Rate my list and please be as brutal as you want

[lorettAspaghettA]

Tess
Helena
Jane
Mariah
Anya

All lovely apart from Jane and Mariah. Why not Marie or Maria?

Anya is a nice name, I also like the suggestion of Thea by another poster. Or have you considered Ria ?

In order of preference (!)

Helena - pronounced like Eleanor (but with the 'H' obv)

Jane is an underused classic. Often called Janie

I'd go for Tessa rather than Tess. Tess sounds a bit unfinished

Anya - ok . Much prefer Anna

Mariah. Only ones I've known have pronounced it Maareeya. But that's maybe because they were all from Pakistani heritage.

I've got the middle name Helen, which I don't really rate but I do like Helena - but much prefer the Hel-ay-na pronunciation. I wouldn't use it just because I know most would go with Hell-enna which I don't like nearly as much.

@lorettAspaghettA

Tess Helena Jane Mariah Anya

Good, good, boring, self absorbed, good.

Tess / Tessa - no , reminds of a dogs name
Helena - yes beautiful name
Jane - definitely not, dated, uninspiring
Mariah - just makes me think Mariah Carey
Anya - yes beautiful name and nice shortenings too which you have to think about.

So many “Tess is a dog’s name” type comments, which make no sense to me. Tess is a human name which some people use for their dogs. I know dogs called Lily, Maggie, Penny, Sylvie, Helen, George, Rory, Louis....etc. So are they all out of bounds for babies too??

FWIW I don’t know any dogs called Tess, but know at least half a dozen humans called Tess or Tessa. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I love Helena, and Jane is nice. I prefer Moriah to Mariah.

Love Tess, Helena is nice, Anya OK, Jane nice as a middle name, dislike Mariah.

Tess as in Tess of the D’Urbervilles , beautiful.
Really don’t like Mariah.

Sorry OP, not keen on any of them. Anya is the best of a bad bunch IMO. Who cares what randoms online think anyway?

Tess - LOVE! So cool and fresh and pretty
Helena - like it pronounced 'Helen-a' and love nickname Nell, but dislike pronounced 'Helayna'
Jane - very dull, i'd feel a bit sad for a little Jane, all I can think of is 'plain Jane'
Mariah - nooo too Carey, although Maria and Marie are okay
Anya - like it but not as much as Tess which is my favourite. I'd choose Tess for sure.

Tess always has connotations of heftiness to me -- maybe because of the singer 'Two Ton Tess' and the bomb type called 'Ten Ton Tess' used in WWII? (Tonne? Ton? It now looks wrong whichever way I write it...)

Tess - lovely, I also like Tessa and would probably go with that with Tess as a shortening so she has the choice. One of the reasons I like the Welsh name Tesni is for the option to shorten it to Tess.

Helena - nice but pronunciation issues. The only one I know is Norwegian (Helayna)

Jane - pretty classic which is underused

Mariah - prefer Maria spelling but then she'd inevitably get Maree-ah.

Anya - I love this. Short, simple and pretty. I know two, an American and a Norwegian. Have always liked the name.

I would go with Anya or Tess/a.

Tess - like a lot. Not keen on Tessa
Helena - prefer Helen by far
Jane - like a lot
Mariah - ok, I also like Maria
Anya - ok but prefer Anna as it sounds stronger

Tess- lovely, fierce, poetic sounding name (I also think D'Urberville's)
Helena- beautiful, elegant and Shakespearean (I pronounce it Heh-len-ah personally)
Jane- underused, classic, strong and romantic sounding to me (Jane Eyre)
Mariah- dislike this spelling. Maria is fine (can still pronounce it as Mah -rye -ah like in the 18th Century - like So-fye-ah instead of So-fee-ah)
Anya- fun and exotic sounding but kind of a different style to your other names (classic Anna nn Anya would fit better)

I like all your choices, so it's hard to choose the nicest (probably Maria is my least favourite) - you might also like Eve, Julia, Juliet, Lara, Lorna, Louisa or Antonia

Tess can also be a nn for Esther, as said it's used a lot in Catholic/religious families, as is Theresa. So is Maria/Mary. If you're looking for a biblical twist, then Anya fits and is nice.

I love Tess and/or Tessa. Would have been on my list if we had a second girl. Don’t have any strong thoughts one way or the other on the rest of the list.

Love Tess - but Tessa better, then she has choices?

Don’t really like any of the others but at a push I’d go for Anya. Prefer Anna.

Tess is my favourite, then Helena. Love both these two.

Then Anya. Nice.

Then Jane. OK.

Not keen on Mariah. But if it was Maria it would move ahead of Anya.

Jayne not Jane - Jean is also lovely

Tess - beautiful, understated, mentioned a lot on MN lately so likely to see an increase in this years and next years baby name stats
Helena - gorgeous
Jane - see Tess without the popularity increase prediction
Mariah - prefer Maria. But don't think you can use the old pronunciation of Maria as it would confuse people. Not keen on Mariah.
Anya - international vibes. Least favourite.

Jane not Jayne. Jayne is awful, Jane is lovely.

Anya is lovely and v European if that matters to you? Would work in a number of languages.

Helena is nice and classical-sounding. I like Jane more than I thought I would - it’s actually quite strong.

Not too fussed on Tess which sounds a bit wet to me, sorry. Mariah is a bit show-offy.

Love Helena and Jane.

I like Maria, Marie, Mary and Mara. Not Mariah. The h on the end makes it fussy.

Anya is too potato for me.