Hello everyone, this is my first post, and I’m hopeing you all can help me out with a dilemma I’m having involving the name of my future daughter…
[name]Ava[/name] is a family name on both mine, and my husbands side, and definitely a name we want to honor.
The big BUT we are having, is that the popularity really is a turn off for us.
We know that we want [name]Ava[/name] to be a nick-name, and both grandmothers have made it clear that she will be an [name]Ava[/name] to them, but my husband and I really want a name that won’t be one of five in a classroom.
Here is what we’ve come up with, and we really like them all, so your opinions will really weigh heavy in our decision…
[name]Avalon[/name]
[name]Aveline[/name]/Avaline- what are your preferable pronunciations?.. also Avaleen is cute too.
Avangeline/[name]Evangeline[/name]
And, being irish myself, [name]Aoife[/name] is a favorite I’m also considering… I also don’t mind a double first name, so suggestions are definitely welcome for that!
Thanks for your help! Please opinionize and suggest away!
I think [name]Aoife[/name] is lovely, but I really don’t see how you’d get from EE-fah to AY-vah? If she just went by the sound of [name]Ava[/name], but the spelling of [name]Aoife[/name], I think people who know how [name]Aoife[/name] is pronounced would be confused, and those who don’t will go around thinking [name]Aoife[/name] is pronounced like [name]Ava[/name]. I think [name]Aoife[/name]'s lovely, but if she’s going to go by [name]Ava[/name] I don’t think it’s a very realistic option, if that makes sense–plus, [name]Aoife[/name] and [name]Ava[/name] are just too close. Why not [name]Aoibhe[/name] if you want the Irish form? Much less known (although I think it’d be more of a headache than you or your daughter wants) but it’d nicely honor Irish heritage.
I adore [name]Evangeline[/name], but I think it’s hard to get [name]Ava[/name] from it, and I wouldn’t misspell [name]Evangeline[/name] just to get to [name]Ava[/name]. I feel like I shouldn’t go near [name]Avalon[/name], since the Arthurian legend was never something I really got into–I love literature and literary names, but I feel like in most cases you should have at least some tie to the name.
That leaves [name]Aveline[/name] (I say ah-veh-leen) for me, which I think is lovely. It’s quite obscure and still gives you [name]Ava[/name] quite easily. My best friend had a daughter named Avelaine, too, which I think is just lovely, and even more obscure. Her daughter goes by [name]Lainey[/name] if a nn at all, but I think [name]Ava[/name] is just as lovely (if not moreso). There’s also the Hebrew Eliava, which I think is hauntingly beautiful.
[name]Avalon[/name] is super cute and spunky.
I love [name]Aveline[/name]. I wouldn’t change the spelling of it. The French pronunciation is Av - as in avenue - uh leen, so it isn’t like [name]Ava[/name] at all.
Then again, neither is [name]Avalon[/name]…
Avangeline is just awful, sorry.
Names you might like: Avonlea, [name]Aviana[/name], Avalena, Avanna, [name]Avalyn[/name].
I know a [name]Evalena[/name] - ev as in [name]Evan[/name], not like [name]Eve[/name]. So I think Avalena ([name]Ava[/name]-leen-ah) could totally work.
Personally, if her nickname is going to be [name]Ava[/name], I would go with [name]Aviana[/name].
[name]Aveline[/name] is my favourite of the three (it a French name so I pronounce it “av-uh-LEEN”). [name]Avalon[/name] comes in a distant second place (this isn’t pronounced the same as [name]Ava[/name] either). I don’t like the misspelling Avangeline for the gorgeous [name]Evangeline[/name] at all. I love [name]Aoife[/name] but it has a different pronunciation than [name]Ava[/name].
I agree with you all about Avangeline… the more i think about it, the less i like it… [name]Evangeline[/name] is a great name, the last thing I want to do is ruin it.
[name]Aoife[/name], although clearly not [name]Ava[/name], would be acceptable for the family… It was my grandmothers name before she changed after moving ti the US.
I think we are most liking [name]Aveline[/name], or a varient if that…
I really like the suggestion of [name]Aviana[/name] too, and just thought of [name]Avery[/name] as well.
[name]Aveline[/name] is definitely my favorite, and the fact that it’s pronounced differently doesn’t really bother me (if [name]Kit[/name] can be a nn for [name]Christopher[/name], and [name]Posy[/name] for [name]Josephine[/name] than [name]Ava[/name] could definitely be a nn for [name]Aveline[/name] in my book…)
If you are going to call her [name]Ava[/name], then she will still be one of 5 [name]Ava[/name]'s in the classroom. I personally would stick with [name]Ava[/name], if that is what she will be called.
(I got rid of most of this post so you could see what I was talking about…)
I am also Irish and my grandparents speak some Gaelic so I adore the names like [name]Aoife[/name], [name]Aoibheann[/name], [name]Aibhilin[/name], [name]Caoimhe[/name], etc…
Not many Americans could accurately pronounce some of these names unless they have studied background in the Irish language or they just pick it up along the way, so I would stay away from some of the more complicated Irish names.
I like [name]Aveline[/name] for sure, but prefer the Avaleen spelling. It’s easier to make the nickname for Avaleen [name]Ava[/name], plus it’s easier to spell with phonetics.
