[name]One[/name] of my favorite musicians recorded a children album a while ago. Anyway there is a song called Abiola named after the heroine of the song. Each time I hear it I fall in love with the name all over again but am uncertain how it reads to others. So… If you aren’t familiar with the name already and before you look it up online - what are your impressions? Who do you think she is? What would you guess the origins to be? Does it fit into a category like surnames or boys names on girls, trendy etc? What would she look like to you?
[name]Yu[/name] don’t have to answer all of those, I’d just like to hear what you think.
Thanks.
Edit: I should probably add I’m not pregnant or trying to conceive just curious.
I’m not quite sure how to pronounce it, as I haven’t heard of it before. Seeing it written, to be completely honest, my first impression was it reminds me of the Ebola virus. I’m sure if I heard it in reference to a person in real life, I wouldn’t have that connection.
Once I try and get past that, I would think the parents liked the nickname [name]Abby[/name]/[name]Abi[/name] but didn’t want an [name]Abigail[/name], so combed through baby name books to come up with another name that would work with the nickname.
Samesies, my initial reaction was that it sounds like a virus or some kind of affliction. Stepping back to look at the name completely on it’s own merits, it sounds like a cross of [name]Abigail[/name] and [name]Viola[/name]. I don’t think it has a surnamey vibe at all. It sounds more like something I’d find on the 1800’s Arkansas branch of my ancestors… a sister for great aunties [name]Clora[/name] and [name]Fanny[/name]. Whether that’s a good thing I’ll leave up to you
I think it’s one of those names that might possibly be appealing if it existed in a vacuum. With outside circumstances it becomes unusable, [name]IMO[/name].
While I can see the merits of the name on it’s own, it DOES have a very similar sound to areola in English and that’s just not something I would do to a little girl.
Yeah, I definitely thought of Areola first. Otherwise, It sounds like it might be African or Arabic, and I would just assume I know very little about the culture the name comes from. It’s not a bad name besides the leap to areola. [name]Abi[/name] is a fairly common nickname.
Thanks for your responses. Interesting I might have gotten to Ebola (and only because u have a friend who studies infection diseases) but never would have considered Areola. (Though I feel like this comes up frequently on NB for people not to like a name - if you aren’t pregnant or breast feeding how often do you really come across the word areola?) do you feel similarly about The Greek [name]Iola[/name]?
Also interesting that the only person who didn’t give a medical association is our little medical expert @blade. BTW. She hit the nail on the head apparently it’s a unisex Nigerian name and given to children born into the new year. I haven’t found pronunciation on the web yet but in the song the say [name]Ab[/name]-e-ola or [name]Ab[/name]-yola.
Abiola… I kind of made a face when I saw the name. It sounds like an anatomical term to me (labia+areola?). I am saying it a-bee-OH-lah (first a as in ‘baby’).
Not familiar with the name and have not looked it up. I am having a hard time imagining it on a person at all because of the associations I formed when first reading the name. I wouldn’t say it is trendy at all, more rare and odd. Very stylistically specific.
Yes, I too, immediately thought of some weird combo of Ebola and areola. In general in just sounds to me like a disease or growth or something. I personally wouldn’t recommend using it.
