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Help deciding baby girl name

(158 Posts)
xoubie Sun 13-Sept-26 11:37:54

My husband and I have differing tastes when it comes to names. We've got two names that we agree on:

Liora and Twyla.

We are both in love with the sound of Liora, but worried because we aren't Jewish and don't want to offend anyone. Twyla is so pretty but we are worried it's too "out there" and the reactions from others we've tested it on haven't been great.

Names I like but my husband dislikes: Melody, Cadence, Violet, Daisy, Annabelle

Names my husband likes but I dislike: Ophelia, Penelope, Lucy, Miriam

Her middle name will be Mae.

Any suggestions if other names? Or opinions on the names Liora or Twyla?

grannybuy Thu 24-Sept-26 20:18:48

Clara Mae? Avril Mae? Stella Mae?

Mojack26 Thu 24-Sept-26 20:50:30

Lucy Mae or Daisy Mae. My mum was Mae so I like that. I find the first too a bit 'out there' and a bit weird but your daughter your choice.All I can say is think carefully about the pairing with your surname and how your daughter will feel about her name when she is older.....as a retired teacher.....my advice is.....kids like to fit in and not be different. Good luck

Mojack26 Thu 24-Sept-26 20:51:27

Two even...predictive text.....🤣

Delene100 Thu 24-Sept-26 21:02:45

These are the names of my aunts:
Irene
Ellen
Sarah
Maybelle
Bertha
Louise
Madeleine
Therese
Veda Rose

If they were alive now, they would probably be over 100 years old.

Magenta8 Thu 24-Sept-26 21:15:45

I have a bit of a thing about people who call their children by names they pronounce wrongly. For example Caitlin is pronounced Katchleen not Kayt-lin.

mulberry7 Thu 24-Sept-26 21:31:06

Fern is cool!

Kitty55 Thu 24-Sept-26 21:47:33

Oh no. None of them.

Lovetopaint037 Fri 25-Sept-26 06:23:49

Agree with Franski. Please don’t saddle your little darling with a name that will be forever questioned as to how to spell,pronounce etc. When choosing a name consider the application for a job, writing their name at school,

icanhandthemback Fri 25-Sept-26 11:07:40

Loveto paint037, those are the downsides but there are upsides too. My children always had a conversation starter which broke the ice when meeting new people, they were quickly identifiable because there was rarely another person named the same, etc. Neither one has ever had a problem getting jobs nor has it hampered their career trajectory. Both of them said they had had moments when they were growing up when they wished they'd had a normal name but both felt entirely comfortable about it on the whole. Both of them had traditional middle names they could have adopted if they desired.
I have a perfectly normal Hebrew name but people still pronounce it wrongly or misspell it. It used to bother me as a young person but there are so many real issues to worry about in life, I just shrug my shoulders and respond regardlessly. It's called patience, a great skill to learn.

JenniRen Fri 25-Sept-26 11:28:12

Magenta8

I have a bit of a thing about people who call their children by names they pronounce wrongly. For example Caitlin is pronounced Katchleen not Kayt-lin.

Kaytlin is the fairly standard pronunciation everywhere except in Ireland now. I have known it spelt Kaytlin too.
Niamh is often spelt as it sounds to, Neeve or Neave.

Anne as in Anne of Green Gables? Or Ann without an 'e'?
The variations of most names can be interesting!

Delene100 Fri 25-Sept-26 12:43:04

My grandmother's name was Eva.

JenniRen Fri 25-Sept-26 15:12:13

A good old Celtic name; that should confuse everyone.

Aisling
Saoirse
Ffion
Grainne
Iseulde
Caoimhe

Elrel Fri 25-Sept-26 15:32:42

Once she is in school Liora will get used to being miscalled ‘Laura’ and Twyla will soon answer to ‘Tyler’. Lots of us with easily pronounced and quite popular names find ourselves known to neighbours and others by a slightly similar name. For weeks I thought a colleague’s daughter was Yvonne, the first Siobhan I ever met! After her first day in reception a child told me she had made friends with a lovely little girl called ‘Tarzan’. She was a lovely little girl, actually called Charlotte!

