Baby girl shortlist help needed please!

[Nosuchthingasastupidquestion]

After many many (many) hours we have come up with a shortlist for our third child and first daughter. We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves until we realised we had no idea how to whittle it down from eight to one. Would like to have a front-runner before the birth in March. Would love to know your preferences/ reasons for preferences/ thoughts/ observations etc! Thank you so much. Shortlist (in no particular order) is:

• Ines
• Evangeline
• Lyra
• Adeline
• Gabriella
• Ophelia
• Josephine
• Audra

I love evangeline with the middle name Lyra or Blythe.

Ophelia or Audra are the nicest to me.

I like Evangeline but it reminds me of Nanny McPhee

I love Ophelia.

Love Ophelia and Lyra 🥰🥰
Ines and Adeline just don’t have a nice sound in my opinion. Adeline reminds me of a medical term. Kind of like Invisalign braces or something

The only one I love is Gabriella- I like Adeline- hate Josephine (I think the old grandmother in Willy Wonka)- the others all a bit "try hard" for my liking.

I'd choose Lyra

My favourite is Josephine.

My favourite is Lyra. I’m having a baby girl next week and we would love to use it, but can’t. Audra is nice, but have a feeling that it would be forever confused with ‘Audrey’. Good luck!

Josephine all day. Would have been my DD's name if it didn't rhyme with our surname.

Ines - like but it's not my favourite on your list

• Evangeline - like but Evie's are everywhere
• Lyra - pretty but feel it's about to have its moment
• Adeline - lovely
• Gabriella - love it
• Ophelia - nice just not for me
• Josephine - my favourite on your list, classic but unexpected. I like Joey
• Audra - not a fan

Josephine 🥰

How I’d rank them:

1. Ines: I really like this one
2. Josephine: lovely, underused. Like the nn potential - Josie, Joey, Jo, Sephy, Fifi...
3. Lyra: lovely. It used to be on my girls list but I think it’ll see an upsurge in popularity this year after the BBC adaptation of Northern Lights.
4. Evangeline: nice, but the popularity of the inevitable nn Evie would put me off
5. Ophelia: nice, but not sure about teasing potential. I prefer Octavia if you like that?
6. Adeline: ok, but the multiple pronunciations would put me off.
7. Audra: not keen. It’s a bit American for me. I prefer Audrey.
8. Gabriella: not as nice as the others

Thanks everyone, this is so helpful, and giving us much to talk about!The name-by-name thoughts and rankings are especially insightful! Pretty mixed response so far, pleasantly surprised at the love for Josephine though - I thought that would be the one that would get booed off the stage! I love the sound of it, and its rarity, but not sure how I feel about it still sounding so much like its male version of the name (more so than Gabriella I think), or how one is supposed to feel about feminine version names tbh? I read on here the other day someone saying feminine versions of male names weren't as strong as female names that only had a female version (or something like that anyway, I'm paraphrasing)?

Also @Clettercletterthatsbettertercletter I think you could be right re Lyra. I had never heard of it before and suddenly everyone is talking about it. It is beautiful though and could probably handle a bit of a surge without becoming overly popular.

Josephine

In order

Ines
Lyra
Evangeline

Ines - I like this name. It's unusual and elegant.
Evangeline- it's ok, not massively keen.
Lyra - like.
Adeline - pretty, possibly my favourite.
Gabriella - love! Joint favourite.
Ophelia - like.
Josephine - sorry but I think this is a very ugly name. I know a little Josephine and always think she's so cute but her name is truly dreadful.
Audra - no, dislike.

@Whatsyourflava my dad said the same thing re Adeline, reminded him of Adenoids! Not a great association but thankfully not one I have!

In order, I ike:
Evangeline
Adeline
Josephine
Gabriella
Ophelia
Ines
Audra
Lyra

• Ines - like but tricky for young kids to pronounce
• Evangeline - love as a full name but Evie is very meh by comparison
• Lyra - love but depends on growing popularity and you'll always be asked if it's because of the Phillip Pullman novels
• Adeline - not keen. Sounds quite harsh compared to your other choices

Gabriella - overdone and Gabi as a nickname sounds like gobby to me! Ophelia - don't like sorry Josephine - classic and underrated. Great nickname potential - Jose, Josie, Jo. Potentially my favourite on your list Audra - don't like sorry

Ines. Love it. First choice.
Audra. Ok way way second choice.
All others are meh.

In order from my favourite:
Ines - stylish international, not fussy but not overdone
Josephine - solid traditional with great nns (I love Jo, Joey, Posy)
Audra - smart, unusual, upbeat and nicely streamlined
Gabriella - love Gaby, stylish, international
Ophelia - interesting, though a little frilly for my taste
Evangeline -nice enough, but again a bit frilly for me
Lyra - okay but very on trend in that will have peak and then drop suddenly, and very like many other popular names: Lila, Laila, Lola, Lily, Luna etc. I would go for the classic Laura though.
Adeline - only one I dislike, hard to put my finger on why - just doens't sound smart to me, over-used in US (and Adalynn and variations everywhere) so has American feel. I love Adelaide though which I would put at the top of the list.

I like Josephine and Gabriella from your list.

Trendy Lyra is my least favourite.

Sorry to add a suggestion when you’re trying to trim the list - Jocelyn?

I only like Ines