Josephine vs Isabelle (or Isabella)

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Hi - our baby girl is due next month, and we are having some last minute doubts about our front runner name. I wanted to see what people think about Josephine vs Isabell(e/a) for her name. We are open to all of the nicknames for both (Jo, JoJo, Josie, Joey, Izzy, etc).

Her older sister is named Sophia and her last name will start with a J.

I’m not massively keen on Josephine or Isabelle, to be honest, although I like Josie a lot. I really like Isabella.

Absolutely LOVE Josephine with Josie as the shortened version. I know a Josie and it's such a lovely name for a baby, child and adult.

I like Isabelle/Isabella too but my first choice would definitely be Josie

Josephine is one of my favourite names. I also love alliterative names. Josephine J is a great name! NN Jojo or Jay.

I wanted my dd ( now 26) to be called Fifi for short, so nearly chose Josephine. But decided on Seraphina instead.

Josephine, definitely!

Josephine is really really lovely

Definitely not Isabelle unless you want her to be one of dozens and people constantly spell it wrong.

At the last school I worked at I think we had 26 variations/nicknames!

Josephine is lovely and LOVE Josie as nn. Isabella/belle/bel is just way too common, she'd likely be one of 2/3 in every class which I just think is a bit uninteresting (speaking as an Emma of the seventies!).

I love Isabella / Bella.

Josephine is a truly beautiful name

There are a lot of Isabelle/bellas. I’d go for Josephine.

I love Isabella. Both Isabella and Isabelle are obviously very popular at the moment, whereas I don’t know anyone under the age of 40 called Josephine, although I’m aware this varies a lot by region.

Love Josephine. There are too many Isabelle/a in the world.

Josephine is my favourite.
Isabelle is over popular but sweet too.

Other ideas ..
Ellen
Johanna
Elspeth

Josephine is gorgeous and classic! Isabella / Isabelle is fine but much more used.

Isobel is so much nicer than flouncy Isabelle and Josie a great shortening for Josephine

I love Josie, not too keen on Josephine but it makes sense to have the formal version and use the nickname. Isabelle/a is beautiful but so over used it is now boring.

Josephine has become quite popular recently, there are two in my daughters reception class and one Josie-Lee! There is also one Isabella. Personally I'd go for Isobel if I had to pick- I love the nn Izzy)

I prefer Isabel (I like this spelling). Both are fine though.

Love Josephine

Josephine is lovely

Josephine is beautiful. Isabelle/el/etc is..meh.

Josephine is beautiful!

Please go with Josephine, it’s lovely! I love Josie as a nickname.
Isabelle is so so over used that it’s become so ‘blah’

I think Josephine as Isabelle/Isabella has been ubiquitous for the last 18 years at least. So so many Isabelles, Isabellas, Izzies, Bellas in every class either of my kids have been in. It is pretty but it is the Sarah de nos jours.