Help please

[Comma2]

I cannot bear the responsibilty of naming my second dd I have a name I really hate and do not want to do this to innocent babybut will have to.

DD1 is Flora, and I always knew it would be. son, if i'd had one, would have been Miles. Now it is a dd though, and struggle has begun.

DH extremly unhelpful, only imposing limitations: can't be a flower name, can't be a months name (there goes June), can't be too hippy and can't end in 'illy' (Lilly is double out).
My own restrictions: must be not too outlandish (Fantasia is a no-go), not obviously religious (Grace), and not weird spelling to make it 'special' (Desyree)

We live in the US and people are very bad in pronuncing anyting more complex than Jack and Judy, I am German and would like no th so my parents can have a go at pronouncing it, and our last name and heritage is irish, so that would be nice, but we'll have to be able to read it. . Anybody??

Here are my 3 ideas, all of them a bit unenthusiastic:
Esme
Ella (number one so far,but not sure about it)
Penelope (but dh doesn't like Penny)

Please help me!!

Well I am similarly stumped. I also need a clearly pronounceable name for DD1 who I thought would be DS3.
Esme is utterly lovely. It's on my list too.
Ella is ok, but nothing special.
Penelope is also on our list!

I would suggest:
Sarah, Anna, Lena, Aisling, Niamh, Orla, Maeve, Clara, Ruth, Esther, Aphra, Avril, Lauren.

Hope this gets the ball rolling, if anyone can give me some ideas too, I'd love it..!

Anja
Isabelle
Alice

??

I love all three of your names so far

Oh thanks so much for the back-up! Loneliness of name-choosing is getting a bit to me.

I stumbled over Esme reading shorts by Salinger, and it struck me as a lovely name(Flora and Miles are both from turn of the screw, but can't tell dh as is crept out by story).

Ella, I don't know...it's nice and normal, and there will never be a problem spelling or pronouncing, but an ex-friend called her dd Ella, and don't know that I can get over myself there....also danger that somebody might call her Ellie...

Penelope prob a no-go from dh, as no way around Penny.

Esther is v. cute, but danger of Essie...
Clara is also v cute and favorite of DH. But so reminds me of tight buns, black frocks and Schumann..

How do you pronounce Niamh and Aisling? They look nice. (prob though not a good sign that I don't know how to say them..)

What do you think about Genevieve aka Ginny? Too french aka too Harry Potter?

Sophie?
Kate?
Alice?
Astrid?
Saskia?

could have Virginia aka Ginny or Ginia - would that work?

Sophie will be middle name! Kate is v. nice..hmm.
Alice is already in family.
Virginia not so much my thing. I don't even know why.

Esme's nice, but people pronounce it wrong...friend just named her DD Esme and everybody gets it wrong...

I Don't think Kate Sophie really 'works' IYSWIM. Kathryn Sophie (or Katherine) Sophie with Kate for short is fab though

Since you're in the US, please don't give your DD an Irish name that Americans would have a hard time pronouncing (I'm thinking Niamh "Neev" and Aisling "Ashling" here). Maeve, on the other hand is lovely, imo, and is easy to pronounce. There are millions of Ellas and Ellies in the US right now; most of them are under 6. Have you considered Emma, Astrid, Ingrid or Freya?

No no. it's got to be a name she doesn't have to explain or spell every time.

Are there millions of ellas here? I've never met one. English queens are in high fashion, Emmas are all over the place as well as anything that rhymes with Eden...

Freya is a Wagner nsme....no?

Why, how do people get Esme wrong??

SomE say Es-me, some Es-may

How about Isobel? V.popular in Uk but maybe less so in US

I think Ella is just - dull.

How about Felicity?
I like Genevieve which you mentioned....also like Francesca. Phoebe?

Ursula.

I love Ursula! Met a very sweet 6 year old with this name recently. I am told this is the 'sea witch' in Ariel though, not that this would put me off!

Esme.

so es-may is wrong, correct?

Esme is really lovely, i would go with that. Otherwise what about Esther, Imogen, Sylvie or Brea x

There are three Ellas and two Ellies between PK 4 and Kindergarten in my DCs' school and we bump into a lot of them at the playground. I find in the US that people will make an effort to pronounce a name the way you tell them to, and Esme is not completely unknown there, so I don't think it would be mispronounced too often. However, I also find that most Irish names elicit a request to spell it, then a shaking of the head followed by a misspelling, then a repeat of the request, then another spelling....and it all gets very, very tedious very, very fast.

I think Esme would be pronounced Es-may in the US. btw I would have thought it would be spelled Esmee, with an accent on the second-last e, being a feminine adjective name in French.

I love Esme, and Ella.
Also like Hebe.

hm. Do not want people to say esmay, that sounds like dismay.

Marta
Corinna
Meriel
Emer - a lovely Irish name
Tara

There are a lot of Isabelles in the US too. Emer would be very uncommon, maybe difficult for Americans. Orla on the other hand might be easier, but it's a bit close to Flora. How about Finnuala, Nuala, Finola, Fiona?