Ottie or Pixie?

[GingerbreadPudding]

Our little girl will be here in two weeks time and we were set on the name Ottie. Yesterday my husband said he likes the name Pixie which had been my favourite but he had said he didn't like it!

So now, after eight months of thinking this one would be called Ottie I'm now not sure. I love the name Pixie. And Ottie.

What do you think?

Awful names. Sorry but you asked.

Nope. I think its quite telling you named your first pet Pixie. That's what they both are. Pet names. Sorry.

I think they are show names something you'd see on Toddlers & Tiaras

Love this - so true!! This is going to be my new 'name benchmark' from now on.

Why you wouldn't choose something with the option of a cutesy nickname version, rather than it being the only choice, is beyond me!

You've had some good suggestions here, OP. You just need to lean on your DH and ask if he'd be happy to be saddled with a pet's name for all his adult life.

Both ridiculous.
Ottie isn't a name, it looks like otter or hottie. Ottilie ends in tillie, it couldn't be more feminine. It's not lee because the stress is on the Ot not the lie at the end.
Pixie is also absurd. It's infantile and cutesy and basically unfair to saddle an adult woman with such a silly name.
Go for a cutesy nickname by all means but for the love of god give the woman a proper name to go by when she's an adult.

I would be surprised if Ottie wasn't bullied for her name. Spotty Ottie etc.

Pixie is great for a baby. Not so much a lady.

Give your child a real name and let her shorten it if she wants, she'll have to live with it forever.

What gets into people's heads?!

They aren't real names FFS!

Ottilie is beautiful. Why can't you call her that and use Ottie as a NN??

Pixie is just ludicrous. You might as well call her Fairy or Elf. Bonkers.

I would be mortified if anyone called me Pixie now at the age of 51!
Yes, it was a pet name when I was small - I was my Dad's "little Pixie", which was really cute for a tot.

But little girls grow up to be women and live in the real world. Why set your child up to be a joke when she is an adult? Use it as a family nickname, but give her a formal name she can use for the whole of her life, not just the first few years.

And Ottie just sounds odd. Like there is something missing.

Have you considered Jane? Or Anne? Perhaps Mary?

Ottie is horrible. And yes, the hottie thing.
It'll sound like you are a cockney calling your small child a very inappropriate nickname!

Dottie is nice.

"I'm not at all worried about how it will sound when she's older. I'm a teacher and about 50% of children now have very unusual names so by the time our little one is older the concept of 'normal' names will be properly out of the window!"

Erm, I wouldn't bank on it. The cutesy-poo name fashion is already feeling like a dated trend, and even when it was at its height the majority of kids were still being called sensible names like Jacob and Sophia etc. So your kid is going to be stuck with a name like Ottie/Pixie amidst a sea of people with normal names. Sorry to sound so harsh, but I just can't believe that a teacher even think of naming their child Pixie--most teachers I know are very grounded people!

Both sound like pet names to me - a bit twee and definitely not suitable for anyone over the age of about 7 - sorry .

Think about what would be best for the baby- not what you want.

I agree with Statesman. The cutesy trend is well over now and more sturdy names are more fashionable. Jane and the like.

I'm a teacher too and now I work somewhere where I see the names of hundreds of primary children every day.

My favourite of the two is Pixie because Ottie is awful.

What about Etta? Or Zita?

Please, please don't name her Dottie either! Not unless it's short for Dorothy / Dorothea.

And especially not if your surname begins with a P!

There is a dr pixie McKenna on embarrassing bodies, so pixies can do proper jobs.
I know a pixie in her 30s, it's not her real name, but everyone calls her it, and it's really strange if she's called her actual name.
People grow into their names and you get used to them.
I know a woman called pinkie! Actual name, strange at first but you got used to it.
If you could happily shout either of them outside just go with what you think when she arrives, and then give her a normal/boring middle name, so if she wants to change it she can.
I quite like ottie, if you are in an area where they would pronounce it properly.

I have a 15yo who could carry off Pixie, although she wouldn't, because of Pixie Lott. She is petite, and dresses in a very distinctive, edgy, but mostly feminine style.

My 13yo could not. She is more sturdily built, and tends to go for a more masculine silhouette.

So, I would avoid Pixie, because you couldn't know whether the child could carry off the name, as they got older.

I have a friend who always calls one of her (15yo) DC Dolly. The girl's name is something else entirely, not even similar to Dolly, and a fairly classic girls' name.

You could use Pixie as a nickname, when she is small, and reassess as she gets older.

I really dislike Ottie. It doesn't even sound pretty to my ears. And certainly not a name an adult would wear.

I know you say this thread is strengthening your resolve to call your DD one of these names. But, really, it's not about you, is it? Your baby will be a whole person in her own right.

Dr "Pixie" is not her real name, which is Bernadette Anne.

I'm guessing Bernadette Ann changed her name to Pixie for TV. Or it's a nickname.

May not be her real name but she still uses it as her preferred name.

Just had a Google because i hadn't realised the famous Pixies were nicknames. Pixie Lott's real name is Victoria, and Pixie Geldoff's full name is Little Pixie Geldoff (which would be even harder to carry off if you ended up 5'9" and 18 stone).

I don't understand the dislike towards Ottie though. It's unusual but nowhere near as unusual as a lot of children's names around at the minute. I think it sounds pretty. And TBH if she didn't like it when she's older (which can happen with any name - I went through a stage of hating mine and I have a very standard 1970s girl's name) then she could use her middle name.

Have you chosen a middle name? Does one of your choices sound better than the other with it?

To me, Ottilie sounds like you're saying utterly with a weird accent. Unless pronounced in the German way but no-one seems to be suggesting that here. Lottie is nice; Ottie is odd. Pixie is silly.

I prefer Ottie to Pixie as the former feels fresher and the latter more current.

I know you aren't considering alternatives but thought I would just throw in that 'Othille' / 'Ottille' are names I have come across in France which I think sound just lovely, and the 'lle' sounds light and feminine at the end (think 'teal') sometimes it can also be pronounced without the 'L' sound, ending just with 'TI' with slight intonation at the end so not too dissimilar from Ottie but starts more with a 'O' rather than 'Lottie' with the 'L' it would avoid the ending your DH doesn't like.

No idea if you can make any sense of this.