I don’t want to waste anyone’s time, I’m not pregnant yet, but I’ve always wanted to name a daughter after my mother - her name was [name]Robyn[/name]. I loved her, I really don’t like her name! So I’ve been trying to find a name with a similar feel/meaning, but it’s quite difficult! I’ve thought of bird names - [name]Lark[/name], [name]Wren[/name], [name]Dove[/name] etc, but am yet to click with one. [name]Robyn[/name] means “bright fame” so I thought I’d search for names with a similar meaning, I even tried synonyms to “bright”! The name doesn’t need to be overtly [name]Robyn[/name]-ish, it’s really a personal thing, as long as I know and my immediate family knows (ie. I would tell them!) that’s all that’s important to me. DH really is darling, he knows how important this is to me and will be happy with whatever I’m happy with!
If you have time and anything springs to mind, I would really appreciate your suggestions! I don’t know why but this has been weighing on my mind lately
What about another R name? Some ideas (although I don’t know your naming style, so there’s a mix here):
[name]Ruby[/name] (I like how similar this is to [name]Robyn[/name], but so fresh)
[name]Rose[/name]
[name]Romilly[/name]
[name]Rachel[/name]
[name]Rowan[/name]
[name]Reese[/name]
[name]Ruth[/name]
I like your idea of using a bird name. Here are some more:
[name]Alouette[/name] (French for lark)
[name]Raven[/name]
[name]Oriole[/name]
[name]Teal[/name]
[name]Robyn[/name] comes from [name]Robert[/name], so you could use these feminisations (although I have to admit I am not crazy about them):
[name]Roberta[/name]
[name]Bobbi[/name]
[name]Robelle[/name]
[name]Berta[/name]
[name]Robine[/name]
[name]Robia[/name]
My first thought was [name]Alouette[/name], as Lamps mentioned above, which I adore.
Names meaning ‘bright’ :
Akiko
[name]Clara[/name]
[name]Alcyone[/name] (al-SEE-a-nee) - the brightest star in the Pleiades
[name]Niamh[/name]/[name]Neve[/name]
[name]Phaedra[/name]
[name]Phoebe[/name]
[name]Roxanna[/name]
[name]Zahra[/name].
Names with cosmological connotations (as in, a bright star) :
Aludra
[name]Andromeda[/name]
[name]Ara[/name]
[name]Arista[/name]
[name]Astraea[/name]
[name]Bellatrix[/name]
[name]Callisto[/name]
[name]Carina[/name]
[name]Cassiopeia[/name]
[name]Cynthia[/name]
[name]Diana[/name]
[name]Lyra[/name]
[name]Maia[/name]
Marama
Pyxis.
And moon names :
[name]Luna[/name]
[name]Phoebe[/name]
[name]Portia[/name]
[name]Selene[/name] (sel-EE-nee).
Alternatively, you could always use [name]Robyn[/name] as a mn, or let your mother choose the mn - I think that would give her a special connection to her granddaughter, and I imagine she would feel flattered.
The Hebrew name [name]Zipporah[/name], borne by the wife of [name]Moses[/name] in the Bible, means “bird”. You might, of course, consider it too outlandish to use.
I think your best option is the R name one, such as [name]Rebecca[/name] or [name]Rowena[/name], unless you use [name]Robyn[/name] as a mn. [name]Roberta[/name] would work nicely in that spot too, unless you don’t mind it as a first name. I know two Robertas - one nn [name]Bobbi[/name] and the other uses the first two letters of her first name and the first two letters of her second name to make a hybrid name that works!
One possibility might be to choose three first names, starting respectively with R, B, and N. Then you have the taste of [name]Robyn[/name] in the initials. For example, [name]Rosalind[/name] [name]Beatrix[/name] [name]Naomi[/name] or [name]Roxana[/name] [name]Bethan[/name] [name]Nora[/name]
If three names are too many, then how about the initials R and N, so you have the first and last letters of [name]Robyn[/name].
Good luck in your quest!
