Helga??

[namechooser]

Baby's first name will probably be Maria. We are British living in the UK, but Helga is the name of a much loved Danish relative. Can we use it as a middle name, or is it too out there?

Since most people won’t know what your DD’s middle name is, Helga should be absolutely fine.

Maria is lovely & fairly unusual nowadays.

No one really uses middle names so it doesn’t matter what you pick.

This will be one of those that, when friends and colleagues find out what it is, she’ll get teased.

Does that matter? It’s up to you. It’s not life-ending but also it’s not a ‘pretty’ name.

God no

As a middle name, sure

It will be a talking point at least.

She’ll probably drop it..

It’s a very hard sounding name.

I like it and I it has a nice family and heritage link. In my country, it would be derived from a longer name, probably Helena, if you're less keen on Helga.

Maria is beautiful. Helga is awful. Please don’t saddle your child with this, they will hate it.

My German friends lovely mum is called Helga. Go for it.

I like it!

it’s a very old fashioned name in my country and I really dislike it.

Makes me think of Helga G Pataki but her peers will have no idea who that is!

In my experience it is used as an insult. Someone is a “proper Helga” meaning a bit of a battle axe!

I find Maria helga hard to say, if you want to use it add something else in the middle. Something like Maria Elizabeth helga or Maria Sophie helga etc is a lot easier to say and in my opinion makes Helga seem a bit softer

I get Allo Allo vibes.

Helga is old-fashioned sounding but not in a particularly pleasant way to my ears anyway ,and with my lack of familiarity with the name
In other words I've never known anyone with the name Helga., which is good if you're looking for a unique name for your DD.
Maria is a lovely name, you can't really go wrong with it.
I get that you'd like to honour a much loved relative, would you consider two middle names such as someone suggested , Maria Elizabeth Helga for example?
Regarding another PPs comment, I would be astounded if " friends and colleagues" would tease your DD about her middle name.
As an adult, colleagues, really?

You can use whatever you like as a middle name. They're so rarely used that most people won't know it anyway.

I much prefer using family names or names with meaning rather than just something because it 'goes'.

Thanks all for helpful comments. Lots of love for Helga which is nice - we’re actually now crystallising around Helga Maria as final choice ❤️

I quite like the name.
Have you thought of 'Hildegard' or is that too Swiss German?

I have a feeling that Helga is an old lady name in Germany.

You might consider Hilda?

Only if you want her to spend her life chasing after Herr Flick of the Gestapo.

Go for it. Every Helga I have met have been amazing women.

According to Wikipedia, Helga is an independent.name and means holy, as in "heilig". It's not as conventionally pretty as Helena but I think it's good that it's a name in its own right.

Like other pps, the name reminds me of Allo Allo, but Helga was a rather glamorous figure, so that's not really off-putting!

Helga Maria is gorgeous.

I like Maria Helga too but I think Helga Maria flows better.

What about Halle

Helga is a great middle name