Unusual elegant/vintage girl names with 1-2 syllables only

[Ruthshaw1980]

Hi all

Following on from your excellent suggestions of unusual girl names with at least three syllables, I desperately need your help again for shorter girl names. This time I need ideas for unusual names with only 1-2 syllables that could be described as elegant/vintage/classic. As an example I would say Eve fits this bill however certainly not unusual with the Evie’s, Eva’s and Ava’s of this world. We do not want a very common name, at least that is something we ageee on!

Unfortunately despite your excellent efforts on providing 3 syllable names which we whittled down to Verity, Hermione and Arabella, DH has decided he doesn’t like any of them now so it’s back to the drawing board. All suggestions will be gratefully received as am getting nervous we will never agree

I love Edith, and it can be Edie for short.

Cora
Dinah
Clara
Eliza
Nora
Polly
Bridget
Pearl
Winnie
Nellie
Ruth
Margaret
Anne
Lila
Mary
Beatrice
Elsie
Annie
Jane
Audrey
Josie
Flora
Nancy
Lois

Mary, Esme, Clara, molly, Maisie, Gracie, Eliza, Harriet, Iris, jemima, Josephine, Nancy, paloma, Talia, violet

Celine
Iris
Merle
Adele
Helen / Helene
Celeste
Delphine
Ruby
Pearl
Sybil / Sybille
Alice

My daughter had friends called Aoife pronounced Eefa, and Hafren. I thought they were beautiful names. Elspeth is lovely too.

Ivy or emmeline.

Loveday?

If we are dropping the 2 syllable rule;

Miranda
Rosalind
Clementine

Grace
Thalia
Elizabeth (beth, libby, liza)
Lottie

Audrey
Cleo
Connie
Cora
Joyce
Mabel
Martha
Olive
Pearl
Phoebe
Rachel
Sylvie

Edie
Stella
Kate
Astrid
Ella
Marnie

Coral

Ester
Nellie
Elsie
Dawn
Cora
Esme
Mollie
Maggie

Goodbye two syllables hello
Cordelia
Arianne
Ariana
Susannah
Constance
Miriam
Josephine
Seraphine
Calliope
Althea
Cecilia
Beatrice

Edith
Phyllis
Cara
Gwenda
Lydia

Lara
Lyra
Ingrid
Anna
Hilde
Hilda

Helen. I think this is a beautiful, wildly underrated name.

Lynette

Most I thought of have already been mentioned, but how about:

Tessa

Huge thank you to all who have posted so far, there are some wonderful suggestions.

I don’t think there has been any which we have not discussed before so I have listed my favourites below with comments. Those with a ‘v’ next to them mean vetoed by DH. As you can see there are a lot of v’s.......this is what I am up against. However I will suggest this list back to him as he really does seem to change his mind like the wind.

Of the list below, I am potentially most excited about Elena as we have discussed it before but I think discovered pronounciation issues. That said as time has gone on and we are still not close, I am less worried about that as I think this could be one we both agree on and it is a lovely name with a Welsh heritage. Although not Welsh myself I do love Welsh names.

Astrid - v
Edith
Emmeline - v
Tessa
Lydia - v
Lilith - v
Gweneth
Beatrice - v
Elena - beautiful but pronounciation issues????
Althea - v
Celia - v (but due to surname - Shaw)
Cecilia - v (same as Celia)
Arianne (think DH vetoed this)
Ariana (think DH vetoed this)
Esme - should be pronounced esmay but we like esmee

Sylvie - v
Esther
Elizabeth and like Libby as nn
Aoife - v
Alice (think DH vetoed this)
Jemima - v
Harriet (DH did like but not now)
Madeline
Florence - v
Marie - v
Felicity - (already used for my niece)
Francesca - love this name but dislike Frankie as nn
Eva - too common but beautiful
Evelyn - v
Sophia - same as Eva
Elspeth - v
Merryn - think DH vetoed this

Please keep the names coming if you have one that has not been mentioned, the more unusual the better!

Mabel
Greta
Cynthia
Peggy
Jean
Janet
Gwen
Vada
Ida
Maggie
Mary
Ada
Linda
Helen

Ishbel

I'd say avoid anything with initial C because of sea-shore. If you like the esmee pronunciation of Esme then use it and spell it Esmie or Esmee.

Helen(e) or Helena
Kezia
Phoebe
Zilla

Esther
Hester
Rhoda
Violet
Joy
Margot

I don't know if it's what you're looking for but I've always loved the name Blythe. Has Marnie been suggested? That's another of my faves.

Rowena
Lynn(ette)
Gwen
Bethan
Bronwen/wyn
Carys
Iona
Megan
Teleri
Elin
Sian
Rhiannon