwell has far too much of the 'El' sound. Don't like it at all. Also a man from Eastenders who just cheated on his wife with a 16 year old has a new baby called Arabella. Not liking that link at all....

Cecily Westwell is absolutely gorgeous. Classic and lovely.

What about both - Cecilia Arabella does have a rather romantic ring to it!

Cecilia definitely.

Well, I know not everyone agrees but I would say you endured the pregnancy, you did the birth and it's traditionally a mothers sole preserve to name the kids so I would ultimately pull rank on my OH if he was being plain impassable. I had to do that with my first daughter or she'd have been called Kimiko, which he swears he saw on a Japanese Olympian. I couldn't care less if it's a name in Japan, it's an attempt to cheat at Scrabble in Cornwall!

Arabella is a name heading for Eastenders-fuelled popularity crash. Just like happened to Ruby.

In your shoes I'd call her Cecilia (Cecily) Arabella Westwell and tell him that he ought to be glad you took note of his wishes at all given the soap-opera situation.

Yes Cecilia Arabella goes nicely, little bit of a mouthful but who cares I think it's a lovely name! I know a Cecilia who goes by Celie as a nickname, or Cece to close friends. It dates nicely and is classy!

How do you/your DH feel about Cecily as her full name?

I much prefer it and it may rule out the other issues.

Not Arabella...that's a really pretentious sounding name.

nn arabel? Not good.

Cecilia is lovely. What about Celia - bit easier to say perhaps with the surname? Cecily also very pretty