Anastasia?

[Ellenmummy]

I like this but I have a daughter called Ellen and don't know if Anastasia is too much and a mismatch.
What do you think?

certainly a radical change of direction...

It's DH's favourite girl's name. I used to hate it but I have to admit it's growing on me, helped by the fact that the singer Anastasia is now largely forgotten. I don't think it's too much of a mismatch.

In that i assume you'd shorten it to Anna then actually it sounds ok... Ellen and Anna....mmmm nice

I love it. Ana or Annie very cute as nicknames, too. I also know a grown up Anastasia who uses the nn Sia.

I don't think names need to 'go together' either. Choose your second child's names because you love it, just like you did with your first.

I think it's Russian - Anastasia Romanov was in the russian royal family.

I prefer it with a hard a - Anna-star-zia.

Maybe there's another russian name that would work better with Ellen?

Ooh I love Sia - it was on my shortlist and I couldn't find it in the baby names book. Couldn't figure out what it was short for!!!

I've got a friend called Anastasia, I love the name - she has always shortened it to Stacie.

Don't forget to buy her the Anastasia Krupnik books when she gets a bit older - they were my favourites when I was about 9, probably why I like the name so much!

I think I'd have Ana as her everyday name and Anastasia as her Sunday name.
I don't know why I'm hankering after this name, I really should be sensible and stick to Anna.

I have to put it to dp yet.

love it, its also a greek name, pronounced ana-sta-sia. Was my girls name but i had a boy...next time..
also unusual enough so theres not more than one in the class at school but not so unusual people go WHAT?

Yes it is very nice.....i love the shortening Sia.....altho would happily just use Sia as a name in its own right.....

I like it and like the nn Ana.

I don't think the two different names is an issue personally.

I would go for it if you love it. I wouldn't consider Ellen a plain name either -- it has a lovely sound. Together they sound vaguely Greek, vaguely old fashioned; they have a lovely soft sound together if you use a nn Ana or Anna too.

I know two Russian Anastasias who are Asya and Nastia.

I love Anastasia (and actually prefer it to Ellen, if I'm honest).

I'd go for Anya. That matches Ellen better.

If you have Ellen and Anastasia, it makes Ellen look too short, or it makes Anastasia look too fussy.

Ellen and Anya are both beautiful in a simpler way. I don't think Ellen is plain. I like names like Leah, Nina & Ellen.

What about Lydia. I may be imagining it but does Lydia have a russian connection?

Lydia also greek like Anastasia. Anastasia = resurrection, Lydia is a greek place name. Both are really pretty.

Yes, I think Stacey is a long way from Anastasia in terms of the feel, MrsvWoolf.

I don't think Lydia made the jump to Russia. Anastasia did it via the Orthodox Church.

I think it's a great name (it's my cousin's name) and I think it's fine with Ellen, which is in any case not particularly common at the moment. My big sister is called Emma and I have a long and unusual name. It's never been something I've even thought about, and as far as I am aware my big sister loves her name as much as I love mine.

Are you Russian? If not may seem odd. Ellen's nose might be out of joint.

(My nephew has a very unusual name and his newborn sister has a very conventional one. I await their reactions - if any - to this as they get older)

I'm not Russian, but Anastasia is an old family name in my (Irish) family for reasons I have never known -- goes back many known generations and I don't know how much further. There are other names in the family that only show up in histories of the Desert Fathers and the very, very early church. For a more old-fashioned approach to Anastasia, how about the Latin Anastatia? (pr Ana-stay-sha)

My fav name, if DS had been a girl it was this or Tatianna