What do you think? I want the name Hartlyn for our little girl and my husband wants [name]Isla[/name]. I like them both, but I prefer Hartlyn. Hartlyn means ‘full of love and joy’. So sweet. [name]Isla[/name] means ‘Scottish river’. LOL. No contest on meaning.
I’m going to be brutally honest here, but please don’t be offended. I just hope to let you know what others might think, but be too polite to tell you in real life. [name]Isla[/name] by a mile. Hartlyn is over the top trendee and sounds made up. [name]Isla[/name] is much more sophisticated.
Definitely [name]Isla[/name]. Hartlyn sounds made up to me. [name]Do[/name] you know the origin? I don’t know a lot about names and am always learning new names from different cultures on here, so I’m always very curious when I come across a new name. And just fyi, I think (emphasized because I’m not totally sure) that [name]Isla[/name] is the name of an actual Scottish river. I don’t think it means “Scottish river” literally.
I agree completely, sorry. “Full of love and joy” is indeed lovely, but honestly, I’ve seen a lot of the name sites definitions of names, and when the name is made-up or smooshed from several names (like Hartlyn might come from [name]Hartley[/name], [name]Ashlyn[/name], etc.), they usually will just come up with a meaning that sounds nice (but is, 9 times out of 10, wrong). We could be completely wrong, it could mean “full of love and joyous”, but any name etymology I’ve found on parts of Hartlyn don’t suggest that at all. [name]Isla[/name] is so much more timeless and gorgeous, imo. If you’d like to keep Hartlyn, maybe [name]Isla[/name] Hartlyn? That way you could both keep your favorite option.
Good luck!
Thank you for your feedbacks. Hartlyn is an American name. I do like [name]Isla[/name] but it is already becoming more and more popular. That is one of the reasons why I love Hartlyn. I dont see how it could be trendy when not one person I have mentioned it to has never heard of it before and it is not even listed on most baby name sites. Somenone I know named their baby girl [name]Hartley[/name] and I did not think that sounded made up at all, just really cute.
This is why I think it just comes down to me keeping my gut instinct because [name]Ashley[/name] (the previous poster) has some lovely name choices for girls but I would never pick one of them because most of them are already too over-used. ([name]Isabelle[/name], [name]Olivia[/name], [name]Rachel[/name], [name]Charlotte[/name], [name]Hannah[/name]). I do not want my little girl to have a name that every one else has when she goes to school. (Like [name]Jennifer[/name], [name]Michelle[/name], etc) was for my generation. Ironically, [name]Ashley[/name], I love your boy name choices [name]Everett[/name], [name]Asher[/name], [name]Grayson[/name], [name]Avery[/name].
I’m with the group on this. [name]Isla[/name] is beautiful and timeless. It’s popular, but not insanely so. Hartlyn is NMS. I know a little girl [name]Hadley[/name] which is cutsie, but usable.
I think [name]Hart[/name] [name]Lynn[/name] would be really pretty and I think it looks less trendi. [name]Hart[/name] is another word for a stag so I’m not really sure how Hartlyn is supposed to mean “full of love and joy”. Although the deer thing is kind of a cool connection if you have any deer hunters in your family. I’m actually not a big fan of [name]Isla[/name] so I would vote for Hartlyn or [name]Hart[/name] [name]Lynn[/name].
What does NMS mean?
If you google Hartlyn, almost every web site states clearly that the meaning is full of love and joyous.
Well, I’m honored you like my taste in boys’ names. haha. Honestly, though, I think it depends on the person. I was a super shy little girl and LOVED having such a super popular name. [name]Even[/name] though I didn’t attend school with another [name]Ashley[/name] until my junior year of high school, I still knew [name]Ashley[/name] was super popular and it helped me feel like I was more normal, even though I didn’t really seem to fit in with anybody at school. Your daughter… she could love being one of a kind, or she might wish she were a little [name]Hannah[/name] instead. We’ll really never know what our children will be like, not before they grow up and already have their names attached, I’m just trying to say it’s not all bad, having a popular name.
What we mean by Hartlyn being trendy–it’s not the actual name, it’s that it’s SO similar to so many other popular and trendy names. The -lyn names are everywhere and after you hear so many, they just start to sound monotonous and empty, with no meat/substance to them. Hartlyn, [name]Braelyn[/name], [name]Jaelyn[/name], [name]Kaylin[/name], Taylin, McKaylin, [name]Gracelyn[/name], Kaitelynne, [name]Raelyn[/name], Mckennalyn, Jadelyn, [name]Madalynn[/name], [name]Gwendolyn[/name], [name]Jocelyn[/name], etc, on and on and on–some of them are legitimate and historical and I love them ([name]Jocelyn[/name], [name]Gwendolyn[/name], [name]Madeleine[/name]), but a lot of them aren’t. Some of them are random syllables with “lyn” tacked on the end ([name]Jaelyn[/name]). Some of them are legitimate names with lyn tacked on the end ([name]Gracelyn[/name] from [name]Grace[/name]). The whole surname as a given name is huge right now, and [name]Hartley[/name]/Hartlyn definitely falls into that category, too. You study names long enough like a lot of us on here have, and you’ll realize that even if there are only 3 little Hartlyns born in 2012, it will still be a name pegged as trendy during the 2010s. You obviously love it, we’re not trying to discount that, I just would want something with more substance and history for my daughter.
On most name databases, too, when it’s labeled “American” that generally is just a nice way of saying “made-up”. 
