Which name to pick: The longstanding favourite or the newcomer?

[TheBirdintheCave]

TLDR: Would you choose Hero or Marcella?

Currently, finally, expecting our second child after three miscarriages including a failed IVF round. I'm 27 weeks now and my husband and I have tentatively started talking about names again as it seems like this baby will be sticking around 😅Sex is unknown as we've decided we'd like a surprise this time.

Baby's older brother is Gilbert John Joseph and our surname is one syllable and rhymes with disc. We like unusual but recognisable classics. Shakespearean and old English/Germanic names tend to be a hit with us.

We think we're settled on our boy name of Conrad Richard Anthony as it ticks all of our boxes but are torn between two for our girl name.

Option 1:

Hero Jane Rose: This is the longstanding favourite, the name we've had picked for a girl forever. It's me who's wavering on it. I just don't feel like it goes with Gilbert plus then baby will have four one syllable names in a row and I can't get over how strange that sounds.

Option 2:

Marcella Jane Rose: This is the newcomer which has outstripped Hero for me over the past year or so. Marcella is an old family name on my dad's side. I feel like it goes so well with Gilbert and my husband is warming to it. In his words 'It's growing on me more and more.' She'd likely be known as Marcie or just Marcella and we'd use the English/French pronunciation over the Italian.

Which would you pick from the two?

Middle names are non negotiable by the way. I know how much everyone here despises Rose as a middle name BUT if baby is a girl she would be the sixth generation Rose* so it's very, very special to me. It's my middle name and my nanna's first name, her mum's first name and her gran's first name etc etc.

Jane is after my husband's mother who died of cancer a few years before husband and I met.

*As an anecdote, it did skip once as my great, great granny was called Elizabeth Doolittle. Yes, really 😅

Sounds like the votes are overwhelmingly in Marcella's favour! I think I'm ready to let go of Hero but I just need to hope that Marcella grows on my husband enough for him to prefer it too :) I imagine it will as he's openly admitted it goes better with Gilbert AND he wasn't 100% with Gil's name when I first mentioned it either but now he loves it.

Fingers crossed we actually have a girl too as I'd love one of each 😅

Marcella is fab and goes really well with Gilbert..
I like Hero in theory but think would work better with a longer surname and has much piss taking potential

Hero could be her middle name? Marcella Hero is lovely.

I agree with you, Marcella is beautiful.

@Onelife2024 Middle names are set as family ones but you're right, it does sound good.

If you love Hero, could you add it in as an extra middle name?? Marcella Hero Jane?

I agree that Marcella sounds better with Gilbert.

Sorry, just seen already suggested.

I would automatically think girl because if Much Ado about nothing. And strangely she isn't a particularly strong girl either. But I still don't think I would use it as a name today. I think she would have to live up to her name all her life'.because of people's expectations of what her name means.
So for that reason I would definitely chose Marcella

Get a dog in a couple of years and name it Hero (that's what we did with the girls name we didn't use)
Marcella is better with Gilbert x

Marcella sounds really good with your surname (if it’s what I think it is) and does go better with Gilbert.

That said, I think Hero is also lovely so it’s not like you shouldn’t go with that if you prefer it.

The middle names are beautiful anyway but with the added family meaning they’re even nicer.

You don’t hear Gilbert much these days (but perhaps it’s making a comeback). I’ve only ever met one in my life, he’s late 40s. It’s an excellent name because everyone knows it but there aren’t too many of them around.

Marcella!
i know it isn’t, but hero sounds very modern to me and I agree it doesn’t go as well with Gilbert
just to counter pp though, I would assume hero is a girl.

I'v always liked the name Marcella so that's my preference.

I too would assume Hero was a boy.

Call her Rose Marcella Jane.
Marcella will get Marce-ella and March-ella.
Hero looks like a brand of dog food.
Rose is boring as a middle name but nice as a first name.

Do you call him Gil or Gilbert?

Because Gil and Hero sound ‘ok’ as a set. But Gilbert and Hero do not go together.

Hero’s brother is Tristan or Hector or Fabian, not Gilbert.

FWIW, I LOVE Hero, and I know it’s a girl’s name, but
it sounds utterly bonkers with Gilbert.

For that reason I would say Marcella, even though I hugely prefer Hero as a name. It’s like having a beige, neutral home then losing the plot and painting your bathroom acid green.

I’ve just thought of something else about the name Hero. I’m assuming your surname is Frisk. Well Hero Frisk sounds kind of rude; like a frisking of heroic levels.

@BargainBasementland He get's Gil, Gilbert, Gilly and Gilby so, unhelpfully, a mixture of everything 😂 And yes, Hero and Gilbert do sound like they're from wildly different sib-sets.

@DuchessOfSausage Middle names will be Jane Rose which have a lot of important family meaning and are non-negotiable. I did consider Rose as a first name but it's FAR too popular for my liking.

Re Marcella, in this country I think people would naturally default to the 'mar-sell-a' pronunciation. We'll probably get the odd 'march-ella' but I can't see it being likely that that will happen a lot.

I like Gilbert so long as it's shortened to Gil. But Gilbert and Marcella is a bit too Anne of Green Gables adjacent to me.

Gilbert and Hero is better.

Gilbert and Juno?

Correct first letter just remove the 'r'. People misread it as Frisk ALL THE DAMN TIME though 😂

With the surname Fisk (have you watched the show, btw?) I would definitely go with Marcella. It's an unusual surname and I think you need a forename that is obviously a name to avoid people getting a bit confused. Imagining phoning someone who picks up saying "Hero Fisk"- you'd get a lot of people replying "what?" Not so Marcella Fisk.

CRAF is a bit too close to CRAP for me, but that's maybe an excess of caution.

@Sophist Ohhh we've been back and forth on the CRAF/CARF issue for ages. Ultimately my dad, Richard, is the more hands on grandfather so he we decided he gets top billing here over my husband's dad😅

And nope, I've never seen the show! Heard of it though.

Marcella is the nicer of the two names.

I love Gilbert John Joseph.
A brother called Conrad Richard Anthony Fisk sounds great.
Richard Conrad Anthony Fisk is handsome too.

Marcella is best with Gilbert.
Marcella Rose Jane Fisk is smart.

Do you like the names Cedella, Miranda, Phoebe or Cressida?

I don't live Marcella, and I'd be annoyed that different people will pronounce it differently.

@user1492757084 Never heard of if before but if it starts with a 'seh' sound instead of a 'keh' sound then it would automatically be out due to the 'iss' sound in our surname.

Firstly, Gilbert and Conrad are two of my favourite boys' names. I'm hoping your baby is a boy because it's an awesome sibset!

Secondly, I think you need to disregard all of the comments about which name pp like better - that's irrelevant for your family.

I've been on these boards long enough to know that name regret is a real thing and it tends to come down to one of two causes: one, the mum was pressured into a name she didn't want post-birth, perhaps was too unwell to argue, or two, she went with a "shiny new" name instead of a longtime favourite, which she later decided would have been the better choice.

I'm not convinced this is the case here, you say you've loved Marcella for the past year, so it's hardly something that's just occurred to you. Just that, if you always imagined a daughter called Hero, try to picture how you'd feel not going with that.

I have had a favourite boy's name for about 15 years, and am due twin boys any day now. I have definitely had my head turned by other names during this pregnancy (esp given the whole pair / sibset thing) but I'm 99% sure one of them will get the name I've always loved, simply because I know that if I don't use it, down the line I'll be disappointed.