isla

Girl Names
1

i’m just wondering what you all think about the name isla. its on our girl name list, but i tend to like more unique, uncommon names (prefer them to be out of the top 500). i’ve seen isla on a LOT of name lists on name boards lately. i don’t know if this is just because we are all name nerds around here and can appreciate the beauty and simplicity of this name or if this is name is heading towards the “trendy” lists (gasp!). i personally think it will stay out of the popularity lists because of the pronunciation issues. but i’m just wondering what you all think?

our top girl names at the moment are isla, maisie and gemma. we have one DS beckett reed.

2

i like isla the most out of your names.
gemma - are you pn’ing it hemma or gemma (like gem)?

3

gemma like a gem.

4

Oh, I loved [name]Maisie[/name] [name]Clare[/name], [name]Maisie[/name] [name]Blythe[/name], and [name]Maisie[/name] [name]Cate[/name]! I think [name]Maisie[/name] goes best with [name]Beckett[/name] as well, too!

I don’t think [name]Isla[/name] is really as popular, and I think your idea about the “Nameberry Nerds” and our taste for more exquisite names is definitely in action here.

I honestly don’t care for [name]Gemma[/name] - I had a friend who pronounced it as G-em-uh, and that really turned me off!

Other names I think would be ideal with Mr. [name]Beckett[/name] [name]Reed[/name] are: [name]Georgia[/name], [name]Jenna[/name], [name]Nora[/name], and [name]Pippa[/name] - names that I think are in the same style as [name]Isla[/name] and [name]Gemma[/name] - and [name]Annie[/name], [name]Evie[/name], [name]Maggie[/name], [name]Rosie[/name], [name]Sadie[/name], and [name]Tillie[/name] - in the style of [name]Maisie[/name]…

5

i just love isla and can’t let it go =) DH likes it too, he just likes maisie better! we did find a combo we kind of like with maisie: maisie brynn.

and i [name]LOVE[/name] georgia. i am trying to convince DH to love it too. all of eldest males in his family are named george (but go by their middle names) so i thought it would be a great way to honor his family. it also means farmer, which would honor my family too!

DH is actually the one that thinks isla will get super popular (because of isla fisher) and we don’t want a super popular/common name. so he is leaning more towards maisie because of that issue.

6

I have a suspicion [name]Isla[/name] is going to get quite popular–in part because of Ms. [name]Fisher[/name], whose career seems to be doing very well, but, yeah, also because there’s so much love for it here. Name nerds tend to be ahead of the curve when it comes to awesome names–they’re the adventurous ones who pick out the neat stuff that no one else is using yet, and once enough adventurous namers catch on to using a name, the less-adventurous types start to see its appeal, too, and up the charts it goes. Exactly how far [name]Isla[/name] will go isn’t immediately apparent–it’s offbeat enough that I’d predict it’ll stay out of the Top 100, but I bet it’ll still get a lot more popular than it is now.

Myself, I’m not crazy about the name–I think [name]Ailsa[/name] is a lot richer and has more character. [name]Love[/name] [name]Gemma[/name], though!

7

We have the same taste in names. :slight_smile: I’m not pregnant yet, but my favorites are [name]Isla[/name] and [name]Maisie[/name] and recently added [name]Gemma[/name] [name]Posey[/name] to my list.

[name]Maisie[/name] [name]Brynn[/name] is adorable.

8

I believe [name]Isla[/name] will only rise in popularity…
I’m sorry to say it, but I would not be surprised at all if she was in the top 300 next year…

The [name]Isla[/name] graph on Nameberry is VERY wrong… Fact is, [name]Isla[/name] hasn’t been on the list at all since the early 1900’s except in 2008 when she jumped from being off the list to being number 622 on the list. That’s quite a jump for a newcomer!!! That’s actually extraordinary! I don’t know of any names that have made that sort of a jump, and sure, she’s not even in the top 500 yet, but she will be by next year…

Of course there are pronunciation issues, but she’s not that far off from [name]Ella[/name], another popular choice and there’s the fact that she looks like, and is pronounced like the first part of the word ‘island’ so it’s not too hard for people to get it right…

She’s also similar sounding to other names in the top 50, [name]Anna[/name], [name]Emma[/name], [name]Mia[/name], [name]Kayla[/name], [name]Riley[/name], [name]Leah[/name] and the names that contain a ‘version’ of [name]Isla[/name]: [name]Taylor[/name] and [name]Kayla[/name] most notably…
Also, the fact that [name]Isabella[/name] is so popular, people will look for alternatives starting with Is- and they’ll find [name]Isla[/name] even if she’s not the kind of name they were looking for (like [name]Isolde[/name])…
And it may seem like nothing, but [name]Isla[/name] ends with an A. Half the names in the top 10 end with an A.

