Isobel April or Isla

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Due a girl soon and we keep going round in circles.. we love all three of these but concerns are:

Isobel - we love this spelling as Scottish on both sides but we live in England, will it forever be spelt differently by people?

April - she is likely to be born this month.. does it matter?

Isla - there are a few around us and know it is probably the more common / popular of the three. Not necessarily a bad thing I guess.

What does everyone prefer? Any girl names along similar lines?

We have an Isobel. It's been spelled Isabel and Isabelle and Isobelle but don't think she minds too much!
Her sisters call her Iz or Izzy and Isobel roughly equally.
I tend to go the other way and call her by her full name (not when I'm cross with her, just I like her full name which is Isobel Rose).

Not sure where you live, but Isla is by far the most common baby name I come across as someone with two under 4. Every class I take them to has at least one and sometimes two Islas. There are two at my older child’s pre-school year, the only repeated girl’s name as far as I know.

Depends whether that matters to you. It’s certainly a lovely name.

Isobel April

Really interesting thanks everyone.. think we are moving away from Isla. Need to think of the nickname thing with Isobel as you're right it will end up happening.

I wish April wasn't a month 🙈

April is so lovely, I wanted it for what ended up being my DS. The month thing is really not going to be very big of a deal imo.

Isla is too popular in schools. There are not many Aprils here where I live so sounds a bit more unusual.
Isobel Isabel is a classic so can't go wrong but is also pretty popular on registers.

Isobel is the nicest spelling and a lovely name, , nicest of your choices although April makes a great middle name. I like the meaning of apricity.

April is my favourite. Really ike Isobel too.

Isobel April / April Isobel

I'd probably use April only if born in April tho!

Isobel is my favourite, with your preferred spelling.

April is nice but I’d only use it for a baby born in April. Isla is nice but extremely popular.

I love Isobel (I prefer this spelling) and April but Isla is a bit too common now, although it is pretty.
Isobel April is nice.
However I think it does matter about whether she’s born in April or not, I think it’s a bit weird to call a child April if they’re born a different month

But how would you say that? I have an Isobel, and we and everyone else pronounce it exactly the same as Isabel or indeed Isabelle, with a schwa in the middle (same as saying 'is a bell' without stressing the 'a').

Actually, a few older people here in Scotland say it as 'Isabl', but they'd probably not distinguish between Isabel and Isobel either.

I have an Ishbel but I’ve known many Isobel’s and Isabel’s (with various spellings). I think in general people take the (basic) spelling from how you pronounce it anyway. IsObel sounds distinct from IsAbel. Oddly none of the Isobel’s I’ve know have had their name shortened. I do prefer the spelling of the shorter options to the ‘belle’ spelling though.

But how are they different? The middle syllable is unstressed and always sounds the same, unless you are deliberately sounding it out to tell people how to spell it.

I pronounce them differently and I can hear it when others say it. To my ear you can hear the A if it’s an Isabel or the O if it’s Isobel? It’s not stressed but I can still hear it. Maybe that’s just me 🤔

Isobel is my favourite girls name. I’d probably pick the spelling Isabel as I love the name shortened to Isa rather than Izzy but Izzy is lovely too 😀

In my head I feel like I say Isobel and Isabel differently but in practice not sure it sounds that different when I actually say it out loud.

On the April month thing.. I was thinking about the name June and honestly wouldn't expect one to be born then.. is it because April isn't such an established name and is a month first and foremost 🧐

April

there will be about three of the others in each class at school as both very popular.

I've always really liked the name April

How about Avril , rather than April ( though I think Isobel April is lovely ..Isobel Avril is lovely too )

I love April! I always felt I couldn’t use that unless my child WAS born in April. I think there would be sarky comments if you were called April and born in a different month? So don’t let that stop you, I think it’s ideal

Isobel is lovely. Might be occasionally misspelt (even if you emphasise the O) but I don’t think it’s a huge deal - I could be biased though because it is so pretty and elegant. There’s other popular classic names that can have similar issues though so I wouldn’t discount it if it’s your favourite (Eliz/sabeth, K/Catherine etc has similar and they are still quite popular).

April is fine - don’t love it, don’t hate it. But yes just like June tbh I’d probably assume her to be born in that month (I don’t expect that for May but that’s because it’s also obviously from a flower and a diminutive of Margaret/Mary) - not sure that really matters though.

Not keen on Isla - it’s too trendy, I’ve never met one older than her 20’s so I’m not sure it will age well. It also quite obviously means island so I still kind of hear “Isla Bonita” or whatever Spanish sounding island rather than as a girls name iykwim?

I love Isobel ( it’s my middle name with this spelling)

April is nice, all the ones I know aren’t actually born in the month of April.

Isla - not a fan, sorry.

Some suggestions …

Ella ( absolutely love)

Layla

Leah

Freya

Coral

Katya

Taya

Laura

All lovely names but I'd swap out Isla for Iona which is beautiful and very much in keeping with your Scottish heritage.

I agree!

Isla is fire definitely the most different. The others are expected but at the end it’s up to you. Isla to me has only been used by certain cultures so I’d go with that for sure.