Choosing between Susannah, Melody, Rosa and Esther

[Dana92]

Could anyone help with deciding between our shortlist of names please. We're down to Susannah, Melody, Rosa and Esther.

I can't bear Esther. Harsh sounding. Melody or Rosa for me.

We have an Esther so I’m biased, but Esther! She’s always complimented on her name.

Rosa.

Love Rosa!

Don't really get Susannah but it's OK.

Really don't like the sound of Esther, or the style of Melody.

Melody

I like Susannah best - and that spelling. I like that it's not too long to use the full name but has a lot of nickname potential

I like Esther as well but I would assume the person was Jewish. I do have a lot of Jewish friends though so maybe that's just me

I’m quite amused by all the hate for Esther. It’s normally much more popular on MN.

I have an Esther, so I obviously love it. But when we told people her name for the first time, there was always that couple of seconds gap whilst people frantically thought of something… er, nice-ish to say - normally along the lines of the name being old, or unusual. So in RL most people don’t like it.

My DD (now 25) likes her name. And I still love it.

Go for Esther.

Is Susanna or Susannah the more common spelling?
In the UK Susannah but both are used. Susanna in Spanish-speaking countries.
Susannah in the English Bible.

Susannah, Melody, Rosa and Esther?
Esther - classic and elegant. Doesn't need shortening. Not too popular.
Susannah - classic. likely to get shortened
Rosa - not sure. It's better than the rather wet-sounding Rose.
Melody - not keen. Likely to be Mel.

Susannah is great and lots of nickname options like Suki which is also cute!
I don’t like Esther it sounds harsh compared to the others.

Try each one with the surname @Dana92 . Some may sound better than others.

I like Esther, it's on my short list for the current bump. Someone also suggested Hester, which I'm not as enamoured with but can see why they suggested it.

Suki is great, though didn’t she take the kettle off, in the song about Polly? Rose is classic. Melody is dreadful. Esther is forever rantzen in my mind.

Esther from your list, for sure. Lovely name. Susannah, there’s a good chance will just be called Sue by everyone. I love Elodie, hate Melody, sounds like a character from an American teen film.

Not Melody.
It's not in the same class as the others.
Rosa sounds a bit old fashioned to me unless foreign background.
I prefer Rose.
But that's just me.
Any of the 3 are good.
But not Melody.

I love Susannah. Very underused name. I used to like Esther but have gone off it lately, not sure why. Don't like Rosa and Melody is fairly popular these days.

Susannah or Rosa are my favourites from your list

Esther is ruined for me by a person I knew and Melody just doesn't seem anything like the others

Oh I love Melody! I think it’s cool.

Esther I’ve always disliked, it seems so prim and dull somehow.

Rosa is just very meh, and I think it’s because it’s popular but also because Rose is sooooo overused. Every girl is a ‘something’-Rose so Rosa just blends in.

I like Susannah.

I think Susannah is sassy and feminine at the same time and I rather like it.

I made a joke on a thread the other day about names with yoonique spellings and suggested an alternative spelling for Melody as Malady. A poster came roaring in with a big long didactic post about how I had missed the fact that malady has an unpleasant meaning. Of course, I hadn't and that had in fact been my point: it does sound like Malady and for that reason I cannot say I like Melody.

What about Rosalie (Rosa for short)?

From what I can see on the internet, Susannah is the more frequently used spelling of those two. Furthermore, those are the two most frequently used spellings - there are other variations with z and with different numbers of s.

Also, statistically, although it is a well-known name, there are only about 50 named each year.
The ones I've known have all been lovely.

Rosa is nice because of it's simplicity and succinctness. Rosalie is too frilly.

To be honest, I do think just plain Rose is an understated classic.

I know some posters think it is overused, but to me the extra "a" doesn't really get around that, and I think Rose is so pretty but also has a simple elegance.

Adding the a for Rosa and ie for Rosie etc slightly detracts?

I like Susannah and Melody, I don't like the others.

Something is weird about naming your child pink (yes I know it's also the plant rose in Spanish, but then why not say Rose?). Rose is a nice name, I wanted Rosemary if we had another DD.

Rose is enough, but it still seems a bit wet to me. Probably because it is a flower and overused as a middle name. From the OP's list, Rosa is the harshest-sounding one.

I don't understand the need for 'nn potential'.

I actually like them all, Susannah and Melody might become Suzie and Mel so depends if you like those.