Does anybody have a Georgiana?

[octaviarose]

Does anyone have either a Georgiana or a Alexandria?

There is a Georgiana that dd aged 6 is friends with (or is it Georgianna?)

Yep! And quite surprised to see the name here

DD, 9 weeks, is Alexandria, though we actually call her Alex. We chose Alexandria as we thought it was pretty and unusual but its shortened version is quite 'normal'. Also it gives her a lot of flexibility when she is older to choose what she would like to be known as.

And coincidentally, I had been thinking about Georgiana if we had DD2 but that's because I like the name Georgie but I'm not to keen on Georgina. Though having seen the names together I'm not sure Alexandria and Georgiana work together that well, or at least not as well as Alex and Georgie.

Also, I never entirely know whether it should be pronounced George-i-ana or George-ay-na (or maybe I'm getting distracted by that film the Keira Knightly!)

I have a friend named Georgiana. For some reason she has always been Genna!

Both lovely names and not very common.

I like it, but like Bella I don't know whether it's pronounced George-ay-na or not. I have an Alexandra already.

I've only ever heard of two Georgianas.

One lived at Pemberley and one was the Duchess of Devonshire.

Meant to add that clearly for the above reasons it is a very chavvy name.

George I know is pronounce george - ee - arna

Georgiana - chavvy? How could anyything out of Jane Austen be chavvy? I love it. Not for us with our surname, but I'd love hearing it.

Georgiana is lovely - much nicer than Alexandria imho.

Squoosh was JOKING btw. :)

I know one Georgiana - a teenager, now. Lovely name and vastly better than Georgina.

It's Georg-ee-ar-na. Georg-ay-na was pronunciation affected by the Whig clique to which Georgiana, 10th (?) Duchess of Devonshire belonged.

How's that for useless trivia?

Lovely name. Much much classier than Georgia

Colin Firth also pronounces it Geor-Jay-Na in Pride and Prej. Not George-Ee-Arna.

remus - Alex and I won't take that personally

Good work on the trivia, vixsatis, that's impressive!

It's a lovely name - much prefer Georg-ayna pron. as well.

In any case for some reason it is far nicer than Georgina or Georgia.

In my head when reading Jane Austen and such I always pronounced it 'George - ee - Arna. But since that Keira Knightly film I don't know if its really

George - ayna (seems a bit odd)
George - ee - arna (like I always thought), or possibly
George - ee - anna

I suppose the reason we don't really know is that it has not been used much for over a century. Georgina has been more usual.

Sorry Bella - it really wasn't intended to be personal. I think Georgiana would be an ace sibling name for your Alex - though I'm astonished you have the energy to be thinking about dd2 when dd1 is so young! :)

Don't like the George-ay-na sound at all though. And Colin Firth mumbles anyway!

And light-heartedness is so hard to get across online! No need to apologise, everyone likes different names!

:)

thanks everyone, I already have an Isabella which I love although is very popular. Now trying to decide for the bump which we think is a girl. Husband likes Georgiana but we were unsure how to pronounce it. Other choices are Henrietta (Hetty) Sophia or Beatrice.
What do you think?
Any other suggestions greatly received!

\i think we have the same taste as I have an Alexandra and an Isabella already. I have Henrietta and Beatrice on my list for my baby due in a few weeks.

My list is quite long and some of the names on the list are:

Miranda
Cecilia/Cecily
Frederica
Clemency
Catherine
Phoebe
Julia
Eleanor/Elinor (I think this might be the one that dh agrees to)

i've read a biography of the Duchess of Devonshire and it explained how the smart set in the 1700s had a very specific way of pronouncing Georgiana. it was sort of a test they used to see whether a person was "in" or not.

the "in" way of saying it was/is Jor-jane-a.
the "out" way was Jorji-arna.

i assume that toffs still pronounce it in the "in" way.

and that a great many people will be somewhat confused/bemused by you using one or the other.

oh and i see vixsatis beat me to it :)

BeattieBow you do have good taste! DH vetoed Clemency which I adore but still on the list are Tabitha, Felicity and Jemima. Also love Sylvie but will need to do a lot of convincing.

Good luck with the baby hope all goes well.

Hetty is pretty. I also really like Hattie (Harriet).