Are these too tongue-twister-ish?

[independentgroupie]

Our surname is McAllister. We've narrowed our choice of name for dd down to 'Tabitha' and 'Madeleine'.

We've been fishing for opinions among a few family and friends and several have commented that both 'Tabitha McAllister' and 'Madeleine McAllister' are quite a mouthful.

Are they too much? Is one better than the other?

Madeleine McAllister flows really well.

I think Tabitha McAllister is more of a mouthful, but I might be biased against it because I don't like the name Tabitha.

I love the name Tabitha but it doesn’t go with your suname rhythmically. Madeleine is an ok name and sounds better with your surname.

I think Tabitha is OK OP as it's different mouth shapes. I love Tabitha so biased lol

They both sound nice to me. Slightly prefer Madeleine but honestly whatever you pick people will quickly get used to!

Madeline goes lovely with your surname
Tabitha does not

Madeleine sounds nicer with your surname

Madeleine McAllister sounds great, Tabitha maybe not quite so much.

But Maddy McAllister trips off the tongue, as does Tabby McAllister - depends whether you want her to be known by her full name, or not?

I think both are fine.

Sorry - all I could think of was McCann

I think a woman could go far with the name Madeline McAllister, it’s really lovely.

Maddy McAllister trips off the tongue, as does Tabby McAllister

I agree. Prefer Madeleine as a full name though.

I do think that Madeleine McAllister flows better than Tabitha. But as soon as I read it I immediately thought I’d Madeleine McCann :(

Sorry - all I could think of was McCann

Same. And I'm really not a fan of Tabitha, or Tabby tbh.

I would laugh if I heard Tabitha Mcallister. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but she might not want a humorous name.

Madeleine - I’m afraid it reminded me straight away of Mcann

It's too close to Madeleine McCann imo. Tabitha is fine though.

Dh and I were both living outside the UK when the Madeleine McCann thing happened. The disappearance of a British child in Portugal didn't make the news where we were.

Consequently, the case isn't particularly salient in my mind and hadn't occurred to me at all from "Madeleine McAllister" - is that really something that would occur to most people in the UK?

Sorry it was the first thing I thought of too (I almost had to read it twice as my brain had already read Madeleine McCann so had to re-read it.) Even my predicted text auto wrote McCann when I wrote Madeleine M.

I prefer Tabitha, as you have to say Tabitha properly then McAllister, where as Madeleine merges with your surname and so makes it more of a tongue twister. I am biased slightly as I have a Tabitha who is 22 years old and her name is never shortened to Tabby.

I also instantly thought of poor Maddy McCann sorry OP!

I have a Tabitha, so obviously love the name, but we did choose it specifically to go with our very short, one syllable surname, not sure we would have used it with a long surname... It does also remind me of the Julia Donaldson story, Tabby McTat, which I probably shouldn't say as I hate it when people say Tabitha "is a cats name" 🙈, but I guess with the "Mc" it does sound similar to the book! Sorry OP in my opinion I'd go for a shorter name yo go with such a long surname, especially if you're going to add a middle name too. My name isn't that long, 2 syllable first name and 3 syllable last name, (no middle names), and I still run out of space on forms sometimes!

I think of Madeleine McCann too. I think because the case is still unsolved and it's still in the media occasionally. Lovely name though, and I think it goes better with your surname than Tabitha.

Yeah OP, as much as it’s a lovely name I think McCann is what a lot of people would think of. Also, in a few weeks there’s a new Netflix series coming out about her disappearance so I think it’s all going to get a lot of publicity again. Just something to consider.

I like Madeleine McAllister.

Even if people do think McCann, it's not like you have a connection with it or anything. I think you should just go with the name you like the most, OP. I really don't think name associations matter that much but that's only my opinion! I appreciate what others are saying.

I know someone with a Madeleine 'Mc' name, obviously she predates Madeleine McCann, but she's apparently had years of people accidentally calling it Madeleine McCann instead of her name then everyone in the waiting room looking at her, things like that.

Personally I prefer Tabitha and don't think it's a mouthful.

Madeleine McCallister sounds really cool to me but sadly it is pretty close to Madeleine McCann

Magdalena might appeal?

Or if you’re liking the idea of Maddy then perhaps an alternative like Matilda ?

I don’t like the name Tabitha but I don’t think it’s a tongue twister with your surname

Others that might appeal:
Marilena
Adeline
Emmeline
Elodie
Miranda
Ariadne
Avaline