Freya, Flora or Isabel?

[kennetrose]

I'm past my due date and still struggling! My husband and I agreed a shortlist of three but he's said the final decision is mine. Partly because I've done all the work in growing the baby but also because I'm far more opinionated than him on names. To me things like name meaning are just as important as the sound of the name but he just likes the sound. Husband would be happy with any of these names, although his favourite is Isabel (nickname Izzy).

I'm not looking for feedback on the names per se but the pros and cons and how I should weigh them up. I'm clearly overthinking this massively! Any thoughts welcome.

Flora

• love the meaning and the history of the name. The fact it's connected to mythology and nature makes it the ideal name for me on paper. Also love the sound.

• I don't mind that it's a brand of margarine but I would hate for people's reactions to be (either to our faces or behind our backs) "like the margarine?". That said, when my parents told my grandparents my name after I was born they said it was a barmaid's name. It's naive of me to want everyone to love my child's name, someone will have something negative to say no matter what I'm sure (even if they don't say it to my face).
• I don't like Flo as a nickname and I'm not sure about Florrie, but I will inevitably give her a nickname because that's a habit I have.

Freya

• again love the meaning and history of the name. Makes me think of a strong powerful woman.

• it's so popular. I wish that didn't bother me but it does. However I don't have any reference for how popular it is. It's in the top 10 names but popular names these days are less popular than they used to be - eg. Olivia is the top girl name from 2021 and there were under 4000 babies with that name. Compared to the most popular name in 1996, Sophie, when there were 8000 babies with that name. I remember there being five Sarah's in my class at school one year but I don't think that would happen anymore.

Isabel

• it's Spanish on origin (husband is half Spanish, surname is Spanish)
• it goes with my favourite middle name, which Flora and Freya don't. I won't share the middle name because it's unusual and I don't want to dox myself. It's too unusual for a first name which is why I would only use it as a middle name. It's Manx Gaelic which reflects my heritage.

• don't love the meaning of the name. It's biblical which means nothing to us.

+ however I looked into the history and etymology of the name and I do love that. It also makes me think of a strong woman.

• not sure how I feel about Izzy as a nickname.

So the formatting didn't work very well but the bullet points are mean to be cons!

Definitely Freya

All three names are lovely and very feminine.

At my DC’s school there are quite a few Freya and Isabels but no Flora.

I like Isabel, then Freya.

Posted to soon. My dd is Freya and the only other Freya we've met is a random kid at soft play who heard me call out her name and said that's my name. They bonded and played together for a bit but we haven't met another (although we know a couple of rayas).

All are good, strong names. Freya, though, because we know one and she is a great person.

Freya, then Isabel, then margarine.

Flora is my very favourite, it’s lovely and gorgeous nickname options. Isobel is very pretty but just so popular it would put me off. A lovely sound though. Freya seems bland and nothing-y to me

It says a lot about society that Flora is the name of a lovely saint, a suffragette, a well known anthropologist, a Roman goddess, several characters in works of literature… and yet someone on MN always comes along to point out the margarine as if that’s the only thing linked with the name 😂

I like Isabel best (although would use a different spelling, myself). Whilst Freya is a nice name, there's something about it that I'm not keen on, maybe the imagery I get when I think of the name - must be in my head somewhere!

Also, the fact Isabel is your husband's favourite is also a big factor to me.

But if you don't love it, then it won't be right for you.

I'm not looking for feedback on the names per se but the pros and cons and how I should weigh them up.

This is very confusing to me - how are they in any way different?! - but clearly I’m the only one to find it so.

I’m not keen on Flora or Freya, they both lack substance to me.

Isabel is my preference, and it has a rich history. I wouldn’t let the biblical reference put you off.

….speaking from experience (although with a different spelling 😉).

1)isabel
2)Freya
3) flora

All lovely names

I have an Isabelle, had no idea about a biblical link but then it’s really not important. You can always have Belle as a nn option. It’s a beautiful name.

I love Freya, I was in school with one and it was pretty much unheard of then. It’s more common now but that just means everyone can say and spell it, there’s unlikely to be loads in her class.

