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?

Ophelia is fine.

Alternatives-
Astrid
Cassandra
Veronica
Demelza
Serephina

Elara
Persephone (the one I know is universally called Percy)
Dante
Artemis
Dido

Calipole reminds me of Callipers. But I'm old and I don't think Callipers are a thing anymore.

*Calliope

Arizona?

Andromeda - could be shortened to Andie.

Carenza

@LouiseBelchersBunnyEars

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!

As soon as I read the name I thought "Arizona" but not sure naming sisters after lovers is really appropriate. 😂

Calliope and Ophelia are both beautiful names, and would make a lovely sibset.

If you're still stuck for ideas, how about...

Aurelia (means golden princess )
Evelina (means wished for child)
Seraphina
Anastasia
Ariadne
Athena
Evangeline
Genevieve
Cecilia

Xantippe?

Calliope is great. I think Ophelia sounds good with it.
Other names I like with it:
Cordelia (but same initial)
Miranda
Viola
Persephone (but similar sounding ending)
Tabitha
Beatrix
Amarantha (if you want even more unusual!)

Calliope is such a fabulous name!

Calliope and...
Felicity or Felicia
Seraphina
Sophronia
Persephone
Xanthe

I hadn't read the thread and realised other people had suggested Persephone!

Thank you all! Some really lovely other suggestions here too, thank you!

In response to some of the comments further up - it doesn’t have to be Greek at all, we didn’t name Calliope because it was Greek we just loved her name, and when I googled names that went with it Ophelia was suggested for (I assume) the Greek connection. It’s not something we consciously chose but the Greek name suggestions are beautiful!

Thank you for all the lovely comments about Calliope - we love it too! We did hear it on Grey’s initially truth be told As much as I do genuinely like Arizona as a name, I just couldn’t do it to them haha.

Also actually a little relieved to hear the name Ophelia isn’t super out there. Again we’re not consciously going for unique/different names, like with the Greek thing. We genuinely just loved the name Calliope but feel like we can’t have a Calliope and a Hannah (apologies to any Hannah’s!).

DH has agreed he does like the name, it’s just the shortening he’s worried about, although as a few of you have said I guess it doesn’t actually have to be shortened as Ophelia is a lovely name on its own!

I love Calliope. Not as keen on Ophelia. Love some of the other suggestions.

Anastasia
Evangeline
Cleo
Clementine

Minnie is awful.

There are lots of Willow's here. Just for reference, their siblings tend to be Kayden, Jayden & Harlee.

It's not a bad name but it nowhere near matches Calliope in terms of individuality nor class.

Anything else is fine.

It's not Greek but I absolutely love the name Evalina, which I think would go well with Calliope

Ismene?

Could be Issie, mimi or mina.

How about Winnifred? Callie and Winnie are nice together, or you could go with Freddie instead.

In the inner greys addict says Arizona but what about a plot twist and use Sofia!

I would put Persephone with Calliope, Callie and Sefie or Effie or Percy.

Araminta
Ariana
Felicia
Salome
Allegra

I'm not a big fan of Ophelia. My friend is Caliope, Bobbie for short.

How about Olympia, or Odyssea?

Aphrodite. Would only work if you and her father are drop dead gorgeous though!!

Ophelia is lovely and works well with Calliope. I'd use the nn Effie rather than Fifi (which does sound slightly poodle!) - Callie and Effie sound lovely. Ophelia is not that unusual now, it's a name really rising in popularity - it might even make the top 100 in a few years if it continues at this rate.

I love Thalia too (but I worry she could get the nn Tali - too like Callie for me). Xanthe is nice though or how about similar poetic sounding Ianthe? Or Larissa (nymph in Greek mythology) with the nn Lara? - well known but not too popular, yet still sounds good with Calliope.