I give up. Please name our daughter!

[NoNamesNancy]

DD (our first - and almost certainly only - girl after 2 DSs) is due soon and we are really struggling with girls' names. We found naming the boys quite easy. They both have traditional / classic not very popular but not unusual either names. This time round a boy would have been Alexander (Alex) or Hugh.

There are lots of names which either DH or I like, but we have struggled to find a middle ground. He has dismissed many of my suggestions as too unusual (read 'pretentious'); I find many of his too frilly.

I think we are looking for something classic, not faddy, known but not overly popular (ideally not top 50ish), and fairly strong but feminine.

Our agreed on shortlist, pretty much in the following order, is as follows (comments and suggestions would be appreciated!):

Clara (was front runner for most of my pregnancy, now worried that it will get very popular and seem faddy)
Louisa (nicknames worry me - we don't really like Lou or LouLou)
Helena (would probably be our favourite, but it's not brilliant with our surname. Although not a disaster either)
Martha (not sure that it passes the "classic" test, but love it)
Georgina (Georgie)
Sara (can't decide whether this is lovely and simple, or a bit "meh")
Tess (feels a little like a nickname, but not keen on Teresa / Tessa. Esther would be a possibility, but may be stretching it?).

Clara is a beautiful name.

I always wanted Emmeline with emmie or lena as n/n's

Here are some more suggestions, that (to me at least) have the same 'feel' as the ones you're thinking of:

Hester, Harriet, Elinor, Susannah, Laura, Elspeth, Miriam, Margot?

I like Martha and Tess from your list.

What about Olive, Stella, Kate, Lara?

Martha is just lovely. Gets my vote

I would chill out. Your DD is not born yet- I would have found it hard to choose a name before I met my babies. My DD was 10 days old before we chose a name- I had a short list while I was pregnant, but when she was born none of the names I had thought of seemed to fit her, so we started looking again.
I find it easier to find something that really suits after my babies are born.
Don't panic. It may be easier to choose after the birth.

Martha is definitely a classic in my book - and a lovely name, as are Clara and Helena.

My additional suggestions are:-

Judith
Eleanor
Ruth

using the full name -am not a lover of nn unless they evolve naturally as a child's mispronunciation. If parents stick to the full name it should stick - my 3 DC all had classic names with plenty of widely used nns but they continued to use and be known by their full name until secondary school or university.

I like Martha, Tess and Helena, from that list.

Esther is a beautiful name.

I love Georgina

How about Julia?

Helena is great

We left it 10 days after DD was born, put 10 names into a hat, the 1st pull out became her 1st name and the 2nd her middle name.

I would wait till she's born and then decide. You might find she fits a particular name

What about Mary?

I like Helena, Tess and Martha from your list.

Love Martha and Tess from your list, and also Esther. All timeless classics IMHO but not overly-popular either.

Other suggestions (apologies for any repetition of other posters):
Elena (pronounce same as Eleanor but love this spelling - and close to Helena!)
Felicity
Lara
Natasha
Rose
Lydia
Harriet
Frances/Francesca
Seren/Serena

Clara or Martha.

Helena will get called Helen. People won't know whether it's pronounced Sara or sarah. Tess is the name of next doors dog, so I can't even think of it. Louisa will get renamed to Lou. I'm meh about Georgina.

Georgina and Martha are lovely. What about Harriet or Alexandra?

Martha is my favourite. Think it's classic, easy to spell, understood in many countries and not unusual but equally not massively popular.

We wrote down our ten favourite names and then took it in turns to cross one off ...!

I like Helena
I also like Martha.

I'm not very keen on Tess, but other than that I like all of the names on your list. I can't see why Martha wouldn't pass the "classic" test - I think of it as a classic name.

My favourite from your list is Helena, closely followed by Martha, Louisa and Clara (in that order).

Other suggestions: Alexandra, Audrey, Beatrice, Ingrid, Jane, Penelope, Rebecca, Victoria

I love Martha, it was on our short list. Definitely a classic.

Clara - I like it. Sweet, pretty and classic. I don't think it's all that popular Louisa - It's ok. Not overly keen and, like you, I don't like Lou etc
Helena - not keen
Martha - really like it
Georgina (Georgie) - love it
Sara - quite like it, especially pronounced Saar-ah rather than saeh-ruh
Tess - not keen. It's a bit short and hard to my ears.

I'd definitely go with Georgina from your list, with Martha as a second choice.

Other names in a similar vein:
Annie, Agnes, April, Alice, Bonnie, Beatrice, Constance, Clarice, Cecilia, Claudia, Clarissa, Daphne, Dorothy, Delilah, Emma, Evelyn, Erica, Esther, Eleanor, Frances, Florence, Gabriella, Hannah, Harriet, Henrietta, Iris, Ivy, Josephine, Juliet, Julia, Joanna, Katherine, Lydia, Lois, Mary, Margaret, Madeleine, Miriam, Nancy, Nadia, Phoebe, Polly, Rebecca, Ruth, Rachel, Rose, Sylvia, Susan, Susannah, Tabitha, Violet, Verity, Victoria

I may be a bit off-trend, but to me Martha will always be a bit frumpy.I do think it's a bit of-the-moment though. I don't think many people would have been considering it even 5 years ago (that's always one of my tests for classic-status. Was it bandied about 5, 10 years ago?)

Helena, Clara and Tess or Tessa are lovely!

What about Alexandra or Alexa? Rachel? Simona?

Thanks all, this is helpful. Lots of your suggestions are good and have at times been on our lists for one child or another: had he been a girl, DS1 would have been Laura - DS2 would have been Kate. I'm going to write them all down and discuss them with DH. Harriet is a family name, and I love it - it will almost certainly be DD's middle name, assuming it flows well enough with the first name we choose. Our reasons for not using it as a first name are too complicated to go in to!

I really love Elinor / Eleanor, but am not a huge fan of Ellie, and worry that this shortening would be inevitable.

Bigblue I know what you mean, but it just feel that for the boys' sake it would be good if the baby had a name fairly soon after she arrived. Otherwise we risk DS2's suggestion of "Avocado Baby" sticking!

Martha is being bumped up the list as so many of you have said that it is a "classic" - I had worried that it would seem part of the vintage name revival fad, and would therefore date, but am suitably reassured.

Just to test my theory, I just did an archive search for the terms Martha and classic for a few years earlier this decade. There were 0 results.

Off to investigate further.

Thanks Surfsup - we do know an 8 year old Martha, so it doesn't seem so 'new' to me.