Help, baby name needed please...

[TigerMarshall62]

So I know what I'm letting myself in for, but wanted to get some honest feedback on names for an arrival in a few days... (fingers crossed)...

What do people think of these names?
Vesper
Zephyr
Asterin
Martha
Alba
Frieda
Elowen
Ailith

PS Vesper is first choice right now

Or what about Ottolie, Ottilie, Ottoline?

Aurelia?

Morgan's OK. Ottoline much better than Ottilie.
Aurelia is a bit frilly.

Marjolein?

That's really interesting, I'll ask my better half. What about Olwen?

I actually really like most of your list!

Vesper - love it
Zephyr - love it
Asterin - never heard of it!
Martha - nice but not as cool as the others
Alba - I’d be put off by the Scottish political connection but otherwise is lovely and I think also means “white”
Frieda - not a fan
Elowen - love it, am considering for DD3 just a little unsure of pronunciation issues
Ailith - not heard of but quite like it

I’m not keen on Ottilie or Aurelia, but they’re quite popular with the yummy mummies round my way.

How about Eira, Morven, Linnet, Zelda, Iona?

Olwen is nice, I also like Anwen and Morwenna

I like Morgan. How about Morgana?

Hester has a similar sound to Vesper.

Other suggestions:
Eudora
Veronique
Elvira
Fenella
Hephzibah
Eunice
Este
Ailsa
Estella
Effie (on it's own or short for Euphemia)

Alba, Martha, Morgan, and Aurelia are ok. The rest are the wrong side of unusual in my opinion. It’s easy to say you want to name your baby an unusual name but you don’t need to then live with it. And your child might not be an ‘exciting’ type of person, they might be a quiet and reserved person who dislikes explaining why they are called Vesper every five minutes.

Martha is lovely and Elowen OK, (although she would probably end up as yet another Ellie). Dislike the others.

I like Morgan

Other suggestions Caitlin & Meredith

Martha is the best one from your list

Please don't name your child Vesper

Interesting that vesper is so marmite, I can't figure out why. We both still really like it

Morgan - ok
Ottilie etc. - horrible sounding and a bit pretentious I feel
Aureilia - bit frilly
Olwen - bit dowdy

Suggestions -

Morwenna, Kerensa / Kerenza, Demelza, Merryn (all Cornish)

Eira, Eirlys, Mabli, Rhiannon, Ffion, Carys, Cerys (all Welsh)

Or -

Vera
Mhari
Meera / Mira
Aurora
Arwen
Ophelia
Cleo
Iona
Ariadne

I was going to suggest Hester if you like Vesper and Aster.

If you like Morgan then Morven is nice (Scottish). Morwenna is Welsh and Cornish and lovely (rolled R when Welsh, normal R when Cornish). There's also Morgana which is a bit more obviously feminine than Morgan.

Lowenna and Demelza are nice too.

Welsh names can be tricky if you're not a Welsh speaker - I'm a Welsh learner from a Welsh speaking family.

A few general pointers. Emphasis is on the penultimate syllable. Names ending in wen (pronounced like when) are feminine and names ending in wyn (win) are masculine e.g. Gwen and Gwyn. Welsh has a lot of letters which don't exist in English such as Ng, Ff and Ll.

Olwen is lovely but if you're not in Wales the wen part will often be mispronounced as win IME. The Welsh word for wheel is olwyn so Olwen mispronounced always sounds dreadful to me. Similarly the 'en' and 'an' sounds in Welsh names are often pronounced like 'un' outside of Wales so Megan becomes Meg-un instead of Meg-Anne and Seren becomes Serrun instead of SERR-en to rhyme with hen.

If you like Olwen you may also like Anwen and Alwen. Some other suggestions:
Elin - EL-in
Mari - marry (one of the Welsh versions of Mary)
Tesni - TESS-nee (the warmth from the sun)
Alys - Alice
Mali - Malley (Welsh for Molly)
Nia - NEE-ah (Welsh for Niamh. Niamh and Oisín/Nia and Osian were lovers in Irish and Welsh mythology)
Seren - SERR-en, en as in hen. It's the Welsh word for star used as a modern name. Cornish version is Steren.
Mabli - MAB-lee (Welsh for Mabel)

Wow, that's a really thoughtful, helpful and lovely reply, thank you so much.

As previous poster said, Zephyr is a male name.
Zephyrus was the ancient Greek god of the west wind.

Very sorry!! Cross-posted with earlier contributor to this thread.

Asterin does sound too much like Asterix/asterisk. What about Astraea?

Vesper-this is my Angel baby’s name for the meaning ‘evening star’ I don’t think it’s that ‘out there’ and wouldn’t raise many eyebrows in real life I don’t think.
Zephyr-feels masculine.
Asterin-sounds like Astrid or Asterix.
Martha-dated.
Alba-know a few. Not too keen.
Frieda-feels dated.
Elowen-like it but may become Ellie.
Ailith-can’t work out how to say it sorry.

One of my DC has a name from your list. Had DC2 been a girl our chosen name would have been Thora.

Morgan is lovely and I really like Ottilie.
Aurelia is pretty and I also like Aurelie, but I'm not sure I would actually use them.

I think vesper is marmite because it’s more usual as the name of a cocktail than a baby.

Depending on whether you’re quite confident or not, Vesper could be a hard name to carry off - it’s one of those names that invites questions.

I think that's true, why is this so difficult?! Bumping this up for any Sunday thoughts...

Vesper - I rather like this. It could work. But I wouldn’t want it confused with Vespa -the scooter, and Italian for wasp.
Zephyr - male name
Asterin - looks odd. Aster? The plant, and also means star.
Martha - fine but a bit dowdy.
Alba - OK, yes.

Frieda - yes, really like.
Elowen - No. it’s bland and pronunciation issues. Olwen is good. It’s a stronger name. But careful with the pronunciation of that too.
Ailith - is this a valid spelling?

Thank you @daisypond, I think our updated list now looks like this, in no particular order:
Vesper
Zephyr (Zephie/ Zeph)
Frieda
Ottoline / Ottiline/ Ottilie
Olwen
Elowen
Morgan

Vesper just looks like you didn't know how to spell Vespa - which means wasp. Nasty little fuckers.

Vesper is a normal word in the dictionary, so most people should know it, or at least recognise it, and know how to spell it.