Longing for an unusual name for a common surname

[guinealady]

OH and I just found out yesterday that our baby (due in April) is almost certainly a girl.

I'm very chuffed as I love unusual, pretty and old-fashioned girl's names...but we have a couple of issues...

OH is not so keen on some of my unusual name preferences, and to be fair my favourites have changed many times over time (of course I have been picking out children's names since I was a girl myself, whereas it's all new to him...). Current favourites for me are Ramona, Astrid, Seren and Lamorna.

The other problem is that the baby's surname will be White. Lots of names don't go with White - you can't call a girl Daisy, Pearl, Rose or Lily without sounding like the Dulux paint chart, and names ending in T don't work (try saying Harriet White out loud - it becomes Harriet Twite).

He also has two nieces with the same surname, so we want to avoid names too similar to theirs, or ideally not starting with the same initials, as we're going to be a family of so many girls!

Anyone else had to tackle finding an interesting name to go with quite a common surname? I really want to avoid names in the current top 10/20 as she will probably end up meeting people with the same name over and over as she goes through life!

Have you considered Renesmee?

Rowena
Claudine
Jessica
Liberty
Morwenna
Miriam
Elspeth

Were I naming a baby with surname White... ;-)

Eloise White
Estella/Stella White
Clemency White
Constance White
Rhiannon White
Erica White
Bryony White
Miranda White
Virginia White

With a short simple surname you can get away with a longer first name I reckon. So how about

Cassandra White
Anastasia White
Meredith White
Rebecca White
Gabriella White
Persephone White
Lowenna White
Josephine White

With a short simple surname you can get away with a longer first name I reckon. So how about

Cassandra White
Anastasia White
Meredith White
Rebecca White
Gabriella White
Persephone White
Lowenna White
Josephine White

Tana
Coco
Lowena
Karenza

Juliana White
Serena White
Marcia White
Cecilia White
Catriona White
Lorna White
Lena White
Penelope White
Vanessa White
Christina White
Frances White

I'm having a Shakesperian phase at the moment:
Cressida White
Cordelia White
Rosalind white
Emilia White
Miranda White
Helena White
Ophelia White
Desdemona White

Sorry but lmfao at Renesmee
Oh no

Seren is beautiful, my friend has a Seren but I had never heard the name before that and don't know of any others.

Rae
Alethea
Verity
Morwenna
Stella

My Mum was called Julia White before she married!

I like Seren as well. Really unusual and pretty. Goes well with White.

Vivien
Eloise
Estelle
Miranda
Susannah
Beatrice

Fabienne is my favourite 'unusual' name. DH too stuck on one-sylabble (sp?) names to let me use it tho

*Astrid
*Veda
*Anouska
*Anastasia
*Edith
*Freya (too 'usual'?)
*Gabby
*Sylvie
*Maggie

Seren is welsh for snowdrop I think. We considered it, but lived in America at the time, and pronounced with US accent, it sounded a bit like Saran (as in poisonous gas) so we decided against. Anyway, had a boy, so it's was a moot point.

I also have a short, one syllable surname, and think longer first names, ending in an 'a' sound good.

Love Morwenna, but the two 'w' sounds maybe don't quite work.

Wow...thanks for all the names, there are some beautiful ones there!

OH likes Jessica and I definitely am not against it, but it is no 6 on the popularity list for 2010...so there seem to be a lot of Jessicas around, tricky if your surname is also common.

Rowena, Meredith and Miranda are all favourites of mine but OH only likes Miranda out of those 3. Had not considered Verity, Clemency or Briony but those all suit very well, I will have a bit more of a think about names ending in Y. (I considered Patricia/Patsy yesterday...then remembered Ab Fab!)

NB both of his nieces' names are on the list above, too, I won't say which ones they are but the fact they've been suggested is a positive, good to know that other people think those suit White as well!

Jennifer? I'm one, it works well, my maiden name rhymes with White :)

Dido?

(sorry the "twite" did it for me. Dido Twite being the heroine of the "black hearts in Battersea" etc serious by Joan Aitken. I digress but read them with your kids if you haven't done so!)

I loved Dido Twite, what a great heroine! If it wasn't for the singer Dido I might consider it as a middle name at least...but don't think OH would go for it!

If I was choosing names based on favourite heroines from books, I'd call her Lyra Jane (Lyra from His Dark Materials and Jane Eyre)...OH happy with Jane as a middle name, so we are both agreed on that, but he won't go for Lyra!

Jessamy? or Jessamine?
Beatrice/Beatrix
Mirren/Muireann
Anouska
Alyena
Fallon
Thea
Morwenna
Bethan
Edith

Seren is a lovely name but hovers around the top three most common names here in Wales.

Have a one syllable surname myself and chose Imogen and Thea