First impressions and floral/garden suggestions

[Jellybean81]

First impressions for baby girl due summer please: Rae

DP likes this name as well but has said he'd prefer to continue the floral/nature name tradition in his family. We can't have Olivia, Jasmine, Ivy, Rose as all taken and Robin was a hard no from him.

My preference is for quite strong sounding female names so that rules out Lily - any ideas for names that I've missed?

I'm open to names from other cultures and languages as well, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Swahili etc so long as the meaning is appropriate and works with our long surname.

All ideas welcome!

Noa for a girl would have likely been fine twenty/thirty years ago but there's are so many (male) Noah's now that chances are she will have one in her school class and very likely at least one in her sports/hobby groups. Only you can know whether she might be bothered having a name that sounds like a "boys" or not.

Rae might sound unisex but there are very few little boy Ray's about now. So if that's the name you love best, I'd stick with it. It's not a fave of mine but there nothing wrong with it imo. The Rae I knew was short for Rachael, though I've heard it used for Aurelia too - but does it really matter if some people assume Rae's a nn? There are a fair few Kate and Katie's out there who aren't Katherine's and people just accept that.

I'm in the ME & Noha is popular - means wisdom. Or Nour is light!

Both possible alternatives to Noa that sound similar-ish but less likely to get muddled with Noah?

Love Noa @Jellybean81

I have a friend who uses Rae as a nickname for Rachael. Which I think is lovely and better than Rache. Don’t be put off if you like it.

@Jellybean81 I love juniper and robin? Both high up on our list x