Eleanor or Meredith

[Helpmechooseanamein1day]

Hi, if any of my friends / family spot this, please don't share it or make fun of me 🙈

We have a little boy Kit (Christopher) and recently welcomed his baby sister.

We're settled on either Meredith (Merrie) or Eleanor (Nell), but which should we choose?

I do wonder if Eleanor / Nell goes better with Kit, or whether this is my by now fevered / panicked imagination at work. I maybe prefer Eleanor slightly for its sound (all other considerations aside)?? However, I do worry Eleanor and it's derivates are a bit overused - in particular I've noticed it a lot among female acquaintances of my age. Is it a bit square? Will it feel middle aged when she is a young woman? We're particularly not keen on Ellie (don't hate it just find it boring I suppose) and aware you can't always choose the nickname you want.

Meredith by contrast seems very unique (I've never met one) and not dated at all. Is Merrie too twee? I like that it's relatively unisex. Does it "go" with Kit?

We have to name this baby in 2 days(!!!) when she is registered. Got a middle name already for either and they both go nicely with our surname. They're both good names! Help!

Please no new name suggestions, I couldn't handle any more possibilities 😅

I think Eleanor is nicer.

I prefer Meredith to Eleanor, and Nell to Merrie, so I’m no help! But I think either goes fine with Kit and the number of years they will be frequently referred to as a pair is a relatively short part of a lifetime, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

Eleanor is nicer, and Nell goes very well with Kit.

Eleanor is such a classic that it won't date.

I find Meredith a bit dowdy, tbh. Sorry!

Eleanor is a lovely name. Not keen on Nell though.
Yes Merrie is rather twee.

Meredith

Eleanor. It’s such a beautiful classic name.

Meredith

Congrats on your baby! They're both lovely names and cute nicknames, I don't think you can go wrong with either.

Eleanor is lovely but she will be an Ellie probably however if you’ve managed to get people to call your son Kit and not Chris maybe she will stay Nell.

I absolutely love them both - they were both on my list!!

With Christopher (which I also love) I might choose Meredith to get the different ending sound- Eleanor and Christopher sort of rhyme depending on how you pronounce them. That's not a bad thing at all if you like to have similar sounding names for subsets - my personal taste is to have more different sounding names but we all have different tastes and isn't that a good thing! I honestly don't think you'd go wrong with either, they are both lovely strong elegant names.

*sibsets sorry autocorrect

Either is nice.

Eleanor is a classic; I have one in her 20's, I sometimes shorten it to Nora.

I thought Meredith was a boys name?

How would you pronounce Meredith? As in Grey’s Anatomy or how we pronounce it in Wales?

Eleanor is a beautiful, classic name and Nell is a nice nickname. Meredith sounds very ‘buttoned up’. I like Merrie and know one but it’s short for Merilyn rather than Meredith.

I prefer Meredith to Eleanor. As you say, El- names are saturated right now. I would get too hung up on which nickname you prefer; she might well change it to Ellie or use the full name of she wants to.

I LOVE Nell, and Eleanor is lovely too but just sooo popular and I too would be really worried about her being another Ellie.

Meredith is beautiful and rare. Merry is a sweet nickname and you can also use Edie as a nickname for Meredith which I also love.

I think I'd choose Meredith. It's soft and lovely. Or maybe Helena, nickname Nell, to remove to Ellie risk and make it a little more interesting both lovely names though.

I’ve always loved Eleanor. It was my girl name for each of my four boys (now teens). I, like you, was a little worried she would be lost in a sea of Ellie/Ellas though. If that bothers you Meredith is lovely too, and much more unusual.

Christopher is one of my favourite boy names too (but couldn’t use it as we discounted previous partners’ names). I love your taste!

Why do you shorten perfectly good names?
I love Meredith, but not Merrie.

How about Elinor, as Jane Austen spelt it in Sense and Sensibility. Love that version of the name xxx

Eleanor

Meredith is an anglicisation of a Welsh boy's name.

There's no such thing as 'very unique'.

I love the name Eleanor. It was top of the list for my DD but she just didn't look like one when she was born.

Look at your baby. Call her by each name. Does one just fit her better?

To answer questions:
Meredith like the Americans say it
Eleanor ending in the sound Nor not Na or Ner

She sort of feels more like an Eleanor but it's a close thing and tricky as we didn't think of Meredith until after she was born and we has assumed she would be called Eleanor until then. Didn't feel wholly inspired by Eleanor but then getting major pangs for it after deciding to move on to Meredith 🙈

The name to suit her best right now would be piggy or snuffles tbh 😂

Eleanor! My daughter is called Eleanor though so I'm biased.

I do absolutely adore the name Meredith too though.