middle name for martha

[mumofsevenplusfour]

dc8 due in 8 weeks really fretting
a girl has 3 sisters bethany lydia tabitha
4 brothers blake tudor leighton gabriel
dh loves
felicity
arabella
im not sure if there quite right
i like
keziah
gladys
cecily
serenity
ariel
esther considered but as our surname starts with west sounds like a shipping forecast priscilla also mentioned but again not sure
we both quite like martha and mathilda but think they might be too popular wondering about double barelling eg martha -jane martha- rose etc but not sure on a middle name that would go with martha or mathilda

HELP as im getting desperate and spending too many sleepless nights worrying about this

Choose a loved family member and use that as the middle name. Most people will never know what her middle name is - it doesn't matter! I can never understand why people get so worked up about them. Just see it as a nice opportunity to honour someone in your family (Mum, Grandma, Aunt etc) - they'll be touched beyond words, you'll have done a nice thing and your little girl will like having a personal reason behind her name.

Martha is lovely.

Martha Louise
Martha Jane
Martha Caroline

Raephella as an alternative?

Agree with Instyle - assuming the first name isn't a "family" name already

That said, what about a name that is meaningful in another way

eg

Martha Joy
Martha Grace
Martha Hope

PS, I'd go for a single-syllable name

IN STYLE fretting as i want to use the middle name as part of her first name as in martha- jane so everyone would use it and know it and dont have close female relatives i would want to name her after

Mary-Ann Louisa West(rest of surname)

like martha- joy
one of the others has grace as a middle name so that wouldnt work

Goodee ! Joy is a great middle name

Oh, I see . I have to say though, Martha is my all-time favourite girls' name (we're having a boy so don't get to use it this time round) and I kind of hate to see it spoiled with a hyphen. It's so beautiful on its own, so classy and timeless. Once you do the hyphen thing, you make her a little-girl-in-pigtails for life. And make something so elegant suddenly seem so twee.

Think about letting it stand alone?

I love the name martha - If it halps I don't think its too popular (in the official 2008 figures it was 81, matilda was 43) - I guess it has areas where more popular but I've never met one!

I agree with instyle that middle names really don't matter - flatter someone you like by using their name!

Good luck - hope all goes well xo

oops - was amazon shopping there for a bit!

Still agree with instyle - I think a hyphen is difficult for a grown up. Martha is such a pretty yet classy name I also would leave it at that.

My DS2 was also going to be Martha but it didn't suit him

I have a Martha. Her middle name is Erin. The other name we seriously considered for her middle name was Lois.

i really like martha INSTYLE and agree with what you say about it being twee and little girl forever if i double barrel it thanks for pointing it out as ihadnt really thought about that my only worry was it might be too popular but 82 nd isnt as popular as i feared

Skye
Brooke
Hope

claraquack - Love the name Erin. Love it.

OP - don't hyphenate !

pearl. my best friend's name is martha pearl and i think it's so cute!

Martha is a beautiful name. I know of a few baby Marthas round here (SE London) but wouldn't let that put you off. Paired with your other daughters' names it's perfect. The other one I would have chosen would be Keziah (which was very nearly what we called DD2 but we went for Miriam).

How about Martha Felicity? Martha Felicity Weston/Westbury/Westfield/Westwhatever sounds fab! I also like the name Felicity and that was almost DD1's name!

Please don't hyphenate; by all means call her Martha Joy or whatever and encourage people to call her by her middle name too but keep it as a middle name then, in time to come if she's tired of it, it can be dropped without her having to explain that, "yes, my name is Martha-Joy with a hyphen but these days I just use Joy as a middle name so really I'm Martha...".

Extra thought; what about Hannah? Not so popular at the moment...?

se13 miriam was on our shortlist butmeaning living with sorrow worried me slightly
unfortunately hannah is our close friends dd
and dd 2nd name

Our dd is Martha Louise; although I've met a couple of other Marthas, most people have commented on what a lovely name it is and said how they haven't heard it that much elsewhere so I don't think it's going to be that common.

Tho as others have said, we had real difficulty coming up with a middle name but of course on a day-to-day basis we don't even use it so it is fairly irrelevant...

mumofsevenplusfour, we chose Miriam preisely because of it's other meaning; wished for child (look on www.nameberry.com)!

That should obviously have said 'precisely'! Whoops.

se13 that changes everything because i really liked miriam but wanted something that reflected our happiness as this pregnancy followed a miscarriage so is definitely back on the shortlist

Our Miriam is Miriam Hope; Miriam because of the 'wished for child' meaning and Hope because she was not only wished for but rather unexpected having been told we were unlikely to be able to have a second child (a series of miscarriages and ruptured ectopic).

Miriam would have been Keziah (one of Job's 'beautiful daughters) until we found out the meaning of Miriam (aka Mim) and recalled that it as another version of Mary (my Grannie's name and DD1's middle name). It's a wonderful name and although I know of a handful around there are none in the school I teach at and the only one at my husband's school finished Y13 last year (and was thrilled we gave our baby 'her' name)

Felicity -- nice and nice meaning
Arabella -- nice, and nice with your other DDs
Keziah -- LOVE, and it goes really well with your other DDs' lovely names
Gladys -- old ladyish
Gecily -- like
Serenity -- Serenity is an adult incontinence product sold by Tena. I am on a mission to dissuade MNers from using it .
Ariel -- too Disneyish; the Little Mermaid has unfortunately made it her own, imo
Martha -- always sounds a bit grannyish to me, but biblical and goes well with your other names
Matilda -- nice, and goes well with your other names

Middle names for Martha or Matilda: Amelia, Anne, Elizabeth, Amy, Esme. Love Louise or Louisa too.
I would avoid Rose because of the Rose and West-- reference.