Emily writes:
My husband and I are having our second baby in the middle of July. We don’t know what we are having. Our first child is Evangeline Mae. It took us many months and many discarded names to decide on this one. I love elegant, older names for a girl and I would strongly prefer a name with good nicknames. Male or female, we do not want a name that is too popular or too “out there.” We have pretty much decided on Porter West for a boy. I always wanted to name my kids after jazz musicians. Once Cole became so popular, it fell off my list. That’s where I came up with Porter (Cole Porter). The only real suggestion my husband has made for a girl is Nora. It’s his name spelled backwards and he has been fighting for it since I was pregnant with Evie. I don’t hate the name, I’m just not sure I want to use it. I love the name Isabel. Though it is a less common spelling, it is a VERY common name. I would LOVE to use it, but I don’t want “her” to be just another Linda or Stacey. I also love Vivienne and Charlotte. Both are either too popular or soon to be. I love Isla, but I worry it is the next Lila or Lola. Our last name is Carroll. We don’t want any names that start or end with a hard K sound. Please help!
Your husband likes the name Nora, and you like elegant older names with good nicknames, so I suggest Eleanora or Eleanor, with the nickname Nora.
You love Isabel but it’s too common for you to want to use it, so I suggest Isadora. It’s beautiful, VERY unusual, and it has good nicknames (Izzy, Dorrie, maybe Zora or Sadie). Evangeline and Isadora is a GREAT sister set. I’d thought Isadora might increase in popularity as parents looked for alternatives to Isabel, but so far I haven’t heard it ANYWHERE. I wish I could see if the popularity had shifted at all, but it’s not in the Top 1000 baby names (source: Social Security Administration), so if it’s moved from, say, #3000 to #2000, we wouldn’t know. But again, I haven’t heard it at ALL, not even on people’s possibilities lists.
If you’re considering jazz musicians, here’s a few possibilities from Wikipedia’s handy list:
Adderley (Addy, Lee)
Alice
Amina (Amy, Mina, Minnie)
Calloway (Callie)—but starts with hard-C sound
Ellington (Ellie)
Florin (Florrie)
Ginger (Ginnie, Gigi)
Harriott (Hattie, Ettie)
Sage
Vivien (Viv, Vivi)—the popularity might be balanced by the jazz connection
None of those seem right with Evangeline, though Ginger and Alice would both be good with Porter. My vote is with Isadora.
Jazz… I love Billie, though i understand it might be too boy-ish for some people. With Eleanor you get the nn Nora for your husband AND Ella, for Ella Fizgerald. Simone for Nina Simone? Henrietta for Etta Jones? Margaret for Peggy Lee?
Isla makes me think of Fiona; Isabel of the slightly less popular Giselle, and the much less popular Annabel.
Names that I think would be great with Evangeline are Beatrix, Penelope, Dorothea.
Evangeline and Penelope; Evangeline and Annabel, Dorothea Billie Carroll; Beatrix Etta Carroll…
Good luck!
Penelope and Annabel are actually names we considered. I don’t really care for the nicknames associated with Penelope, but I like the name a lot. My sister’s first name is Anna, named after our great grandmother, and I love Annabel for that reason. My husband doesn’t really like it. I had actually considered Eleanor or Eleanora for the same reasons you mentioned, but can’t quite sell myself on that either. I think Isadora sounds TOO spanish for me. Where Isabel branches into many coultures.
Genevieve? I think Genevieve and Evangeline are really cute together.
Lol, that’s pretty funny. Genevieve has also recently crept onto my list. I think it sounds nice with Evangeline too, and you can use the same nn’s as Vivienne. I haven’t suggested it to my husband yet, for fear he will shoot it down too.
I imagine Ella is too popular for you to consider, but it does have jazz angle. You could also go with Nina or Simone.
Genevieve is beautiful and I LOVE it with Evangeline. My fave by far. Convince hubby! I don’t care for Eleanore/Eleanora myself but I do like Nora. Isadora is okay, and you could use nn Dora – kind of like Nora?
Good luck!
I love the idea of using your husband’s name, and I like the name Nora. Although maybe it is a little plain next to Evangeline.
Here are some names containing the letters n-o-r-a, that maybe you would like instead:
Rosalind
Bronnagh
Rhonda
Sharon
Caroline/a
Corinna
Veronica
Caron
Saffron
Honora
Lorna
Cornelia
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Nora would be a sweet connection between father and daughter. Maybe save it for the middle name?
I like Genevieve Nora.
I also like Elise or Viola–they just sound jazzy to me.
I looked up Isadora on the expanded SSA lists and it does look like it is increasing in popularity, but is still far from the top 1,000. In 2000, 40 baby girls were named Isadora, 2005 had 80 were, and 2009 had 119. A name needed 263 to make it onto the girls’ top 1,000 in 2009.
I think Isadora is an inspired choice. THAT’s why you write to Swistle.
I think you should pick a long name in the style of Evangeline. Nora is a bit short, but Eleonora or something similar would work nicely.
Other names with -nora:
Dianora
Leonora/Lenora
Honora/Onora
Other ones that came to mind:
Adaleen/Adeline
Arabella
Catalina
Emmeline
Esmeralda
Guinevere
Ileana
Sorry, you didn’t want K sounds, so forget Catalina. Instead, how about..
Magdalena?
We named our daughter Nolana which you might like. It’s pronounce “No-Lawn-Ah” and we call her Lana (pronouced “Lawna”) for short.
It’s a very uncommon name and yet sophisicated too :)
I love it! Perhaps you would too…