Baby names!

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 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!

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!

Ava or Eva

Can't think if any others just yet.

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.

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.

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!!

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

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!

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.

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!

Mabel...Yes, sounds like old great-aunts to us. To my father, born 1907, Charlotte sounded equally fuddy-duddy.

Not a girl’s name, but my grandson has a friend (11) called Percy. It makes me smile, but sounds perfectly normal to them. Fashion is a fickle thing.

When I was expecting youngest child, I wanted to call her Prudence, husband wasn’t keen, she says thank god for that!

Many thanks for all replies. BTW Bluebelle , I'm only searching for suggestions because dd has asked me to, I'm not trying to impose my choice.

What I find so odd is that names like Mabel are becoming popular again - to me they conjure up the whiskery old great-aunts of my childhood. Ditto the old men's names that evoke bristly, tweedy old great-uncles smelling of pipe tobacco! But then younger parents won't have those connotations.

And yet I saw 'Mary' described as an 'old' (and thus undesirable) name on MN!

What they would like to avoid is a name that will date her - like the umpteen Lindas and Christines of my schooldays - very nice names though they are.

We already have one Gdd with a 'Shakespearean' name, which I think is lovely, and dd likes Imogen, but SiL doesn't - someone he knew has put him off!

Press on...

My DD’s name is on that list but none of my DGC’s names are. I almost called my DD Alice (she’s 34) but she said she was very glad I didn’t as that awful song was doing the rounds when she was growing up and she thinks she would have suffered. Of course it’s disappeared now (thank goodness) . I still love the name.

2 of my DGC are the only ones with their name in school, the other one, whilst still a very pretty name, is more common. I suspect there will be quite a few Evie’s around when she eventually goes to school.

There were 5 (or was it 6?) girls with my name in my class at school. What great imagination our parents must’ve had.

If a child has got to spell it out for people and tell people how to pronounce it every 5 minutes, they won't thank you for it! My daughter's a teacher and says that these made-up children's names are a nightmare these days.

I have a daughter called Alice. It is a family name in both my family and in Dh's.

PECS

I’ve got four daughters/granddaughters on your list, all pretty names,

Grandma70

I really like Alice

I’m all for names that have stood the test of time. I agree with Sara65 - 100 years or more and it will be timeless. This doesn’t mean it can’t be unusual. Names from Shakespeare or the Bible can be good. Once upon a time I would have included royal names, but now we have an Archie I’m not so sure...

My granddaughter is called Alice. I think it’s a perfect name, several hundred years old but still fresh and pretty. There are rather a lot of them about now, though. It is very difficult to avoid trends.

paddyann In New Zealand, Kaia is a native plant, very pretty too.

It's also a popular name.

I like Sienna as a name for a girl.

IMO, when couples can't agree on a name, a good idea is to suggest a way to choose a name, rather than to try to find names for them. One suggestion might be to think of names related to a shared interest or hobby. For example, do they love camping? Then a nature name might be a good choice, perhaps a favorite flower since baby is a girl. Is music their passion? Then maybe a musical term (Ive seen both Aria and Allegra used as girls' names). Etc. But the actual choice of name would still be the parents'. That way, if they ever regret it for any reason, they can't blame the GM, LOL!

my daughters have traditional names ,her brother an dhis then partner wanted something that there wouldn't be 6 of in her class when she went to school.They succeeded ,she's the only one with her name in the town as far as we know

I really think parents have to find their own names I would not have wanted my own parents to help name mine and I certainly waited for each one of mine to be chosen by their own parents it’s such a personal thing

I love most names (except my own and maybe Beryl) . I think modern parents tend to think about the name more long term than my parents did. I love all of my own DGC’s names they really suit them and they like them too, which is surely what counts.

Merryn sounds Cornish, I like it!

We had decided on a name for one of ours then MIL put me off it - I wish I had ignored her! I would leave them to it to decide Witzend.