Please help us pick a girls name!

[Bobbycat123]

Hello,

Please help us pick a name for our baby girl (due any day now!)

We have narrowed it down to the shortlist below but really struggling to decide.

Would really appreciate your honest thoughts on these names. Which is your favourite?

Nina
Orla
Ella
Eleni
Elodie
Zoë
Zelié

Many thanks in advance x

Elodie or Zoe 😀 🍼😀

Wow - thank you so much for all your responses!!

@DotDotDotDotDot and @mathanxiety thank you for flagging my typo with the é! You are totally right - it should be Zélie (not Zelié). I’ve just come across this name in another MN thread and it’s a very recent addition to our list. @lennolin @KnickerlessParsons I have to admit I am not 100% sure about the pronunciation (and so will need to make sure we are saying this correctly if we use this name!) As far as I know, I think it is a French name and is pronounced ‘zehlee’ but please do correct me if I am wrong on this!

@GAH3 Eleni is a Greek name which I absolutely love (a friend’s mum is called Eleni and uses the nickname ‘Leni’ which I quite like as an option alongside El/ Eli etc).

Thanks again everyone - really appreciate hearing your thoughts

Elodie. Also like Nina

Ella by a long mile.

Classical, elegant and just down right beautiful.

Think Ella Fitzgerald.

Nina. Think it would sound great at any age. Not Ella, too popular.

I love Eleni and Zoe.

Only possible caveat for Eleni - I have a friend who's married to an Eleni, and for a long time I thought he was gay and married to a man because everyone kept calling her Leni, which I assumed was a man's name. No issue once they're grown up, but a teenage girl might not like it?

All lovely names.
ella and orla I would rule out as the least lovely

Elodie is my favourite from your list followed by Eleni, I met an Eleni recently (she pronounces it El-ay-nee) and I've loved it since

Zoe. Timeless. You don't hear it much these days.

Nina - like
Orla - Oral
Ella - overused
Eleni - will get called Elainey
Elodie -yet another Ellie
Zoë - like
Zelié - did you mean Zélie?

I only like Nina and Zoë

Seem to be in agreement with pps but I really like Nina, Zoe and Zelia.

Zélie would be pronounced Zeh-lee. But Zelié would be pronounced Zeh-lee-yay. So be careful with your accents obviously

I am guessing you are not in France. I would personally avoid Elodie if you are in England as I really hate the way it is pronounced here.

I like Orla and Nina from your list. And they are difficult to misspell or mispronounce (unless you went for the Orlaith spelling)

How are you pronouncing Zelie?

Nina, then Eleni and Zelie. All lovely.

I’m not at all keen on Elodie.

Ah, sorry just seen you already confirmed it's Zélie.

I like this one but you do have to be careful about the accent.

One of Harry and Meghan's flower girls was called Zalie, which I would assume is pronounced the same way. I actually really like Azalea, as in the flower, with Zalie as a nickname.

Elodie is one of those French names which is currently popular in the UK but very out of fashion in France. Same goes for Amélie, Florence and Isabelle, which are all rare now in France. Elodie and Amélie are very much names of the 1980s, like Lisa and Nicola are in the UK. I don't know if this bothers you or not.

Sorry - I made a typo in my original post. It would be Zélie (not Zelié).

@DancingSober thank you for confirming pronunciation would be Zeh-lee

Thanks everyone for letting me know your thoughts - really helpful!

looking forward to our Xmas baby!

Have you read the book Eleni? @Bobbycat123
Absolutely mesmerising. True story about a Greek family when the Nazis invaded.

I read that Órla without the fada, ie Orla, means vomit in Gaelic

Elodie is lovely. I quite like Zoe too.

Eleni (I'm biased as I have a DD on the way who will be Eleni) 😊
Elodie is my second fav

Zelie. Was on my shortlist.

The only one I really like off this list is Zoe....

Eleni nn Leni. 💯 The Greek Elena I know is Lenny which I like too. You just have to have a plan to avoid Ellie - there are TOO many of them

Or Zoe, which is really nice

Nina - nah, it’s so blah
Orla - ok. Oona is much nicer
Ella - wet. One of millions
Elodie - meh. Faddy. One of many elllies
Zelié - hard work for her

What did you go with, OP?