Ottilie, Tabitha, Eleanor...?

[veryfriendlylion]

Baby due end of Dec, we don't know the gender. I'm pretty certain it's a boy (name options Arthur, Fred, Felix).

Girls names we like are Ottilie, Tabitha, Eleanor, Florence, Beatrice/x. You probably get the picture that we like old fashioned names. We also work in a boarding school so hard pressed to find a name that doesn't remind us of a little shit darling.

My question is...is Ottilie (or any of our other options) a bit (or very) pretentious? I think it's pretty whilst not being airy fairy but starting to doubt myself.

Please be kind

Don't like Ottilie, sounds like 'otterly' or 'utterly'. I do like Eleanor, Tabitha and Beatrice.

I like it pronounced Oh teel yah but not the other way.

I don't think any of your names are pretentious.

I like Eleanor, Florence and Beatrice.

Ottilie is so pretty, but like others have said it's hard to say nicely in an English accent.

Tabitha I just don't like probably because I used to have a cat with that name

I actually like Ottilie! Who cares if its "pretentious", nobody is going to care about that once they get to know her.

I have a DD called Tabitha so that's my favourite of course but love Ottilie!! My DD is definitely a tabby and LOVES being called Tabbycat - she's a real cat lover ... spoke to the cat as a baby before learning to speak English - hilarious!!

I do think Ottilie is a bit of a pretentious middle class name and increasingly commonly heard. I know two.

I like Beatrice/x.

" pretentious middle class name"

In what way is that bad? I honestly don't get it . What if you simply like the name? Or what if you are actually 'middle class' (whatever that may mean)?

Thank you for your responses- sorry for the radio silence I've had a busy day.

To be fair I asked if it was pretentious hence why I few people are probably using that as an adjective...but agree that if we like it we should just be brave (I realise that it's therefore weird that I asked in the first place...)

Love Eleanor!

I do like Ottillie and considered it myself but the thing that put me off was the different pronunciations of it. I don't think it's pretentious though

Ottilie makes me think of Utterly Butterly

I like Ottilie and Beatrice/x - both were on my list and it would be hard to choose between the two only DP vetoed both!

Think my order of preference would be:

1. Ottilie
2. Beatrix
3. Florence
4. Tabitha

1. Eleanor

I know Eleanor is a classic name but I just find it a bit boring and bland tbh and has the potential to be shortened to Ellie which is tiresome.

Wonderful name, and not pretentious at all. Classic rather, and unusual, which is good. Bizarrely we had Tabitha as a front runner for our next expected until remembering Ottilie, and will use Florence as a middle name: Ottilie Florence .

I like Eleanor / Eleanora (although I am somewhat biased on this issue).

I didn't like the Ellie nickname, but you can also have Nell or Nora as nicknames.

Florence, Beatrice and Eleanor are all lovely classic names.

I don't like Ottilie or Tabitha, they sound harsher than your other ideas.

Ottilie sounds like 'utterly' though I don't have anything against it, except that you get some interesting spellings from people who haven't heard of it, apparently. I know of two, surprisingly. Just over 100 of them registered in 2015 so not too out there at all.

My favourite is Eleanor, but your other names are lovely.

Ah baby will already be named, old thread. What did you opt for in the end, OP?

None of them are pretentious, IMO. I think they're all lovely and know some lovely people with those names