How did you chose your baby girl names...?

[DazedEmma]

I have recently found out I am having a baby girl!! I am very excited as secretly I hoped for a girl. However, I am finding it SO hard to choose a name! I can't even think of one I like enough, let alone lots to short list!

Mumsnetters of baby girls, can you help? Would love to know how you decided on the names you have chosen and also... what names were on your short list?

[VictorianSqualor]

I have an Ella.
I have just had a baby boy but on my list were Clara and Alexandra.
Have recently fallen in love with Susannah.

[JoyS]

DD1: variation on a family name
DD2 (due in july): could not find anything until DH suggested one and it just sounded right. Will probably have a family name as middle.

Names we liked but won't be usiing:

Margaret
Edith
Esther
Avery
Clare
Sophie
Olivia
Cecelia

[eidsvold]

some we liked but did not use

Megan
Eloise
Maya
Clare
Eleanor
Louise as a middle name
Hannah

I just flicked through the baby book although we also had names that we liked at the outset. Tried them on for size - funnily when we look at the dds and think about other names we had considered - they very much suit their names.

[constancereader]

ooh - Clara is my choice at the moment VS.
I had loads of names I loved, my dh vetoed most of them. We appear to have reached a consesus now, but am not due for another four months.....

[scorpio1]

My MIL just strated calling bump Millie, and it stuck.

[constancereader]

Also liked
Florence
Maria
Beatrice
Edith
Ottilie

[NormaStanleyFletcher]

I wanted either Kate or Amy

I let the midwife choose between them straight after she was born

[VictorianSqualor]

Jane is a much under-rated name too.
I love it.

[Pinkchampagne]

I don't have any girls, just two DS's, but find girls names easier to chose than boys names!

DS1 would have been Carys if he was a girl, which I still like.
Other names I like are: Amelie, Maisie, Eve, Anya, Martha, Lila, Iris, Isla, Sophia

[piratecat]

I found my dd's name in a baby name book about 3 days before dd arrived. I had not heard of it before, and loved it immediately. Havent come across any others so far, but expect there may be a few to come as there is now a famous singer with the name.

We did go round and ruond with names tho, lots of names like Lily, Isobel, India and that type.

[treacletart]

I wanted an elegant name that wouldnt be too cutesy or girly on a grown woman. I wanted 2 or more syllables to go with our single syllable surname. I wanted something that went nicely with DS's name (Oliver). And though it's nice to have something fairly unusual I do like proper names you don't have to tell people how to spell. We chose Imogen (Mimi for short).

[piratecat]

Yes, we wanted soemthing with 3 syllables as our surname had one syllable.

[DazedEmma]

I am finding the old lady names very appealing, I quite like Edith.

Keep em coming, I am the worlds most indecisive!

[sfxmum]

we are a bi lingual family so I wanted a first name which would work in both languages. her middle name is my mothers name, it was always going to be a family name anyway just got precedence because the paternal granny is still living

we like fairly traditional names

Matilda
Rose
Isabel (middle name)
Lucy
Ines

we did have Scarlet and Tallulah on the list at some point

[DazedEmma]

I love Matilda!! I didn't even think of that.

How many Matilda's do we have on here? I am quite precious about it not being overly popular.

[vicsta]

I love 'old lady' names too: Maisie, Queenie, Flora, Florence, Eliza, Dora, Blythe, Bridie, Maeve.
All but last 2 vetoed by DP. Keeping Maeve for use as a middle name. I love Bridie, but I work with a lot of Scottish people and apparently its the name of a Pasty up there! Keep looking on here and get yourself a baby name book too. keeps me occupied for hours. Nice thread 'Old codgerly names only' going on with some lovely old fashioned names, have a look.

[amyjade]

Our girls are,
Freya
Libby
In our family we also have,
Gracie
Isabelle

My fav girls names at the moment are,
Ava
Ruby
Amelia
Molly

[DazedEmma]

Is Violet hideous? I love it but have never seriously considered it as a name... till now!

[belgo]

Martha

[ninedragons]

I wanted Jane, Ursula or Flora. Was resoundingly overruled on all three and too stoned from the epidural to argue.

[colacubes]

love Violet a beautiful name, I liked Vivian, but noone else did.

[chonky]

DD is called after my best friend from Uni, and her middle name was my great grandmother's first name.

Both are pretty traditional name - having grown up with a rather bohemian name in the 70s (which ironically is now very popular) I fall shy of 'Guardian reader' type names (I'm a staunch Grauniad reader myself - but there's definitely a certain genre of children names that appear in the weekly Family section ).

[Comerscroft]

No alternative but family names so:

Margaret Jean and Elspeth Joan

[pagwatch]

Mine was easy
DS1 (who was 10 at the time) chose for us !