Noelle and Enid, Isabella and May

[caitlinrose]

We are still adding to our list and

Noelle

is the newest candidate. Do you like it? Does it work with the nickname Ellie?
Should we add the trema or not (does anyone know if it causes issues on documents?)

Enid

Enid has been growing on me more and more. I know in English it's ee-nid but in Welsh eh-nid, which one is nicer? I also heard a Welsh speaker say it more like enn-need online and now I don't know which one is correct. Could you tell me? Is the eh as in ehnnid or more eh-nid (with a long eh sound like the French é)?

Isabella

Has been on our list for a while and it's slowly becoming my favourite. Many people mentioned its popularity but is it popular to the point of being annoying or would it be fine? I saw on darkgreener that it fell quite a bit in 2021.

May

I think it's pretty and underused. Would you use Mae or May and why?

Isabella May

We were thinking about this combo, is it nice?

Thanks.

Isabella May is a combo of two v v popular names, but is still much nicer than Enid or Noelle.

I like May (with this spelling) and Enid. Noelle imo seems very American (if you’re in the UK)

Noelle as you’re spelling it looks both too long and rather naked. Noël to me is a pretty name but feels dated at the moment - too 1970s. How about Esme instead?

Enid is lovely - or could be. Don’t think it needs over complicating with alternative pronunciations. Settle on the English if in England, the Welsh if in Wales. But Edith is better.

Isabella is way too popular to be satisfactory.

May. No.

Enid (Ee-nid) is lovely and my favourite from your list.

Enid

May is massively overused as a middle name. Rose/Grace/May are quite literally every girl’s name.

I like Isabella but it’s popular. Enid is awful, sorry.

Noelle - unusual, quite nice

Enid - nice - I think she will be called EE-nid, as in Enid Blyton

Isabella - lovely, popular for good reasons

May - May, not Mae. Nice name, but possibly a bit overdone

Noelle - dreadfully dated, not ready for a revival. Ellie isn't an obvious diminutive

Enid - quite a spectacularly ugly name. The Welsh pronunciation is better by far. Edith is much nicer

Isabella - too long for me personally, but a beautiful classic name. Its popularity wouldn't bother me at all

May - simple and pretty. Definitely this spelling. Mae is, frankly, not classy

I thought Enid Blyton Was pronounced Eenee 😂 stil a horrific name though

If you like Mae, but want to be a bit different, try Maeve.

Noelle is lovely and sweet

Isabelle is definitely so popular it is annoying

Agree with PP, Enid is ugly name

May is meh

Noelle or Isabella for me!

Noelle is gorgeous. I would add the trema.

Enid is a really clunky and unattractive name imo.

Isabella and Isabella May - extremely popular.

If you're naming a child in order to produce a nickname, why not just call her the nickname? Ellie is a perfectly fine name.

I like Noelle.

I like May but prefer it as a first name. I disagree with the pp who said use Maeve if you want to be different - I know loads of little Maeves.

Isabella is nice but the popularity would bother me. Use it if you don't mind that though!

I absolutely hate Enid. I don't understand how anyone can look at all the beautiful names in the world and think Enid is the best.

Noelle - too cristmassy

Enid - Enid is lovely, but she'll get Ee-nid a lot, and it's not pretty. The name is a very old Welsh name, and pronounced - Enn-id

Isabella - it's been too popular for too long and disappears into all the Isabel(le), Izzy, Bella and Ella names

May - only if your surname is Nott. Nothing wrong with May other than it being overused as a middle name. Mae is awful. Mary is much nicer

Noelle is lovely.
Enid - assuming you live in England - will be pronounced the English way by everyone. So, unless you're Welsh or in Wales, I would use that pronunciation. I don't love it but it's ok.
Isabella is fine. A bit boring to my mind but fine.
May is completely gorgeous as a first name and utterly dull as a middle name.
Isabella May is fine.
May Isabella is truly lovely. As is May Noelle.

My DD is Enid, I love it. We are English/American so use the Eee-nid pronunciation, but she has lots of Welsh family who I assumed would use the Welsh one. None of them do because apparently in their part of Wales the other one is heard more often anyway. I honestly think both pronunciations are beautiful.

If you do go for it you have to accept that it's rather marmite and there will always be people who think it's ugly or that your pronunciation of it is, as evidenced by this thread (and every other time it comes up here). Luckily I have a thick skin and don't consider my personal opinions to be fact. How boring would the world be if we all found the same things attractive.

I must say I find your list really eclectic! In my mind someone considering Enid wouldn't like Isabella (probably because I really dislike the latter and all similarly "frilly", L-heavy names).

I'd probably go Noelle if I were you. It balances the firmer sounds of Enid with the softness of Isabella.

My DD is an Isabella. She was born in 2018. Never met another Isabella in any of the groups or classes she does, nor at her old nursery. I have had only heard of one other child with the same name and that was last year at a soft play.

Don't let popularity put you off a name you like.

The Welsh Enid I knew (an old lady) was pn Ennid. But maybe it's regional?

I do think that if you're not in Wales and go with the Welsh pronunciation you might find it quite tedious correcting everyone, but then that can be the case with so many names.

Isabella May is a perfectly pretty name but agree with PPs that Isabella is popular and May can be such a filler middle-name, that together they sound a bit meh. I like both names though.

How about Noelie, or Mary?

@ladycarlotta , it's not regional. Welsh is phonetic, so it's always En-id not Ee-nid.
The name became used by people who didn't speak Welsh and got anglicised as Eenid.

Good to know. I was more referring to OP's saying she had heard a welsh speaker say it was pronounced more like en-need, or asking if the eh was a long French-type one. Irish pn has regional variations (eg the regular discussion on here re the 'correct' way to pn Caoimhe) so didn't want to rule out the possibility that Welsh does too.

I guess the Welsh pn would be more EN'nid to be precise, but Ennid is pretty close.

For a welsh name to be pronounced Ee-nid it would be written as Inud or Inyd. Neither is a name.

It's not pronounced EN'nid, @ladycarlotta . It is pronounced EN-id. In welsh the emphasis is (nearly) always on the last but one syllable.