Opinions on our Girl Names list

[dabug]

Our first (and possibly only) daughter is due in March. We are starting to get serious about considering names. We are Americans now living in Scotland, so some of our name associations are different than those over here. So we could use your opinions.

Katherine (spelled with a K, nn Kate, Katie, (or Katya by Dad only ))
Joanne (has wife's family connections, but don't like nn possibilities)
Teresa ("h" is optional, nn Tessa or Tess)
Elizabeth (has been at the top of the list for a while but hasn't excited us)

Milena (traditional Czech - which is my ancestry, pronounced: Mee - leh - na, not to be confused with similar names from other backgrounds My - lee - na and such. )

Hannelore (my fav from High School German class. 4 syllables, do you think it would cause pronunciation problems?)

Laurelin
Lorelei (see my wife's Lori thread for these two)

There are some other less likely ones which might end up in contention, or as middle names. Here are a few:

Emily
Melanie
Zora
Erica
Nicole
Evelyn

Thanks for your consideration.

If you strongly dislike something could you try to explain why, please?

Katherine - fine
Teresa - okay: I like Tess
Elizabeth - lovely
Milena -ok
Hannelore - silly unless you have cultural links
Laurelin - horrible: sounds like two names glued together
Lorelei - sounds like somebody chewing on toffee
Emily -lovely
Melanie - don't like. How about Melissa? MUCH prettier
Zora - don't like
Erica - horrible
Nicole - don't like
Evelyn - pretty

Katherine - classic name, can't go wrong
Joanne - bit dull, Joanna OK
Theresa - I'd definitely spell with an "h"
Elizabeth - lovely classic name

Milena - lovely
Hannelore - not one I like, sorry

Laurelin - dislike: Laura or Lauren are lovely, though
Lorelei - not one I like

Emily - lovely
Melanie - OK
Zora - no: looks like it's a muddle for either Zara (lovely) or Cora
Erica - not one I like
Nicole - OK
Evelyn - I see as male because of Waugh. Are you Ok with unisex?

I agree with Edith but would add Emily is overused (sorry DD2)

Milena unfortunately sounds like the medical term malaena which means passing black stool after a bleed in the gut, so personally I would avoid this although I appreciate many people would never have heard of this term.

Elizabeth and Katherine lovely names though

Most of these are really nice. I don't like Joanne (sorry to the many Joannes out there) perhaps because it had a phase of being quite popular about 35-45 years ago, so I've met some I don't like, also it just sounds stodgy and dense to me. I always hope that any Jo I meet is a Josephine. Melanie has quite similar associations for me, quite bog standard.

Milena is lovely but I think people will have real problems reconciling spelling and pronunciation, so will say 'my-leen-a' or spell 'meelayna' or some other concoction.

I like Lorelei a lot, pretty and dignified. Laurelin does sound made-up 'Laura-Lynn'. I really like the French 'Laure' usually as part of a compound name e.g. Marie-Laure but that's probably the wrong heritage.

Hannelore is odd, I'd expect people would mishear and call her Hannah, or Hannah Laura (it's amazing, especially with names, how people will guess and cling to what they already know, rather than listening properly, partly as they don't like to ask someone to repeat their name. I recall meeting a young Angharad - a not uncommon Welsh name - on a holiday with a large group and all the adults referred to her as Anne-Harriet, even labelling pictures that way, as they could only comprehend what they already knew and just assumed she couldn't say her own name properly!).

Evelyn is rather good. It's one of those 'was male has become female' names, though uncommon for many years now. Wouldn't the standard female version be Evelynne? Are you pronouncing it Eva-lyn or Evva-lyn? I like Eve and Evie which it offers as nicknames. My only negative association is 'Evil Lynn' from the 'He-man' cartoons but that's probably a distant childhood association for only a few of us!

Theresa - I'd assume she was Catholic.

"Theresa - I'd assume she was Catholic."

Well I'm a 'recovering' Catholic. My parents are and I was raised that way. I don't really believe myself anymore, but its one of those things you never really get over. We did go to a St Theresa's Church when I was a kid. (Actually, St Theresa was a pretty cool lady).

Katherine - solid choice. Bear in mind there will be many little K/Catherines in the next few years, what with the new Duchess.

Joanne - this is underrated. I like it. Classic. Jo is a sweet nn.

Teresa - love. My 2nd fave on this list.

Elizabeth - solid choice with good nn possibilities if she dislikes her name at any point.

Milena - BEAUTIFUL. This is my favourite of your list. I would use this.

Hannelore - no. Pronunciation/spelling difficulties up the wazoo. If you were German, there would be a case for using it despite this, but as it stands I think it would be a bad idea.

Laurelin - seems made-up. People won't "get" it. She will have to explain her name all the time, people will mishear it, it will be annoying. Don't like it.

Lorelei - the folklore around this name is quite murderous and unpleasant. I would not saddle a child with those associations.

MNs:
Emily - popular, getting a bit anonymous these days. Nothing wrong with it though, if it's meaningful to you.
Melanie - a bit meh. Use if honouring someone.
Zora - I like this, but the style is a bit different to the other names so it sort of doesn't jive for me.
Erica - ok. Use if honouring someone.
Nicole - love this name.
Evelyn - actually a boy's name/surname, which annoys me, so I wouldn't use it.

I would use:
Milena Nicole
T(h)eresa Nicole

oikopolis -- hehe, you like some of my choices especially the combinations.

On Katherine: We both liked this long before the Duchess, in my case probably from before she was born. But we both work at St Andrews University, so if people wanted to think we honoring her that would be ok. Actually, there was little growth in Diana back when she married. There will probably be more of a surge in the US than here. The US likes British royals.

Evelyn: I have never heard this used as a boys name. I'm really surprised by this. Where I come from its always a girls name. But that's why I'm asking.

Joanne - we don't really like the nn Jo, and she will probably be called that by lots of people. And Anne is my wife's name, so that doesn't work as a nn either. Which kinda leaves that one out, despite liking it.

I prefer Joanna to Joanne but agree that Jo is a bit 'meh' as a nn.

Josie is much nicer but that's usually a nn for Josephine...which is a bit of a mouthful, you'd REALLY have to like it to give it to a child.

Evelyn as far as I'm concerned has definitely crossed over from male to female (Evelyn Waugh was male but he's the only male Evelyn I've ever heard of). Eveline or Evelina are nice alternatives, though, and I love Evie as a nn, but there are quite a lot of Evies around at the moment.

milena is a really lovely name. like it most from your list.

hannelore is absolutly awful and i do not like joanne neither.

I may have invented 'Evalynne' so best avoided! Evelyn Glennie is well-known and Scottish, so I wonder whether her name reflects / has inspired more popularity in Scotland.

The only two from your list that I would use are Elizabeth or Nicole. The rest really aren't to my taste at all.

I love Evelyn but was unsure as to whether it was a boys name. I also like the Eveline spelling but again was unsure about pronounciation.
Fwiw I have a Catherine and an Elizabeth and no-one has ever (at least not to my face!) said anything other than positive things about their names.