There’s also [name]Isla[/name] [name]Fisher[/name]'s career becoming more noticed…

[name]Truth[/name] is, [name]Isla[/name] has everything going for her, she’s the perfect name and would fit right in with today’s trendy names, I see NO reason why she shouldn’t reach the top 300 by next year, and it saddens me…

I just know that if popularity bothers you, [name]Isla[/name] is probably not the best choice. She will undoubtedly become more popular before you know it!

9

I completely agree. I just posted a comment along these same lines in the topic titled “What are the next names that are doomed to be over popular?”. Actually, I’ll cut and paste it here…

I think [name]Isla[/name] has HUGE potential for mass popularity. It went from not being in the top thousand at all to suddenly staking a claim, and it’s the name everyone’s talking about right now. It’s short and simple and has the same soft vowel sounds as all the other trendy names… [name]Ava[/name], [name]Ella[/name], [name]Anna[/name], [name]Emma[/name]. I think the 2009 stats will show a big rise in rank for [name]Isla[/name]. “Confessions of a Shopaholic” starring the beautiful and charming [name]Isla[/name] [name]Fischer[/name] came out this year, which will help bring the name further into the mainstream. I love it. I’d name by baby [name]Isla[/name] in a heartbeat if I weren’t absolutely positive that this name has serious climbing potential.

10

We had [name]Isla[/name] and [name]Maisie[/name] on our list with our first daughter (we too like under 500 or even under 1000 is super!!!) But we named our daughter [name]Ellery[/name] and we [name]LOVE[/name] IT!!! We get such beautiful comments from people when we say her name. I’m on the board now too looking for another unique and just as pretty name for our second Daughter! Good [name]Luck[/name]!

11

ah! ellery…[name]LOVE[/name] the name. i just asked DH about it and he said, “like celery?” grrrrr. do you get the celery comments with your daughters name??

12

That is too Funny - that is exactly what my hubby said the first time I said it. I gave it few days and then he came around saying - you know I really like that name. We have never had celery or any other negative feedback on the name. We even find our friends and family love telling people our daughter’s name because of the lovely comments that follow. I just can’t say enough nice things about [name]Ellery[/name]. Now only to find it’s equal - awwwwwwhhh! Leave it with him. It really grows on you!!!

13

I love [name]Isla[/name] and [name]Gemma[/name]. [name]Maisie[/name] isn’ t my favorite. [name]Isla[/name] was on the short list for my daughter who is due in 6 weeks. We aren’t going that way now… but I think it will be popular but maybe not as over the top as some predict…

14

I put [name]Isla[/name] on our maybe list earlier this year when I was pregnant with our second child (we kept gender a surprise, so we weren’t able to focus our name search on just boys or girls). I thought it sounded pretty but like names with some depth in meaning and because of that, I wasn’t sold on the name.

It wasn’t until the week before my daughter was born, that I put a post on this site and someone suggested “Aila” as an alternative. It sounds the same, but has a meaning that we appreciated more than “[name]Isla[/name]”. A bonus was that “Aila” is a Finnish version of “[name]Aileen[/name]” and my husband is 1/2 Finnish. So, we went with Aila instead of [name]Isla[/name]. Aila’s sister is [name]Adelaide[/name].

My DH and I chose both names because they seemed to be less common, we liked how they sounded, liked their meanings, and they weren’t too weird or offbeat. The “A” theme was totally unintentional and now I’m worried about whether or not we’re going to have to continue it if we have any more girls (though there are A LOT of “A” girls names we love, I just think it’s a bit to “cutsey” when a lot of siblings have an obvious theme running through their names, though I do think it’d be easier to stray from the “A” theme if we have a boy).

After reading lots of posts on these message boards, I am a bit worried that Aila (or [name]Isla[/name]) and [name]Adelaide[/name] that they are both going to get more popular. I’ve also read that there is a wider variety of popular names these days so that there isn’t as high a concentration of children given the top 10 or top 25 names as there were 20 or 30 years ago, so even if these (or other names that nameberrites like) names break the top 500 or even climb higher, I hope there won’t be 3 or 4 of them in every class in school. (that was a bit rambly, did it make sense?)

So, I guess I say all that to say that I love the sound of [name]Isla[/name], but for our own reasons (mostly related to meaning and heritage), we chose “Aila”.