Baby girl names - thoughts please

[Tailored20]

My name is very common for my age group, in my school year there were five of us with the same name. I don't really want this for my daughter. She's due in 3 weeks and we are stuck on a name!
Our list changes quite often but these are the names we're considering:
Evelyn
Eliza
Maeve
Hazel
We both like them and they all sound good with our surname, I'm just not sure if any are off-putting. Any thoughts please?

I love Hazel, and there's not a lot of them about

Hazel is lovely, Eliza i just follow with Dolittle. So many Evelyn's at the moment.

I always hear it as Ann uh lize

My neighbour little girl pronounces Annaleese 🤷🏻‍♀️..Spelling Annalise..
I think it’s lovely ☺️

It is lovely. I know quite a few women with the name and all use a harsh s (z) perhaps that is old fashioned now. Although I just listened to 8 different pronunciations and all were slightly different.

I see what you mean about the harshness of an s instead of a soft z , not old fashioned at all actually , probably nicer now that I say it out loud a few times 🤷🏻‍♀️

Currently around 1 in 1000 baby girls are called Hazel. It is still highly unusual to find 2 in a class.

My Eliza has just turned 16 and we've never met another one so I'd be inclined to suggest that one. I know one 15yr old Evelyn, which does get shortened to various other things if that might be a concern of yours?

I’m guessing you are a Sarah or a maybe a Catherine? But anyway, gone are the days of 5 in a school year because there are such a wide spread of names used now. For anecdotal context, DS has no repeats at all in his year and DN at a bigger school only had a couple of repeats (and only 2 of a name which can be down to bad luck as much as popularity).

So imo I’d forget about worrying about popularity and decide based on other factors. Timelessness (so a name being less likely to date) could be a factor, rather than popularity as such - Eliza is reasonably timeless feeling since it’s a variation of classic Elizabeth (which is as timeless as you can get and I personally prefer over Eliza).

Whereas Evelyn, Maeve and Hazel are all quite trendy now. For example, as beautiful as Maeve is, its rise has been especially rapid - it’s very likely going to be Top 10 in a few years. Simple May (as a first name) is far less trendy.

Evelyn also suffers from the “V” phenomenon - so even though she could well be the only Evelyn in her year now there will probably be an Evie and/or Eva too. You might like Emmeline though? Similar sounds to Evelyn but a rarer name.

Regional factors do play a massive part so maybe do some research in regards to what’s popular locally to you?

We went for more traditional names for our girls, we currently live in north wales and we have a Primrose and a Tabitha. We are yet to come across another Tabitha however we have come across countless primroses would you believe! Yet back home (down south) there are none in our old local area whatsoever!

Eliza is the one out of your list which sticks out the most as least heard of for me!

The names are nice.
Evelyn is very popular.

Eliza and Hazel are perhaps less commonly used.
Eliza is my favourite.

Others ..
Lilac
Alice
Cressida
Serena
Belinda
Savannah
Mariette

Agreed, there are two Evelyn’s in my son’s class, it is definitely popular at the moment.

Eliza or hazel

Lovely names, but there are two Evelyn's in my little girls class so I would avoid that if you don't want anything too popular. I think Maeve will also be more popular now because of the Netflix show Sex Education.

Also I would disregard your MIL thoughts. My parents didn't like my daughter's name when I was pregnant with her and now she's here and they're used to it they love it. Plus it is noones choice but you and your partner.

@Alexandrine But anyway, gone are the days of 5 in a school year because there are such a wide spread of names used now.
That is not the case, and even if the names aren't repeated there will be several names that are similar (e.g. Ava, Ivy, Evie, Evelyn, Eva).
People of a similar socio-economic background tend to like similar names, live in the same area and send their children to the same schools.

All lovely names! Hazel is my favourite. I also love Poppy, Nora, Maisie & Fern.

If you don't want the same for her then don't give her any of those names. They are very popular.

My son has a relatively common name, he was the only child with that name in a school of over 600. He then moved to a tiny school with 55 children in the whole school, two others in his class of 12 had the same name! It’s just a question of luck!

Evelyn - nice but there are lots of Evie’s around
Eliza - again nice but also a few young Eliza’s, Lizzies I know.
Maeve - lovely but I love an Irish name
Hazel - loads of hazels around here, 3 in my DDs primary school class.

I've done a quick search and they seem incredibly popular. They will be the "Emily, Sarah, Rebecca, Emma, Rachel, Amy, natalie" of my era. I've attached screenshot that mumsnet are checking.

When I went to uni back in the dark ages, tutors could pick their tutor groups. Mine decided she'd get a good mix of academic abilities if she went lateral and chose five Elizabeths and five John's. So I became Lizzie and we had a Beth, an Eliza, a Liz and two doggedly stayed Elizabeth. The poor Johns all got called John + surnames. I've just had a large gin and my teenage inner self has re-emerged and still thinks that tutor was the funniest woman ever.
Maeve is a lovely name.

We are in London and had Maeve on our list, but decided against it when we met 3 in the first two weeks after DD2 was born. So if you are trying to avoid the risk of another in the same class, id avoid.

All are lovely except for Evelyn. Maeve is my favourite but it is definitely becoming quite common.

Thank you for all the suggestions and feedback!
Blossom, Lydia and Primrose are lovely names.
Alice was on our list but my MIL said no. The other names my MIL said no to were Elowen, Beatrice, Daphne and Naomi. Maybe we need to revisit these or go back to the names book!
I think I'm getting too hung up on getting called by my surname name in school as there were so many of us, silly i know! My married surname noone can pronounce or spell in the UK so I don't want her to have the hassle! Also why I'd like her to not have a very unique name or she'd have trouble with both names!