Struggling with girl's name...

[whenskiesaregrey]

A few weeks ago I put Aoife to the MN jury and it seemed to go down quite well, but we are still not sure whether it is the name to go for. We have a few others on our list, but still open to ideas on others too. We like names that are not very common, but not weird! The list at the moment is...

Aoife (a name we have thought about for a while, but still not 100%)
Eloise
Olivia (which we know is very popular, but DH's late mum was called Olive, so we both think it would be nice).

If we picked Olivia, we would have Amelie as a middle name. We don't think it goes with the other two. We have also thought about Olivia as a middle name to Aoife.

DH is rubbish at coming up with names, so it is basically down to me to come up with a list which he will tick/ cross.

Basically the brief for girls names are feminine but not flowery (not keen on the lily, poppy, daisy etc names), and ideally not a name where there will be another 5 in her class (I know Olivia contradicts that!).

Argh! Help??

Out of all the names you have mentioned, I like Olive!

Olive Amelie has a nice ring to it I think.

Out of all the names you have mentioned, I like Olive!

Olive Amelie has a nice ring to it I think.

I'm loving the name Orla at the moment - are you Irish? Just wondering about Aoife which I also think is very pretty.

Orla is gorgeous!

Out of OP's 3 I like Eloise the most.

When I hear Olive though, I just think Popeye! I never met DH's mum unfortunately, she died quite a few years ago, so I don't really have her memory to attach to the name.

I do like Orla. Will add that to the list! Not Irish, but have Irish heritage on my side.

I like Olivia but don't think Olivia Amelie flows very well - too many vowels and Ls with two As together.

Aoife is nice too, but a bit of a tonguetwister with Olivia as middle name as there are too many similar sounds in the names.

Eloise is lovely - what middle name would you put with it?

I love Aoife. Such a beautiful name.

I am not keen on the others, sorry!

No idea on the middle name for Eloise, something with one syllable I think.

No need to apologise RedFlag, I need opinions!

With Olivia, I really like nn Livvy, so think that is what she would end up being called if we called her Olivia.

May need to rethink middle names as well as first names!!

I love Aoife and Eloise is nice. I am not keen on Olivia as it is too popular for my liking.

I love Orla.

If you like Livvy, how about Libby nn for Elizabeth ... Elizabeth Olive?

Olivia and Amelie are too similar.

Orla is very nice and less popular than Aoife - there's more Aoifes at our school than Olivias!

Not overly keen on Elizabeth I think, I don't like Liz which might end up getting used.

Okay, Orla going on the list :)

I sway from being set on Aoife, to not sure. I think it is the reaction I'm worrying about.

What about Aoife Olive?

I like Orla, Eloise and Olivia. I don't really think Amelie goes well with any of them as a middle name although I like it on it's own. As a complete alternative, I love Violet.

Bit of an aside here but I wouldn't worry about a name being too popular. If you like it, go for it. We had trouble deciding on DS2's name as the one we like was very popular where we lived at the time, but decided to use it anyway. We moved away from the area and lo and behold he was suddenly the only one in his school year! Names are (usually) for life and lies an circumstances change so I wouldn't worry too much about how many might be in their class etc as this is really only for a relatively short period of their lives.

Out of your list I like Eloise, I think the only middle name not to match it is Amelie.

But you post has inspired me..... I'm going to add Olive to my list!!

Aoife Olive is lovely.

Orla Amelie would be lovely too.

Aoife is lovely. Very popular in Ireland though. What about Eva or Eve? Or Eimear/Emer? I have an Eimear :)

Olivia is lovely too, but too popular for me.

Orla, Ciara/Keira are also beautiful Irish names.

skies i reckon we should just name our babies GIRLS as i have nt a clue either what name i am gonna pick.
I do love the name Aoife its a really pretty name and one of my friends calls her daughter that.
Oliva Rose is one of my options and i love Willow but DP hates it we hate any name we suggest to eachother so reckon i am gonna have to pull one from a hat lol.

Thanks all. I do really like Aoife. Going off Amelie a bit now. A friend has a girl called Eva, so that's a no go. Freya has now been added to the list.

marmite glad Olive has made it on to your list!

I asked DH what he thought of Orla, and he isn't keen, which is a shame.

sambrads its a good job we've still got weeks to go!

My sister is Katie Eloise so I love Eloise.

Not very common and not out there either.

Ainé or Aine (Irish Anna, oornya)? I love Aoife, but its too pop in Ireland for me! Olive is lovely and more unusual than Olivia.

Adelaide? (although with Adele, you'd be accused of naming after a celeb!) Eloise is nice but I know 3, all teen mums and its tainted it a bit.

Fionn, Ruth, Gráinne (Gr-oonia)?

Would you consider Caoimhe? (pronounced either Queeva or Keeva)

Elsa?
Ailsa?
Ailbhe/Alvy?
Una?
Maebh/Maeve?
Róisín

The Gráinnes I know (lots) have all had pronunciation problems when they ventured outside Ireland ('grain', 'grainy', 'granny')

Definitely don't worry about popular names - dtd has a classic but slightly unusual name we picked due to family tree. She is 6.5months and I've met 5 different people who know a child with the same name.

I would have a few options then after her birth have a cup of tea and look at her with dh and decide then. We did that with dd1 and ruled out our 2 favourite names and went for one we discussed 3 years before on honeymoon! She's now 4 and it's definitely right for her.

DD3 has a very popular name (chosen as it's a family name) and there is only one other in her class and two others in the school. The name suits her, and to me she is 'my Popularname'. (Giving her a quirky name would have backfired as she is a retiring soul with flaming red hair, and an unusual name would have made her stand out more than she could have coped with. Very glad I didn't call her Clementine, which I was considering, and though I was also considering a very Irish name, I think she would have been a walking cliche.)

DD4 has an off the charts unpopular name (again, chosen because it's a family name) and we met the only other one we have ever met in her class when she started school. They are best friends.