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?).

Rosalind

Louisa stuck out for me on your list and it definitely meets criteria. Beautiful.

Op, my first name and middle name are amongst your choices, I highly approves

Also, pp listing names, have both my dds names amongst those lists :)

Nell as a nn for eleanor

Lovely name choices. I like Helena best, Georgina least.

What about
Rafaella
Frances
Leonie
Elizabeth
Catherine

Martha is definitely classic. I also really liked Clara and wanted it for my dd due next week but it seems like it has suddenly got popular last year so I have had a re think.

A lovely list of names to pick from.

With regards to whether a name is classic or not though, I would say that it depends on how you look at it.

There are very, very few core classic girls names that have been consistently popular, Elizabeth and Katherine/Catherine for example although the nicknames used do cycle.

Other names like Louisa, Clara, Helena etc feel classic to us but in 30 years Louise, Claire and Helen, which currently feel quite dated, may well seem fresh and different again. All of these names are 'classic' and well established names but the version in fashion does go through cycles and right now -a endings are everywhere.

Choose the name you love rather than one that picking one that you just like in order to avoid fads.

Thanks for all of the replies. I need to sit and go through this thread with a pencil and paper, as a few of your suggestions have caught my eye. And I think all of the "lovely but already 'taken' by family members" and "lovely but dreadful with our surname" names for us have been mentioned. Rosalind is gorgeous and would be a contender if it didn't fall into both of these categories!

We'll wait until she is here before making a final decision, but this has really helped me to crystallise my thoughts, and hopefully we'll be able to come up with a list of 4 or 5 names which we are happy to use, without reservation, so that we can just see which one suits her best when she arrives.

Love Clara.
I have a friend Georgina who is George to friends and Gina to family and work colleagues.

What about Rose, Eleanor, Serena, Hannah or Alicia?

I love Louisa, Helena and Georgina from your list.

Out of your list my favorite would be Helena. It's elegant, classic, full of history, beauty and light.

Tess, Sara, Georgina and Martha I simply do not like.

Louisa would be my second option and Clara the third.

Good luck!

What abou Alexandra? I think it's beautiful, and if you like Alexander...?

Other classic names to me are;

Emily
Rosalie
Esme
Nancy
Jean
Isabella
May
Hazel
April

What about Romilly or Victoria ?

Margaret nn Maggie ?

Caroline ?

Melanie ?

Claire ?

My great-Aunt is called Martha, but there is also Martha from GBBO, and Martha from Home & Away so I think it is traditional, yet modern too. I think it is a great name :)

I have a Clara. I haven't met another yet. I don't watch Dr Who but chose it from the Nutcracker which I had loved as a child. She's naughty though!!!!

Martha is lovely, and I really like Tess or Tessa (not Teresa).
How about Thea or Bethan?

From your list I like Louisa best. Not keen on Martha. It's getting too popular. I also like flower names Hazel, Violet, Iris.

Love Martha! It's a great name

If we had a daughter I think we would have ended up divorced and she would have been called "Baby Girl ---."
Clara was on the top of my list- Nutcracker inspired, again. Love it! That list also included Paige (yes, I am American) and Cecelia. My brother just named his daughter Cecelia and they also have an Emmeline. All lovely! I think Georgina is great and I have known two women named Tess and both were amazing.

Theyre all nice names. Martha probably my least fave. Clara very nice (I only know one and she is about 10 yrs old).

Alexandra
Juliet
Lucille
Maria
Marianne
Eloise rather than Louisa?
Lara
Laura

Tess for sure. Love it. Strong determined fun works for child or adult. Weirdly underused - really wanted to use it but couldn't as dsis name!

classic names that never seem to go out of fashion

Elizabeth
Catherine
Charlotte
Anna\anne

I say these as I know of women names this in many generations

I really don't like Martha, it sounds frumpy to me.

other classics that spring to mind are

Lydia
Hannah
Jane
maria
Eleanor
Mary
hazel
margaret

Kasia
Romana
Ramona
Stella
Daria
Katherina