I did some searching on your behalf:
[name]Rowena[/name] - Starts with [name]Ro[/name] and means ‘fame, joy’
[name]Roza[/name] - Old Germanic short form of names with the ‘hrod’ element (found in [name]Rowena[/name] for example) which means fame
Roswitha - One of the names [name]Roza[/name] would be short for
[name]Romilda[/name] - the fame part again
And actually, all [name]Rose[/name]- names can be considered meaning ‘fame’ due to the ‘hrod’ part, so that’s an easy way out…
[name]Clara[/name] - means ‘clear’, ‘bright’ AND ‘famous’, so that really would be something!
[name]Niamh[/name] - means ‘bright’, pronounced NEEV
[name]Phaedra[/name] - means ‘bright’, a favourite of mine!
[name]Phoebe[/name] - mean ‘bright’ as well
[name]Roxana[/name] - and variants possibly mean ‘bright’ or ‘dawn’
[name]Sparrow[/name] - should perhaps not be used, but I think it would make a cute girl’s name
[name]Starling[/name] - also cute on a little girl
[name]Merle[/name] - would also make a sweet name for a girl
[name]Brenna[/name] - means ‘raven’
[name]Jemima[/name] - [name]Dove[/name]
[name]Paloma[/name] - [name]Dove[/name]
[name]Jay[/name] - is a bird, isn’t it? You could call her [name]Jane[/name] and nn her [name]Jay[/name] if that’s better…
[name]Avis[/name] - means bird
[name]Phoenix[/name] - is a bird XD
[name]Heron[/name] - might work
[name]Birdie[/name], [name]Bird[/name], [name]Byrd[/name] - would be okay as well
[name]Jarita[/name] means ‘legendary bird’ which would be a nod to the ‘fame’ part of [name]Robyn[/name]
Also, another thought is using a unisex name since that’s what [name]Robyn[/name] is… [name]Avery[/name] is the first to come to mind because it always reminds me of birds for obvious reasons ^^
I also thought of [name]Blythe[/name], for being similar to ‘bright’ and having an overall positive meaning… It feels like a very light name to me which I think would be fitting!
I ended up with a longer list than I expected, so maybe there’s something here to surprise and hopefully delight you as well ^^
Best of luck!
I was actually thinking of adding [name]Bryony[/name] to my post, but didn’t catch this fun little thing so I left it out…
[name]Bryony[/name] would be fantastic!
I also thought of [name]Romola[/name], seeing someone mentioned [name]Romilly[/name]… I prefer [name]Romola[/name] myself, it’s less cute and would perhaps age better? There’s also [name]Romina[/name] which I think is lovely!
Wow, thankyou all for the lovely suggestions. I haven’t had time to go through them properly, but I wanted to thank you very much. I should have mention my mother passed away when I was a little girl, so while getting her to name a grandchild would have been perfect, it’s not going to happen. That is however the road we’re going to go down if we have a son - let our fathers pick the name (within reason!)
The reason I don’t like [name]Robyn[/name] is that it seems a very dated name, and not in a good way. It doesn’t look nice, and it seems firmly attached to 50 year old women (in my experience.) [name]Rowan[/name] is one name I have considered, and [name]Bryony[/name] is a great idea, except we went to school with a [name]Bryony[/name] and she was just horrible! It’s annoying how people taint perfectly good names, but there you go!
My naming style is names that are tried and true, but not toooo common! I love girly, pretty names (although not literally “Girlie” or “Pretty”!) Thankyou so much. I will go over all your suggestions when I get home from work.
[name]Clare[/name], [name]Clair[/name], [name]Claire[/name], [name]Clarice[/name], [name]Clarissa[/name]
Hesper
[name]Muriel[/name]- means bright as the sea
[name]Nova[/name]
[name]Phaedra[/name]
[name]Phoebe[/name]
I [name]LOVE[/name] [name]Robyn[/name]!
[name]How[/name] about it as a middle name, so you can come up with something more meaningful as a first? That way you get the best of both worlds. (: Besides, [name]Robyn[/name] has a seriously awesome meaning.
I personally think [name]Robyn[/name] is quite a nice name which you don’t hear very much but I think using names for their meaning and to honour someone is often better than just flat out taking their name and giving it to someone else.
There are lots of options with [name]Robyn[/name] though.
