Our name choices don’t seem very liked

[Fritesky]

DH and I have just had our twin baby girls, they are 3 weeks old and we have named them Gigi and Lola. We love their names and put a lot of time into picking them. We are a Anglo-Franco-Italian family so tried really hard to pick names that everyone would be a fan of.
Since then we’ve told family, friends etc. our babies names and got lots of “oh are the nicknames” and “oh that’s interesting”, which I guess just makes me feel really crappy. We haven’t registered the girls yet so we could change the names, but I’m not sure if I want to. Their full names are Gigi Apolline and Lola Gabrielle.

What are your thoughts?

My list pre vetoes had Ines, Léa, Zara and Suki. DHs had Eva, Lila, Juno, Tessa and Alba.

Congratulations on your new twins!
If you love their names then keep them , why should you change them , it is nobody's business and it is very rude of people to criticise.
Because you have asked for opinions , I love their middle names more than their first names. That is only my opinion. It would be a little odd to change their names now , imagine you changed them and everyone then asks why you have done that.

Love their full names

Are you asking what we think of the names, or what we think you should do ?

I'm not keen on cutesy diminutive names. Clearly your taste is the opposite of mine. Nothing wrong with that.

You should name your daughters the names you like. Don't let relatives sway you. My mother hated my second son's name, was awful about it, and the result was that I didn't tell her my daughter's name. She found out from my brother. I know she hated it too but I think she got the message because she didn't say a word to me about it. Your relatives can either like it or stfu.

I do agree with pp that it's a bit unfair for one of your daughters to have your dream name and the other to have a compromise name, so for that reason I'd suggest taking another look at your lists with your dp to see if you can't agree on something you both like/love.

I have always loved Juno, Alba, Tessa and Ines. Honestly your taste seems so similar to DH - you can’t be too far off having this sorted. Gigi and Ines is a winner for me.

Or, if you liked Zara (which is also nice) how about Zoe?

Congrats. Their names are lovely. If people say rude things about their names call them out on it. It’s incredibly rude to be rude about someone’s name.

I think when choosing names it's a good idea to imagine them as grown ups in professional careers or applying to Med school, or Oxford University and see how it sounds... sadly there IS still a bias when it comes to names.
Gigi and Lola are very cute on babies but maybe not Dr Gigi? ( My DD1 is a GP and is quite often know as Dr first name)
I love the middle names!
Unfortunately I actually know a snappy little Shitzu called Gigi, and quite a few doggy Lolas so that may be skewing my judgement!

I think I'd choose a longer name for Gigi and use Gigi as a diminutive.
Gianna
Giada
Georgina
Georgia
Giulia
Gemma

Lola is lovely.

Agree that Gigi and Lola sound a bit unserious/flighty/ladies of the night. Apolline and Gabrielle are beautiful. I would give those as first names. Lola and Gigi could be nicknames or middle names. But it’s your choice and people will get used to them.

I’m just curious, was someone a Gilmore Girls fan? It’s just you mentioned Rory as having been on the list and Rory had a half-sister Gigi. Gigi’s full name was Georgia and Rory’s full name was Lorelai Leigh.

Strippers.

They sound like stripper names to me I’m afraid.

dogs, cheap dolls or ladies in a red light district.

I think they’re really nice names (and I particularly like Apolline) but if I were going to change Lola, I’d go for Ines or Romy. Or maybe Lana.

they are nice names. Lola feels like a full name to me but Gigi sounds like it’s short for something such as Georgina.

Together they sound like they work in a strip club.

Lola is very popular, it’s a nice name. I wouldn’t change it. It’s not nicknamey at all.

Wow, I’m sorry about some of the things you’ve had to read here. I think they are both adorable. However, I would assume the same as your relatives, that they are diminutives. I know lots of Lolas (millennials and current babies) who are Charlottes. I only know one Gigi and she is a Georgia (or Georgina, I’m not actually sure!)

It wouldn’t hurt to have an “official” name but to go by Gigi and Lola. I often have kids in my class with names like this, where they wouldn’t respond if you were to call for Georgia or Charlotte for instance.

It’s up to you and their other parent. You don’t owe the posters on this thread anything! Or your family! Enjoy your baby girls 💖💖

Sure, but if you have specifically chosen a name because it works in three languages/cultures, you're probably not going to want to choose a nickname which really doesn't work in one of them.

Describing the name Polly as "international" is a bit of an odd take.

In Scotland Gigi is horses ie you are going to the Gigi’s for horse racing.

I love your name choices!

I’m currently pregnant with just one to name and we don’t know the gender but I’m torn between Gigi and Romy! Our surname begins with G so I do plan to use a longer G name and then her initials would be Gigi, rather than her name being Gigi, but this is only because the Gigi G just wouldn’t sound right if she ended up being one of 4 in a class! I’d much rather be able to use Gigi as her full name, as this is what I want her to be called!

it probably means absolutely nothing and shouldn’t be an issue as at all, but there is an influencer on TikTok with Gigi and Romy. They’re beautiful little girls and probably partly why I like the names, but maybe something to bare in mind if using both of the names!

Keep Gigi and Lola. They’re lovely names and you’ll regret choosing a new one just because others have raised an eyebrow.

they’ll get used to it.

They are beautiful names. Don’t change them.

The middle names sound like proper first names of a person who will live most of their life as an adult. The first names sound like cute nicknames that are used for children and informally for adults.

Genevieve could be the more formal one for Gigi. Absolutely love the combo. Good Luck & Congratulations 🥂

@PinkFlamingo888 I do like Gigi (i would call a DD it if DH liked it) but if your surname starts with G I think "GigiG" could be a bit of a pain.

DD is the only "mini Kate" in the school but she is sometimes still "mini Kate C" on things

I think Gigi Hadid would be the main cultural touch point now (although I do love the Vincente Minnelli film, it's not really known by the youngsters).

I would argue it has not been a stripper name for decades, none I have known would use that.