Ellen or Esther?

[BB2018]

Just that...
Middle name would be Florence.

Ellen is seriously boring, but Esther is awful, IMO. It belongs on 80 year old chain smokers who play bingo every Monday and whinge about the immigration rate.

So, I guess Ellen wins.

Esther! I love it. My dd has a friend Esther at nursery and I have name jealousy.

Ellen is good too though.

I have an Ellen, it suits her. She is 10.

Ellen by a mile

Esther makes my teeth itch, that name does something to me like nails down a Blackboard

Esther. 10000 times.

I really dislike Ellen sorry op.

Esther is not one I would choose, reminds me of Esther Rantzen for some reason!

It is one of those names though that would grow on me. When my friend had a baby Evelyn 7 years ago I thought it was awful, now it's quite popular and she actually really suits it.

For context, I have a Lucy so may prefer plainer names. Middle name is lovely too.

Esther Florence - gorgeous name

Esther is lovely and sounds great with florence

Esther.

Ellen sounds like Helen in an 'Ertfordshire accent.

No offence intended to my Herts friends - it is my favourite county.

I prefer Esther. Estella and Elspeth are similar names I like. I think Ellen sounds rather dull. Esther Florence is a lovely combination.

Being an Ellen myself I vote for Ellen. It's a lovely name and I like the fact that there aren't many of us around, there wasn't another one all the way through my primary and secondary school or college.
Ok I got teachers saying H-elen and putting great emphasis on the H like I'm not pronouncing my aitches- - where I come from people tend to drop them.
It's a lovely name and certainly not boring or a "Ruth name"

Esther for sure - based on smalls I currently know

Thanks all, pretty even split, which is good I suppose, no mass hatred for either one!
May have to wait and see what she looks more like...

Ellen for sure

Both are lovely but I'd go with Esther as I love Essie whereas with Ellen I would worry she'd become just another Ellie in the crowd

Esther

Thanks aglass - good to hear you’ve liked having it as a name.

(I actually also like the name Ruth - I know a beautiful one!)

I really don't like Esther so if I had to choose one it would be Ellen, although I'm not too keen on that either!

The Ellens I've known have been known by the nn Nell and Leni, which are prettier and more unusual than Ellie, I think. Not sure about Esther.

Ellen, it's lovely.
Esther immediately brings to mind Esther Rantzen and That's Life, it always seems like a very 1970s name to me.

Ellen.

I have an almost two year old Esther. Love her name and love hearing it spoken by other children.

I have an Esther. Generally speaking it's a popular name on Mumsnet [see a lot of the above comments].

However, most people in RL seem to dislike it. When you say your baby's name, and there's a pause as people decide how to be tactful before coming up with, "oh, how unusual." or "that's an old name, isn't it?" you know that they hate it . And that's what happens with my dd. I suspect most people are actually thinking this - Esther makes my teeth itch, that name does something to me like nails down a Blackboard

I still love the name though.

And FWIW, my DD is now a teenager and loves her name. She's got over the fact that she could never buy personalised tat in shops, unlike her siblings, as well .

Esther Florence