Arabella

[kayzr]

I watched a program last night and someone on it was called Arabella.

I'm not pg but I do quite like the name and I might store it for future use but is it really posh and pretentious?

Arabella Weir always comes across as very nice, and I do think its a pretty name.

I don't like it. I like Annabella though. Annabella would make a nice change from Isabella, but Arabella would make me think, you should have stuck with Isabella.

Arabel is a type of farming so it's just too close.

Aha that is where I have heard it before.

lovely name for a little girl

she will hate it as a teenager - its not cool

too girly for a woman. ok if she is an actress or model , not if she is an engineer or farmer or head teacher

just my opinion of course

We're not even planning to ttc until 2011 so I don't even know why I am thinking of names.

I do think you are right though Kristina, it is a bit girly for an adult.

Not for me, sorry

Love it. And Bella is a gorgeous shortening

how funny, I have just started to re-read Arabella by Georgette Heyer. She is a great heroine! i don't mind the name and it can always be shortened to Bella

it is a bit poncey but not irredeemably so - I quite like it

and it's arable farming, Liffey

not my bag at all, i'm afraid. have never liked any bella-type names.

Little Arabella Miller
Found a hairy caterpillar
First it crawled upon her mother
Then upon her baby brother
All said: Arabella Miller
Take away that caterpillar
Trot, Trot, Trot

It was on my short list initially but I have changed my mind. Kristina - on that note do you think it's possible that names actually have an effect on the person we become?

I love it. Have a friend with this name and she's fantastic.
She is known as Bella mostly though.

i quite like Arabel, possibly from too much Jackanory as a child. Mortimer the raven was my hero.

electra - do you mean that because a child has a " girly" name it shapes our interests? I dont know, interesting question

i think its more a problem with gilrs names because they vary so much with fashion. Whereas the top boys names have shown remarkable consistency over hundresds of years.

i suppose i have sympathy for teh 40 years old accoutant/ engineer/ professor of physics who has to introduce herself as Tiffany Heaven-Lee Smith. It might be "boring" to be called susan/suzie/sue or Katy/Kate/cat/Catherine/ or Beth/betty/liz/elizabethbut at least you have plenty choice and you wont be embarased to collect your pension

Not that i am implying that Arabella is in the same league as Heaven-lee. Its a lovely name, just not my personal taste

I think it is lovely. I know several adult Arabellas.

It would be my number 1 choice at the moment, but dh reckons it's too poncetastic and posh. Apparently all my names are poncey and/or posh, and my boy's choice of Gabriel is "wimpy and gay" What can I say, I'm just a classy bird!(Married to Captain Cavemen)

Arabella is beautiful.

i love it. wish i had thought of it for dd1

I love it - this is one of my sisters' names. Some people call her in full, some people call her bella, and some call her ella. One of the nicest girlie names 'on the market' IMO.

we have an arabella and an araminta in my ds2's preschool class - feel v sorry for them when they are trying to learn to write their names - possibly because my ds2 has only 3 letters and still struggles - please shorten to something sensible though - both the girls in question are shortened to 'Moo' which seems bloody cruel in my book

Kristina - not necessarily just a girly name but I have often thought that certain people seem to fit certain names -- unfortunately not always in a good way!

I think Arabella is very pretty and might use it for hypothetical DD3.

we know a v sweet little Arabella - she's sometimes known as Bella so I guess she could use that when she's older?

we liked annabel and would have used that except surname also ends in 'ell' so it sounded daft...

it has the advantage of being quite unusual (more so that annabel/ isabel/isabella?)