Isabelle

[EdithGrantham]

It seems like Isabelle/Isabella is everywhere at the moment but it's the only name I'm absolutely in love with for DD2 who is due imminently. DD1 is Robyn but we tend to call her Bobbie, I love that both her name and nickname are known but not overly popular. Any suggestions for any other names that I might like?

Juniper nn Junie
Elodie
Aria
Amara
Naomi
Heidi
Lyra
Emilia
Liana
Vivian
Annelise
Imogen
Elara
Selena
Freya
Adalia
Elowen

Annabelle / Annabella
Gabriella
Arabella
Marianna
Sienna
Summer
Eloisa
Isla
Francesca
Luciana

Isabelle is actually nowhere near as popular now as it was 10-15 years ago. Isabella is statistically more popular, but even that's going down the charts now.

Go for what you love. Bobbie and Izzie sound nice together (if you intend to shorten to Izzie). Bobbie and Belle would be a big no though!

Isabelle Necessary on a Bicycle?

Go with what you like. If you want to be a little different use Isobel.

It's a lovely name. I work in a primary school and we don’t have masses of Isabelle/Isabellas.

Isadora
Iseult
Ismay

It's a lovely name OP, go for it.

Thanks all some lovely ones on those lists but none come close. Our only other contender is Harriet which I do like but don't love.

Maybe it only seems like I hear Isabelle/Isabella everywhere, a bit like when you get a new car then you see the same model more than ever! We would definitely shorten to Izzy and I do like the Isobel spelling too but I worry about her having to be "Isobel Lastname" or "Isobel with an O" all through school. I work in primary too and definitely 10 years ago it was super popular, I had three or four in my nursery class one year! I guess though I'm thinking the current ones may not have hit school age yet!

I also like Ismay but DH vetoed it and when I googled it has a lot of negative connotations to do with the Titanic bloke.

Robyn/Bobbi and:

Ella
Clara
Ebony
Melia
Amali
Amity
Tahli
Isla
Kate
Nina
Patricia
Philippa
Genevieve

In my office in the last 12 months 3 girls were all Isabella or Isabelle all know as belle

Isabelle Harriet - perfect💕

That's reassuring that others shorten to Belle because that hadn't even crossed my mind! Maybe with the option for Isabelle/Isabella/Belle/Bella/Izzy it won't be like having lots all the same name!?

Some lovely names on that list again @Theoldwoman but still none that I could put above Isabelle

Our DD2, due in about a month, is also going to be Isabel (but with this spelling). I went through exactly the same thought process as you - loving the name but also worrying about popularity, especially after posting on here. In the end, there was still no other name we agreed on or liked as much so we are going for it - I would rather have a more popular name I love than a less popular name I don’t love as much. I actually haven’t come across many in the younger age groups at all - mostly older ones - so I’m hoping the popularity comes from other parts of the country!

I also love Robyn and Harriet, but sadly DH didn’t. We clearly have similar tastes! I agree with pp that Isabelle Harriet is a lovely combo. I would go with the name you love, OP!

Isabelle is a beautiful name. Go with what you like and don't get distracted by popularity. It just means other people will like the name you choose too.

I used very popular names for my two. Only one other of each in the school.at primary school (not in their class) and one other in the year group at secondary. There are so many different names used now that even the popular ones aren't ubiquitous.

Just call her Isabelle. You love it.

That's because there's at least 3 standard spelling of Isabelle, plus all other spelling that aren't necessary English spelling, but are pronounced similar as Izabel or Ysabel. I would also think there's various nicknames, so Isabels aren't necessary Isabels, but Belles or Izzys... of course, if you're no longer next to multiple persons having a babies, you also might not known how popular Isabelle truly is - maybe you think it was more popular 15 years ago, because 15 years ago you met 30 babies in your daughters nursery, but today you only know 2 pair of new parents.

If you add up the percentage of baby girls called Isabel / Isabelle / Isabella / Isobel, it’s 0.62 % (taken from dark greener 2021 ons data), which is a higher percentage than the number one name Olivia (which was 0.57%). So it’s arguably the most commonly used name for girls at the moment, if that matters to you.

Yes I'm very aware of all the different spellings thank you but the stats don't lie, it is falling. Once upon a time, Isabelle, Isabel and Isobel were all comfortably in the top 100 for example, now it's only Isabelle and that's a lot lower than it once was.

You're being very presumptuous about who I must know in person and how old the children I know of must be by the way (I most certainly don't have teenage children!). I'm purely talking statistics and they don't lie.

Maybe YOU know of loads personally who are very young. Popularity does vary dramatically depending on area so that I can believe. But the statement I made, about the popularity of the name falling overall, remains true 🤷‍♀️

If you want to tweak the stats to suit your own agenda, the same could be said for several names high up in the top 100 which have many variations. It"s not just Isabelle!

Clearly you want to advise OP against using it as you feel it is 'too popular' and that's ok, we all have different options. There's no need to try and twist factual stats to try and make your point. It's not the number one name.

Sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound that I was advising against using Isabelle - I think it’s a lovely name and one of my children has a top 5 name that I love . Popularity wouldn’t put me off using a name I loved, but it’s a personal thing and so I just wanted to point that out in case it mattered to the op.

Maybe it only seems like I hear Isabelle/Isabella everywhere

I teach in a girls' school with about 1000 students and there are 12 Isabelles/Isabellas/Izzys. I just checked!

Apologies, I definitely read it like you were saying it was a big no for this reason.

If we're going to lump all the Isabelle/Isabella variations together, you'd have to do the same for all the Sophie/Sophia spellings, all the versions of Lily (and the similar Lila), the Evie/Eva/Evelyn names, Amelia/Emilia etc. Then you have all the Ellie/Ella/Eleanor/Eloise/Elodie type names, plus all the variations of the arabic names (of which there are usually loads of different versions). The stats would indeed look different if we lumped all the similar names and their variations together, but I don't think it's as straightforward as saying Isabelle would be number 1 because of all the variations.

Thanks for all the further replies, it is only the popularity putting me off, DH suggested Harriet Isabelle but it's just not the same, maybe hormones are playing a part though!

Isabelle is my DD's name. She is the only one in her nursery (including variations!) and the same when she starts school in September.

My name isn't common at all but I grew up with another in my class. You can try to go after not so popular names but realistically, there is a chance that no matter what name you choose, there might be another nearby anyway!

In my recent experience, people are trying to go for 'uncommon' names which just end up being more popular as they all think they are the only ones doing it.