Thoughts on Isaiah

[lloydlf33]

Baby number five and really struggling with names. So please can i have your thoughts on Isaiah as it's a real contender at the moment.

We already have an Elijah.

Love it but I love Elijah too. Unfortunately my DH wouldn't do biblical names. Also love Josiah

It's nice enough but combined with Elijah I'd assume you were a very religious family. Which you may well be!

I like it.
Also: Zachary or variations?
Josiah
Isaac

It was our pick for Dd1. Didn't use it when we eventually had a boy, many tries later, but I still like it a lot.

I think an Isaiah and an Elijah is OTT for me. A bit try hard American Christian style.

Thanks for your replies I do really like the name but still not 100%

I don't even know what 'try hard' names are? Could someone explain as it's something that's been said about our children's names before.

Oddly, I expect someone to say ".....Chapter 4, verses 6 - 13" afterwards, as I've only ever heard it as the name of a book in the bible.
Now, I know it's a book that was named after a prophet, so therefore, it is a name first and foremost, but I just don't recall hearing anyone called it (and, through my work, I hear a LOT of dcs names).

Now, the rarity of it's use might be a bonus for you, or might be a cause for people to go 'Oh, that's unusual' every time they hear it.

Oddly, I quite like it though.

try hard in this context might mean the style of Christian who has to shoe horn biblical references into absolutely everything, from the name of their house to the name of their children, perhaps? Just making a guess there.

I really like it, and have two children with biblical names, one with a virtue name and one with a saint's name.

Ha ha I love it, I have an Elijah but had no clue it was religious until after we used it and people commented. We are not at all religious and to us it is just a name! We call him Eli, or Lijah and of course his name to.

I adore Isaiah :) love the nn Isa!

Together with Elijah it feels very religious! For a fifth born, how about Quentin (derived from Latin for 5)?

I like it but with Elijah it's a bit much. Are you specifically going for an Old Testament name - maybe go for something that's in more common usage, which would make it a bit less 'themed':

Abel
Caleb
Daniel
David
Isaac
Jacob
Joshua
Samuel

Kayharker - thanks for your explanation our daughters names aren't at all religious (Imogen, Meredith and Hermione) so definitely no religious undercurrent in names generally. Also Elijah and the new baby will be 10 years apart agewise, oldest to youngest, so probably won't be thought if a pair if that makes sense.

cookielove - mine gets lijah or lijey but never Eli.

I love it! DH refused it, along with Abraham, Moses & Noah, on the basis that it's too "patriarchal". I did point out to him that all old men were babies once. Didn't seem to make any difference! Both our DC have biblical names, & any future DC probably will too. We like names that mean something to us or say something about who we are or what we want for our children. One of our DC has a common but biblical name & the other is much less common & regularly confused with a similar name for the opposite gender. We love it though & couldn't care less whether other people think we're "too religious". That's their issue, not ours.

I really don't like Quentin but thanks

Not themed at all just names that we both like and agree on. My favourite name this time is Dashiell but DH hates it. His favourite name is Taliesin which I like but don't love. Isaiah is the only name we both currently love. The other one was Seth but my twin lisp so it ends up as Seff -not good!

I do veer towards the more unusual end of the name spectrum. I like all the more commonly used names but there popularity does put me me off using them tbh. I think it's down to having a commonly used 70s name and always being one of many in my year group.

thank goodness I'm not the only one who shortens her Elijah to Lijah or Lijey..... I assumed he'd be an Eli but it doesn't suit him and he won't have it lol

Clealrly I love Elijah and I really like Isaiah but I think the two together are a bit much ..... although I might be tempted by Jedidiah.

Seth on the other hand is fabulous. I wouldn't let the lisp put me off

What about Saul?

One of the actors in early Grey's Anatomy is called Isaiah Washington, which is possibly the best name ever. It really suits him.

However, in the UK, on a day to day basis, I'm not a fan. But then I'm not an Elijah fan either, so we probably just have very different taste in names!

There's also the 'how are you going to pronounce it' thing. I-zay-ah, like the Americans, or Iz-eye-ah like the Brits.

How about Isaac?

I think that Isaiah is quite cool sounding but a bit full on Old Testament. The combination with Elijah does suggest a strong religious connection but with the girls names I think I'd just assume a family that like interesting names (plus I cannot imagine a religious family shortening Elijah to 'lijey'!)

Personally I'd not pick a name beginning the the same initial as a sibling, especially in a bigger family, I'm one of four and my parents used our initials a lot.

I think it fits well. Would you share your other dc's names? Both my dc's have religious names and think the 3rd should have aswell. But i cannot think of a name that fits.

Sorry, it makes me think "one Isaiah than the other" < childish sense of humour>

I like it, much nicer than Isaac, but I think it's really similar to Elijah.
I wouldn't go with anything that had the same -i-ah sound as Elijah, personally.