Josephine vs Isabelle (or Isabella)

[zuhura2]

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.

Both mine have a good friend called Isabel one has Isabel and Isabella. To be fair Isabel names girls always seem to be lovely girls. The other popular one is Grace - all the teen Graces we know are absolutely dreadful.

Isabel (and variations) has been a hugely popular choice for decades. A bit like Rachel or Sarah or Laura in the 70’s and 80’s. It’s fine, but don’t expect it to be spelled right or to be the only one in a class.

Oh I adore the name Josephine and all it's shortenings (except maybe Jo). Isabell(a) is also a very beautiful name but very popular in all it's variations. You have a Sofia which is also very popular so perhaps that doesn't really bother you, but if you go with Isobel you will end up with 2 beautiful, but very popular girls names.

I vote Josephine - I just love the way if sounds, it feels so romantic and lovely.

I love Josephine as a name but feared she would hear “not tonight Josephine” all the time, at least in the UK, so didn’t go for it

I really like Josephine. Think the best names are traditional but under used for some reason. See also Susannah / Miranda / Hester and Mary. Perfectly nice names but everyone else picks Isabel / Sophie / Eve or Grace all of which are ok but now utterly overused.

Personally I would choose Isabel over Josephine, but Josephine over any of the other variants of Isabel. But I like rather than dislike all of them. Maybe Josephine has more interesting and varied short forms if that's something that would sway you. But Jospehine (I left the typo in deliberately this time as an illustration) is quite hard to type!

Of the two, slightly prefer Josephine. I doubt she/ others will use the full name though. More likely the nn like Jo, Josie, Joey,

But I am not a massive fan of either name.

Were there any other contenders?

Isabella

Both lovely names. I’m not so keen on Josie. Any of the Isabel variations is very popular and that would put me off. I would go with Josephine or Joanna, NN Joey.

I actually have a Josephine.

She's managed to get to nearly 15 without hearing 'not tonight Josephine'.

It was the only girl's name i really liked. Probably because it tapped into 8yr old me and my love of Jo from little women. I was open minded about nicknames, but she's been a Josie all her life. She likes being a Josie in a sea of Lillies and Poppies and Lexies. The only downside is that it's another -ee ending when we use the nn.