Elena, Anna/Annabel, Isabel, Julia

[JonsMariaA]

Do you like Elena, Anna/Annabel, Isabel, Julia, Elizabeth?

Struggling to find a name we love but these are the current front runners.

Anna, but I'm biased because that's my name.

We did consider Annabelle for DD1, but only changed our minds as we thought it would be a bit twee to have a name so similar to mine.

I like Annabel, Julia (prefer Juliet though)and Isobel (this spelling)

All lovely names. My personal favourite would be Anna - short, simple, classic and elegant, and not too overused.

Elena would be second - (especially if you are saying it Elaina?) (only things to consider are the pronunciation variations and the possible shortening to Ellie)

Annabel - I like this too, and love that it can be shortened to Annie / Anna / Belle.

Julia - lovely (might become Jules?)

Isabel - too overused near me, when you include all the spelling variations.

Elizabeth - a solid classic - I know too many Liz’s of my generation and older to really love the name but there are so many ways to shorten it that you can choose something fresh and different (I love Eliza for example)

Elena - no because too many Ellies, too many ways to say it
Anna/Annabel - Anna is nice, not keen on Annabel
Isabel - Isabelle and Isabella too popular
Julia - yes but don't like Jules
Elizabeth - yes but it'll probably get shortened

They are all nice

I’d go with Julia

Isabel / Elena in their various spellings all done to death, Annie / Anna / Annabel also v popular collectively, Elizabeth pretty popular and quite likely she’ll end up another Ellie

Maybe..

Claudia
Francesca
Serena
Susannah
Estella
Emma
Esther
Caroline
Marianne
Cecile

Isabel is my least favourite as I don't like Izzy. All the others are lovely.

Anna. I really wanted this for dd but husband preferred Ella so we went with that instead

Anna is my favourite from the list. It's simple and not fussy, works in different countries, not overused.

I really don't like Elena, I can never work out if it's pronounced like Eleanor (absolutely gorgeous!) or Elaina? It just feels a bit... clumsy? to me!

I like Isabelle but it has so many spelling variations it would always be spelt wrong and she'd have to spell it constantly.

Love Annabel and Julia but under used I think and very pretty!

I love Anna and it’s been a favour of mine for years. I’m an ex teacher and it’s never been over used which is a plus to me.

I also like Julia and Juliet.

Other favourites of mine are Eve ( not Eva or Evie) which are too popular for my liking and Jasmine.

As a Julia who loves her name, I’m biased 🤣 I think Anna and Isabel are similarly classic and international to Julia so were firmly on my list too for a DD (I had a DS). Funnily enough , Elizabeth was also on my list, as well as Helena and Eleanor (though Elena is nice enough I find the other two more classic sounding). Not so keen on Annabel ( bit frilly compared to Anna).

If it helps others on my list were Claudia, Lara, Antonia, Eve, Lydia, Susanna and Rose/Rosalind/Rosamund - I admit not all of these are international sounding but most are fairly classic I think.

I like most of those - would happily have used Anna and Elizabeth myself if DH hadn’t vetoed both for reasons that are still unclear to me!

I love Isabel too and this is what we will probably go with, as it’s the only one we both agree on (thus, I’ve had to shelve my concerns about popularity).

As we clearly have similar taste, other names on my list were: Alice, Jessica, Lara, Rosa.

These are all lovely, I don’t think you can go far wrong with any of them.

Isabel (and its spelling variations) is probably the most popular of them (I know of two babies with this name), but if that doesn’t bother you it’s a great name.

elizabeth probably will be shortened, but there are so many short forms to choose from that you/she will find something you like .

Anna is classic and works well internationally as others have said. Also unlikely to be shortened.

Annabel is pretty and not as popular as Isabel/isabella.

Julia is really nice and underused.

Elena is also nice and underused.