Help name baby girl?

[Beth191]

Hello! So we're expecting baby girl in the summer and trying to come up with names - me and my husband tend to like different names, he doesn't like any of the old lady names that are coming back and I don't like anything that was particularly popular when we were at school on the 90s/00s (Rebecca, Claire, Nicola, etc.) like he does.

Joy is a generations old family middle name that means a lot to me so that's non-negotiable, and our surname is 2 syllables starting with Sh.

Top picks that we both agree on so far:

Julia
Chloe
Lily
Clara
Anna
Leah
Nora (DH not sure at all about that one but I love it)
Rosie
Holly (this would be our favourite...we won't use it on a summer baby though because Holly Joy is very festive!)

DS is Charlie William if that helps at all.

All suggestions and opinions welcome, we like all the names above but not 100% on any yet...I wasn't sure about Charlie for DS until he was born though so I'm not looking to name her before she's born, just to have a list of a couple of names we love to choose from when we meet her!

Julia - nice
Chloe - nice but definitely 90s
Lily - definitely 00/10s
Clara - I hate this
Anna - again 90s
Leah - nice
Nora (DH not sure at all about that one but I love it) - I'd go for Norah
Rosie - & Jim
Holly - agree not with joy.

I like Chloe and Anna the best

Hayley?

Oooh..I love all these bar Leah. I love Charlie too and have one myself!
My favorite from your list is Holly. Such a pretty name. I also have a Holly in my life, not my own child but a girl who’s very special to me. She’s such a Holly! ☺️
I think Lily is my next favorite. I also like Nora but I’m not sure I’d have ever used it.

Yes Nora with a ‘h’ looks nicer I think

Lily was the fourth most popular girls name for 2023 - not really confined to 00s or 10s. I like Anna and Rosie best.

I love Leah, Nora and Clara. All of these sound great with Joy. Nora is my favorite and I think Nora Joy sounds lovely.
Chloe and Anna are ok, not Lily too over done. Rosie Joy sounds a bit much, agree that Holly Joy sounds too much too.

I think these are my exact thoughts and those three are my favorites too I think!

Thanks everyone...I don't know why but for some reason I'm not as keen on Nora with an H...would people assume it should have an H on the end of I used Nora do you think?

Harriet
Charlotte
Sofia
Amelia
Antonia
Arabella

How about Molly/Polly?

(although Polly Joy sounds a little a product!)

Julia - classic and elegant. Will never date
Anna - same as above plus translates well across many countries as it's the same!
Clara - it is classic but not in the UK until fairly recently. Pronunciation may be a slight niggle. Nice name though.

Not keen on your others. Fashions come and go with names and some on the list will date you to a particular decade or two. That's only a problem if you mind that.

I've recently named my fantasy, never-going-to-happen third child Polly Joy, so maybe that could be a contender? Same bright sound as Holly, without the Christmas connotations.

Arabella Joy?
Anastasia Joy?
Fiona Joy?
Marianne Joy?
Natasha Joy?
Sabrina Joy?

Could all go with Charlie William without being too matchy, have nickname options and a longer first name could balance out the shorter middle and last names?

From your list, I love Chloe, Clara and Anna - 3 of my favourite ever names - all short, simple, pretty, classic, suit all ages. Not too overused.

Close second place would be Rosie or Leah - again, lovely simple and pretty. Leah in particular I think is very underused for how pretty it sounds.

Lily is slightly more girly and more commonly used, but still a lovely choice.

Julia is a good name, but isn’t quite as nice as your other choices imo.

Nora I quite like but it sounds a bit too old lady for my taste (maybe because I haven’t met any young Nora’s yet)

Iris
Ruby
Amber
Megan
Lyra
Lydia
Cleo
Alice
Lucy
Cora
Imogen
Eliza
Phoebe
Jessica
Thea
Amaya
Madeleine
Abigail
Esther
Sadie
Nina
Georgia
Freya
Erin
Isla
Esme
Leonie
Cara
Bethan

Nora is gorgeous. I think it's more usually spelt that way, without an h. I think Nora Joy is gorgeous with Charlie. Rosie and Charlie is lovely too, but more twee, both having the 'ee' sound at the end.

Lily is a beautiful name but so popular for years now. I'm a teacher and there are so many girls called Lily throughout Primary.

Leah seems very 90s to me. It's a lovely name but if you want to avoid names from that era, I'd avoid that too.

LOVE Nora. A little more unusual but still obviously 'a name' and not many ways to spell it.

I like Clara and Leah from your list. Prefer Cora to Nora.

However I would actually use Holly if it is your favourite, even with Joy. I don't think xmas association matters at all (it wouldn't have even occurred to me tbh). Also middle names aren't used day to day and Joy has family significance to you so that is the reason for using it.

I really like Joy, could you use that as the first name?

Anna or Clara

Julia is Lovely!

Holly/Hollie was a close contender for us last year as DD was due in December she made a surprise appearance much earlier than that and from the rest of our list Anna, Ellis, Elsie and Hannah we chose Anna. So I am biased I think it's a beautiful classic name, from your list I also like Clara and Nora.

Clara is my favourite but maybe similar to Charlie so I’d probably pick Nora, Rosie or Julia. Other suggestions

eva joy
cora joy
juliet joy
emily joy
elsie joy
louisa joy
lara joy
sadie joy
molly joy
alice joy
thea joy
phoebe joy
daisy joy
mia joy
ella joy
harriet joy
helena joy
eleanor joy

Love Nora and to me it looks odd with an H, Nora Joy is a lovely name

Anna, Chloe and Julia are lovely. I have heard Chloe described as '90s' before (still beautiful, so it wouldn't bother me) , but never before heard anyone describe Anna as dated to a particular era, as a pp just did ("90s", apparently). Most people agree that Anna is one of the few names that is truly timeless.

They are all gorgeous, classic names. Feminine but simple and unfussy.

I would use Holly Nora Joy Sh...

Holly because you said it's your joint favourite and it doesn't matter at all that it's a summer baby.

Nora because your DH doesn't particularly like it but this way you get to use it and it breaks up Holly from Joy.