Isobel, Emma or Eleanor?

[Vexxa]

Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my previous thread about middle names for Isobel. It was very helpful and I thought we'd settled on Isobel Anne for DD2!

Now I'm having a wobble after the other thread going around about people's names being continually misspelled. It's made me worry a bit that the spelling variations of Isobel will be an issue, and look back at our original list.

Which would you choose please?

Isobel Anne
Emma Elizabeth
Eleanor Rebecca

Emma has the advantage of there only being one spelling but I like the possibilities of shortening Isobel and Eleanor.

For context our surname is 2 syllables beginning with W and DD1 is Beatrice.

Thanks! 😊

I think it's just that there are so many 'Ellie' names out there at the moment OP (which is very pretty but far more popular right now). I have 2 in my class this year...an Ellie-Mae and and Ellie-May 🤷‍♀️ A few years ago I had 3! (2 with the standard 'Mae' middle name!). There's also a gamut of 'll' sounding names that all just mush together on the school register: Lilly, Lily, Amelie, Milly, Molly, Amelia, Ellie...all lovely of course but goodness there's a lot of them 🤦‍♀️

I've only ever taught one Emma and that was about 8 years ago now. She'd be in 6th form about now I'd think 🥰 (I'm in my 29th year teaching so that's quite a lot of little girls passing through my register!)

Emma or Verity the others are very boring as overused. Eleanor will merge in with all the other El type names. Think if you new to parenting you don’t appreciate how samey a lot of the names are - as Spring confirms.

It’s good to be aware we nearly named our first child the most boring popular name of that year I realised just in time and gave her a fabulous name.

I have a 2 year old but haven't come across any of these names at nursery or baby groups, or among my friends' children!

I think the popularity of Eleanor and Isobel has died down a bit with current babies and early years kids and they are both classics that I wouldn't hesitate to use. Emma is a classic too, but a little simpler/plainer-sounding. All are nice.

Be aware that there are a few Emmi and Emily variations around too, so just as people keep saying there are too many names starting with El- (not my experience really, but I see it claimed here a lot), I come across Em- names too. I wouldn't let any of that deter you and I really don't think it's such a hassle to explain spelling among these commonly known names. Most people know there are different forms and are capable of learning which you use.

I think too when they are very small they often go by the fully name - but within a couple of years it becomes milly, lily, izzy, tilly, immy, etc. Nothing wrong with it but just lots of them!

Don't worry about the spelling

Our son has a name that can be spelt about 5 different ways and it's fine.

On another note, I prefer Emma to Isobel.

Eleanor Rebecca is currently top of my list for DD1 due in October so might be a bit biased but I'd go with that!

@ImpunityJane , the names themselves aren't hugely popular but there are so many similar names. Isabella is very popular, and Isabelle still used a lot.
There are lots of El-names around like Ella, Ellie, Elena, Helena, Elodie, Eliana...
so you might get several Ellies and Izzys in a class.

@DuchessOfSausage Yes, there are variations around, but I've noticed that the youngest cohort doesn't seem to feature as many El- names. I reckon there are more El- variants and Isabel/Isabellas among the over 10s.

These things do vary a lot by area, of course. I'm in South London.

I'm still coming across a lot of Evie/Ava names. But also several names do relate to Emmi-nicknames. Just pointing out that can happen too.

Anyway, I think all the options are very nice.

I think Emma Elizabeth has a beautiful ring to it. Definitely my favourite