Isadora, Dorothea, Callidora, Minodora...?

[horatioisabrick]

What do you think about these and other "dora" names?

Pandora is lovely. I also like the nn Panda . Now what do you do when DC is born and you discover she has grown a winky sorry all biological terminology correct mumsnetters, I of course, mean a penis and is a boy! .

Dorothea is lovely. What about Dorothy? I like both. I would go for Dot or Dotty or Thea for a nickname, though. Not that keen on Dora, so not very helpful to you, OP!

They're a little too twee for my tastes.
Isadora is quite nice and gives multiple options for nicknames

Tinty
No problem. Boy's names are sorted ;)

(We already have two DDs and I genuinely love their names, which makes finding a 3rd girl's really difficult...)

I didn't like Dora enough even for a middle name which was a problem as my husband was keen - maternal grandmother's name. In principle I would have liked some of your suggestions which might have been a good way round it; however actually none of them had manageable initials. We wanted to avoid doubling our own initials, and have a surname that absolutely rules out several other initials - so all in, A,E, I, K, P were all definite non-starters, and a few others a bit suspect too. Wondered about Dorothy but Dotty is such an obvious shortening - and again would have had adverse consequences with our surname. I had enough teasing as a child with my own surname that I wasn't prepared to risk it!

Good luck coming up with the right shortlist. My now-teenager isn't keen on her own name but one summer we sat down and explored alternative names or nicknames that she could introduce when changing schools if she wished - and she didn't like any of them either so has stuck with it!

Adora? It’s a real name.

My now-teenager isn't keen on her own name but one summer we sat down and explored alternative names or nicknames that she could introduce when changing schools if she wished

that's one of the reasons I like longer names. The nn options...

Adora is nice but too "adorable" imo. Thanks. :)

I love the name Pandora. However, the Pandora at my school used to get a lot of comments about the guys “getting into Pandora’s box”. Obviously this was circa 1992. Hopefully schoolboy humor has improved circa 2036!

I don’t know about minodora, but I like minotaura.

Hopefully schoolboy humor has improved circa 2036!

... All girl's school?

Minotaura would be a rather strong, ferocious name

Like Dorothea but not the rest really

horatio it would be shortened to ‘minnie’ 🤣🤣

Lol Horatio. We we were at an all girls school!

Minotaura? I assume that is a 'bullish' joke!

For some irrational reason I detest the sound of Dora/Nora/Cora & find it harsh & ugly, so automatically dislike names with that sound in.

Isadora is the least worst of the bunch because it lends itself to the diminutive Izzy rather than Dora.

I like Dorothea... Nicknames could be "Dot" "Dora" "Thea"

We wanted Thea for a girl.. but we are having a boy this time!

Drama

I really dislike a few mumsnet "favourites" as well, tbh.
Most of these have various nn options (which I like)

Isadora: Izzie, Dora, Ora, Isa
Dorothea: Thea, Doro, Dora, Dotty
Callidora: Callie, Dora, Liddie, Ora
Pandora: Panda, Pandy, Dora, Ora
Theodora: Dora, Theo, Teddy, Ted, Ora
Amadora: Ama, Dora, Ora, Maddie

I love Pandora and Theodora. Amadora is also lovely imo :)

Dorothea is my fave, but I love Dotty as a nn.
Pandora's box myth wouldn't bother me, after all the box contained hope.

Minotaura? I assume that is a 'bullish' joke!

Pandora's box myth wouldn't bother me, after all the box contained hope. This is a better choice, she has got her granddaughter's name sorted too.

This is a better choice, she has got her granddaughter's name sorted too.

I like isadora and Theodora.

I have a Theodora nn Dora.

The last two sound like holiday resorts in Spain to me. I like Dorothea a lot and Pandora too though

Penelope

Theodora is absolutely awesome! I also like that there are some rather feminine and masculine nn options (probably a nickname for every "kind" of person...).

Loadedllama

;)

Dorothea and Pandora are lovely, I agree.

Male version of Amadora is supposedly Amadore, like Theodore is the male version of Theodora.
Amadora means “the gift of love” which I think is beautiful

I like Pandora but couldn’t use it as it reminds me too much of Adrian Mole (showing my age ) - the box thing wouldn’t put me off.

Tesser

It really is beautiful. Thanks :)

gift of love is a beautiful meaning but it means lover (Amator/Amadore) according to some sources...

it’s very rare / I unfortunately didn’t find a lot of information online.