Baby girl name help please!

[flirty30s]

39 weeks pregnant and have recently found out we are having a girl. Have been in love with the name Sophia for years but gutted to see it is now number 1 name in UK. MIL told us Sophia is a name for gypsies and single mothers. Snobby cow. Tempted to stick with Sophia just to spite her (not the only reason!) but concerned it is becoming very common, even though I haven't heard of any baby girls named Sophia in our area...yet! Lucia, Freya and Farrah would be my runner up names. Would hate to abandon Sophia and always regret it, but would hate DD to have 3 other Sophia's in her class. Any opinions or name suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I love Lucia, but i think you should keep Sophia in the name, so in that case I would go with Freya as that's also a lovely name. Freya Sophia (middle). Farrah not so keen on. Reminds me of farrier (horse shoe smith). Of that girl from 16 and pregnant. By the way, not that it matters but Sophia is a very upper/middle class name where I live. But again, I know about 4 aged 4 and under in my daughter's ballet class or nursery.

I love Freya.

Love Sophia! Don't waver!

Freya Sophia would be lovely!

For what it's worth, the official 2014 baby name statistics won't be published until August, so whoever is claiming Sophia is #1 is most likely wrong.

I've just checked, and in 2013 Sophia was #15 and Sophie was #9. So it IS a popular name, but not even top five, let alone the most popular.

Wow, she sounds delightful. Use the name and tell your MIL that being a single mother is not your biggest fear! Then give her some lucky heather.

I love Sophia - use it if you do too!
I actually prefer Sophie which I think is more popular than Sophia but that wouldn't put me off it.
They are popular for a reason!

Freya is equally as lovely though and less popular.

Not so keen on Lucia or Farrah.

Other suggestions:
Chloe
Lauren
Thea
Anya
Megan
Bethan
Orla
Seren
Nicole
Martha
Anna
Carla
Matilda

Lucia is lovely!

If you love Sophia then use that. It's a beautiful name. There's always a risk that whatever name you use will suddenly have a surge in popularity and names which have been high in the charts can also fall out of favour. There is so much local variation too that what is popular in one area might be really uncommon elsewhere.

Your mil sounds delightful btw. Perhaps suggest you're going to call your dd Rose-Lee (Leigh?) instead and she might suddenly become more open to the idea of Sophia!

I love Lucia.

Thanks so much for the replies. Think the list was from baby centre. Glad to see sophia is only 15 on mumsnet and lucia doesn't even feature in top 100. Advice and names much appreciated ladies. Off to tell MIL that being a single mother has some perks

Just to let you know, I'm stealing the name Lucia if I ever have a dd. Hope that's ok . Really love that name.

All lovely except for farrah which will forever more remind me of ex teen mom star now porn star farrah abraham (I think that's her name)

If you factor in the "Sofia" spelling, with the name Sophia it is actually much higher ranked than 15. The Britishbaby names website has a full list of combined spellings obtained from the official ONS data:

www.britishbabynames.com/blog/combined-spellings-2013-girls.html

The name Sophie is also very highly ranked in the stats, so there are always likely to be a number of other Sophias/Sofias/Sophies around. Just something worth considering if that may be something that might bother you (as indicated in your post).

Name popularity is definitely regional though, so it may not be so popular where you live. Fwiw, I read somewhere that the combined spelling of Sophia/Sofia (obtained from the official Governmental ONS) was the number 1 name in London for 2013 (the 2014 official stats won't be published until August as seaoflove said). Sophia has also been top of the polls in the US and a number of other countries for a few years now, so I think it's safe to say it's a very popular name not just in the UK but internationally as well!

Pp I didn't know she became a porn star. I hated her in that program

All your names are lovely, but Freya is my favourite, and it's much less popular than Sophia so less likely to be others in her year sharing the name.

Sophia is not a gypsy name. I have twin DDS and no Sophia in either of their classes. You choose the name you want. MIL can suck it up! I think it is lovely, good luck with your baby (and snooby MIL!).

I know loads of Sophia's in London- but it's a lovely name

Yes bigfam me too

Other cast members have refused to be on same show as her

(sorry to hijack thread)

I know a 4 month old Sophia in W Yorks. The ONS website breaks down name popularity by region, but as done else has already said, 2014 won't be out yet.

interesting list. My dc's name is much more popular than I thought. But, she's 12 and that list is for a recent year, and in real life, we never meet another, so I guess I won't believe it's popular until I meet at least two in real life.

What is a gypsy name by the way? ASk your mother in law for clarification there, I'm genuinely curious!