The holy grail of baby names... help!

[kri5ty]

Ok so here i am.. asking the same thing as everyone else...

A nice name for our LO, that is not too common, (as in they will prob be the only one in their class) but also not too "out there"!

It is our first, so i have no idea of what names are common at school!

is Chloe still very poplular? I love Elka (girls), but it is my cousins name, so i cant pinch that one!!

If you like Elke, what about:

Femke
Ilsa
Inez
Silke

Chloe is popular (still in top 10 last year). However if you like it, use it :)

Can you give us some more idea of the sort of names you like?

all the ones i have liked for years have become very popular, such as Sofia, Jasmine, scarlett... Boys we are really struggling with, OH likes american names such as Harley, zac... We both like Saul and i like lucas and dexter (but again they have become popular)

I love evangeline, you said scarlett which is my fav girl name.

Boys, lucius , leighton, blaire, peyton, ( those are US names )

Will come back with others :)

John and Jane are not common and are not too out there either.

I love scarlett too.. but someone at work has called their girl that :( we couldn't use it

We have the problem of working at a very big place, with lots of names that can't be used as a result!

Thanks cece, unfortuately they are both out :( it's my auntie and uncles names!!

I wouldn't let someone I work with using a name stop me from using it - how long are you going to be there anyway? In 5 years will you still them?

What about Elsa?

I have a Chloe and although it is supposedly popular, she has always been the only one in her class.

I have a Scarlett - we don't hear it very often tbh. I used to be all in a tizz about name popularity but have had to consciously make myself not care and just have what I like. You could choose something more unusual and still end up bumping into others whose child is called the same thing - there are no guarantees and no way of knowing what will be popular in your area in any given year. For example, I know 6 Jacobs and 2 Mortimers but no Jacks, Harrys or Charlies at all!

yes, its a place where we both will work for a very long time (great employer!) i would (if we had a girl) to call her scarlett, but the mother would think we were copying her, and wouldnt go down well!!

What do you think of Piper?

The other girls name OH likes is Madison, but im not sure as i have heard a lot of madisons

the middle name would prob either be Mai (as we both went travelling and fell in love with chiang mai) or Florence (after OH grandma)

if its a girl*

Daniel as a middle name for a boy, as its traditional in OH family

How about Holly-Gail?

Close enough?

Unless you and your work mate are extremely close and your children will grow up, I wouldn't worry about using the same name. Lots of staff at the firm will have the same names themselves and children with the same names, due to laws of averages and statistics.

If you told your colleague you had treasured 'Scarlet' as the name for your first daughter for many, many years, would she seriously tell you you couldn't use it? What if Scarlet had been a family name?

What if she leaves the firm soon? Moves to another department? What if you are all so busy at work you never discuss your children anyway? I think you're worrying too much unnecessarily.

Just to state the bleedin' obvious, the names that are in schools now are the one's that people were choosing about 5+ years ago.

There's another thread which says the ONS stats for 2010 will be out before the end of this month, so that'll give you some idea of which names are rising and falling. But it'll always be a little out of date, and of course it won't mean that the family in the next street won't choose the very same unusual name as you (eg I've only ever known 2 Chloes (different school years) but have also come across pairings of more unusual names in the same year group.

So there are no guarantees, and your best bet is to choose the name you really love!

Others for you to think about: Zoe, Josephine (Joey or Posy), Anne/Anneka, Cecilia, Alexandra, Tabitha, Jemima?

haha thistledew holly gail perfecto!!

I quite like Piper actually!!

Femke? - ugh. Sounds like a "ladies' sanitary product".

How about Ilse?

It sounds a bit similar to Elke.
I've always liked it since reading it in LM Montgomery's Emily books years ago :)

Pronounced "Il - sah"

Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca :)

If you want something unusual you have to choose something which bucks the trend, not corresponds to it exactly. eg, Elsa. it's beautiful, I really like it, but 8 years ago one of my dc1's baby batch was an Elsa. It'll have been on the slow rise since then.

If you want something that will not rise, pick something that sounds dated. Or something that's on the way down. or something that will take another decade before it starts to rise.

Meryl
Lindsay
Jillian
Silke (pronounced silky) is a german pet form of sylvia i think. and sounds a bit like Elka. I like btw)

Etta?