Sylvie, Alys, Frances

[anewmotivatedme]

We already have a Lauren. It wasn't either of our favourite names, but the only name we could agree on. We have grown to love the name.

We have our boys name, but once again, we are struggling with girls.

We have three names:

Sylvie - too French? DH is worried she'll always be saying Sylvie not Sylvia. I love the name, DH can live with it.

Alys - DH loves this name. I can live with it. It has to be the welsh spelling. My husband is welsh.

Frances - our only classic name, but we both quite like it. DH worries its a bit posh/ old fashioned. He's an inverted snob.

Which is your favourites? We have been through the names books, and have only managed to come up with three names, we could both live with, but we're doing better than last time.

Thank you!

I love Alys - but a bit bias as it on my shortlist and the top runner at the mo, thinking of Alys Gwenllian, Alys Lois or Alys Grace.

Sylvie - quite like.

Frances - a bit too old fashioned for my taste

I like Sylvie, I don't think it'll be a problem any more than Marie/Maria, Julie/Julia etc. Alys is lovely too, though in England at least people will probably assume it's spelt Alice unless told otherwise.

Not keen on Frances personally, I don't know about it being posh, but it does seem a bit plain and dated (I think of this as a 70s/80s name) compared to your other choices.

Sylvie - beautiful, probably becoming more popular if that bothers you at all.

Alys - think it looks much prettier spelt this way, seems kind of 17th century, the lady who writes the gardening column in Saturday's Guardian is called Alys something.

Frances - disagree with the others. I love Frances and think it's really elegant plus uncommon and easy to spell. I think it has an air of 1940's glamour. Plus great nickname potential.

I like Alys best, closely followed by Frances.

Sylvie - getting rather faddy. Sylvia is fresher for a revival
Alys - lovely with this spelling. For some reason I don't like Alice!
Frances - lovely, and not too posh or old-fashioned

Frances!

Thank you!

Sylvie - DH dislikes the name Sylvia, and worries that everyone will assume our daughter's Sylvia. He quite likes Sylvie, and I love the name. I don't mind it becoming faddy, because at least then Sylvie will be the name everyone thinks of, rather than Sylvia.

Alys - DH prefers this spelling, and I associate the name Alice with a condescending girl from school. However with the spelling Alys, my name associations go away. We live in Wales, so I don't think the spelling will be an issue.

Frances - my great grandmother was Frances, so I don't consider it 1970s or 80s. My husband is not totally convinced on it, though.

I think Alys works best with Lauren. The others, while perfectly nice names, seem a bit 'granny chic' whereas Lauren is distinctly more modern feeling. (Anecdotally - All of the Laurens I know are under 25, Franceses over 70.) Maybe Sylvie and Frances are due for a revival - and why not? they're good names - but neither leaps out as 'Lauren's sister' to me. This matters to me but maybe not to you.

Alys & Lauren works well - both are feminine without being overly girly. They sound different too, which is a plus for me. Alys is a nice name and I like the Welsh spelling too.

For me, Lauren's sisters would be Abigal, Amy, Chloe, Eleanor, Elsa, Jasmine, Megan, Naomi, Olivia, Rachel, Rebecca, Sophie. It's a safe choice so I'd be inclined to match it with other sensible, quite popular names. But since you're trying to get away from that, let me suggest to you: Lauren & Daphne (means the same as Lauren but sounds completely different - think it's a cute option if you're not planning on having any other daughters!), Lauren & Isis, Lauren & Jemima, Lauren & Rosemary, Lauren & Susanna.

If your husband dislikes Sylvia, he might end up growing tired of Sylvie. I think disliking names that sound very similar is a red flag: a sign that the name might not be The One. By all means, have a preference - even a strong one - but if you actively dislike a name that is identical but for one letter, think long and hard before you use the one you have in mind.

I like Alys best, but as another poster said, will probably have to tell people how to spell it. I'm not too keen on Sylvie, but I don't know why, and Frances doesn't really seem to go with Lauren if that makes sense.

Stellan,

Thanks for this. We have ben throught the name book, and all the names you have suggested have been ruled out for one reason or another. We really are down to three names, as absurd as that must sound. For instance, I like Susannah, DH dislikes. He likes Abigail, I dislike.

