Please rate my shortlists - losing the will...

[babyinthacorner]

Due on Friday and just can't find a name we're 100% sure of, so please help!

Names neither of us have vetoed are...

Boys - middle name Michael Matthew or Michael Ernest.
Lucian
Dexter
Rafael
Asher
Gabriel - I'd have to fight HARD for this as friends already have a boy called Gabriel. They've said they don't mind, but DH is against it.
Charlie - probably the favourite, but I'm unsure as to whether it should be Charles but known as Charlie - just to have that option.

Girls - middle name Anne and possibly something else.
Amber
LYRA - my favourite but some family members are a bit
Stella
Genevieve
Giselle

Thanks!

Out of your boys names I LOVE Gabriel, and Asher is ok, I'm not keen on the rest.

Amber is my favourite of the girls ones, possibly because I have a newborn Amber Stella is lovely too. I'm going to go against the grain and say I really don't like genevieve at all!

Charles known as Charlie

Genevieve - love the name, love the shortened versions and there is always the song Oh Genevieve

"I see thy face in ev'ry dream,
My waking thoughts are full of thee
Thy glance is in the starry beam
That falls along the summer sea."

My favourites are Michael Ernest (no other name needed!) and Lyra Anne. I like Amber too, but then would have a different middle name.

I love Asher and Ernest. Both were on our list.

Just wanted to say, however, that you shouldn't feel pressured to choose now OT even straight after the birth if you aren't ready. I have a friend who took weeks to name all her dc and while it drove some people up the wall, it was what they needed to do, to live with the names privately for a while before sharing them. We took three days with ds2 and a week with ds1. If you can't decide or aren't 100% sure and in love with the name you don't have to do it before the birth or right away afterwards. People will moan but who cares? The name is for life.

Genevieve and Dexter

Love Dexter, Rafael (and if you love Gabriel but it's already been used, this seems like a natural alternative), Lyra and Genevieve. Genevieve Anne is especially gorgeous and classy-sounding.

Best of luck!

Such wise words, ZeroDarkHurty,

"Just wanted to say, however, that you shouldn't feel pressured to choose now OT even straight after the birth if you aren't ready. I have a friend who took weeks to name all her dc and while it drove some people up the wall, it was what they needed to do, to live with the names privately for a while before sharing them. We took three days with ds2 and a week with ds1. If you can't decide or aren't 100% sure and in love with the name you don't have to do it before the birth or right away afterwards. People will moan but who cares? The name is for life."

Love Lucian, I would go with Charles and nn Charlie. Not really a fan of any of the girls names.

I like Dexter and Gabriel from your boys' list.

Lyra's nice. Not fond of the name Stella anyway, but especially not with Anne as a middle name. They run into each other too much, and together sound like a drinks order (I'll have a Stella and...)

I REALLY like Lyra, also Genievive but a don't think either works well with Anne. No to Amber.

I feel for you because I think Gabriel is the best of your boys names. I am sorry, but I really dislike a lot of your first name options particularly Lucien and Dexter, I do however really like Michael and Ernest, and though Charles/Charlie isn't a name I'd choose myself I think it's a perfectly good name.

Charles and Genevieve.

Beware using middle names beginning with a vowel (like Anne) as it becomes easy to spell out something you did not intend with the initials. I speak as one who is oging through life with Ann for a middle name!! My initials were HAP....Mishap, Hairy arm pit - so it went on. I am now HAS and am told I am a Has Been.

These are mild compared with some possibilities - beware!

Wow thanks everyone - didn't expect so many people to respond and in such detail
Pretty much everything you've all raised has crossed our minds, hence why we're so undecided.
We can't have Michael as a first name but I definitely need it in there as it's after my late Dad. I adore it and would have it as a first name in a heartbeat but we already have several family members named after him (including me!)
Palliser - I've never heard of that song, but what beautiful words! Will have to look it up. The name means 'white wave' apparently, which I think is lovely.
Lyra is after the heroine of His Dark Materials, which are my favourite books of all
time. She is awesome and I love her, but I get that the name isn't to many tastes.
Our surname begins with D so we do need to be careful of spelling words - i've already had a thread about initials!
And finally - I'm with you on not naming too quickly. My DD didn't have a name for about 4 weeks! The only problem with that was that people were overly helpful with suggestions/opinions. We now know that DH's dad isn't too keen on her name
(She's Darcey - absolutely love it and finding it hard to find something I love as much , tbh!)

I love so many of your names! I think Lyra is great, love Stella, and really like all your boys names. I think Lucian is my favourite, or maybe Rafael.

Stella Annabel

Rafael Charles

I like Genevieve Anne the best of your girls names. I like all the different ways of pronouncing it, but the last person I knew was French Canadian so my mind says something like Jon-V-ev rather than Jen-ev-eeve.

I don't think the other girls names work very well with Anne. Have you thought about using Estelle instead of Stella (still known as Stella, but Estelle Ann for full)?

I like Charles/Charlie best of your boys names (although I love Gabriel too, but I'd be with your dh on reusing). either middle name combo is fine, although personally i find two middle names a pain, so just went with one for my children.

I know someone called Genevieve, she is French and pronounces it same way Autumnalleaves says her friend does. She's Gigi for short.

So it gets my vote.

Lyra...meh

I just hear Lyra is a liar being said. (I went to school with one)

I actually like Lyra, then second would be Amber which is also nice. All I see when I read Giselle though is Gis for short, and that certainly wouldn't be a nn anyone would want where I live 🙈

Wow, small world!

My DD was born earlier this year and we named her Genevieve Lyra. Picked Genevieve because it's my favourite name of all time and it's also the name of the patron saint of Paris (not religious at all but Paris is my favourite city and we had our honeymoon there). Lyra because, like OP, we love the Dark Materials books.

Also, Gabriel was top of our list if DD had been a boy.

So, obviously I approve!

I have a lucy so Lucian sounds feminine to my ears. I like charles/Charlie although it's more popular then your other choices. Asher is cool but doesn't sound like a name somehow. Rafael is a little crudh of mine. But would Rafi be the short version. Bit of a mouthful do i would imagine it might get shortened at some point. Stella is lovely! Lyra is fine but it is hard sounding. Stella sounds softer and is prettier in written and spoken. Giselle is a beautiful name but the ballet is tragic...kind of wrecks the name for me.