Alexandra, Helena, Georgina - which would you choose??

[Indecisiveness]

Not pregnant yet but planning for DC3 and already thinking of names!!! We have two DDs, Katherine and Sophia. We're pretty set on Alexander if it's a boy but stuck on girls names!

So,

Alexandra - I love the full name but not sure on nn Alex and don't like Lexi.

Helena - love the nn Nel and Leni/ Lenny. Do you think we could get away with nn Hetty as love this too? The funny thing with this name is that I don't like Helen and this is basically Helen with an 'a' although Helena does feel like a completely different name IYKWIM??

Georgina - DH less keen on this one but I love it so can't bring myself to remove it from the list and love nn Georgie.

I think each of these would fit with our other DDs' names but I have also thought of the following, possibly middle names if not first:

Esme
Iona
Fleur

All opinions greatly appreciated!

Go for Helena - beautiful name! My cousin is a Helena and it doesn't really get shortened. Agree that it's a completely different name to Helen. It sounds the nicest with your other DDs in my opinion - continues the Greek theme of Sophia and has the right number of syllables to match with Katherine and Sophia. IMO the short names you mention at the end of your post are a different style of name - whereas your DDs' names are v classic/traditional and multisyllabic. Alexandra goes ok too but I think slightly less well than Helena (though Alexander for a boy somehow goes better). I'm not keen on Georgina myself tbh but it's all right.

I like all of these names - personally like Alexandra the most, though I agree that lexy as a nickname is foul. Maybe consider other possible nicknames for all the names and decide based on that. Georgina could easily shorten her name to Georgia, Georgia or Gina, and Helena could be Helen, Lena, Ellie, Ellen, Elsie, etc

Alexandra can be shortened to Alexa.

Francesca, Athena, Maria, Alethea

Alexandra is lovely and I love the nn Alex! It's cool and classic at the same time. But if you don't like Alex or Lexi I'd avoid it because she'll likely become one or the other.

Georgina - This has grown on me, much nicer than Georgia, and love Georgie as a nn.

Helena is nice and Nell is a nice nn, I think Hetty is a stretch, do you like Harriet?

in terms of the other three, I personally love Esme but really dislike Fleur which sounds like bleurgh to me. Don't like Iona either.

I don't think names need to 'go' really. Your tastes change through life and names sometimes reflect that.

I would probably go for Georgina Esme followed by Alexandra Esme. I think Georgie is super cute and cool for the baby of the family

Thank you for all your opinions, keep them coming!

I am leaning towards Helena, I think I can get past the Helen with an 'a' thing and have a nice range of nn's to use. Although I do still like the other two, it's so difficult to decide and I'm definitely not someone who could wait until the baby is born, I'd be too stressed if I didn't have a name and know I would end up picking one under pressure and then regretting it!

I agree that the three shorter names are in a different style so possibly better as middle names.

I do like Jemima but DH won't go for it.

Thanks ladies!

LovethenameDaphne, I agree that Georgie is cute for the baby of the family!

I find Harriet a bit harsh (and strangely more masculine than Alexandra and Georgina) although I love Hetty and Hattie!

Thanks!

I have a Helena, so obviously I love it, although we also had Georgina on our list, and I do like Alexandra too.

Our Helena is "Helly" to her older siblings, which has grown on me although wouldn't have been my shortening of choice. She's Helena to everyone else, though.

We don't know any other little Helenas. Do be prepared, however, for lots of people to mispronounce it, in our case sometimes despite being corrected repeatedly (I'd expected people to sometimes mispronunciation it if they only saw it written down; I hadn't been prepared for friends failing to properly learn her name). We pronounce her name "Helen-uh" but regularly get "Hel-ay-na" or "Hel-ee-na" (I really dislike this pronunciation), and have also had "Hel-EH-nna". This can get quite irritating, although our Helena is too little to be annoyed by it yet, and I'm sure will get vocal about correcting people herself as she grows,

Thanks NameChangeForNameChange, we have similar name taste! I would pronounce Helena like you do, Helen-uh. I wouldn't even think to pronounce it a different way from this spelling so that's a good point. Still a beautiful name though and nice that it's not common but not so unusual that people haven't heard of it.

Helena is the prettiest of the three and goes really well with your other daughters' names.

I love the name Helena. And the one I knew recently was classy, pretty and a lovely person. That's the association I have with the name.

Your other options are also nice, except Fleur, which I loathe (sorry).

Helena has at least three common pronunciations that I can think of Helen-a, He-lee-na and He-lay-na. It's quite a common name among 40 something Irish women and they're always He-lee-nas. I think it's a nice name............except when pronounced your favoured way of Helen-uh. I think it just sounds a bit dreary when said that way.

Alex/Alexandra is nice

I think Georgia is much nicer than Georgina which is a name I always think sounds quite priggish. Georgie is a lovely nickname though.

I like all three longer names, probably like Helena (pronounced Helen-uh) best.
I'm not sure about Fleur or Iona but I like Esme (vetoed by DH due to Esme Weatherwax, but I think she'd be a pretty good namesake!)

What about Georgiana, if you don't go with Helena?

Alexandra is the prettiest of the names, but Helena is also beautiful. Not so much Georgina, although it's not a horrible name.

Alex as a nn for Alexandra is lovely, but Hetty is not a nn for Helena.

Helena and Georgie are lovely. Current bump may yet be a Georgie. Georgina is a bit of a marmite name on here. I find Georgiana too frilly.

I really like Helena, although I pronounce it, unless told, in the way you hate - am an example of squooshs explanation . Alexandra is probably my least favourite of your list - it's quite popular in my dds primary school and I don't like any of the shortenings. I'd probably go for Fleur.

Thanks everyone, looks like Helena is coming out on top so far, even with pronounciation 'issues'!

Esme is a possible middle name although I know 'a' and 'e' are not ideal, coming after each other. I wonder if Helena Alexandra is a bit of a mouthful, and again vowels together. ''Heard 'Rosa" today which I thought was really cute. Oh the choices!

Oh Rosa is lovely, I know a 4 year old one - really beautiful name. Although I'm not a fan of Rose.

I know an Alexandra who is a Xandra. Much prettier than Alex in my opinion.

My niece is Alexandra with nn Xa, Xa-Xa or Xara (pronounced like Zara).

Alexandra is the best out of your 3 names, Esme & Fleur are nice middle names....

MyBootsAreMuddy, I like Xa and Xa-Xa.

Marigoldfreckle, I agree Xandra is prettier than Alex.

Thanks for all the great comments!

I am a Georgina it is getting more "popular" although still not a main name.

My nicknames have been Ginny, Gina, Georgie,