Imogen or Isadora

[Marmitepeanutbutterandhoney]

Just that really! Baby girl on her way... we can’t decide.

So, Imogen or Isadora?

TIA!

Much prefer Isolde to Isadora.

Isadora but I like Isolde even more!

Both lovely names but personally favour Isadora, much more unusual than Imogen and prettier. As someone said above she could have nn Dora which avoids being called Issy like all the little Isobels.

You guys have all been lovely a super helpful and made some good points..

I’ll let you know what we go for :)

Isodora sounds like a made up name to me, it reminds me of wizodora the old tv program. I love Imogen.

Isodora sounds like a made up name to me

Every single name is made up, even Imogen.

I like Imogen best

Names In general aren’t made up though, that’s not how language works.

Imogen supposedly comes from Innogen deriving from Inghean meaning ‘girl/daughter’.

Some names like words are coined at some point, like ‘Stella’ by Philip Sidney - (from Latin star) but they still derive out of the language.

Please do come and update us @Marmitepeanutbutterandhoney

I vote imogen, it’s beautiful and it’s also much less common than it used to be. If you look at the official statistics the number of babies called imogen each year has halved since 2010! Such a gorgeous name

Names, just like language, are made up, often a long time ago. New words are constantly added to a language, just as new names are. Shakespeare and other authors have made up a lot of new names. Other names are added by changing the spelling to a more phonetic spelling etc etc.

Give me an example of a Shakespearean name that didn’t derive from existing words.

There’s not that much language that is made up in the sense of invented. Language changes meaning over time, new words are coined for new things, but even there words tend to derive out of existing language.

I like them both - Isodora is definitely more unusual though (I seem to remember she’s the mum-witch in ‘Bewitched’ though - so lots of people will probably think it has witchy connotations)

Names can of course derive from words and still be made up.

Isadora, for example, is the feminine form of Isidoros (gift of Isis), a compound name composed of the name of the Egyptian goddess of fertility, Isis, and the Greek element dōron (gift).

So Isadora is just as made up as Imogen.

Imogen is much nicer

You don’t really mean made up in that case, you mean coined. Not invented like the word ‘nerd’ which doesn’t derive from anything.

We’ve already established that Imogen is not a made up name - Innogen is a figure of early English mythology and derived from Inghean.

Isidore/a is a good example of a name that derived from existing words.

Gift of names are fairly common eg Theodore/a

Love Isadora, it's unusual but not so unusual that it's ridiculous.

Both and like both Immy and Dora too

Like Isadora much more than Imogen. It's much more poetic with many nice nickname options!

Isolde is very nice too though !

There's also Isabeau, if you're not scared of going french

But Beau is masculine form is f Belle?!

Sorry 'of Belle'

Lavenderblues obviously but they don't all sound like a 90's tv show about a witch and her friends.

Prefer Iseult but out of the two, Isadora

Love Isadora

Andddd someone from our ante natal group gave birth today and chose Imogen

Oh dear... maybe it’s Isadora then!