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 😅

I know it's Shakespeare but Hero is starting to feel too Marvel/ ITV / marketing speak so I think Marcella is a much better bet (lovely name too).

Or what about Hera?

I really wouldn't want to grow up with the name Hero, as a boy or girl. Those sorts of names are OK if you've got the famous/bohemian artist type parents and and lifestyle to go with it. Otherwise it just sounds a bit contrived or copied from a celebrity's baby.

Marcella (and Marcie) will be more liveable and won't age badly.

I really like Hero but I'm thinking that maybe Marcella goes better with Gilbert. Gil and Marcie sound nice together. I don't think you'd be able to easily shorten Hero, so that might be something to consider. Mind you, Gil and Hero sounds sweet to me.
Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy!

Marcella with Gilbert. Very pretty

Love Marcella, and Marcie is adorable

Marcella.

Some U.K. accents will be saying Hero as Ear'ole.

I much prefer Hero and I think all of your names "go" fine together. They don't need to be matchy-matchy. You just need to be able to say them easily. Gilbert and Hero - fine.

FWIW, because I love nature-themed names I've always thought Heron would be a lovely name!

Marcella's lovely - unusual but recognisable, classy, travels well. Not keen on Hero for various reasons, many of which PP have cited.

Marcella. I would think hero was a very odd first name, also sounds like a boy to me. I have not read much Shakespeare apart from what I absolutely had to at school!

Hero is quite a lot for a child to carry. What if she’s a low key teen? She may hate it. It’s too risky it’s not you that has to have the name she will. Definitely Marcella. She’ll be Marcie which I think is really nice

FWIW think both my teens and all their mates would hate to be called Hero.

I really like Hero! Marcella is fine, but Hero is lovely. Your children won’t be spending their lives side by side and being introduced together so they don’t have to ‘go’!

There’s a Disney/Marvel character called Hero who is a boy so it’s likely a lot of her peers will assume a boys name. It’s also a big name to live up to.

Out of the two names Marcella is a better choice

@pamshortsbrokenbothherlegs Gosh congrats on your twins! How exciting :D

We'll definitely keep talking about it. When we found out Gil was a boy I was disappointed we wouldn't be able to use Hero but I don't think I'd be as sad without it now which seems so weird when I think back to that time 😂

Marcella is so lovely!

Congratulations on your pregnancy. X

I like both but my vote is with Marcella!

@PickledScrump Eugh really? 🤦🏻‍♀️ Disney already have a lot to answer for in terms of using names on the wrong sex. Looking at you Little Mermaid 🙄

@MaidOfSteel Thank you :) I still can't believe it's really happening sometimes!

Hero is not good. Sounds gimmicky and try hard even though it has Shakespearean origins. Marcella is much better and goes with Gilbert 100x more.

Hero. Marcella is an old lady name to me, the only person I've ever met with that name is in her 80s.

Marcella is lovely, knew one in my childhood. And she's far from her eighties now 😉

@TheBirdintheCave they haven’t used it for the wrong sex as it’s a gender neutral name that is more commonly used for boys. But younger ones are more likely to be familiar with the Marvel/disney link than Shakespeare, so would be more likely to see it as masculine

Be honest op would you like to be called Hero? Because I woulda’t and I’m pretty confident. Met 14 new mostly young women at a sport last night everyone said their names to the group Hannah/Lucy/Grace etc. Hero would have stuck out like a sore thumb. I don’t think it’s fair - she might be shy.

Dd2 would carry it off Dd1 would HATE it. Actually I came up with some corkers when pregnant with dd1 and at 18 she was horrified on hearing what she was nearly called. It’s not about you and being cool / Shakespeare etc it’s her name for life.

The allusion to Shakespeare and Ancient Greece will be lost on most people and Hero is a lot to live up to. As a teacher, I felt sorry for shy kids with “out there” names in a class of Chloes, Williams and Rebeccas. It was an extra ordeal for them every time they had to say their name or the teacher did the register and there was a pause-and-look every time they reached the unusual one. It doesn’t mean don’t go for an unusual name, but both your picks fit that category and I think Marcella is much easier to live with than Hero.

I dont think the 4. 4letter names matter for starters it is rare you need to say them all and they flow well enough together.

I marginally prefer Hero personally and think it goes well with Gilbert.

I like Marcella too though. Just Hero for me is slightly nicer.