We are expecting our second child, a baby girl, in [name]July[/name]. Big brother (3) is [name]Leo[/name] [name]Aaron[/name]. I still LOOOOOOOVE his name and I am having a lot of anxiety about thinking of a name for our daughter that I will love as much.
I do have a lot of naming “quirks” that I hope you can help me think through. I prefer names that are simple (easy to spell and pronounce), obviously one-gender, not recently invented or modified, and that will work well on children and adults. I am not a huge fan of using a name that will lead to an obvious nickname (like naming a baby [name]Katherine[/name] if you know you’re always going to call her [name]Kate[/name]), but I’ve come around more to this idea since naming [name]Leo[/name]. We are Jewish, so we would like a name that doesn’t have obvious [name]Christian[/name] connotations…but the name does not have to be obviously a “Jewish” name. Last name starts with P (2 syllables) so I would prefer to stay away from P first names, which is kind of too bad because [name]Phoebe[/name] is one of my favorites! Finally, last name is heavy on short vowel sounds so I think I am drawn to long vowel sounds in the first name. I don’t care too much about popularity, but I want to find that nice balance between “heard of” and “overused.”
My husband and I have not reached consensus on this yet – part of the issue is that we were 100% sure that [name]Leo[/name] was going to be [name]Zoe[/name] if he was a girl. We both love the name. However, I don’t think we can use [name]Zoe[/name] with [name]Leo[/name], because they are almost mirror images of the same name (say them together 10 times fast and by the third time it will be Loe and [name]Zeo[/name]). My husband still likes [name]Zoe[/name] and wants to use it. I am trying to keep an open mind, but I think the damage is done for me on that one.
My favorite is [name]Ivy[/name]. I think it’s a similar style to [name]Zoe[/name] but without any of the matching issues with [name]Leo[/name]. I don’t even care (that much) about the recent Beyoncification of [name]Ivy[/name]; I will not be naming my daughter any version of [name]Blue[/name], so I think we’re pretty safe. 
My husband doesn’t love [name]Ivy[/name]…I might be able to wear him down over the next few months but it would be nice to find something we both like.
Here’s a current list of names neither of us has completely vetoed. Names with asterisks are most likely middle name ideas.
[name]Beatrice[/name]*
[name]Clementine[/name]*
[name]Cara[/name]
[name]Cora[/name]
[name]June[/name]
[name]Audrey[/name]
[name]Zoe[/name]
[name]Jane[/name]
[name]Ivy[/name]
[name]Daphne[/name]
[name]Vera[/name]
[name]Florence[/name]*
[name]Ramona[/name]
[name]Susannah[/name]
[name]Sylvie[/name] (mn [name]Pearl[/name]?)
[name]Eve[/name] (mn [name]Elizabeth[/name]?)
[name]Willa[/name]
[name]Augusta[/name]*
[name]Nina[/name]
Any thoughts? Any names you think we might like but have overlooked? I was pretty sure it was going to be another boy (in which case he would have been [name]Simon[/name]) so the idea of thinking of a girl name is throwing me for a loop!
Thank you everyone.
