Having a wobble on our girl's name

[Willothewhip]

I'm at the six months stage with DD1. Since we've found we were expecting a girl we've been calling her Thea Alexandra (Alexandra is a family name but Thea is just a name we both really like). However I've started to wobble a bit on the name especially since I recently met a greyhound called Tia who was owned by a sulky teenage Alexandra!

DH is french and the name has to work in both English and French, though pronunciation can differ. She's taking DH's surname which is italian and scans like Bacardi

Other names on our short list are

Alaïs (pronounced as with Anaïs but with an 'l') old basque name
Oriane (ori- ann) DH's favourite, lovely with french accent but I'm not so sure
Delphine
Elisabeth/Elizabeth

I also love Eleanor and Claudia, but DH has vetoed.

Any thoughts on Thea Alexandra/names on our list or other suggestions are very welcome.

Thea Alexandra is a beautiful name. You can't go wrong with that.

Oriane Alexandra is beautiful as is Thea Alexandra. Tia is a common name for greyhounds, there is even a charity for greyhound rehoming called that near me, but why should that put you off?

I have absolutely nothing against greyhounds (this one was lovely) but I'm keen to have a name that isn't likely to be used for a dog and this was a little bit too close. Thanks for the feedback.

i like all your names. my favourite is Delphine. i don't see Thea as a dog's name at all. choose your favourite with confidence, they are all lovely.

What a lovely list!! I really like Thea but you shouldn't ignore any niggles you have at this stage.

At a push I would say Delphine or Elizabeth just because of any pronunciation/spelling issues you might have in the UK!

I know a Thea and she's lovely. I like Thea Alexandra - and she can always choose to be known as a shortened version of Alexandra when she grows up if she doesn't like it. But I don't think Thea is at all the same as Tia. Much more sophisticated.

Also like Delphine.
Oriane could be difficult in English, as could Alais - nice but probably difficult to pronounce.

A lovely list. Thea is very different from Tia, in terms of origin and association.

I like Oriane and think the pronunciation would be ok in English. Trickier with Alais, I think people would guess that wrongly a lot.

Thea is gorgeous. It was top of my list for years but dh vetoed it. Delphine is nice but possibly slightly pretentious-sounding.

Actually, no, I take that back. It isn't pretentious.

I like Delphine best, but Thea is also a lovely name :)

I like Thea Alexandra although they do run on in English (thealexandra) and would she be on tay-ah by French relations?

An English friend with a French DH has just had an Auriana which is similar to your Oriana but slightly prettier IMHO.

What about something like Juliette?

on=pn ie pronounced

Thea Alexandra is gorgeous!

Much prefer it to the rest of your list, they go together perfectly and are both beautiful names.

What pretty names.
DP also loved Delphine but we're not remotely French so it seemed a bit fake!
Thea is lovely, but I rather like your DH's favourite - Oriane. I wouldn't worry about difficulties in pronounciation - people can ask if they don't know how to say it.

I love Oriane, in fact it's going on my shortlist..!

We're also considering Elise which would work in French.

orianne is lovely, as is arianne, oriel, Ariel

Thanks so much for all your positive responses and compliments on the short list. DH is particularly pleased that Oriane is so popular with MN. It definitely seems like you can over-think a name and start to doubt your own tastes.

Absolutely all of those names are divine and I don't think you can go wrong either way, but FWIW I love Delphine and Oriane.

Delphine is a beautiful name. Also like Thea though.

Thea is pronounced Téa in French and it's not very pretty - it sounds like the two letters "t" "a" (French pronunciation).

None of your names work terribly well in both languages.

My DD is Flora, which works perfectly in both. Clara? Sarah?