Husband and I can’t decide on second girls name - high anxiety!

[GeorgieGrace33]

Hi all,

I am past my due date and waiting for my second daughter to arrive safely. Husband and I still can’t agree on baby name for her and it’s making me really anxious as it’s at the forefront of my mind…

I like two names and am finding that none of his suggestions feel right in comparison… I’ve been spending HOURS looking over and over name lists and I keep spotting my two names and just desperately wanting one of them. I know we must both agree but I’m irrationally annoyed he won’t concede on either - pregnancy hormones, much?!

Our firstborn is Chloe Amelia Grace…

My two names are FREYA & OLIVIA

He wants PHOEBE, AMY, IMOGEN, FRANCESCA or SOPHIE.

*Please share your opinions, other ideas and help me rationalise to get to a final choice ASAP!

Few points to note:

1. I’m a project manager for work and the indecision and lack of ‘task completion’ on this is causing me anxiety - probs delaying the birth! But being told to relax about it is easier said than done (hence posting as final help here)
2. We lost a baby girl (Grace) at 22 weeks before having Chloe so my birth anxiety has always been raised in the final few weeks of pregnancy due to wanting to get our children here safely - probs adding to name whirlwind/wanting one less thing outstanding to think about before birth.
3. Middle names pre-decided for this girl as OH Gma died at Xmas so having XX Marianne XX (probably Rose as needs to be soft sounding after Marianne).. potential to negotiate one of my names as second middle name? Not sure I can renege on that yet(!)
4. OH hates floral names and place names (so no Lily/Poppy/Sienna/Paris etc)

These are lovely names!

I love Aimee \ Amy and it's not overused.

Also:
Amber
Alice
Lara
Elsie
Mia

• go very well with Chloe (which is a beautiful name!)

Sorry for the loss of your little Grace, OP. anxiety completely understandable but remember there's no huge rush to name her, and your Oh may come round anyway once you've gave birth.

I don’t see what the rush is. We didn’t finally decide on DS’s name until we were actually walking to register him. It’s not as though people are going to need to address him by name — we called him by his in utero nickname for quite a while.

Freya - I don’t like this name. But that’s just my taste.

Olivia - nice but a bit boring.

Phoebe - cute.

Imogen - cute and also grown up. So suits all ages. Immy - nn.

Francesca - a bit boring to my mind. like female version of Frank.

Sophie - cute. But I MUCH prefer Sophia.

Some other suggestions as requested…

Charlotte nn Charlie/Lotte/Lotta
Eloise
Clea
Leah
Camille
Ophelia
Alice
Sylvie

Imogen is by far the nicest from your lists. Phoebe would be my second choice.

Friday is named after the goddess Freya, so see if she arrives then!

I dislike Freya. I think it looks ugly written down and the Frrr sound isn’t pretty.

Imogen is nice

I’d go Freya, Amy or Francesca, but that’s because the others are very very common and I prefer names that are less so.

My favourite is Marianne, just to be awkward!

When DS was born we went with a completely different name from any on our list, and not one we had considered at the time.

so why not Zara? it would go with Chloe.

I’m not sure they work so well together as they sound like the two clothing brands of those names.

Sounds a bit like a list of shops in a Mall! Chloe, Zara, Pizza Express …

Olivia is way too popular.. I would go for Freya Amy or Francesca

I love Francesca. Sophie and Olivia are lovely too. Sophie Marianne Freya sounds good!

I love the names Chloe and Phoebe together.

Just as another perspective, I really don’t like Chloe and Phoebe used together because they both have the unusual “oe” letter pairing which makes me feel like the third daughter should be “Amoeba.” On their own I don’t notice that, but somehow putting the names together makes a feature of the “ oe” .

Chloe Amelia Grace…
I have to admit I prefer your husband's names to your favourites. Freya = Freja is a goddess of agriculture and fertility. Olivia is just too common so that puts me off.

Sorry didn't think of brand names / shops with Zara and Chloe, thought both are French names.

I assume you want a similar three name combo: two syllables - four syllables - one syllable?

Sophia Isabella Anne
Ava Gabriella Rose
Emma Abigail Bess
Maya Imogen Kate
Audrey Marianne Amy
Thea Francesca Maeve
Charlotte Marianne Rose
Scarlett Marianne Rose
Iris Eleanor Maud
Nora Liliana Faith
Lily Marianne Hope
Juliet Isabella Eve
Zara Victoria
Isla Emily Jane

Chloe and Thea go really well.

Freya - not keen
Olivia - overused but nice
Phoebe - like
Amy - dated
Imogen - like but don't like the diminutives
Francesca - don't like the diminutives
Sophie - would use

I wouldn't worry too much about the middle names because they are rarely used.

I think Freya is beautiful and that would be my choice but as your husband isn't keen in your choices and he isn't keen on yours can you think of different names?
A friend used an app which helped . It worked a bit like a dating app . You use it independently and then swipe when you see a name you like . If you have both swiped like on the same name you can use that one. And maybe have X Marianne Freya.

Chloe Amelia Grace and Thea Marianne Rose

Firstly - don't stress about the name now - concentrate on the birth and deal with the name later if necessary. I didn't name any of mine before birth and it took quite a few weeks with one of them (which I don't necessarily recommend!).

You've got two names and your husband has five so I'd get his choices down to two. Suggest that you each rank his choices 1-5 then get rid of the bottom three choices. Then check that you can both live with the names you are left with. Then see if you can compromise with one of the names as a first name and the other as a middle name?

Haha! I hadn’t thought of that, but I did think of them learning to write their names and being a bit puzzled about the pronunciation of the oe! I think I first heard of the two names together years ago when Stephanie Beacham named her daughters.

I would put those names together in a list, you rank them, he ranks them, add together the ranking and see what comes top. That way it's a logical numerical decision where you've both decided (as long as you like all the names enough and none are hates). Sometimes it just has to be done where you're not both going to get your favourite.

My personal favourite would be Francesca. You've both got the FR sound on your list and I don't think this is dissimilar to Freya at all. Francesca Marianne Olivia sounds lovely to me (one from each list).

I also like Felicity as mentioned above, got the F sound and the l and soft c you both like, or how about Daphne, Frederica, Frida, Fiona, Faye, Farrah, Lucy, Constance.

I like Imogen best. But your wishes take precedence-so I would go for Freya. Chloe and Freya sound lovely together.

My favourite is Marianne too. It’s lovely.