The nicest girl name you ever heard?

[MangoPineapple11]

What's the nicest girls name you ever heard ? Whether you could use it or not .... 😀

Looking back through thread Lily and Clementine are pretty names.

I remember I liked Nell also

I used to look after a horse called Scheharzade - and the she was a lovely big bay mare! Beautiful name.

Despina, Greek meaning lady , often referring to the Virgin Mary. I just think it’s lovely

I love Aurelia, I hadn't really thought of that until people mentioned it. If I'd had a daughter she would have been Laura. I also like Clementine, but wouldn't call a child that, but maybe a marmalade cat?

Reminds me of schadenfreude so not keen

I agree! Many of them are so pretentious, twee and stick-up-the-backside names! 🤣

I’ve always loved Ariadne and Myfanwy but my husband hated both!

Currently pregnant with DD2 so loving all of the inspo on here, thank you! We’re really struggling with a name but on my long list are:

Wren
Rae
Aurelia
Olive
Navy
Maia
Indie

Nice to see DD1’s name mentioned a few times 🥰

I think she was actually the narrator of the Arabian Nights tales, but I'm not sure. It suited the horse though.
No good if it reminds you if something not very pleasant though!

I so want it to be "Fleabag"

Lydia.

I'd have named a daughter Lydia if I'd had one. I was prepared to die on that hill (DH wasn't at all keen)!

Nevaeh, it’s heaven spelt backwards 🥰

Ruby & Daisy were my front runners when I was pregnant but I had 2 boys! (12 years ago). Interestingly there have been a few of both in their classes over the years so I obviously wasn't alone. I think names definitely go through cycles so you are right to just pick something you love rather than thinking it might be unusual. Fwiw I still love Ruby & Daisy!

We always liked Elizabeth as it's got SO many nicknames! But we ended up choosing Ellen Rose and Imogen Aster. Middle names are both birth flowers, and the main names are known but not hugely common

The only one that makes me pause @SkyBlue20 is Navy. Merchant or Royal? I could imagine she would have quite a lot of crude jokes made about her name once she reaches adulthood

My DH's beef with the lovely Lydia is that he cannot avoid thinking of Kermit singing the Marx Brothers' 'Lydia the Tattooed Lady' 😂 and TOTALLY not thinking of its beautiful classical origins. I still would have dug my heels in, he'd have got used to it.

But this got me thinking. How many slightly unusual girls' names have been put out of the running for many people because they irresistibly bring to mind pop songs? And HOW FEW boys' names are ruined by association, in the same way?

So, Lydia, (Sexy) Sadie, Rhiannon, (Sweet) Caroline, (who the fuck is) Alice, Eleanor (Rigby), Elenore (I think you're swell), Ruby (Tuesday), Layla, Lola, Gloria (that's Van bloody Morrison AND Laura Brannigan), Myfanwy, Delilah, Mandy, Cecilia, Eileen, Diana, (Darling) Nikki, Cathy ('s Clown), Suzanne, Rooooooxanne, Jolene, Billie Jean, Peggy Sue, Maggie May and so on.

(These are what DH and I came up with, without recourse to the lists of girls' names as song titles or in song lyrics that you can find online. DH and I are in our VERY early 50's, for reference, and most of these songs are 'vintage' - mostly 60's, some 80's and some much earlier. So I think these have resonance for people in my generation and our parents'.)

Ok, so think of well-known pop songs that call to mind BOYS' names. Go on. Keep thinking.

I'm coming up with a lot of very generic Johns and Jacks. (John I'm only dancing. Johnny Remember me. Johnny be good. Johnny come home. Dear John. Jumpin' Jack Flash. Hit the road Jack.) Ben (Michael Jackson, and it was about a RAT) again pretty generic. A fair few Spanish names like Fernando, Alessandro, etc. Nobody is going to avoid very generic and common names like Ben or John/Jack because of the Stones or Michael Jackson. Whereas I would argue the girls' names in the songs above are a little bit more individual. not out-there, but a bit less generic. Most of them are written by men, of course, which might be another reason why girls' names feature in pop song lyrics and as titles, far more than boys' names.

To be fair, I did know a Nathan Jones in the 80's whose life was made temporary hell by the Bananarama hit 😂but that was just really unfortunate bad luck.

In closing and to generalise wildly: male songwriters fuck up perfectly nice girls' names for parents, whilst leaving boys' names mostly alone because they're too common/generic. 😂

@Mothership4two yeah that ‘In the Navy’ song might get old fast…

Juno
Rowena
Saskia - beautiful, and the name of Rembrandt's beloved wife.

Lucille
Thea
Nell
Jordanna
Jordee
Alessandra
Estelle

Such a mix! Not names I’d necessarily call a daughter but names which answer the PP question 😊

Amelie

@GlomOfNit
Oliver’s army and Daniel both pop songs and both my son’s names! They were not named after the songs though

That's where my brain first went. And oh Bob's in the navy/ hundreds of men have been in the navy. Nightmare. Be funny if she grew up and went into the army through

Marni
Fiadh (pronounced Fia),
Roisin (pronounced Row-sheen)

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