Eleanor or Celeste

[BarbieV7]

Hi ladies,

We are stuck between these two names for our dd2. I’m currently over 41 weeks so she should be coming any day and we still haven’t decided

Eleanor seems like a more classic, safe bet and Celeste is maybe a bit more out there though also a classic name it is far less common.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Celeste is classy and elegant

I have a friend called Celestia

*Their words, not there... why is mumsnet so typo inducing? And why can’t you edit posts

Thank you marthasginyard (great sn). Good to hear people generally find it elegant and not a stripper name as I feared. Nothing wrong with strippers of course :) :)

Both names are lovely but I've taught so many Eleanors now that it's become a bit boring. Ellie is such an overused nickname now too.

Celeste is a bit different and quite cool. I'd choose that

Eleanor goes lovely with Matilda. Celeste is pretty though.

Another shout for Helena, Matilda and Helena, perfect !
However Eleanor and Celeste are both classy names, in my opinion.

Both are nice names, I much prefer Celeste though. Pretty and unusual- where Eleanor is pretty but very popular.

Celeste definitely..

Beautiful and much less common

Thank you ladies! I’m so happy I made this post because it’s made me feel a lot more positive about the reception Celeste would get. I’ll be showing it to my husband and hopefully deciding soon!

I haven’t met any Eleanor’s so was surprised to hear it’s quite a common name! I think it comes relatively low on top 100 or 500 popularity lists even!

I know both are families will be a bit suspect about the name Celeste but then I have to learn not to care no matter what we go for!

I’d love to hear what some of you ladies named your girls as it sounds like we have similar taste!

Both lovely, but I absolutely adore Celeste. I know one who is generally called by her first name at school, but known as Ceci at home.

Celeste is lovely! There's a kids book'Tiger in a Tutu' that has a really sweet character called Celeste. It' one of my DCs favourites at the moment

Why does Eleanor always get described as "clunky"

It isn't clunky at all! Elegant and timeless in my view.

I like both and don't know any child Eleanors or Elinors - to me it's a classic, elegant name that grows well with the person (and certainly goes with Matilda, very medieval).

I liked Celeste a lot, until I met one and heard it spoken out loud. It's surprisingly abrupt and blunt sounding (despite looking all delicate and whimsical). You need to try the 'shouting out loud' test. Try it in different accents. I've really changed my view of a few names, after hearing them called out at the local park.

If you like the 'starry' ethereal aspect of Celeste (for me I think it was an association with Queen Celeste in Babaar), how about:

Aurora
Ursula
Phoebe
Estelle / Estella

Eleanor Celeste is beautiful.

And I know several Eleanor's who have never been Ellie in their lives. 3 who are always Eleanor, one Nell and one Norah.

For similar sounds, I do like:

Celia / Cecilia
Cecily
Clementine
Connie - which I just realised from another thread could be Cornelia, as well as the old-fashioned virtue Constance.

...and Eleanor Celeste does sound lovely.

Celeste 100%. Beautiful.

Eleanor is dowdy.

Both lovely names! I would probably play it safe and go with Eleanor, but Celeste is charming and pretty. You would have to hope she doesn't have a lisp though.

Enid, yes I think ceci sounds very sweet and prefer that to lesty :)

Mummysparkle I don’t know the book but will check it out now, I love associations like that and partly loved Matilda because of the book!

Danger mouse I agree, to me it’s so feminine and not at all clunky. It’s so interesting how differently we all perceive names!

Lottie I absolutely love aurora and that’s also in my top ten, seems we ladies in this thread have some similar associations/tastes. I don’t love it more than Eleanor or Celeste though :) and my worry was that it can be a bit of a mouthful to say with the letters getting sort of mixed as they are coming out. I adore Cecilia but we know someone very close to us with that name and I am not crazy about the origin (blind). Clementine was also in my top list but my husband did not like it. We generally agree on most names but this was not the case. Same goes for Estelle which was also in my top!

And I completely agree on the medieval feel of both Eleanor and Matilda, it’s exactly part of what they evoke for me. Eleanor makes me thing of a medieval woman walking through a lavender field... I’m so fluffy!!

Haha oh no Tawdrylocalbrouhaha, i hadn’t event considered this!

I do also love how Eleanor Celeste rolls off the tongue :):)

Celeste!

I only considered it because I have slight trouble saying a clear "S", and before I knew DS was a boy I was considering the name "Cecily", but I sounded a bit Donald Duck when I said it out loud!

I absolutely love the name Celeste. It was on my list before we discovered dc2 is a boy. I love the meaning and I do think it's classic. It's just beautiful.
Eleanor is also nice but... probably 'nice' isn't what you're going for?

I like Celeste, it's different but not unheard of :)
Eleanor/Ellie a bit boring in comparison