American/English name for a girl?

[14hourstillbedtime]

First time posting to Mumsnet here Very excited to get your feedback!

In brief, we have a 2.5 year old boy, preg now with girl, due mid-April and we're having a shocker of a time thinking up a name for her...

DH is American, I am English, our surname is Carlisle (I know - it sounds loads more English than American, doesn't it!) We need a name that 'goes' in both cultures, as though we live in the States we may move back to England while the children are still young.(I also want them to be called something English-sounding, too, TBH).

Our thoughts so far are: Evelyn, Magdalena (I am also half-Polish, to further complicate things.... and Rose with Elizabeth or June as middle names.

Thoughts?

What about Daisy or Kim?

Maya or Maja (is that the polish spelling?)

Erin

Both names you have chosen are nice I think .

Also, how about Alexandra/Aleksandra? Lots of potential variations for shortening/nicknames (Alex, Alexa, Ola, Xandra for a start) and works in the US, England and Poland. And I think it is just beautiful.

Love Magdalena, Margaret, Evalina, Alexandra, Rosa, Lena -- what's your DS's name?

Thanks for your feedback, guys!

hf128219 - not sure about Daisy per se, but DO really like flower names in general - just got DH in here and he vetoed Kim

nigglewiggle - Maja is my Polish cousin's daughter's name! How weird is that?! I do really like it (as does DH) but it would feel strange to 'steal' that name choice.

MrsHappy - my middle name is Alexandra I really like it. DH says no. Sigh... HE is the problem, I think - need to somehow remove him from the equation

mathanxiety - all names good - particularly like Evalina!

DS is called Jack. I know it's dead boring/common in the UK but it's actually pretty uncommon where we live (Berkeley - everyone is called something like Mingus or Brianna over here!) and it's a family name.

But for a girl, I'd like something a bit more outlandish

Magdalena is beautiful

what about Marianne?

My friend has a Polish name that I think is lovely - it's Danuta. It's pronounced Dah-new-ta or Da-noosh-a.

Less unusual suggestions:

Clara
Elizabeth
Caroline
Susannah
Sophie/Sophia
Helena

Kasia/ Keziah
Halina
Karolina

Agnieszka
Aniela
Apolonia
Bibiana
Florentyne
Irena/ Irina
Kamila
Sabina
Salomeja
Teodora
Urzula/ Ursula

Sorry Florentyna

Two American Samanthas at my DD's school.

But surely most names would 'go'. I went to school in CT (okay many moons ago) with Claires, Susans etc - kind of names that were common here in the 70s. Oh except every babysitter we had was called Lorry. Which I later realised was Lauri - seemed that every 18 yr old female in the area had to be named thus.

Names I like are Hebe, Harriet, Cecily.

Love Elizabeth for a middle name.

Are there any names that would work in the UK and wouldn't work in the USA or vice versa?

I am not aware of any!

aah my dd is Rose , my family all live in Canada and dd's name is fairly unusual for her age over there (she is 18) don't know about younger girls though.

I love the name Helena which works in both countries very well.

My great grandmother was called Rose Elizabeth...I think that sounds lovely

zoe

Jessica, Isabel, Emily, Anna, Catherine -- most the top names have been the same both sides of the pond for ages.

mathanxiety - thanks for the huge selection of names - especially like Florentyna!

earthstar - agree most names do cross over; our problem is that I like really traditional English names (think Beatrice, Imogen, Agnes) and DH likes names with a more contemporary feel (though admittedly that could be a personality thing - not just that he is American )

His name is Todd, however, which no one ever seems to have heard of when we go back home (when we were planning our wedding, our verger asked what was short for, and I said 'Toddington' - which is what I still sometimes call him now...)

twosofar - LOVE Rose Elizabeth, and actually that is one of our top name combo choices.

Thanks for all your help, everyone!

Aurelia is nice too -- I know a little Polish Aurelia.

hi, I'm american living in the UK and would say that not all names cross over: ok, it's trendy but I wanted Dakota but most brits I talked to turned up their nose so we dropped it. for dd3 we chose Harper which I think is more 'acceptable' in the States but here gets a lot of raised eyebrows.

for boys, we liked seamus, fergus which I don't know how good they'd work in the US, but we didn't need to use them as we had all girls .

Names for you, I like Kasia as well. How about Anoushka? Harriet (loved it but DH didn't), Zinnia. Someone earlier said Magdalena - I think Magda is cute.

Best wishes!

mominohoho - agree with you that there are, indeed, some names that just don't 'transfer' as well (for instance, I know some Dakotas here, but none at all back home).

Kasia is my aunt's name

Do really like Magdalena - I think we very well may end up choosing that!

Thanks to everyone for their input.

Earthstar, Jemima would not work in the USA.

Sylvia
Monica
Violetta
Laura
Edyta
Ewa

Maggie, you're so right! I love the name Jemima but knew we couldn't use it as, if we ever moved to the US, everyone would think of Aunt Jemima syrup. lovely name though.