Baby names!

I had a friend who taught, she had a firm belief that the length of a child’s name was in inverse proportion to their ability to write it!

It's impossible to avoid dating by names IMO. As soon as I announced my DGD's original name , I was instantly told about 3 already.

My DDs name wasn't decided until she was a fortnight old. We were getting desperate. You'd think we had had long enough but what with her being the first girl and the anxiety of responsibility. We wanted a family name too. We asked her big brothers to suggest some - mistake. Super heroes etc.

When we had settled on it and I said it out loud to a little girl who asked me what her name was, it was such a nice moment.
It is old fashioned and was even then, and she didn't like it very much " there's no one under 50 with my name" but now she does like it. It's her .
I sympathise as you can tell. Good luck.

My name was quite popular when I was a child, but only for neighbours' dogs!

A teacher complimented a little girl on her Shakespearian name of Portia until she saw the spelling was Porsche!

I am afraid I have always like my own name but I really like the names of flowers - lily, daisy, rose.

I love traditional names and have never understood the need for made up names.

My youngest son is Edward known as Ed, Eddie or Ted.
Despite it being such a traditional name he was the only one in his primary school.

I have always thought Lucy is a lovely girls name that never seems to date.

I hate my name and always wished as a child to have been Francesca!!

My DD was one of 3 in her friendship group with the same name. It's a timeless name.
My mum was the only person I'd ever heard of with her name until the last year or two now it's become popular and has been mentioned up thread.
I like traditional names. My GSx2 quiet by chance both have biblical names which I had nothing to do with but I like them both.

Not one baby girl in Scotland last year was named Jane. I bet your GD would be the only child in her future school class called that yet everyone has heard it and everyone knows how to spell it.

Ava or Eva

Can't think if any others just yet.

Sparklefizz, I have to agree.
I have a friend who gave her children Irish names, which are lovely but many people can't pronounce or spell!

I like classical Greek names which don't date ... Helen, Lydia, Daphne, Zara etc. I wanted to call our DD Sophia but my mother said it sounded like something you sit on!

I was a primary school teacher and taught many children with what I call made up names.
I dread asking what a new baby’s name is these days!
Was so pleased when my granddaughters were given lovely traditional names .

I love the name Mabel it’s so pretty . My DD loved it too but it clashed with Her surname which is why she ended up with an Evie

I would not worry too much but keep it simple. So often we end up with a nickname anyway. In my youth I was called Fatty, Tubby and finally Fred; I survived!

I think it should be left up to them to decide

Errr... WHY are you spending so much time searching for baby names? It's not your baby???

I just think they should wait until the bub arrives and a name will arrive with her that will suit her perfectly!

As I've already said, granny4hugs (and anyone else who thinks I'm trying to choose for them) it's because dd asked me to look for suggestions!

BTW at first I thought your username was grannythugs - I must need new glasses.

I wanted my daughter to grow up with a strong name to see her through her whole life. The books I was reading at the time were about Helen of Troy and Empress Josephine so she is Helen Josephine and she loves her name. She married a man called Power so 'Helen Power' is the force that gets things done in our family.

A teacher friend was told the name of one little girl, which sounded like Chenille. Nice. Then saw it written down: Shneal.

I dislike names that are spelt obviously wrong. I taught a Mercades. She'll have to go through her whole life explaining it. And I taught another whose name sounded like Michael a but was spelt Makiala. In both cases I think the parents really couldn't spell.

I have a particular thing about Jonathan. I keep seeing variants which just scream "wrong" to me:
Jonothan (no, dear, you're getting confused with John o'Groats)
Johnathan (no, it's NOT just a longer version of John)
Jonathon (no, it's not a long-distance race).
Incidentally in every case when I first typed those names, my spell-checker firmly corrected them.

My young granddaughters are Chloe and Ruby.

We had "definite" first and middle names for DS1 but they just didn't suit him when he was born. He ended up as Huw (Welsh spelling) and strangely, it couldn't have been Hugh either!!

Funnily enough I was thinking about names earlier and recalling the names of girls in my class- All of them label us from our era - 40s/50s.
I like classic, timeless names that don't do that. My daughters have one apiece.
However - your daughter and son in law will probably hear a name with their hearts not just their ears, and choose that.
I hope you all have fun choosing. I was asked for suggestions for my grandsons and I enjoyed looking through the baby name book and being a part of it.
Wishing you joy in your surprise granddaughter.

PS I can't resist. I like the names Lorna, Isabel, Emily

Some

Methinks one has to be very, very careful. Our staunchly German friends have a daughter married to a Jewish gent. {That was a horrible shock to both families, but we wont go there}. Obviously without thinking of the implications, this couple then called their daughter names with the initials SS! Good grief! Couldn't they have given it a little more thought?

My granddaughter is called Aila it’s Scottish Gaelic and means from the strong place

My DD called her 8 week old Sarah which I really didn’t like. However got used to it and baby suits being a Sarah ?