Polly or Pauline?

[MommaAddie]

Really struggling because meaning is important to me and Pauline means humble whereas Polly traditionally is a nickname for Mary which means bitter. I will call her Polly anyway but I love both so much can't decide.

Polly

Pauline is a horrible name , Polly is so much nicer .

My friend Pauline but goes by Pauly. It's a lovely name

IMO Pauline is an awful name.

Paulina is slightly better, but not by much.

Pauline is very of an era as another person commented and not an attractive name. Paula is marginally better but makes me think of Paula Yates. The only young-ish (20s) Paula I know goes by a nickname unrelated to the name. Polly is very much a nick name to me. It's acceptable but leaves her without options if she dislikes it. I would look for other names with meanings you like.

Pauline!!! I love mid century names and you'll be ahead of the curve. Polly for short.

Pauline is a hideous name. Polly is lovely but growing in popularity (don’t know wether that bothers you particularly)

Exactly this.

Give her options for when she's an adult.

Pauline means small, still not a good name, nor is Polly.

Pauline is very dated and has a slightly unpleasant sound to boot imo.Unfortunately it’s up there with Doreen and Maureen in style, rather than the bit more classic Kathleen, Christine and Jacqueline of the 50’s/60’s names. Paula isn’t that much better - the sound is slightly nicer, but it’s still quite dated (just to a decade or two later than Pauline).

I’d at least go for something like Appoline or even Paulina (the A makes all the difference) - they are still used by younger women elsewhere in Europe so don’t sound quite as dated to me, more “Euro Chic” (at least from a UK perspective)

Nothing wrong with Polly, just not my personal taste as I can’t get past the parrot and children’s nursery rhymes. It’s probably a popular hipster type name though - I’m not very trendy 🤣

Polly all the way.

Polly for sure. Paulina if you need a longer version, like the character in Villette.

Polly is a great name.

Plus you could wind her up endlessly as a teenager by saying “Polly put the kettle on” to her when she’s a teenager, and watch those eyes roll while you laugh like a drain at your own joke, every single morning.

My great-grandmother was named Polina.

I like Polly a lot. If anyone doesn't think it sounds like a complete, adult name, I will just tell you that I used to know someone with that name who was adult enough to have a responsible, professional job, get married, have children and run marathons! (And I know it was her full name because I saw the wedding invitations.)

I don't dislike Pauline, but it feels a bit nothingy to me. For some reason Paulina looks and sounds much more interesting - international and free of associations with any one particular age group. Polly has been used as a short form of Paulina (including in the novel Villette by Charlotte Brontë) so don't let anyone tell you it can't be. But I also think Polly makes a perfectly good name in its own right. I wouldn't worry too much about the meanings as they haven't stopped people from using Mary and Paul (maybe not so much the feminine forms of Paul until more recently) a lot for hundreds of years.

My names Polly and I'm a bad ass.

I actually seriously considered Pollyanna But thought the Pollyanna novel persona would be too hard for her to live with. What do you think?

She'll be glad you didn't

I hate my old lady name but my god it’s not as bad as Pauline. You can’t do that to a baby in 2025.

Polly isn’t my cup of tea but it’s nowhere near as awful as Pauline. I do absolutely hate Pollyanna though, so twee.

My middle name is Pauline as it's my grandmothers name and I've always hated it and used to tell people I didn't have a middle name! All family called me Polly though!

I don't think Pauline is ready for a comeback yet, it's awful. Definitely go with Polly

Polly or Paulina. Or Mary.

Do you like Penelope nn Polly?

@MommaAddie

Why are you focussing on all these 'P' mawkish names?

There are hundreds if not thousands of beautiful girls names but you seem fixated on these 'P' names - why?

But why do that?