Baby girl name - sister for Calliope

[NamingBabies]

We have a 2 year old called Calliope (pronounced like Cal-Eye-O-P, think similar to how Penelope ends!) who goes by Callie most of the time. We fell in love with the name when I was pregnant with her and found out at 16 weeks I was having a girl and from then on she was Calliope. Really easy decision to make and we never queried our decision.

Pregnant again now with a second little girl and finding it SO much harder to find a name to go with it! Before we heard Calliope we quite liked Willow and DH thinks we should go with that for a girl but I’m not sure the two names go together very well.

I did a little Google and (I assume because of the Greek connection) Ophelia came up as an option. I absolutely love it, and think it would be a perfect sibling match and similar to Calliope has the option to shorten it. DH is not so sure and is worried it would be shortened to FiFi which makes him think of a dog (and I secretly love!).

My name is reasonably unusual. Not anything that would shock you but it’s unusual in that I’ve never met anyone else with the same spelling as mine, and I was the only one in school with this name but it’s definitely not super ‘out there’. DH has a consistently ‘top 100’ boys name and is worried it may look odd if we go with two quite unusual names (I mean it’s a bit late now for Calliope but oh well!).

If you heard Calliope and Ophelia, would it sound negative to you? Any alternative names you could suggest?

I like it. Also how about Hebe?

I'd think it a bit surprising if you had Calliope and Eve.
(I am thinking in terms of sibling fairness in number of syllables! But that's just me.)

The two names sound like they "go".

I think Calliope/Callie and Willow are fine together but Willow is very popular these days so I can see why you might not feel it’s the best choice. Ophelia is more common than you think so I don’t think it would be perceived as too ‘out there’ Are there any other shortenings you could go for that your DP prefers? I don’t love fifi and Ophelia is so beautiful, it would seem a shame not to actually call her that but that’s just personal preference. If I heard of siblings calliope and Ophelia, I’d probably think you were a bit posh (but would never dream of saying this in real life!) but they’re not desperately unusual. Callie and Fifi fit in with the general trend for girls names at the moment I think, lots of ie endings and nicknames type names.

Don;t worry too much about the names going together, they are individualas and most of their lives their names will be said together with their partners name, not their sisters!

I like Calliope and Orphelia, both good names. I can't imagine shortening anyone's name to fifi, which I don;t like at all. I wonder what other Orphelias use? It seems liek it should be Feely, which sounds a bit......!

Ophelia is a beautiful name, no question. The “oh woe is me” connection is just too strong though, IMO. It’s a shame.

Xanthe is a fabulous name

What about Cordelia or Ianthe?
The Oh-feel-ya potential for nicknames always puts me off Ophelia

Io (eye-o)

Niobe.

I don't like Ophelia.

Ione
Stella/Estella
Sybilla
Yolanda

Artemis, Phoebe, Leto, Selene

Hera/Hero

Please don't try to do the cutesy matching names think. They are individual children, not a pair of kittens.

I know an Ophelia, no one shortens her name to anything

Autocorrect strikes again, thing, not think!!

I think I'd go for another muse. Favourites are Clio and Thalia.

@Overdueanamechange

Please don't try to do the cutesy matching names think. They are individual children, not a pair of kittens.

What does matching names mean? They're not colours.

I think Calliope and Ophelia go well together.

Ophelia is more likely to be Effie rather than Fifi no, OP?

Willow doesn’t go IMO, too simple. You need 3+ syllables. Ophelia goes, but I can’t get over the suicide association. How about:

Artemis
Melisande
Ariadne
Clarissa
Melissa
Helena
Eloise
Arabella
Selina
Vivienne

Artemis is the best girls name ever.

@NotJustAnyOldDog

Artemis is the best girls name ever.

That’s a cool name

I really can’t bear the name Willow, so anything but that.

Athena?

All I can think of is Callie from Greys anatomy, her real name is Caliope.
Her middle name is Iphigenia, which is similar to Ophelia
She also has a sister Aria in the show.

Although, granted, I agree there’s a chance you probably don’t want to name your child based off the characters of a tv show!

Never heard the name Calliope but absolutely love that @NamingBabies

How about something like Autumn-Rose it needs to be something equally as fabulous

I love Ophelia too and
Mauritius

*Iphegenia that was meant to be