Olive, Zara, Milla, Theodora, Letty or India

[GigglingPinkGiraffe]

Thoughts on our shortlist, or similar name suggestions:

Olive
Zara
Milla (Millicent, Amelia or Camilla full name)
Theodora (Thea or Teddy for short)
Letty (Violet or Charlotte full name)
India (I guess Indy for short)

If we don't use Olive as a first name it would be the middle name.

LOVE Olive it's my little girls middle name! Butttttt don't like the rest of them in particular Milla just makes me think of milia (whiteheads) lol sorry.

Love India but spelt Indiya

Zara for me, but I'm biased as DD is a Zara 🙂

I love Letty

Olive or India

India. Thea or Zara. Love these.

Milla is such a nothing name and I can’t stand Olive, so frumpy.

I like Zara best.

Really dislike Olive (oily, murky green fruit) but I love Olivia. Zara is fab and I love Letty but would use Laetitia personally.

Lettice, as in the character in 'Murder at the Vicarage' by Agatha Christie. Just as parents went from like Olivia to thinking Olive is actually OK too, so same would work with Lettice - no different from choosing India, which sounds like a country...Lettice can be like salad, but so what.

Your names are a bit pretty-sounding without a meaning and without a serious-sounding version of them , and also liable to be duplicated, with too many of them in the class. A good name with soft sounds and 'y' sound at end, but more unusual, is Clemency - a serious and meaningful association, but pretty, flowery sounds, like in Clementine.

Zara is without a doubt the nicest. Milla reminds me of whiteheads or a miller and don't get me started on the ugly noise that is A mealy a.

I like Zara and Letty.

Portia is an unusual version of the pretty, classic name, and has gravitas.

Theodora is my absolute favourite 😍

Olive - I prefer Olivia. Olive makes me think small and brown/green.
Zara - my favourite of your shortlist. Very nice classy name.
Milla (Millicent, Amelia or Camilla full name) - meh. Quite like Camilla.
Theodora (Thea or Teddy for short) - I like this, Thea nicer than Teddy for short.
Letty (Violet or Charlotte full name) - I don't really see this as a natural short for either. Maybe for Violette - or Juliet?
India (I guess Indy for short) - not keen.

In order

Theodora (Thea or Teddy for short) like the name love the nns
Zara
Letty (Violet or Charlotte full name)
India (I guess Indy for short)
Milla (Millicent, Amelia or Camilla full name) don't like Amelia

I don't like Olive even although I know a lovely little one.

My favourite is Theodora, I like both your nn suggestions too. Although people would pronounce it Fea-dora around here which isn’t as nice.
I also like Violet/Letty. Wouldn’t Charlotte naturally be shortened to Lottie?
I don’t like India as a name, it feels a bit colonial to me.

Theodora / Thea are great. Hate Teddy. I don’t really like the other names.

I find Olive to be an ugly name. Makes me think of a just post war Britain, 1948, drab and depressing.

I really like Thea. Beautiful name (and could also be Althea)

Olive - really like
Zara - OK
Milla (Millicent, Amelia or Camilla full name) - don't like Amelia, Camilla is meh, Millicent is OK
Theodora (Thea or Teddy for short) - OK
Letty (Violet or Charlotte full name) - like Letty but not Violet or Charlotte and they don't work with the nickname very naturally. I like Lettice and Letitia,
India (I guess Indy for short) - really dislike, dated and wasn't that nice the first time round

Much prefer Olivia to Olive, who is stolid and practical and very early 1950s.

I'm leaning to Dorothy more than Theodora (maybe I just don't like a long O?). Wouldn't use Teddy, it's a baby boy or a soft toy.

Zara's okay... I remember when I was little thinking that Princess Anne just wanted to be A Bit More Special than calling her daughter Sarah

Milla is a bit nothingy. Millicent is a totally different feel. Prefer Amelia to Camilla but would use either of them in preference to Milla.

Are you white British? India is a bit dodgy for a white British person.

If I were told that Letty is short for Violet or Charlotte I'd think it was a bit contrived because you thought Laetitia sounded too posh.

Jemima
Cecily
Irene
Amy
Marie

Theodora is my favourite, and is on our list, although we are considering just Thea by itself, rather than a NN.

I like Zara. Olive is one I’ve never been able to warm to. Letty as a NN for Charlotte is a big stretch IMO. Love Charlotte though!

Milla are you pronouncing it Mee-luh or
mill-uh? I like the first way, but would then spell it Mila which I love. Amelia is my favourite of the longer names, but it’s hugely popular (which doesn’t bother me at all, but it’s an issue for some!)

So, I think I’d either go for Theodora NN Thea, or just Thea, Zara or Charlotte.

Oh and I LOVE India. Love it. But I am not sure about using it.

Thanks all. Zara was our favourite but we had hesitations (mainly around the shop name which no one has mentioned... while we can't get away from that, it clearly isn't as big deal as we worried). Lots of good points here though.

India is off our list thinking more about the potential connotations of colonialism.
Theodora I adore but worry about the F/Th - I have begun overthinking the pronunciation despite not having an accent which would lean toward fea-dora. We like Thea but again overthink Fea/Thea now.
Letty - I am hesitant about what full name would actually work. I don't like Laetitia. I like Lettice but couldn't do it - not brave enough!
Olive seems very marmite and Milla generally disliked.

Zara is my favourite, and I like Olive too.

@KELLOGSspeck

Love India but spelt Indiya

Dear God… not India, unless you have Indian heritage it really isn’t good, and dopey younique spellings don’t help that.

Olive only in a salad

Theodora is lovely. Dorey might be a more unusual / alternative nn. If you are worried about the th/f thing then Leonora might be an alternative

Zara is ok

Letty is ok. Not sure she’ll use it though

Milla is meh, I like Camilla though. The world does not need another Amelia