Thoughts on baby name shortlists

[Carlos18]

Hello Mumsnet,

I’m due this week and we have kept the sex of the child a surprise and as before, my husband and I are struggling a bit agreeing on names. We have a shortlist for boys and girls but I expect some of my favourites have either been knocked off because we don’t both like it, or it doesn’t go well with our slightly awkward last name. The new baby will be a sibling to our oldest child Maeve (who’s name I still love but has now become super popular it would seem but I guess that’s just one of this things). So here are some that me and my husband both think are ok at least…but wouldn’t say I’m totally sold on

Boys:

• Alden
• Arlen (front runner)
• Beck
• Flynn
• Logan
• Orson (front runner)
• Raymond
• Sebastian
• Vincent

Girls

• Ada
• Aisling
• Anwen
• Ava
• Bridget
• Cora (my second favourite after Nora but my husband doesn’t like Nora)
• Eleanor
• Elva

What are your thoughts on some of these please?

I only like Flynn of your boys names.
I like all the girls but my favourite is Bridget

Ava is too similar to Maeve maybe. Unless I’m saying Maeve wrong.

Logan and Anwen

Of your boys names I like Flynn and Arlen and girls names Ava and Cora

The only boys names I like are flynn and Sebastian and for the girls it's Ada but I love Norah it's beautiful, not keen on Cora though lots of them near me

Sebastian and Flynn
Ada and Cora

Arlen and Cora are both brilliant names

I like Beck and Bridget

I love cora.

Boys:

• Alden - really like
• Arlen (front runner) - not heard of this before which puts me off a bit tbh
• Beck - like
• Flynn - ok
• Logan - not keen on this. Bit if a different vibe to the others I think.
• Orson (front runner) - nice
• Raymond - I went to school with a Raymond. He always had a builder's bum
• Sebastian - nice. A bit posh but not in a bad way
• Vincent - don't understand the love for this name at all tbh.

Girls

• Ada
• Aisling
• Anwen
• Ava
• Bridget
• Cora (my second favourite after Nora but my husband doesn’t like Nora)
• Eleanor
• Elva

All good. My favourite is Cora but I may be biased . Ava is very popular but you probably know that already. I thought Elva was a bit weird at first but it's growing on me.

Hope that helps!

Are you/DH Irish? Do you live in Ireland?

Alden

• Arlen (front runner)
• Beck
• Flynn
• Logan
• Orson (front runner)
• Raymond
• Sebastian
• Vincent

Logan out of those NOT Vincent.

Girls

• Ada
• Aisling
• Anwen
• Ava
• Bridget
• Cora (my second favourite after Nora but my husband doesn’t like Nora)
• Eleanor
• Elva

Eleanor out of those.

I’d go for Eleanor as you can call her Nora as a personal pet name if you like and then both you and DH are happy!

Out of your boys list I like Flynn.

Thanks for comments so far! Genuinely helping my 39 week pregnant fuzzy brain.

@TenThousandSpoons Ah yes Ava is probably a bit similar to Maeve (pronounced May-v)

Girls....Ada ( definately not Nora or Cora)
boys......Vincent ( not Arlen or Alden....they don’t even sound like proper names)

@clpsmum I love Norah. I only have a few days to brings the husband round to it though so likely won’t be successful there. Ha.

@FantasticFebruary I’m not Irish but my husband is half Irish and our last name is. We’re not dead set on an Irish name but do seem to like them quite a lot judging by the shortlists

Beck and Sebastian are the nicest of your boys names.

Not keen on any of the girls names tbh - I absolutely loathe the name Cora for some reason and do a little face screw up whenever I see it on here (which is a lot!) but that is obviously just my thing...

I would never have thought of naming a baby Nora until 9 months ago when my friend had one, now I have an association I think it's pretty cool

I like Flynn and Sebastian of your boys names. Arlen makes me think of Irlen syndrome. Norah is a fabulous name, I like Anwen (the ones I know are both known as Annie) and Eleanor. Ada and Ava are too similar sounding to Maeve.

Love Orson and Ava

I think it's fair to say we do not have similar taste in names.
If I had to pick I'd say Vincent / Vinnie and Cora.

@DoucheCanoe loving the name DoucheCanoe by the way.

@Kite22 that was a super polite way of putting it! . I do appreciate the input so thank you.

I thought there might be a good mixed bag of comments. Interesting to see Flynn being the most popular on the list for boys.

Like I say I don’t think I LOVE any of them but perhaps we just need to like one.