Final girl names, how is it so hard?

[NordicNell]

I love this community so please help me choose our daughter's name from our finalists. You would not believe how difficult it has been to find names that we both like and that work promounciation wise in our three languages (English,French,Finnish).

Please be kind as these are our finalists and I'm already having a lot of anxiety for this. Middle names are Ida and Aurelia that are in our family.

Freya Ida Aurelia - I know this is popular but Freya is a cool nudge to our nordic background. Nn Frey Frey or Ray is nice

Amélie Ida Aurelia - love nn Millie, Mimi, Lili and that also all grandparents can pronounce

Léa Ida Aurelia - popular in France and Finland. The accent might make it a bit confusing but we wouldn't mind both pronounciations Lee-a and Ley-ah.

Other names we loved but didn't work for different reasons: Iris, Frida, Thea, Ella, Vivian, Sylvia, Edith, Lucy

Lea will be written by people without any accent and pronounced Lee. If you want it pronounced Lee-ah then I would spell it Leah?

@CrouchEndTiger12

If it is causing you anxiety then I'd say you don't actually like any of them enough if there isn't one you're drawn to.

You can just give a child a name you just like you know. It doesn't have to give a nod to everyone's heritage, you can call a child any name you like if you like it.

They're all a bit fussy. I'd go for Lea as there won't be many. The initials would spell the name too in a way LIA.

You are right, none of these are my top favourites. The names that I loved didn't work for pronounciation/other issues.

The family names I do actually love, but otherwise it has really been hard trying to find something that is nice/my husband and I pronounce somewhat similarily/ is considered a name in all of our countries. For instance botanical names Hazel, Violet, Ivy that I love are not working so well in our other countries, and the same with Zoey, Imogen, Penelope, Phoebe etc.

Basically 90% of our multilingual friends go with Mia, Amelia, Olivia, Emma, Ella, Sofia, Julia. But they are just so common.. I'm trying to find something not totally common but that we also like 😔

I had almost all of those names on my list for DD2!

I love Freya but it is very popular, top 10 for a while. Not sure if that bothers you as the other names are all more unusual. Frida is a nice variation but much less common?

Frida Aurelia Ida is lovely.

I’m not that keen on Lea. Linnea is a nice alternative.

@Challengerice Rude 🤬
They are all beautiful names, but I think Freya is the nicest 😊

Also I would say that you are probably not going to find “the one” name that you love. That’s ok though! I have two daughters and their two names are probably not my favourite names in the whole world. But you have to choose something where you are happy with the shortening (nickname), the pronunciation, that goes with your surname etc so it is a practical choice as well as an emotional one.

How about Eva or Anna? they work in many different languages.

@BungleandGeorge

How about Eva or Anna? they work in many different languages.

Very pretty names but my mom is Anna and my best friend Eva :)

They are all lovely names and with easy spellings and pronunciations so I would wait and see which she looks most like.
Don't worry about popularity I have a name of my generation and apart from when I was in primary school when I wanted my name to be whichever heroine I was reading about at the time it's never been a problem.

@Bobbots

Also I would say that you are probably not going to find “the one” name that you love. That’s ok though! I have two daughters and their two names are probably not my favourite names in the whole world. But you have to choose something where you are happy with the shortening (nickname), the pronunciation, that goes with your surname etc so it is a practical choice as well as an emotional one.

Thanks, this was nice to read. It's upsetting knowing that I can't go with any of my top choices and have to go a bit against my own intuition here, but I'm sure with time I'll learn to love the names.

@NoCureForLove

Lea will be written by people without any accent and pronounced Lee. If you want it pronounced Lee-ah then I would spell it Leah?

This is a really good point and one that does worry me 🤔

Why not just Aurelia Ida if you love it? I adore the names Aurelia of Aurelie, and they are very like (but much more unusual than) Amelie.

Aurelia is gorgeous and Aury or Lia are both super cute as a nn.

*Aurelia OR Aurelie

They're all really lovely.
I love Freya the most.

They are all beautiful names OP, you can’t go wrong with either. My favourite is Léa, closely followed by Freya.

As a multilingual, multicultural child myself (if you can call someone that), I appreciate how hard it is to find a name that works in almost every situation, and I think it’s really great you have given so much thought to it. It’s not as simple as ‘choose the name you like best’, because this little girl will most likely spend her holidays flying from one country to another, meeting friends and family in different parts of the world… Having a nice simple name that everyone she encounters can pronounce would make her life much easier.

My siblings and I have what could be considered ‘easy to pronounce’ names from the country we were born in, but it was definitely a bit annoying having 80% of our relatives butchering the actual pronunciation every time they met us, simply because certain sounds didn’t even exist in their languages. I love my name and I love that it reflects the biggest part of my heritage, but I will be taking your approach when naming my children.

I like all 3 but I love Freya and think it goes best with the middle names too xx

I agree all nice names. I wouldn’t pronounce Lea as Lee, I’d probably think Lay-a with the accent and Lee-a without. I think you’ll get a mixture though which may be a bit annoying.
How about Priya, Hannah, Maria, Rita? All quite straightforward pronunciation

Or Alva (not sure how well that travels though!)

@irresistibleoverwhelm

Why not just Aurelia Ida if you love it? I adore the names Aurelia of Aurelie, and they are very like (but much more unusual than) Amelie.

Aurelia is gorgeous and Aury or Lia are both super cute as a nn.

This is a bit silly but couple of people who I mentioned Aurelia missheard "orally" and it just made me think of all the possible bullying options.. though maybe I'm also a bit too sensitive to stuff like that atm

We had similar with our second daughter. Decided on the middle name of Maria (after multiple family members!) but couldn't decide on a first name. In the end we decided to use Maria as the first name! It suits her really well and though I don't love it as much as my other daughter's name I def think it was the right decision. How about uaing Ida or aurelia (both beautiful!)

Gaia?

@jellyjellyinmybelly

We had similar with our second daughter. Decided on the middle name of Maria (after multiple family members!) but couldn't decide on a first name. In the end we decided to use Maria as the first name! It suits her really well and though I don't love it as much as my other daughter's name I def think it was the right decision. How about uaing Ida or aurelia (both beautiful!)

This is a good suggestion and we have thought of it but unfortunately DH and I pronounce Ida so differently (Eye-da and Ee-da) that I was already getting mixed up when swapping languages as I do every day. Maria is actually a really good name internationally!

@BungleandGeorge

Or Alva (not sure how well that travels though!)

This was on our list but someone asked about it here and half of the people thought of vulva 😑

@jellyjellyinmybelly, Maria is so beautiful. Really refreshing.

They are all lovely but honestly, you'll know when you meet her and look at her gorgeous wee face who she is.

Lina
Lilia
Layla