Alba?

[xXjunebugXx]

Opinions on this name please.

It has really grown on me but struggling with a middle name to go along side it. Do you think Isobel goes well?

Thanks x

I really like it. Alba Isobel isn't my fave, but it does work.

Do you like Mirabel? I think that is a bit more special.

Alba is a pretty name. Isobel doesn't sound good with it & its also an extremely popular name at the moment which always puts me off with girls names.

Means Scotland in Gaelic.

I LOVE Alba! I was desperate to use it for DD but husband vitoed

Alba Ishbel might be better but it depends on the surname really.

Alba is pretty though.

If I had my way it would be Alba Genevieve or Alba Juliet....my man doesn't like them!

I love this name. I wanted it as my fiancé is Scottish but he doesn't like any Gaelic names at all.

I wanted Alba Rose (we're getting married on Yorkshire day this year and Rose would suit the white rose of Yorkshire too) and thought it would be lovely. Not according to my fiancé though!

I think it is a great name, bit quirky but also elegant.

It is the name of the daughter in The Time Travellers Wife, and I think I like it partly because of that.

Alba Genevieve is fantastic! work on him....!!!!

I just think 'Jessica Alba' if that's an issue?

I love Alba because of The Time Traveler's Wife but unfortunately I can't stop thinking about Alba the really cheap stereo system company that are a bit crap.

I'm Scottish and it seems odd to.use it as a name and yes like show my second thought was cheap electronics.

Ailbhe is dawn, so i would think you were scottish or irish. With Isobel, I'd think you were McVery Scottish!

I love it :) dp doesn't :(

As earlier posters have said, Alba is Gaelic for Scotland, the country. It's a word you see a lot on on government documents etc. See the Scottish Government's home page, for example: www.scotland.gov.uk/
This probably won't matter if you are not living in Scotland, or it may not bother you, anyway.

Alba is used as a personal name in Scotland, as well. There were 30 babies registered with that name in Scotland in 2013, plus 2 named 'Albany': www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files2/stats/popular-forenames/2013/babiesnames-2013-t4.pdf

Also as an earlier poster said, Ailbhe (Alvah) is a very similar Scottish/Irish Gaelic name, meaning 'bright and shining' and 'dawn'. It's even less common. There was one baby registered with that name in Scotland in 2013, and another one spelled 'Alva', plus an 'Albi' an 'Alvie' and an 'Alvina'.

In Italian (and Latin), 'Alba' means 'white' or 'shining bright'
In Spanish, it means 'dawn'.

1. Scotland
2. Cheap stereos
3. Not a very good name for a human

Agree that Ailbhe/Alva is much, much nicer. Ailbhe is common enough in Ireland, and seems more like a proper name to me.

There's also the rather colourful 80-something Duchess of Alba who recently married her toyboy.

Love it, but I think of it as Spanish rather than Scottish.

Can't believe anyone would call their child this. It's awful.

I'd prefer Alva.

Alba mainly means cheap electronics to me (or BBC Alba for the rugby).

Strikes me as a boy's name. Soon as I saw it I thought "Tross" as in Albatross as in word association. I like unique names but not Alba. Sorry. Wasn't Alba a tape deck manufacturer?

When I first heard it I REALLY liked it, especially the connection with Scotland but then I remembered Alba stereos and it has totally put me off the name!

What about Iona?

I met a little Spanish Alba who was visiting Scotland. Her parents hadn't known beforehand that it's Gaelic for Scotland and said that they were complimented everywhere they went on her name.

When's your baby due? Just thinking, if it is around the time of the referendum people might think you're making a political statement... A bit like my friends who called their daughter Maggie and then 4 days later Thatcher died. Now everyone assumes they are strident Tories who named their baby after their great leader which couldn't be further from the truth!

Everyone would pronounce Alba incorrectly.