Flora is very pretty and girly, it’s nice but if she was a tomboy it would be a bit odd.

Based on people I know/knew with those three names, I'd go with Isabella.

This was my mother, grandmother, ggm, gggm etc. name back to the beginning of time. I missed out because my mother didn't hold with tradition.

My mother was always known as Belle and, tbf, it suited her perfectly.

My gm was known as Isabel, and my ggm as Isa.

I'd have wanted to be called Izzy if the tradition hadn't been broken!

I work with children and it did feel like every baby I knew was called Freya at one point.

I love Isobel but again it’s very popular. Flora is sweet and I never hear it at school.

Freya is my favourite.

It's given to 0.3% of babies - so one in every 300 or so. Definitely not several per class.

Could you look up the popularity in your area to set your mind at rest? You can download the spreadsheet from the ONS.

For comparison, there were around 30 Freyas born in my area in 2021, and there are over 250 primary schools.

Flora is my favourite by miles. I do like Isabel, but personally would spell with an O. I don’t like Freya because to me it sounds a bit unfinished, perhaps due to the vowelly sound?

If popularity is a concern, Freya and Isabel are far more popular than Flora. And Isabel (and Isabella) and the various different spellings has been popular for a while so lots at secondary school or a bit older.
I think they are all lovely names and you should choose your favourite without worrying about popularity! I'm going to be another one of those people who says that they have a child with a popular name and they are the only one in their year at school 😂.

Isabelle (I prefer this spelling)
Flora
Freya

They are all nice, but Flora is definitely my favourite. I’ve come across a few small Floras recently, but it has nowhere near the massive popularity of Freya and Isabel (especially Freya, which is everywhere at the moment).

Caveat is that it is rising steadily now (currently #220), probably because it has a similar style to other current names like Cora and Clara. Not sure whether it will ever reach the dizzy heights of Freya though, because some people definitely still associate it with the margarine (I did go to school with one in the ‘80s who was subjected to the odd ‘Flora Margarine’ pun, but I’d like to think we’ve moved on a bit since then!)

It’s classy, feminine but not too frilly, a bit quirky, and has nice nature/mythology links. Plus Flora Poste is one of my favourite literary characters, which is another bonus. It’s one of those names that still has quite a middle class feel at the moment (all of the ones I’ve met recently would probably be described as posh with a slightly artsy/hippyish vibe) but it will probably be democratised as more people use it.

As you can probably tell I’m a fan! If we had another DD (which isn’t happening), Flora would definitely be a front runner.

Thanks for feedback everyone! Especially the reassurance on Flora not only having margarine connotations! Searching the name on mumsnet is a bit demoralising because so many people mention it, or reference an awful joke which I hadn’t thought of and I don’t think many primary school children will be thinking of.

I was surprised the Isabel spelling is less popular than Isabelle, it’s the one I’m most familiar with although that’s just because of someone I went to school with! We would use Isabel because it’s the Spanish spelling. It’s 100-something in the ONS list but I guess its popularity is a bit clouded by the different spellings.

And thanks for the perspective on the popularity issue!

@TempsPerdu I actually re-read Cold Comfort Farm last week after not having read it since year 8 English as I wanted to see what Flora Poste was like. Enjoyed the book much more than I did back then, she’s great.

@HitMeWithAHotNoteAndWatchMeBounce I was hoping for feedback on the pros/cons I set out, not just the names themselves! Like is worrying about margarine as big an issue as I fear, or perspective on the question of popularity.

@Rickandmortified100 thank you for highlighting the positive connotations of Flora! I’m glad there are people who are aware it’s not just margarine 😂

Freya. A lovely name and although it's popular I'm personally yet to meet one!

I don't really like Flora. It's a shame that Fauna isn't a proper name as that has a much more appealing sound to me! Flora makes me picture a stout and severe Scottish woman in a brown tweed skirt and sensible shoes.

Isabel - it's nice and I like this spelling of it but wow, there are so so so many Isabel(les) and Isabellas around. It's basically this generation's Michelle. No offence to all those lovely Michelles out there.

I absolutely love Flora and have a very strong aversion to Freya. I hate the “fr” sound. I hate how it feels to say it.