Alexandra Lily or Lily Alexandra - which order do you prefer?

[runningandjumping]

Which should be first, which second name?

I think if you have Alexandra as the first name, you'll almost certainly end up shortening it. So then she'll effectively be Ally Lily, or Alex Lily, or Lexi Lily, and Alexandra won't really seem like "her" after a while . You'll have two short (maybe a tiny bit cutesy both together?) names.

Whereas you probably won't shorten Lily, and you'll keep the gravitas of Alexandra, because you won't be shortening it either.

So I might be tempted to go with Lily Alexandra. But either way round is beautiful imo.

You say you can't shorten Lily but my Lily is known by everyone as 'Lil'!

Although I think Lily Alexandra flows better I agree with loads of other posters here that Alexandra is the better first name. It is much less common and has lots of different abbreviation which would be lovely to use as pet names. I am one of 3 girls and my mum gave us all 1 syllable names because she dislikes the idea of names being shortened. Despite this none of us get called by our actual names - we all have pet names for each other and very rarely use our "proper" names. I really like Alex, Lexi or Ali too and to be honest the 2nd name will hardly ever get used anyway.

Lily may be pretty but Alexandra is strong and beautiful. Alexandra Lily for me; as pp have said, Lily is ubiquitous.

My daughter is called Alexandra. So I vote for Alexandra Lily.

Regarding people shortening her name, she hates it when her full name is not used, and is quick to correct them!

I will admit, her father and I rarely use her full name as we have lots of nicknames for her, including our favourite which is "pants"

Alexandra is beautiful and goes well with Lily. Its the sort of name i would choose to be called myself. It's strong, elegant and has lovely shortenings. Do you like the names Lexi and Alex? As there is a high chance she will choose to go by one of these.

Do you want to call her Lily or Alex? Or other shortening for Alexandra as it will prob be shortened? Lily is quite soft sounding whereas Alex is quite strong.

Lily Alexandra, I think Lily is really lovely :)

Alexandra Lily.

Alexandra is a beautiful name and has some great shortenings. Just don't shorted it to Lexi. There's loads of them!

I immediately nicknamed her Lexi Lily in my head, and it was mentioned in this thread as well, so perhaps with that in mind, Lily Alexandra may be better for you?
(I think Lexi Lily is a cute nickname though.)

I'd choose Alexandra Lily, definitely. I don't agree that it's ever going to be an issue of you (or her) saying her name as "Allie Lily Surname". Alex is my own chosen shortening of Alexandra, but if I'm ever asked to give my full name, I'd use Alexandra Middle-name Surname.

Alexandra Lily

Alexandra is a more beautiful name. Lots of options for shortening if your DD wishes. Alex is the most logical and by far the nicest one.

Lily Alexandra does flow quite nicely but Lily is so overused now.