We're not bothered about how our childrens names fit together. We have a son too, so when we write our childrens names down, the girls name would be broken up, by the son (the middle child). I've not mentioned our sons name, as its unusual and will identify us. It's more unusual than Sylvie or Alys. Our son has a welsh name. We found choosing a boys name really easy, and there were lots of names we both loved.

Re comment on DH disliking Sylvia, it's the old lady connotations that I think DH dislikes, rather than the name Sylvia.

Sylvie is beautiful.

Thank you!

I don't know. DH prefers Alys, I prefer Sylvie. When DS was born, we had Alys as the girl alternative. I was never in love with Alys though.

We both like Frances, but it's quite different to our other names. It sounds fine with the other names, when you shorten it to Fran, so not sure whether this matters.

We had a compromised name for our DD. Our favourite name, was used one months before, DD arrived, by our best friends. We'd never shared our name with anyone. Our favourite name, at the time, was Ffion. Rather than go back to the drawing board, we picked the compromised name. I couldn't imagine her with any other name than Lauren now.

Had never thought of any of those three names,but they are all delightful and also unusual. Lovely choices

I would choose Alys, it seems to fit better with Lauren. I really don't like Frances but do like Francesca and pretty indifferent to Sylvie.

I really dislike Frances- and Fran just sounds dull and quite cold imo. Also has the potential to become Frankie (both Frances I have taught are Frankie- teenagers). Francesca and Lauren sound more like sisters?

I like Alys best. My first thought is Alys Fowler, not sure if that would put anyone off though!

Not keen on Frances, like Francesca though

Alys very pretty, and lovely spelling

Prefer Sylvia nn Sylvie

I know a few little Sylvie's . It's a lovely name and far more common than Sylvia (in my experience anyway).. Hopefully this will help allay your DH's concerns?

I also really like Frances. It's my DD's middle name, purely as it's a family name, but I have grown to really love it in it's own right. Kurt Cobain's daughter is Frances.. Ergo it must be cool ;-)

Oh AND it's Baby from Dirty Dancing's real name. An I doing a good job of selling Frances yet?

Love Alys- very medieval! Eleanor of Aquitaine's daughter was called Alys I think, no?

Also love Frances but know quite a women in their 40s and 50s called Frances who hate and are only ever called by their full by their mothers.

Never been terribly keen on Sylvie, mainly because I was taunted by a particularly stupid one as a child in France.

Lovely choices. I had Sylvie on my list until I asked for opinion on it and heard a south London, east London and Brummie version.. Don't think you'll have that problem. But if it becomes See-or-VEE without the l its not as pretty.

Thanks all.

We really are no closer to making a decision. We're both now favouring Sylvie and Alys. We do still like Frances, its just my DH thinks it too much a grown up name for us. If Curt Cobain and Coutney Love can call their daughter Frances, I don't think its too grown up/ old-fashioned for DH and I.

Sylvie is the brave choice. Although we have met Sylvia's, with nn Sylvie, they have all been 60+, and we've never met a Sylvie. We've met a few Alys's, so it doesn't seem so unusual.

I can see us erring towards Alys.

Love Sylvie, like Alys and not a great fan of Frances

Frances is ok but I just think it's a bit 'blah' to be honest. Sylvie and Alys are really pretty though!

Personally I dislike Alice, and Alys is too close to that for me - unless written down, it's the same sound! It does look nicer though.

I think Frances and Sylvie are both lovely. Personally I'd go for Sylvie, I think it just fits Lauren a bit better. Sylvie and Lauren I can see together!

You have three such different names that I find it so hard to believe that you can't get ANY others on the list, though. And because you're still undecided it feels a bit like none of these are the right ones, iyswim?

Seren?
Lowri?
Fflur?
Tamar?
Linnet?
Nia?

• Oh and another reason I'm not keen on Alice/Alys is the lack of nickname potential... I've known one of each spelling and both have been Al/Ali for short...such a nothing, unisex shortening.

Fran - ok but not great. No other real possibilities, Chesca is more for Francesca...

Sylv, Syl, Vee, Vivi - better.