I’m still refining my short lists as we’re ttc (hurry up already! These hormones are making me c-c-crazy).
A name that I have loved for years - (as long as [name]Eliza[/name]) - is [name]Eleanor[/name] (honoring [name]Nell[/name] in my family, but called [name]Nora[/name]). But then this year my best friend for 15 years had her first baby and named her [name]Eleanor[/name]. Since I was a year or so away from baby time in my life and her’s was somewhat of a surprise, we never talked baby names until she told me what they had picked. There obviously was no “claim” made, no feelings hurt, no drama. I was thrilled she picked such a beautiful name. But they call her strictly [name]Ellie[/name] and I mentioned how [name]Eleanor[/name] is so versatile and [name]Nora[/name] was another nn possibility - and she definitely was not into that.
So, now I’m toying with the idea of just [name]Norah[/name] for my list. It’s definitely Dh’s #2 behind [name]Eliza[/name]. He likes it a lot and I may actually like it better than [name]Eliza[/name]. But I go back and forth if it’s too close to [name]Eleanor[/name] to be weird. I did mention [name]Eliza[/name] was on our list and she thought that was great - and didn’t say that was too close to [name]Ellie[/name]'s name. We live in different states now, but we are like family. We see each other 2-3 times a year, but talk all the time.
I haven’t mentioned it to her yet - I wanted to see what y’alls opinion was first
The list so far in order of favorites:
[name]Eliza[/name]
[name]Norah[/name] (pending)
[name]Freya[/name]
( [name]Sylvia[/name] / [name]Sylvie[/name] … After a couple of weeks of tossing it around, Dh is only ok on this one. )
Thanks baby name lovers - y’all are the best for bouncing ideas off of. (And so I don’t drive Dh crazy with my hormonal baby obsessiveness).
[name]Eliza[/name] and [name]Nora/name are both great names that fit great with your last name! I think it’s fine to use [name]Nora/name, although since you seem to be bouncing everything off your friend, it would be a little odd if you didn’t bounce this one by her, especially since you have some other options in case she is not cool with it (not that you have to do so by any means!).
I also think you can get [name]Nora[/name], and honor [name]Nell[/name] from variants of [name]Eleanor[/name], from [name]Leonora[/name] and [name]Lenora[/name]. Are these too close to [name]Eleanor[/name] / do you like them? [name]Leonora[/name] or maybe even [name]Lenora[/name] could also have [name]Leonie[/name] as a nickname, which I love and which also feels like [name]Sylvie[/name] to me. [name]Lenora[/name] feels Polish to me, which is the last name’s origin, right? There are also [name]Honora[/name] and [name]Annora[/name].
You could also get/honor [name]Nell[/name] from/with [name]Nella[/name], [name]Antonella[/name], [name]Fenella[/name], Leonella (back to [name]Leonie[/name]!), [name]Penelope[/name]. Those are probably different from your taste, but thought I’d mention them.
You could also get/honor [name]Nell[/name] with/from other relatives of [name]Eleanor[/name], including [name]Helen[/name] and [name]Helena[/name]. [name]Helena[/name] has a lot of pronunciation options (HELL uh na, Huh [name]LAY[/name] na, Huh [name]LEE[/name] na), so that might bother you, or be a good thing. The good thing is that only HELL uh na sounds a lot like [name]Eleanor[/name] (and even it sounds pretty different to me, at least with an American pronunciation). Huh [name]LAY[/name] na is my favorite and you could have the cute nickname [name]Laney[/name] or [name]Lena[/name] (which again feels Polish).
This is such an old name that there are SO many variants you could use that would touch on [name]Nell[/name].
Oh wow! What great ideas. You’re right, there are lots of ways to get to [name]Nell[/name]. Unfortunately from the wiki list, all the ones I really like are even more similar to [name]Eleanor[/name] than [name]Norah[/name]. I feel like putting a syllable before the -nor makes it too similar, while using the -nor ending as a beginning maybe distinguishes it? I’ll definitely run it by her eventually, but I sort of wanted to test the waters here first.
I do really like [name]Leonie[/name]! Dh probably won’t, unfortunately. He likes really modern names, whereas I like really old names. [name]Eliza[/name] and [name]Norah[/name] are our best compromises so far. But [name]Annora[/name] I like a lot - and this sounds probably stupid, but because it sounds like the Inara of the sci-fi Firefly connection, I bet Dh :geek: will love it. (I couldn’t do Inara, that’s a bit too geek for me). But maybe [name]Annora[/name] is even closer to [name]Eleanor[/name] than [name]Norah[/name]?
[name]Penelope[/name] we both like, but Dh’s friend for 15 years named their daughter [name]Penelope[/name]. We’re not that close with them (living many states away), but have a lot of the same friends, so using the exact name gives me a bit of pause.
And I really want to like the [name]Helen[/name] variants, but they just don’t seem to fit with us. The H beginning feels very soft. I like my consonants to be more committed than that soft H
I definitely see your point about how lengthening out the name makes it more like [name]Eleanor[/name]. I think in the end you’ll just have to see what her taste leads her to think though. To me, [name]Lenora[/name] does sound a lot like [name]Eleanor[/name], but starting with the L is just so incredibly different than starting with an E! Although since she was OK with [name]Eliza[/name] which might even yield the same nickname [name]Ellie[/name], she might have very different feelings than me.
[name]Glad[/name] [name]Annora[/name] might work, and cute that it alludes to your husbands’ reading taste! I really do like [name]Nora/name on its own, and [name]Annora[/name] of course might have more spelling/familiarity issues than [name]Nora/name. But I like that it has the option of [name]Annie[/name] if a girl wants another nn, or if it suits her better than [name]Nora/name, and the allusion to [name]Honor[/name] (it comes from [name]Honora[/name] at least by some websites’ opinions) is also nice.
Appreciate your feelings on the sound H : D. I think it’s so fascinating how people have such different reactions to sounds! It’s not non-committal to my ear, although it is sort of “dark”, and that gives me pause about most names starting with it (although I really love [name]Henry[/name] and [name]Helena[/name] : D).
