Pretty names which aren't 'frilly'?

[Hippohappiness]

I'm looking for a girl's name which is pretty but not too 'frilly' or 'cutesy'. I realise it's quite subjective, but does anyone have any ideas? Something which is cute on a little girl but also suits a grown woman? Names which I think fit the bill - Imogen, Phoebe, Serena, Iris, Megan, Iona, Erin... any thoughts?

Augusta
Claude
Franka
Irene
Joanna
Livia
Lydia
Paula, Paulina
Portia

Adelaide is lovely

Esme

I think of Esme as a man's name (a favourite of mine)

@TellmewhoIam

I think of Esme as a man's name (a favourite of mine)

It's very unpopular in English speaking countries as a male name, yet comfortably within the top 100 in the Girl's name lists in the UK/US/Aus. I'd feel exceptionally sorry for any boy called Esme! It's not universally seen as a unisex name like Taylor, Robin/Robyn, Frances/Francis, Ashley/Ashleigh. Esme/Esmèe is firmly seen as a girls' name here.

@Gullible2021 Esmé male, Esmée female....Like Michel M / Michelle F...
But then, I think Francis M, Frances F. And Ashley M. Ashleigh 'not a name, but ok'.
UK poster here but possibly just old fashioned or old!

Yes, but my point is here in the UK Esme is an exceptionally rare choice for boys and exceedingly common for girls. It would be seen as very strange and actually quite cruel to use Esme for a boy nowadays - even worse than using Evelyn (with the long ee) for a boy, which was orginally solely a boys name 100+years ago but is now barely used except as girls name with both pronunciations. Not so with Francis, Robin or Ashley. I can imagine very raised eyebrows if someone now here in England announced their son was called Esmè and lots of "but it's a GIRLS' name?!" and concerns about teasing and bullying.

(Yes, Francis IS the boys name, Frances the girls' equivalent, I wasn't disputing that,
Ashley can be either, Ashleigh is always female and has been commonly used for a very longtime).

Claudia

Hmmm. Not convinced, but the UK is a big place. Someone explained to me when I was little that Aimée and Esmée were 'the same' name. Meaning beloved girl, cherished female person. I would be sorry for a female Esmé travelling and encountering the same as female Nicolas...Nicola is the male version, Nicoletta the female in Italian...but a lot more places globally are close enough to French to notice an é / ée weirdness.

Madeleine
Anna
Alice

@TellmewhoIam

Hmmm. Not convinced, but the UK is a big place. Someone explained to me when I was little that Aimée and Esmée were 'the same' name. Meaning beloved girl, cherished female person. I would be sorry for a female Esmé travelling and encountering the same as female Nicolas...Nicola is the male version, Nicoletta the female in Italian...but a lot more places globally are close enough to French to notice an é / ée weirdness.

It's statisically a fact.

www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc363/babyindex.html#1,Esme

Search Esme under boys, it doesn't even appear.

Yet the exact same name is popular as a girls' name in the UK Top 100.

Coincidentally, on Darkgreener which measures names in England and Wales Esme (that spelling) is ranked 43rd in popularity in the last years' released name registration, for Girls. Esmee is only 417.

And it doesn't appear at all as a popular name for boys. These charts go back to 1996 and include names that have only been given to 2 or 3 babies. My friend's baby's name is on there, ranked at 4001 and she was one of only 3 born in the UK the year she was born. If Esme was a commonly accepted boys' name in the past 25 years it would be there, even if only a handful of boys had it as their name.

names.darkgreener.com/esme
names.darkgreener.com/#esmee

Note if you type in Robin, both sexes come up.

names.darkgreener.com/#robin

Rebecca
Ellen

@Gullible2021 yes ok, like Charlie and so on. It'll always be a boy's name to anyone with French as well as English from early on. I accept that the name has been changing sex in England.

Elke (pn El-Khu)

[quote TellmewhoIam]@Gullible2021 yes ok, like Charlie and so on. It'll always be a boy's name to anyone with French as well as English from early on. I accept that the name has been changing sex in England.[/quote]
Interesting as my father is a native French speaker so obviously I have been around native French speaker my whole life (I even have a French first, middle and last name) so I would be one of those people you'd
be referring to. Esme is used as a girls name in France now. More so than Esmeé.
Esmé doesn't make it onto the French lists of baby names for boys at all. But Esme is on the French Girls' lists.

French baby name websites, such as this

www.les-prenoms.org/prenom/esme

tell you how many boys were called Esme or Esmé in a particular year in France. Every year I looked at, the number was 0 for
boys. Around 6 for girls.

Worldwide it's only been assigned to 0.01% of boys.

It's really not popularly a boys' name,
in France or the UK, despite your insistance otherwise. It's not like René/Reneé,
Michel/Michélle, Jean/Jeanne etc. It's universally known as a girls' name and has been since the mid 19th century.

@Gullible2021 -é will always be a masculine ending to me. I suspect I'm a lot older than you. It doesn't really matter anyway, as sheer numbers don't differentiate enough.

[quote TellmewhoIam]@Gullible2021 -é will always be a masculine ending to me. I suspect I'm a lot older than you. It doesn't really matter anyway, as sheer numbers don't differentiate enough.[/quote]
I agree, with my background generally é = masculine if I'm looking at French. But we aren't in France. Beyoncè is 100% feminine to me, I've never heard anyone, even my French speaking family say "she has a male name".

And the name you initially stated was
a man's name was Esme. Which is universally a female name. In Latin/Hispanic countries its a diminutive of Esmeralda (meaning Emerald) and popular as a standalone girls' name.

My main point is, for most people now, to our ears calling a boy Esme would be akin to calling him Phoebe or Jane. We'd find it odd
and quite cruel as it's such a popular girls'
name.
And as a teacher I've encountered hundreds
of odd names!

Helena
Stella
Charis (Karis)
Marianne
Sophie
Juliet
Rosanna
Amelie
Madeline

Ffs Beyoncé

My screen is cracked and I'm not always able to use my keyboard the way I try to, especially not
with special characters

Faye
Anna
Julia
Eve
Heather
Rosa

@Gullible2021 There are many Francophone countries or countries with Francophone communities that are not France. In my godfather's family, which has branches in the Antilles and Canada, Esmé is exclusively a male name. The intensity of your investment is a bit scary tbh and I'm backing slowly away from this thread into my community of conservative (small c) namers.

Gabriella? Lucy?

Celeste
Lucinda
Mirren
Linnea
Mallory
Lucia

Imogen was my first thought reading your OP so glad to see it’s top of your list. Also suggest:
Rebecca
Hazel
Adeline

Wren