First name help _____ Isabella

[BabyTwoPending]

We have a baby girl due and are set on using Isabella for her middle name after DH Gran. I'm currently having a wobble over our 2 favourite first name choices as I'm not sure they work well together:

Iona Isabella
Lara Isabella

Other names we have on the list are:

Lori Isabella
Hayley Isabella
Eilidh Isabella (DH is from Scotland, but we live in England so I was worried about how people would pronounce and spell this one which is why Hayley is also on our list)

Which one do you prefer?

They're all lovely. Which one do YOU prefer?

Your second list doesn't flow with the middle name, and I only like Eilidh.

Iona and Lara are both ok, but I'd check how each sounds with the surnmae.
Iona sounds like 'I own a'.

I really like Iara Isabella and hayley Isabella (although prefer hayley)

Lara or Eilidh. I am in England and have come across an Eilidh occasionally over the years. I only needed to be told once how to prinounce it and it has stuck so I wouldn't worry!

Also like Lori!

Iona is both lovely and strong and I’d go for that, but ideally I’d break it up eg Iona Katharine Isabella, or whatever family name works

Lara is lovely but there are quite a few and all the similarly popular Lara/Lola/Lena/Lyra/Luna/Leah/Leila/Lilas blur into one blah blah so I wouldn’t

How about Flora? Flora Isabella is splendidly Scottish

Eilidh is fab but I bit of a PITA. How about Elsbeth? (Although technically the same name as Isabella so maybe a bit weird) Marsali, Mirren, Morven, Edith, Ida, Amy, Emmeline nn Emmy?

Hayley is nice but not v distinguished . Harriet nn Hatty?

Lori is appalling, like a sweet valley high extra. Lowri, Lois, Laurel are all quite nice though

Victoria Isabella?

I much prefer Isabella as a first name. So very pretty and feminine.

I love Eilidh, and also like Iona. Don't use Hayley just as an alternative to Eilidh, I know they rhyme but otherwise they are completely different names with very different vibes if that makes sense.

I'm also Scottish and living in England. My first choice of boys name was a Scottish name with Gaelic spelling. Was vetoed by my English partner as 'no one will know how to pronounce it'. But I found out last week there's another boy the same age as my son in nursery with that very name! Funny to think there could have been two wee toddlers with the same unusual Scottish name in the same English nursery class. And FWIW, the other boy seems to be getting on just fine with his 'unpronounceable' name!

I don’t think you can have anything that ends in an a, it just sounds jarring trying to say both names together
Hayley is a little bit nineties and I’ve no idea how to pronounce Eilidh

Thanks everyone for your opinions it's been good to get other people's perspective on the names.

@pinklavenders I equally like Iona and Lara and our DS would have been called one of these if he had been a girl but it would have been with a different middle name. I got to choose the middle name with our 1st and DH gets the choice this time round.

I think Lara Isabella sounds great!
Iona might be a bit trickier but my favorite is definitely Lara:)

I love Lara and Hayley (these would be on my list). Either goes with middle name but honestly for me this wouldn't be a huge deal as so rarely said together.

Violet Isabella

I love Lara.

The first name that popped into my head when I saw your thread title was Gloria, though!

I think Iona Isabella is beautiful. Lara is nice too but Iona is special.

I love the suggestion of Flora Isabella. I also like Lori Isabella.

Lara is the nicer of your choices.

funnily, before opening your thread I thought of Cara Isabella.

I like Eilidh but with Isabella and a Scottish link would go for -

Heather,

Freya
Bonnie
Eloise
Orla

My dd is Alexandra Isabella.

I like Lorna Isabella, but all your names are lovely

Which name do you like the most. That's the one you should have. It's silly worrying about whether it goes with the middle as almost no one uses all their names at the same time. The only time they are used are when the child is a brand new baby and people are asking what the name is.

You want to make sure they don't sound silly together and that the initials are ok but other than that it really really doesn't matter how the middle name goes with the first name (and the surname)

I don't think either Lara or Iona go well with Isabella.

People will run the names together so they sound like Lara Risabella or Iona Risabella. The same goes for Lori, Cara, Flora and lots of other names that have been suggested.

Personally I'd go for a first name that ends either with a hard consonant like Catherine or with an 'ee' sound like Emily.

Lara is lovely

Jeannette