Hello! My partner and I are expecting out first child, a girl, this fall! We both accept that perhaps we haven’t found the name yet, but keep coming back to the same two. [name_f]Ailis[/name_f] (Ay-lish) is my favourite, he’s properly Irish (born and raised, but we live in [name_f]Canada[/name_f]) and I have strong Scottish ancestry and this name is popular among those two countries. I worry slightly about constantly having to repeat it/spell it (and her doing it when she’s older of course) but where we live in [name_f]Canada[/name_f] there is a very strong Gaelic presence and I’m not writing it off for that reason. It’s my partner’s second favourite, his concern is that is seems like we’re trying to hard to be original and “out there”.
His favourite is [name_u]Ellis[/name_u]. It was originally my suggestion and I still quite like it but it’s lost a bit of glimmer for me. Mostly over people bickering in forums about hating it for a girl and keeping it a boys name ([name_u]Ellis[/name_u] is not an uncommon girls name in [name_f]England[/name_f], where his family now lives).
Obviously these names are quite similar, so if we went on to have a second daughter it’s not like we can just hold onto one of them. So this means saying goodbye to one, and with his continued support of [name_u]Ellis[/name_u] I find myself mourning [name_f]Ailis[/name_f].
[name_m]How[/name_m] do you feel about these names? Anything else that you think suits our vibe? I like [name_f]Flora[/name_f] (but rhymes with my name) and [name_f]Sybil[/name_f] (but too clunky with the future last name… and he’s not a fan) and [name_f]Faye[/name_f]. Not a fan of [name_f]Ailsa[/name_f] which is a commonly recommended substitute for [name_f]Ailis[/name_f].
Thanks for reading!