Birds names:
[name]Lark[/name] (or [name]Larka[/name])
[name]Wren[/name]
[name]Sparrow[/name]
[name]Raven[/name]
Ibis
[name]Ava[/name] (means Like a [name]Bird[/name])
Means [name]Bright[/name] Fame:
[name]Roberta[/name] (shortened to [name]Bobbi[/name] quite often)
[name]Claire[/name]/[name]Clairette[/name]/[name]Clara[/name]/[name]Clarabel[/name]/[name]Clarice[/name]
[name]Kiara[/name]
Or you could have a 1st name that means bright and a MN that means fame. Such as:
[name]Alanis[/name] [name]Louisa[/name]
[name]Alayne[/name] Elmena
[name]Clarissa[/name] [name]Cleone[/name]
[name]Helena[/name] Tecia
[name]Lucille[/name] [name]Rue[/name]
[name]Mai[/name] [name]Rolanda[/name]
[name]Phoebe[/name] [name]Lou[/name]
[name]Amanda[/name] [name]Clio[/name]
Or you could even go with things associated with [name]Robins[/name] like [name]Winter[/name] or the colour red:
[name]Red[/name]
[name]Ruby[/name]/[name]Rubie[/name]
[name]Rose[/name]/[name]Rosie[/name]/[name]Rosalind[/name]/[name]Rosalie[/name]
[name]Rowyn[/name] (Also good because it’s only one letter from [name]Robyn[/name])
[name]Rory[/name]/[name]Rori[/name]/[name]Rorie[/name]
[name]Winter[/name]/[name]Wynter[/name]
Hima (means winter)
[name]Eira[/name]/Eiry/Eirwyn (means snow)
[name]Neve[/name] (Brightness in Latin but [name]Snow[/name] in Italian)
There’s a lot of options. And even more that I missed out
I’m so sorry that you lost your mom when you were so young, and I think it’s beautiful that you’d like to name your baby after her.
The Welsh name [name]Bronwyn[/name] contains the letters of [name]Robyn[/name], and also reminds me of [name]Rowan[/name], a name you said you like.
(My apologies if [name]Bronwyn[/name] has already been suggested.)
The combination of [name]Rosalie[/name] [name]Bryn[/name] (also contains every letter of [name]Robyn[/name], and [name]Bryn[/name] is very close to [name]Robyn[/name]'s ending) is another option that may appeal to you.
Thankyou all so much for your suggestions. It’s made me think more about expanding my search criteria and thinking about what the name means to me and what I think of when I think of my mother, because I want to honour her, not the name! I love the idea of choosing a name that has the essence of [name]Robyn[/name], [name]Rosalie[/name] [name]Bryn[/name] is beautiful! I also thought the winter/red ideas were fantastic. [name]Maia[/name] has always been a favourite of mine, and seems particularly apt as I used to think that she was a star twinkling down at me! And, it means ‘mother’!
But as I thought more about it, the name [name]Blythe[/name] really strikes a chord with me, for several reasons. Firstly, before she got sick, my mother was the happiest, sparkliest person you could ever meet! I know people don’t speak ill of the dead, but the sheer number of people who after all these years still utterly adore her and gather to remember her at her birthday really shows me how truly lovely she was (not just to her children!) And after she passed away, I tried to tell myself that she was free, and flying up in the sky, not stuck in her bed anymore. [name]Blythe[/name] brings to mind happiness, freedom, and light. Not only that, but before she died she gave me the book [name]Anne[/name] of [name]Green[/name] Gables. I spent the whole summer reading that and all the other [name]Anne[/name] books, it was literally all I did for about two months, just read them over and over again. [name]Blythe[/name] does seem kind of perfect!
What do you think? Is [name]Blythe[/name] too much of an old lady name to give a little girl? I know old lady names are back in fashion (thank god, one more [name]Madison[/name] and I may have screamed!) but the only modern [name]Blythe[/name] I’ve ever heard of is [name]Blythe[/name] [name]Danner[/name]. [name]Maia[/name] [name]Blythe[/name]? Does that work?
[name]Blythe[/name] was a name considered by another poster, and the reaction here was overwhelmingly positive. I personally [name]LOVE[/name] it, and I think [name]Maia[/name] [name]Blythe[/name] (or even [name]Blythe[/name] [name]Maia[/name]?) is a truly lovely name (even without the meaning) and with the meaning is even more wonderful. I’m so glad you’ve found a way to honour your mum - she sounds like a very special person.
