My husband and I can’t agree

[jinto26]

My husband and I have very different taste in names and we can’t seem to come to an agreement!

He likes princessy, romantic, long, fairytale names:

• Seraphina
• Evangeline
• Penelope

He also insists on calling her by her full name and doesn’t really like nicknames.

I like cute, mostly 1-2 syllable names:

• Elle
• Mia
• Nina
• Lily
• Rose
• Sophie

A name that we might be getting close to agreeing on is Katherine, because although it is long it has 3 syllables and kinda sounds short. Any other names come to mind that you think sort of match my vibe but can also seem princess-y? Sorry if this is a hard ask!

Or one of the muse names? Thalia?

DH is being unreasonable, with the sameness of the names he likes, the type of names (suggests he has stereotypical ideas about girls/women), and saying that he can somehow ‘insist’ on no shortenings.

I do like Katherine! and all the shortenings.

your names are also samey.

Princessy names that shorten into something cute?

Eleanor with Elle for short
Evangeline - Eve/Evie
Penelope - Nell
Alexandra - Lexie
Celia/Cecilia - CeCe
Rosaline - Rose/Rosa
Emmeline - Emmy/Millie
Theodora - Thea/Dora

Or shorter but with a bit more of a princessy feel?

Calla
Daphne
Margot
Lydia
Lucy
Maeve
Grace
Chloe
Violet

Yes!

“I shall be an autocrat: that's my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that's his."

Helena (my favourite)
Sophia
Elizabeth
Alexandra

Catherine is a beautiful name but please spell it with a C not a K!

I’m not keen on your husbands choices! Evangeline is the best of those. I really don’t like yours, not because they’re not nice names, but because they’ve been to death! I’d have to settle on Katherine!

Genevieve, French pronunciation.
Zhahn-Vee-Ehv.
Jenny for short.

Like you OP I prefer 1-2 syllable names and am not a fan of princessy names at all, and would hate to have one personally. Some longer (3 syllable) names that i quite like (but are not too princessy) are

Eleanor
Marianne
Georgina
Adeline
Emmeline
Iona
Isobel
Romilly

Edited to add that Katherine is a great option.

Isabella is also a lovely regal name

Some names that are still very feminine and elegant but IMO a bit more “fresh” and less frilly than your DH choices, so might appeal to you more:

Annabel
Celine
Juliet
Celeste
Camille
Adeline
Josephine
Cassandra
Georgia
Olivia

Hilary - due a comeback and a nice gentle name.

Could you go with Evangeline, he calls her the long name and you call her Eva/Evie/Eve?

Ignore that he doesn't want a longer name shortened. Fine for him, but you can call her a shortened version if you want. Neither of you will have any say as she gets older anyway.

Some longer names with shortenings you might like:

Antonia (Nia or Nina)
Liliana (Lily)
Eleanor, Eloise, Elodie or Elowen (Elle)
Elizabeth (Elle, Lizzie, Liza, Betty, Beth, Libby)
Rosalind (Rose)
Naomi (Mia, Nia)
Vivian/Vivienne (Vivi)
Cecilia (Lia, Celie, Cec)
Miranda (Miri, Mia)
Alexandra (Alex, Xan, Lexi)
Matilda (Tilly, Tilda)
Ramona (Romy)
Selina (Lina, Selie)
Lucinda (Lucy)
Anastasia (Anna, Sia)
Marguerite (Daisy, Rita, Margot, Maggie, Meg)
Adriana (Ada, Ria)
Josephine (Josie, Joss, Seph/Sephy)
Vanessa (Ness, Nessie, Nessa)