What about the name Ellen?

[Kittykatmacbill]

For dd2, dd1 is Annie - which we both love. So any name has to not sound stupid with Annie, so not overly princessy (like isadora), or overly modern (like velvet or penguin).

Also most be easy to spell, we have an impossible to spell surname, although it is quite short. As I don't want them spelling both parts of their name.

Also don't want a super common name, as I have one those names that there was loads of in every class... And there are still 4 of us at work ahhhhhrrg

Names that we really like have been discounted maggie, Ailsa, Megan and tessa, and we can't use. Names I like dh doesn't maeve, greta, elinor and uma. Name that dh came up with, Elsie, but I don't think we can have an Annie and an Elsie without them having frozen songs sung at them forever...

So tell me what wrong with Ellen? Or what other names should we consider...

Ellen is likely to get shortened to Ellie too...

How about Helen (quite rare now) or Joan (pretty cool)?

Love Ellen mostly because of Ellen Wilkinson. Much prefer Elle, Nell or even Lennie to Ellie (loads of Ellie's about)

Oh red ellen good thought!

We were thinking of Nell as a nn :-)

What about Alex? (Alexandra). Annie and Alex. Ellen's nice too though.

Ellen is dd's middle name - I love it

I like it, I know two three year old Ellen's. One gets shortened to ellie, the other doesn't.

Yes to Nell as a nickname.

Ellen is lovely, it was my grans name and she was a lovely woman. It's dd1s middle name, it sounds awful with DHs surname so couldn't be her first name.

It's slightly unusual and classy, a bit like nina to my mind.

Love it. Classic, a bit posh sounding but not in an annoying way, pretty and girly. Was one of our short list