Too quaint/old fashioned??

[YummyMummybee]

My husband and I want to name our first girl after my mother Mary, I love both Molly & Maisy which are pet forms of Mary but feel they are too popular at the moment.
I did a bit of research on the web and came accross Marybella or alternativly spelt Maribella and I have to say I love it. To me its very girly, uncommon and quite prim & proper which I love.
Please give me your honest opinion on Marybella! The second name would be Catherine after my nana.
Molly Catherine
Marybella Catherine
Thanks in advance!

I know of a little Mariella with nn Milly. Also know a Marissa.
What about something like Rosemary with the Mary at the end. NN could be Rose or Rosie which is sweet.

I think some of you may have missed the info that the OP is in Ireland.

I may be wrong, but Mary is probably not as underused or 'retro' as it is in GB.

I know someone with Maura on her birth certificate which I was told is the Irish for Mary, nn=Molly. I never know how to say it, though (More-uh? Mow-ra?).

I know a Maura and it's More-uh.

Mary is retro cool!

If not that, Marianne is classic and timeless, and Marissa is beautiful - very elegant.

Marybella sounds like one of the Beverley Hillbillies...

The Mary Belle thing would put me right off

Have a look here
www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=VSA11

and you'll see that in Ireland,while the popularity of the name Mary is falling, it's still well within the top 100, gradually sliding from 34 in 1998 to 60 in 2010. I would also hazard a guess that it appears frequently as a second or third forename too. So trendy types would probably see it as 'old hat' rather than 'retro'. Am I right, OP?

Thanks a million PercyFilth-Mary is still quite common is good old Ireland and your right even though its sweet, timeless(and every Mary I know is quite successful) it is well within the top 100 and doesnt shope any signs of falling out:( Also Molly is well up there too... Thanks so much for posting this-as you can see the Irish & U.K top 100 differ greatly
Thanks also for all the suggestions of Maribel-it is very cute:)
Only other thing we could do is go with our second choice India-we went to Mauritius on honeymoon so would have a reason to have a little India & go with India Mary....
How do you feel about India in the uk, is it common? In Ireland it would be extremely uncommon.

Mary-Kate?

Being honest I'm not really a fan of Mary - Kate our any of the double names as we have a hyphanated sirname so would just like a second name to honour my nana and Mam tpp but thanks for the suggestion Mary-Kate would have covered bothmy mam and nana x
So now we are at
-Molly Catherine
-Maribel Catherine
-India Mary Catherine(very long could leave out Catherine)

I'm not in the UK anymore (only left last year though), but I'd venture that India is a bit passé there. Sort of had its day, IYKWIM. Georgia way more so.

In fact, your India and Georgia choices seem very, um, surprising in light of your revelation that you move in 'trendy' circles. I would consider both to be very un-trendy (for desperate want of a better word).

Of course, this shouldn't matter if you love the names, but it seems just loving a name isn't your priority.

Thanks a million-as I said we are Irish & we live here too so we really don't know whats common uncommon accross the water. Thats interesting re India did it go through a phase like Ava,Olivia etc? Georgia would be after hubbys mom so thats why we would have chosen this.
Thanks a million for the post-it never struck me that India was very in vogue ever-the only India I ever knew of was the designer India Hicks x

Mary and Maria and Mariana and Marianne are all gorgeous names.

Marybella sounds like a sexually transmitted disease or a transvestite porn star. NO!

Mauritius has nothing to do with India though it's an independent country. It is in the Indian Ocean, but is considered part of the continent of Africa.

But if you want to make a link with your honeymoon .... you could go for Maura, which is a form of Mary :o

He he thats it PercyFilth its due to the Indian Ocean-we always said we loved India!!! Never liked Maura due to one in my class in primary school...
What do you think of India Mary?

lol whats the scenario just noticed your post there:) We were discussing names again & are now veering towards India Mary?

I love Mary it is much underused at present.I think Mirabel is very pleasant too and Mariana and Mariam[Turkish version of Mary]

I don't care for India ... I think this name came to prominence when India Hicks was bridesmaid to Charles & Diana, and caught on a bit subsequently. But it's gone the way of a lot of names perceived as 'upper class' (like Arabella and Jasper!) and been embraced by the lower orders :o

I think places as names are seen as a bit, well, chavvy now, what with Paris, Brittany etc. Sorry! bound to have offended somebody :o

Sorry, just realised you were in Ireland. Let me suggest some new names then...

Would also say India although not common, is a bit passé, and Georgia is very pretty, quite popular here.

Astrid
Aurelia (Lia for short)
Aphra (Aphie for short)
Elizabeth (Bliss for short)
Clara
Lyra
Mathilde- said Mat-teelled (mattie for short)

Thats the thing PercyFilth I do know how its to be percieved as neither hubby & I have ever heard of an India over here:( I know exactly what you mean re the chavvy names 10 years ago in the UK I'm sure Daisy, Molly & Henry's reigned supreme amongst the upper class but as society shows names are not something that only the elite can afford lol....
We do really like India but really am grateful for the constructive comments-anymore please xx

Ga Pants I absolutely LOVE Astrid hubby not so much but I think Astrid Mary sounds fab, Love Lyra also very unusual.
In saying India is passe was it very common at one time in the uk?

Would respectfully disagree that Polly is not a name for a grown up.... I think its gorgeous and carries well into adulthood. Good luck OP :)

No not common as such, more like those who used it were trying a bit too hard to come up with an arty, perhaps aristocratic type name. Sorry that sounds very class-based, that is sort of how it is around here, people can be snippy.

I also really like
Alice.

Thanks a million-that doesn't sound very class based at all Alice. Just telling it as it is!!! I can kind of seeing India being one of those names that ends up being popular with the top & bottom of the socio-economic ladder but not quite in the middle if that makes sense??
Polkadotfanatic - Polly is fab & suprisingly underused considering the popularity of Molly & Holly x