Thora, Astrid or Ilse?

[Taggys]

Hey all...

We are still undecided on which Scandinavian baby name to use if we have a girl? We are a half Swedish/half English family living in the UK.

Choosing between:
Thora
Astrid (nn "Asta")
Ilse

What's your opinion? Need some help here as we are going around in circles 😅

Many thanks!

Thora Hird - Wikipedia
She was wonderful.

Thora by a country mile. Beautiful and strong name, especially with the Tora pronunciation.

Astrid!

I love Thora and Ilse. Beautiful names!

Unlike most PP, I don’t like Astrid.

I love Ilse - not so keen on Astrid as it feels a bit overused in the late 90s and Thora will forever be Thora Hird for me.

I love the name Thora so much keep suggesting it to my husband it is literally perfect love Astrid too

love Astrid, really great name. It has a lot of associations with the How to Train your Dragon series, but as the Astrid in that is fabulous, strong, clever funny and pretty, you can't go wrong!

I am not keen on Thora, but the Tora pronunciation is great, and much nicer, and gives it more of a Scany twist.

Ilse - not keen

In terms of pronunciation, people get it. They learn. I know Mayas with 2 different pronunciations, and we manage to remember how to say each one, and my dh has a name which is pronounced slightly differently to the English way, and people just pick it up, so for Thora and Ilse, they will get it.

We are also a Swedish English mix and Astrid is top of my list if it’s a girl.

I like Thora but the difference in pronunciation would annoy me!

Astrid! One of my favourite names!

Thora. My one-that-got-away. Absolutely love it (although not enough to have another kid!).

All lovely.
My fave is Astrid.

Ilse is lovely but no one, no one in the UK will pronounce it or spell it correctly.

People will claim they will but coming from a family of Scandinavian -e names I can promise you they will not. And being called Ils isn't nice.

no one in the UK will pronounce it or spell it correctly.
Slight over-exaggeration but agree. I doubt it would be said the Swedish way, and would probably be written as Elsa or Ilsa.

True, I'd pronounce it correctly and so would my mum!

However my DM nearly cried when she met a consultant who got her name right without asking. Both of us gave up years ago.

@AnnaMagnani , if I saw the name Ilse without knowing the heritage, I'd think of it as German, so would say it as Ilzuh.
In the workplace, the -e endings tend to be pronounced as -uh not -eh, or as -ay.
It's difficult to know that I'm not saying it right if I've only heard the incorrect pronunciation, unless I am corrected.
It's a bit embarrassing but I'd rather know.

I like astrid, however non asta might be misheard as Asda

Ilse is lovely, reminds me of Casablanca. I know an Ylva which is similar but a bit softer.

Thora or Ilse

I think Astrid is a really ugly name.

@KirstenBlest Ilzuh would be fantastic!

Unfortunately Ils, Ills or Elsie are depressingly more likely.

I found I could get my name pronounced and spelled correctly at school and university. After that forget it. The people who genuinely want to get it right stand out.

Thora, is really beautiful name.
Thora Hird died 20 odd years ago, no one from her generation, or probably under 35 would make the association.
Astrid, reminds me of hand cream.

My brain reads Ilse as Isle and my internal pronounces it as eel like the French for island.

I imagine people will pronounce it as Ailsa.