Down to two names!

[ClaraBean]

We both love both of the names but dh strongly favours one, and I strongly favour the other 😁
Which do you prefer, and why? (I won't say which is my favourite!)
Shirley or Susan
Middle name will be Jean

Other names that we seriously considered, but we're discarded are Barbara, Gwen, Maureen, Moira and Roberta.
Opinions please (so I can report back to dh 😁)

Susan, to be used in full and definitely not shortened to Susie/Suzy etc

I don't like any of them. If pushed, I'd have to go for Susan, but I don't like it.

Susan is nice and due a comeback I think. Not keen on Shirley.

I am gobsmacked, every one of those names (except for Roberta) is the name of a girl I was in school with! (I was born in the 1960s.)

I prefer Susan, for the very shallow reason that I was friends with two Susans in school.

Are you thinking of Myra Hindley?

Susan

Shirley goes better with Jean - Susan Jean is too much "n" at the end!

Could be a trendsetter- these names are surely due a comeback soon. When I was younger I could never have imagined names like Ruby, Ava and Ivy being everywhere like they are now and would have laughed like some people are at some of these.

I think if you actually met a little Shirley or Susan it wouldn't seem as strange.

Susan is the better of the two, I know an older Shirl (Shirley) in the local accent it’s awful!

Susan, if I had to choose.

Maureen and Barbara are awful. No teenager wants to be called that. Or Shirley.

Have I stepped in time to the 1960s?

I only like Susan on that list (and even then it’s not great). The others are hideous,

We said that about Archie and Elsie thirty years ago!

Susan, by a country mile.
Although I would consider the bar to have been set quite low...

Susannah Jean is lovely!

My favourite of the bunch is Gwen. Of your top two I would chose Susan, but I prefer Susannah. I actually know 3 Susannah’s under 10, but no young Susan’s. I did once work in an office though, where 50% of the women were called Susan!

Susan has nicer pet forms.

I’d rather be a Susie than a Shirl.

By the time they're teenagers, those names may be cool.
I teach teenagers called Alfie and Mabel - I thought those names would never make a comeback!

I am. And don't call me Shirley.

Exactly. As we know from clothes, shoes and hair - fashion is cyclical!

I bet you're the poster who once posted that Bertha was a lovely name.

Susan

I think that was me (name change) and even I draw the line at Shirley and Susan 😄

Shirley not!

Gwen is nice from your list. Others quite dated. Sorry.

Susan over Shirley, although I don’t think much of either name really. Personally I would go for Susannah or Suzanne over Susan.

Of all the names you’ve listed Gwen is the only one I like at all.

I love Susan. Susan Jean flows really well