Serafina or Safira?

[Incaminka]

Looking at Serafina-Rose (Sefi for short) or Safira-Rose (Safi for short) if it's a girl.

Stuck on boys' names, but also like Fiorella for a girl...

Definitely Serafina. It's a very pretty name and Sefi is a lovely nn.

Safira sounds like it should be preceded by Vauxhall.

Also Serafina Rose unhyphenated is much better.

:-)
I agree about the unhyphenated, as it means she can choose to write it or not.

I mean write it out whole, or miss the Rose off...

Serafina. But with no hyphen, and she will have to say "Serafina with an f" a lot because I believe it's more commonly spelt with a ph. Pretty name. :)

I think the ph is Hebrew/ancient Greek, whereas the f is Italian.

Serafina is beautiful

Serafina. Not Vauxhall Zafira

Seraphina looks nicer (I don't know why). Same as Saphira.

But not hyphenated with Rose - that ruins the name, and you lose 786 Mumsnet Name points if you do that.

I just named my daughter Seraphina (with nn Sephie) and this is my experience:

1. People who have heard it before tend to think it's beautiful, but...

2. Most people have never heard of it and look at you like this when you tell them the name. Then they will give you an uncertain look and mutter about it being "unusual" or "posh" and then hurriedly change the subject.

3. If they haven't heard of it before, you will need to keep repeating yourself several times before they 'get it', e.g. "Sarah Thea?" "No, Seraphina" "Sophia?" "No, Seraphina." etc. etc.

4. If they have heard of it before, half of them will want to spell it with an 'f' and the other half will want to spell it with a "ph" - you can't win with that one.

And this is my advice:

1. Please don't hyphenate it. Please. Oh please, please, PLEASE don't.
2. Don't use Rose - find a more interesting middle name instead.
3. The 'ph' version is from Hebrew/Latin, not ancient Greek as posted above.

Seraphina, Sophia or Saffia are nice. Don't like Safira though.

Saphira