Well damn, it's a girl. HELP

[CassandrasCastle]

I have just found out I'm having a girl at my 20 (ish) wk scan. For some reason I had it very firmly in my head that it would be a boy, and had my very favourite name ready, which DP and I both love - handily. (I am being ridiculously over prepared I realise. But I just like names...)
Anyway, girl - lovely news, but I can't do girls names v well :/

This is the shortlist made with DP, we have quite different tastes:

Juliana (poss shortened to Nia. NOT JULIE)
Evangeline (I like long version)
Lilias
Laurel
Iris

Have at me...

I know a Lilian and a Kirsty very well, dear friends, but both would find it quite odd if I named my baby after them. Leila does nothing for me oddly.
Evangeline is dropping down my list...

Seraphine/Seraphina pretty nice...

I really do think I'm stuck between Lilias and Laurel though. Out of those 2 DP prefers Lilias, but I just don't feel wholly on bored/sad for little non-existent Laurel somehow...
Aaaargh

*on board 🙄

Lilias is a lovely traditional Scottish name and will be great when she's older too. Some of the very cute names don't work quite so well when the child becomes an adult.

Sephy as a nickname, OP. Go on, you know you want to.

I think Lilias and Iris are both lovely.

Juliana and Evangeline are okay but feel a bit over the top to me. I do love Julia and Juliet though. I really dislike Laurel which is just a frumpy middle-aged person to me, having known a few. Laura is beautiful however.

Frances/Frankie?

Oh no! I just can't see Laurel as frumpy.

I do love the Sephy shortening, also of Persephone, but someone mentioned the Noughts and Crosses book series to me, and said it might be problematic to name a white baby the name of the main black character, from books all about racial injustice.

I think I am edging to Lilias...thanks chaps! Oh well, I've got quite a few weeks to swing back and forth, ha.

Ohh Seraphina is lovely though..

Come back and update us @CassandrasCastle

Aww, I will do!

Of your choices I like Iris the most. I simply don't understand how the utterly preposterous Ottilie turns up again and again. Do people think it's sophisticated or something?

If one of your names has an obvious nickname that you hate, probably best not to use it - you can't control what their mates call them at school! If they start going by Julie at 12 or 13 you'll be powerless to change it.

I love Laurel, but Lilias is really nice too.

The Laurels I know are very stylish and creative.

Seraphina is lovely but I can't help feeling it's a bit frilly for the long haul.

Well things have moved on a bit, but of your originals:

Juliana (poss shortened to Nia. NOT JULIE) - no. Don't, she will be Jules/Julie - she may even CHOOSE to be known as Julie!
Evangeline (I like long version) - I don't really like this, clunky, and she'll almost certainly end up as one of the billion trillion Eve/Evies around.
Lilias - sounds very male somehow.
Laurel - ok. People will mishear as Lauren.
Iris - the nicest by far.

By the way, your DP is doing a lot of vetoing. Can I ask whether the baby is having your surname, as is traditional? :)

DP is doing a lot of vetoing because I am the one suggesting all the names 🙈 (I think almost all of the, v few, names he has tentatively mentioned I've shut down...)

It's having his surname, because his is lovely and mine is boring as hell

I don't get Lilias sounding male, don't think I ever well - so I suppose that's fine!

Iris

Topaz
Ishbel
Greer
Ailsa
Sorcha
Tibby
Cicely

You do you, but IMO Lilias is not nice and Laurel is a boy’s name.

I was about to say the same about Ottilie. It's so awful. Just makes me think people are super fans of a certain disgraced instamum.

Iris is beautiful OP. I agree with the poster above about Laurel being a bit frumpy.

I'm Scottish and have never heard of Lilias, how do you pronounce it?

I can't decide if I would say Lily-a or Lily-ass or if any of those are even right!

Not Iris - every Iris I've ever known is Iris the virus...

I love Seraphina too.
I also like Iris and know a few little ones.

How about...
Gretchen
Ingrid
Anoushka (nn Ana)
Ophelia
Ishbel (another great underused Scottish name)

Its like Liliy-iss/Lilly-us. Sort of in between.

To me, Iris is probably the frumpiest from my list, though I do like it.

Ottilie is very common (as in 'there are lots of them').

I know a little Lilias, and I like her name. It's unusual, but not try-hard.

(She'd probably end up as 'Lils', but there's no accounting for nn. My DD has a long and unusual name and we have always called her by a very nice nn - but all her friends call her Poot ).