Urgent!! She's 5 days old, please help.

[IAmABam]

Before she was born our short list was, in order of preference:
Eilidh
Elena
Elise
Cara
Arianne
Jamie

Now she's here I just can't see any of them suiting her, although I still love all the names. The longer she's nameless the more confused I get so I have set a deadline of tomorrow morning to decide.

Please help me choose between one of these names or something else I might like even better.

Now Ester (spelled that way!) would be a chemical name.

Oooo, yummy thread - an MN baby at Christmas Delib. ignoring one spectacularly rude (pissed maybe???!!) 'contribution'

Here's my oar lobbing in - but only AFTER have offered a huge congratulations on your new arrival

12 years ago, DC3 was ALWAYS going to be Phoebe or Archie (dependent on gender, obvs) - literally, for knocking on 8 full months that was what this bubba's this name really 'was' (I'm not alone here? I can't be the only one this has happened to??!!)

And then said baby was born... and neither of the above 'fit', as they just didn't REMOTELY 'look' like either of the above (even though the world and it's wife - and us and bubba's siblings!) 'KNEW' this baby's name

Lesson no.1: Name PRE baby being born can be a million miles away from said baby POST baby being born!

Lesson no.2: Not even ONE of the (long ago thrown away in any event, as really HAD decided the two names above) shortlist of names 'fittted' either, so don't feel you kinda 'have to' stick to one that was on your shortlist - as am guessing if one those really DID fit or feel 'right' to you, then you would have already named her?? (might be way off mark there but YKWIM!)

Lesson no.3: The name that is right will just 'feel right', so for the love of God (& for your new DD!) please don't let the clock/cpl of days be the thing that drives a rush to name her... and then dictates the name that she is going to have for probably 70/80 years!

Lesson no.4: Ignore everyone else! (says she when about to post list of names...)

Lesson no.5: DEF choose a name that you can imagine DD having as baby/toddler/at school/at Uni/in big wide world as an adult (almost made a catastrophic mistake on this one myself with above no-name baby!)

Oh, and one more - as the owner of a name which NO-ONE can spell, let alone EVER prounounce properly, and which I have had to spell out (I do mean literally spell out, as in: D for delta, F for Foxtrot, Y for yankee etc) more times than I care to remember, I would DEF give her a name that spares her that lifetime of mis-pronounication - which will BTW drive you nuts too, ESP if you have a specific pronunciation of it yourself - and her that letter by letter over the phone thingy!

Will slink off now after epic length post - after posting my beloved DD names below first though...

Phoebe
Darcy
Grace
Amelie
Anastasia
Portia
Sophia
Liberty
Hope
Ellie
Rose (Rosie for when bubba)
ABSOLUTE fav tho is Isla (and is Scottish!)

Congrats again OP

Cara.

I love Elena and would pronounce it exactly as you do OP. I have a friend called Elena and I think it is gorgeous.

My dh told me that DD's name (Eilidh) suited her on her 1st birthday. It took him a year.

Eilidh.

It's not familiar to English people, and what?

Judging by these boards everybody should ask "is this ok for English people" as well as " do you like the name".

Welsh names often get a similar reception op.

I spoke to a welsh Eilidh recently, names for her Scottish grandmother.

Also OP, I wouldn't say Elena as you do.

I knew a Greek Elena who pronounced her name Eh-lee-na nn Lena.

I would say Elena as Ellen-ah, at least the 2 I know pn it like that.

I love Eilidh and how about Eloise?

Many congratulations on your new daughter.

Agree that Eilidh is a perfectly real and respectable Scottish name, and quite well known up here. Like 'Elena', it's a form of /equivalent for 'Helen' - in Scottish Gaelic. (Helena/Elena/Ellen/Nell etc were all very popular names in Scotland for my grandmother's generation.) Right now, Eilidh is no 25 in the Scottish popularity charts. See www.mumsnet.com/baby-names/most-popular-scottish-baby-names

Pronunciation may vary from place to place, but up here in NW Scotland it's 'Ay-lee' ('Ay' as in 'say') - but said with a pretty and soft intonation, almost a gentle sigh: Ayyhh-leeehhh.

edith

edie for short - pronounced eeeeeeeeedeeeeee

congratulations x

We picked Cara in a rush of no name like you, and I kind of wish we didn't. It feels like an "ok" name but not special. Also find some people pronouncing it as "Care-uh" not "Car-ah" which is really irritating me.

I think you will be forever correcting pronunciation and then your child will, plus giving the name over the phone will get you lots of spelling it practice.

Heard today there are children going in to 2014 called

Tea
Pepsi
Nirvana
Vogue
Reem

Eilidh is becoming a name used all over the world. I know people who have used it because they've heard it pronounced and love the spelling. It's become rather common for my liking as dd was one of 3 in playgroup and nursery, but the only one in Primary and one of 2 in High School. I chose it because I hadn't worked with an Eilidh before I had dd and wanted a name I wouldn't relate to a child I'd worked with. "Isla being a child's dog!" as dh desperately wanted Isla for a girl.

I had one friend who insisted on calling her Eyelid. She soon shut up when I told her she couldn't slag of my child when she had called her daughter Bliss.

Call her Ivy

I adore Eillidh. My favourite name from the choices listed. Beautiful.

There is also Eily (EYE-lee), an Irish abbreviation of Eileen that imo is far nicer than Eileen.