If you’re decided on Hartlyn, I really don’t want to keep attacking it–I’m not even trying to attack it now–I’m just trying to explain a bit better what we meant by Hartlyn is trendy. It’s not just super popular names like [name]Sophia[/name], [name]Isabella[/name], and [name]Lily[/name] that are trendy–it’s a whole style of similar names that are, too. And that’s the category that Hartlyn would fit under.
Good luck!
Hartlyn kind of sounds like Heartland to me. It does sound made-up, but it isn’t horrible. I’d probably prefer it as a middle name. [name]Isla[/name] isn’t really as popular in real life as it is on naming sites, I think. So, [name]Isla[/name] Hartlyn would be a nice option for you all.
Or maybe:
[name]Courtney[/name]
Avonlea
[name]Afton[/name]
[name]Carys[/name]
Chessid
[name]Charity[/name]
[name]Hollis[/name]
[name]Rilla[/name]
[name]Cherie[/name]
[name]Charla[/name]
[name]Morgan[/name]
[name]Kari[/name]
[name]Layla[/name]
[name]Just[/name] some suggestions based on your desire for an atypical, feminine name.
PP-
And that is only your OPINION that Hartlyn has less substance, not fact. Your snarkiness is unattractive.
And those other lyn names are atrocious to me, so I am not following any lyn trend if I picked the name Hartlyn as [name]Hart[/name] is not a girls name in and of itself like [name]Grace[/name], [name]McKenna[/name], [name]Jade[/name], etc.
Also, your American made up comment is suspect.
Personally, I am not going to pick a name based on popularity in hopes that if my little girl happens to be shy, her name will help her overcome some complex. I have a little more ‘substance’ than that. 
I vote [name]Isla[/name] as well. I’ve only ever meet one so while it’s more popular (1197 times used in 2011) than Hartlyn (9 times used in 2011) I don’t feel like that is saying much.
@AshTheDreamer wasn’t saying that Hartlyn isn’t trendy because it’s popular but because of the -lyn ending. It then automatically joins the ranks of [name]Brooklyn[/name], [name]Madelyn[/name], [name]Jocelyn[/name], [name]Kaitlyn[/name], [name]Evelyn[/name], [name]Ashlyn[/name], [name]Adalyn[/name], [name]Caitlyn[/name], [name]Joselyn[/name], [name]Kaelyn[/name], [name]Jazlyn[/name], [name]Braelyn[/name], [name]Gracelyn[/name], [name]Raelyn[/name], and [name]Emmalyn[/name] -> these are often only 1 of many variations of the same name each being used more than 500 times last year in the US. If we conservatively assume that each of these names has only 3 variations and each variation occurred only 500 times in 2011 then a minimum of 22,500 girls were given a -lyn name. ([name]Brooklyn[/name] with this spelling only was given to 7115 girls and 77 boys in 2011). The point is that even though Hartlyn isn’t popular (given to only 9 girls) it does get swept up in the -lyn trend and thus is “trendy”.
I agree, [name]Isla[/name] Hartlyn would be nice too. The name [name]Carys[/name] is beautiful and I have only seen it a few times.
Um, my snarkiness? I wasn’t being snarky, my intention was to be helpful, I said so in my post. My intention never was to attack you or your name choice. My intention was to be helpful.
I didn’t say you should name your daughter [name]Hannah[/name] on the off chance that she’d be painfully shy (and, btw, how does being shy constitute as having a complex?!)–I said I appreciated having a popular name because I’m painfully shy, and it can go both ways (people appreciating having either a rare or a popular name). Either way, you’re not going to know, so you should just go with what you love. The percentage of people with top 10 names has gone down so far that even the likelihood of a [name]Sophia[/name] meeting another [name]Sophia[/name] in her grade is relatively small, anyway, though.
You can doubt my American theory all you want. My grandmother has one of those “American” made-up names, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest. The fact that my grandmother has a made-up American name doesn’t make me love her any less, I’m sure you’d love your Hartlyn regardless of whatever anyone else thinks, so if you don’t ascribe to my theory, just drop it. It doesn’t matter all that much in the long run, anyway.
I’m done. I was trying to be helpful, but I obviously failed. Good luck with your little girl, and I do mean that with all sincerity (and not the slightest bit of snarkiness).
All the best.
I’m sorry, but these websites misrepresent so many names. I did google it, and they’re very misinformed. [name]Hart[/name] does mean stag, and lyn would be an add-on. [name]Isla[/name] doesn’t mean “Scottish river,” either, it means “island.” Stick with thinkbabynames.com and babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com for quality information.
[name]Isla[/name] is the NAME of a Scottish river. I did not mean in my OP when I said that it was the meaning of [name]Isla[/name].
I like behindthename.com. Sometimes a bit complicated but it deals with the etymology of a word nicely.
[name]Ah[/name], sorry. You said “means Scottish river” in the OP so I got confused.
Also, I forgot to mention that I think it’s a lovely name.
I didn’t get snarky at all from her post. And I agree with a lot of what she said. I’m sure you weren’t thinking about following a trend, but the name does sound very similar to lots and lots and LOTS of other similar names.
Regardless, she’s you baby, and her name is the first in a long line of choices you will make for her. No one will agree with all of them, so don’t worry if someone doesn’t like her name. You do, and that’s what matters!
ETA: [name]Isla[/name] is absolutely gorgeous 