Elrel Fri 25-Sept-26 15:44:03

JenniRen New to a huge secondary school, I was occasionally asked take the register for a class I had not met before. I did my best with unfamiliar names. One morning I paused half way, probably looking uncertain, a thoughtful 15 year old quietly said ‘ It’s Gronya, Miss’. Thank you, Grainne!
In another school a year 7 was named Basharat, when asked he told me it was pronounced ‘B’shaarut’. I think every child deserves to have their name correctly used.

JenniRen Fri 25-Sept-26 15:50:32

Elrel 😀

I think I first heard Grainne pronounced correctly when Eamonn Andrews was famous as his wife was called Gráinne.

watermeadow Fri 25-Sept-26 15:52:36

Unless you’re Irish don’t use their names as nobody will ever know how to pronounce or spell them.
Look up the meaning - Chiara is a bad dog disease.
Look on Mumsnet for the absurd, the ghastly, the cringingly awful names in current use.

NotSpaghetti Fri 25-Sept-26 16:06:07

Butterandjam I think Theo - from Theodore and Finn - famous in Irish mythology (Fionn Mac Cumhaill) are both traditional.
And D'Arcy- from D'Arcy is old - 16th century in the UK.

Kai (Cai) is from Scandinavia and Wales. I think (from memory, also ancient Persia?).
Leif is also old Scandinavian- and Leaf presumably comes from Middle English "Lef".

I expect the others are 19th Century.
I haven't researched them.

Nansypansy Fri 25-Sept-26 16:31:52

My granddaughters have lovely names … Genevieve and Anastasia

CarrotTop Fri 25-Sept-26 16:43:19

OldFrill

Lilibet is quite nice

Lilibert for a boy

Oh come on --- you're being mischievous, right? grin
But, just in the unlikely event that you're not, which grown woman in her right mind is going to want a baby's mispronunciation for a name? Might just as well go the whole hog and call her Bubbadubbadubbaboopikins...

Oldnproud Fri 25-Sept-26 18:25:30

This thread has suddenly reminded me of past jokes about suggestions of names such as Chlamydia for girls.
I think it might have started when celebrities (allegedly- I am not into this culture enough to know if it was true) started naming their daughters names like Chardonnay).

Margs Fri 25-Sept-26 18:41:19

Steer clear of Agatha - it will be converted and contorted into 'Aggie'. I had an aunt who suffered such a fate. It didn't help that she was born a hunchback in the days when nothing could be done about it.

Ghastly name and ghastly appearance to match. Looking at her terrified the life out of me.

Grandma70s Fri 25-Sept-26 18:52:40

Where did the spelling Mae come from? If I used the name I would spell it May.

I don’t think the fact that a name is hard to spell should put parents off interesting names. My maiden name was very difficult, and I had to spell it for people all the time. It wasn’t a problem for me. I liked having an unusual name. Moreover, some very ordinary names can be hard to spell. One of my names is Katherine. That can be spelt in numerous ways - Catherine, Cathryn, Kathryn, Katharine. It’s an unremarkable name, but I still have to tell people how to spell my version.

Grandma70s Fri 25-Sept-26 18:53:56

Nansypansy

My granddaughters have lovely names … Genevieve and Anastasia

Those are gorgeous.

SueEH Fri 25-Sept-26 19:47:16

Miriam Mae… after my grandmother ❤️

SueEH Fri 25-Sept-26 19:48:52

Margs

Steer clear of Agatha - it will be converted and contorted into 'Aggie'. I had an aunt who suffered such a fate. It didn't help that she was born a hunchback in the days when nothing could be done about it.

Ghastly name and ghastly appearance to match. Looking at her terrified the life out of me.

Poor woman!