Deborah or Debra?

[TheItalianPony]

NN - Bee (As the name means Bee)

Or neither?!

DEBRA is the name of the charity
Deborah is the name for a person.

However, she will be called Deb or Debbie.
If you want her to be called Bea, then call her Beatrice

Dora is also a nick name for Deborah.

Thanks all! I should have clarified, we would call her Bee, as a family nickname, in the way that we might call our kids Sweetiebum or FiFi LaRue or whatever...I call one of my boys Scuddlebutt and another Squiggle but wouldn't expect anyone else to go with that moniker!

You could use the original Hebrew Devorah?

I adore Deborah but dislike Debbie.

Debra is bad.

Has to be Deborah. So she can sing along with Pulp's Disco 2000.

'Her name was Deb--o-rah'

I do think you need to consider that it's not a well liked name. Not just now, as it's old fashioned, but I've found all my life that people have made negative comments to me about my name. You'll notice that no one on this thread has responded very positively. You will need a strong backbone to withstand the looks people will give you when you tell them the name.

I actually think Deborah is a really nice name, it's just the Debs and Debbie aspects that are off-putting. Same as with Victoria, nice name if you can force people not to go down the Vic/Vicky route.

Oh and Debra is a name. The charity was named after a girl called Debra. I was named Debra before the charity existed.

Neither, awful.
Don’t know where you get Bee from with either.
If you like that what about Beatrice ‘Bea’?

Deborah. Nice classic name
I think you will be ahead of the trend as it will likely come back into fashion in about 20 years or so. This means when she is in her 50s she will be associated with people in their 30s!

The people recoiling at Deborah are having the reaction their mothers probably had when introduced to granddaughter Elsie.

I strongly prefer Deborah as a spelling. It's OK as a name I guess. It feels rather dated right now but that may not be a bad thing.

But if you want the nick name "Bee/Bea" then why not Beatrice?

While names come in cycles I’m not sure Deborah is coming back around? I think it was very trendy at a time and place but that doesn’t mean it’s definitely going to come back.

I am named a name that was around during the heyday of Violet, Iris etc and my name has most DEFINITELY not returned and I doubt it ever will.

As a child I desired SO MUCH to just have a nice cool name like every other girl.

Men have dated me despite my name, even my DH has admitted it’s awful hahaha.

I’m a fairly attractive woman now and can almost pull it off, but was bullied pretty badly as a child and the frumpy name definitely impacted that. I honestly think getting jobs would even be easier if I had a better name.

People seem to focus on kids getting bullied because their name rhymes with something silly, but IMO kids get bullied because their names aren’t cool/pretty for the time.

Just call your daughter something generally liked and set her up well. It can be something rare/old fashioned like a Beatrice - but for the love of god give your daughter a name she can work to her advantage at all ages and in all career paths.

Debbie is 100% fine for an adult woman now and there is nothing wrong with it (lots of wonderful Deb’s out there) but she won’t be at school with any Debbies ever in her life.

Maybe by the time little Bea has a daughter, Deborah will be making a come back though! You could have a DGC Deborah to look forward to

Also just to add, my name has never ever come up in one of these baby name discussions because it is so far off the table. But I live in fear of it cropping up and being viciously cut down by every single poster. So just for any Debbies reading this, at least one person is considering your name, unlike mine 🤣🤣

Debra - because sometimes you need to pay by the letter for things!

Also, Deborah will get called Deb-bore-ah to wind her up

Deborah is sometimes pronounced Deb-Ora.,so I’d go with Debra.

Hello, my name is Deborah. I love my name - especially the links to two strong women in the Bible.
I'm NEVER Debbie or Debs and never have been. Some friends call me Dora, Bee or Deb and my ex called me Debo, but I am mostly always Deborah.
I'm not fussed about the negative comments here, I love the fact it's very much a marmite name. I chose marmite, controversial names for my children too, so I guess that's how I roll.

It's a bible name, why do we have to wait for it to 'come back round'? You can literally use it anytime.
I prefer the spelling Deborah, but Debra is fine. I don't think one is more 'right' since the Hebrew alphabet doesn't directly correspond to our Latin script alphabet. Bee is a very cute nickname.

How about Barbara or even Belinda with the nickname Bee? Similar sound to the name but just a bit nicer.

I really like Deborah. Actually would love to meet a tiny Debbie too.
Deborah makes me think of Deborah Orr, wonderful woman.