It’s hard to find a name that includes religion, family history, and your cultural background. Which one would you pick by? Would you choose an old name even if it sounded weird? Which lists were most helpful in choosing a name. When choosing a name, did you also consider nicknames?
If it sounds “weird” — and by that I’m assuming you mean you’re not particularly keen on the sound — then I absolutely would not choose it as a first name, no matter how much meaning and cultural import it has. You’ll read, write and speak your child’s first name hundreds of times a day for the rest of your life, so it has to be something you like the sound of. That’s my most important consideration for a first name.
If there’s an important honour name that you’d like to include, even if you don’t love the name itself, that’s an ideal candidate for the middle name slot, I think.
I personally would list all of your favourite names and then treat all of the other considerations as bonus points. Perhaps there’s a name you love that just happens to have a really fitting meaning, or a nice tie to a culture you want to honour. Alternatively, you could use a long list of names with a certain meaning or from a certain place or culture as your starting point, and trawl through to find one that appeals. But for me the bottom line remains: your child’s first name has to be something you actually like.
As for nicknames: yes, I do consider them, but very rarely would I write off a name that was perfect in every other way just because of a potential nickname. There are always other options, even if they might be more difficult to enforce!
More than anything else, YOU have to love it. It has to give you warm and fuzzy feelings when you see it written down, or introduce her, or hear someone else say it.
So that’s almost an impossible question to answer, because only you know which of those factors is most likely to elicit that response. I’d probably start by going through lists of names that include one of them (so Italian names, or honour names from your family, or whatever your dream criteria are), writing down any that make your heart sing. And as @katinka said, there’s a reason lots of honour names are in the middle spot. The sentiment might make you feel great but if the reality of the name doesn’t, you might not want to be saying it dozens of times a day.
I agreee that its hard to combine these roles and that’s something I’m constantly trying to do as come up with names. That being said I would never pick a name that I thought ‘sounded weird’, no matter what its value is (maybe would try to find a similar alternative). To answer your final question, I always always consider nicknames for better or for worse. I love exploring nicknames because I think they can be such an awesome way of putting personality into it and also giving the child some freedom to choose when they get older. On the other hand, consider nicknames so you can dodge the terrible ones.
okay so finally getting to your original question. It needs to be a name that sounds nice to my ears - I have to have to like the sound!! However, I won’t pick a name just because I like it - there needs to be some connection to either my family or my faith. I also love when names are associated with the baby’s birthday. Like a [name_u]December[/name_u] baby being named [name_f]Noelle[/name_f], [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m], [name_m]Stephen[/name_m], [name_m]Caspar[/name_m], [name_f]Stella[/name_f], etc. (this would also tie into the faith issue) So, in short, I guess sound is king but its not enough to make a name “the one”
For me, personally, family history was the biggest deciding factor, but thats mostly in the middle name slot. For the first name spot, everything was about the sound / feel of the name and how much I loved it. Nickname options were tossed around, but nothing was ruled out because of a specific nickname. Middle name spots for me are for family / honor names. When it came time for me to have children, though, I had already been a name nerd for years, so I had a decent grasp on what I liked for the most part, so I didn’t have as much trouble coming up with an initial list.
I do agree with @cece84 - you have to love it. It has to give you a little thrill when you say it - whether thats because of the sound, the imagery, the meaning behind it, thats all going to be different for each person.