Honour - Opinions plz

[M1985]

I liked the name Honour for DD1 (now 39 wks with DC3) I went off it when having DD2 but have come back to it lately.

Is it classic & beautiful or silly/awful?

My two DD's names are both classic/olden names, would it go?

Minty - you've probably done this already, so please excuse me, but, if not, you might like to look at Behind the Name's 'family tree' relating to Honor/Honour: www.behindthename.com/name/honorius/tree

That shows that the word Honor (that spelling) has been used to form names since Roman times, with gender-appropriate endings: Honorius (boy)/Honoria (girl). It's the original. It is also the origin of names like Honora and Nora(h).

However, the name Honor was also, centuries later, brought into fashion by strict Protestants, who admired virtue names. And, in English, the virtue spelling had become 'Honour', and so both spellings became possible.

However, Honor is, I think, the more usual spelling today in the UK, as an earlier poster showed by quoting recent goverment name statistics.

flora: I had not looked at the 'family tree' relating to Honor--fascinating. I will now be looking up the family tree for all my favourite names!

The tree does seem to suggest that when it first became Honor (i.e., with no 'a' at the end), the name was initially spelt 'Honour'. At the very least, it seems to put Honour on an even footing with Honor. The OP was made the feel her choice was entirely incorrect and it would seem it wasn't. Having said that, I actually love 'Honor'--so elegant looking! And that spelling, as the dominant one, would save OP's daughter always having to correct others.

I think, because it is such an old name, it has become greater than the sum of its parts and very much a separate entity.

Honor is a class girls' name, whereas 'honour' means ... honour.

They're two two entirely separate things. A girl called Honour should expect people to misspell her name, because it's not the generally accepted spelling. Not a big deal, if you don't mind that. My own name has 4 accepted variations (Anglo/Scots, French, Spanish and Italian), and I always have to spell it. To be honest, unless your name is Emma, most people probably do have to spell their name out from time to time.