Martha or Beatrice?

[sparklyflowers]

Help us decide. Also, which one's now more popular?

Martha. I don't know anybody irl with either name.

Love them both. Martha has the edge for me though

Beatrice!9

Beatrice!!! Was my Granny so we're using as a middle name.

Love them both, also rather put off Martha by the 'dowdy' servant girl associations but I still love it anyway...Martha Wainwright is a very cool Martha who carries the name off very well.

If you don't like the 'th' sound why not just go for the spelling 'Marta' as well as the pronunciation? Marta is just as pretty a name in its own right.

Love Beatrice too but won't be using it as a family member already has the name. If the associations with Princess Beatrice are a bit negative, I'd consider Beatrix - it's a lovely name and Beatrix Potter a great feisty independent Victorian woman to be named after!

Beatrice, it is beautiful!

I have a Beatrice - nn Betty. Martha's lovely too.

Not the Marta suggestion - she'd be a right marta to that name.

Beatrice

Oh I love both, couldn't choose one, they're both gorgeous

Another vote for Martha. It's cool not dull!

I love nn Bea but Beatrice is a little too posh for my ears - perhaps to do with a Beatrice I used to know who used to screech her name in a very plummy voice!

Beatrice - I love it. Bea as nn is lovely too. Not keen on Martha.

We have a Martha - bright, funny, sparky, energetic and beautiful. So to everyone who reckons it's stodgy and dowdy: with all due respect, you're wrong... Also lots of diminuitives if you want them - Marnie, May, Mattie etc.

I like the name Beatrice too, but only currently know one, and she's always known as Bea. My grandmother was also always known as Beat or Beattie, although Beatrice was only her middle name. I don't think I've ever heard it NOT shortened apart from Princess Beatrice.

BEATRICE !!!

Please see my post - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/baby_names/1376030-Top-100-baby-names-of-2010 - for a list of the top 100 names. Martha is 85, Beatrice isn't in the top hundred. Personally I like them both.