Rose, Florence or Raphaela as a sister for Elodie?

[SparkleMotion82]

I’m almost 35 weeks now with our second daughter and have cut down our list to the following as a little sister for Elodie (who was born at 38 weeks)!

Rose Willow
Florence Willow
Raphaela Willow

Willow is an honour name for my Dad (William). I should also mention I’ve had a lot of issues with name regret over Elodie’s name (the pronunciation) 😕.

Other front runners from our list that we’ve removed to try and settle on one name were:

Allegra
Persephone
Claudia

Would be great to know which you prefer, which you think works best with Elodie, and what connotations the different names have for you?

Thank you so, so much - I’m a bit confused and would love to settle on a name soon if at all possible, any advice very gratefully received.

I like Florence & Rose. If your planning on living in France for the foreseeable future, I'm not keen on the French pronunciation of Rose so I would go for Florence.

I've never seen Raphaela before, only Raphael. I love Raphael (it was on our shortlist for if DD had been a boy) but I don't like Raphaela. It's too clearly a feminised version of Raphael for me.

I really like Claudia and it goes well with Elodie

How about Rosa willow?

Scarlett Willow Rose
Florence Willow Rose
Minerva Willow Rose
Elizabeth Willow Rose
Euphemia Willow Rose
Allegra Willow Rose

Claudia Rose Willow is lovely. And Elodie and Claudia go very well together because of the L sounds.

Raphaela sounds great!

Congratulations in advance. I am really excited to come to this thread as I am also expecting a baby in few weeks.

Florence Willow looks lovely :)

Rose

I prefer Florence :)

Thanks so much all...we are still figuring it out...I’ll let you know if we come to a decision! So tough!

We have a Raphaela aged 17, she gets compliments on her name whereever she goes. We lived in Germany for a few years (she was not born there) and they pronounced it Raf-i-ee-la but that always sounded lovely! It's used in many languages: Italian, Spanish and regularly in German which surprised us. She has different nns usually Raffy and Raffa which is the German nn. People do pronounce it differently in English, either Raf-i-ella or Raf-ee-ella but quite honestly I am not too fussed and neither is she as all pronouncations sound great. She actually was not the only Raphaela in her schools or a sister of a school mate would have the same name in Germany and our current location (not UK) So it's probably just the UK where it is very unfamiliar. Even Ireland uses it or is at least familiar with it. Catholic countries use the names of the archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel a lot more historically though. As angels are pure spirit and not male or female Raphael/a are the same name.

Go with Florence if you want to be typically French
Raphaela is a lovely name and I really like the Raffi/Raffa shortening. More unusual than Florence these days (in the U.K.)
I would stay away from Rose for pronunciation reasons in France.

Raphaela is my favourite but I would worry that the "Ella" on the end is too similar to Elodie (which is another beautiful name btw), so I would go for Claudia.

I also have to say I think Claudia is fab and very underused.

Raphaela is one of the most lovely sounds I have ever heard. Why didnt I think of it 14 years ago?

Thank you so much all. @movablefeast it’s interesting to hear that the name has been great for your daughter, that’s good to know. We still haven’t come to a final decision between Rose, Claudia, Raphaela and Florence-we like them all! I’d like to have Rose in there somewhere and also Willow as an honour name but my husband wants Florence as a middle-wondering if we can add Willow as an extra middle for my other daughter as otherwise we have too many names! Thank you everyone for your input!

Allegra is one of my all time favourite names.. OH is having none of it though 😫 So it gets my vote!

We think I’m in the early stages of labour and still no final decisions reached! We legally have 3 days here to register the name after the birth so any further opinions welcome! Thanks all ❤️❤️❤️

Rose or Raphaela would be my choices from your shortlist. Florence is so overused and just not as nice, in my opinion.
But I LOVE Claudia! It sounds lovely with Elodie too.
Good luck!

Rose or Raphaela. I think Raphaela nudges in front because it's uncommon.

Amazingly our dd is Raphaela Rose! We chose her middle name first.

Thanks all! I agree that Rafaela/Raphaela Rose or Claudia Rose are both really lovely. The only thing is I wanted to use Willow as a middle as an honour name for my Dad and my husband wants to use Florence (where we got married) and I also really want to use Rose as I love it! Seems a bit much to give the little one 3 middle names eg Rose Florence Willow as middles, as my first DD only has one middle name. Any ideas? Thanks so much all xxx

Florence is a pretty name .

Great name choice btw @movablefeast - does she like her name? Do other people react well to it?

They are all adorable names but Florence is the winner for me too. Beautiful