Unique names or trying too hard?

These days, there is a fine line between finding a nice, unique name, and finding a preposterous show-off name. Here are some of the names on my name list, could you please tell me which category they’d each fit into? Any opinions are absolutely welcome!

Combos:

Evangeline Brooklyn Octavia
Liberty Willow Ottilia
Wilhelmina Florence Honoria
Felicity Abigail Brooklyn
Evangeline Lyra Felicity
Genevieve Faye Leona

(As you can tell I reused some names) (I pronounce Lyra as lie-ruh)

Names not yet in combos as first names:

Lyra
Verity
Aurelia
Leona
Cressida
Avenly

Names that I like but would probably only use as a middle:

Hope
Rose
Astrid
Brooklyn
Fleurette
Victoire
Willow
Abigail
Enora
Gwenaelle
Vivian
Saskia
Venetia (pronounced like Ven-eesh-uh)
Mireia
Isola
Alouetta
Arietta
Eudoria
Ophelia
Theodora
Virginia

Thanks for any opinions/rates/comments!

You might need to add the name list so we can see, haha! :slight_smile:

Oh no I was certain they were on there! I’m going to edit it right now, thanks for pointing it out! :slight_smile:

From favorite to least:

[name_f]Felicity[/name_f] [name_f]Abigail[/name_f] [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u]
[name_f]Liberty[/name_f] [name_f]Willow[/name_f] [name_f]Ottilia[/name_f]
[name_f]Genevieve[/name_f] [name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Leona[/name_f]
[name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_f]Lyra[/name_f] [name_f]Felicity[/name_f]
[name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] [name_f]Octavia[/name_f]
[name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f] [name_f]Florence[/name_f] [name_f]Honoria[/name_f]

Suggestions:

[name_f]Verity[/name_f] [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f] [name_f]Rose[/name_f]
[name_f]Leona[/name_f] [name_f]Hope[/name_f] [name_f]Arietta[/name_f]

Your combos are waaaay too much name for me sorry.

My favourites from your first names list are [name_f]Lyra[/name_f] and [name_f]Cressida[/name_f]. My favourites from your middles are [name_f]Rose[/name_f], [name_f]Astrid[/name_f], [name_u]Vivian[/name_u], [name_f]Saskia[/name_f] and [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f]. Suggestions…

[name_f]Lyra[/name_f] [name_u]Vivian[/name_u] [name_f]Rose[/name_f]
[name_f]Cressida[/name_f] [name_f]Astrid[/name_f] [name_f]Rose[/name_f]
[name_f]Felicity[/name_f] [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f] [name_f]Rose[/name_f]
[name_f]Liberty[/name_f] [name_f]Saskia[/name_f] [name_f]Rose[/name_f]

I find them to be too mismatched and way too over the top for me too, sorry. For example, [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] [name_f]Octavia[/name_f] is SO mismatched. [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] is light and airy, [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] is trendy and modern and then [name_f]Octavia[/name_f] is uncommon and spunky. They just don’t go imo. The names are all too long as well, especially with the multiple syllables (esp. [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] [name_f]Octavia[/name_f], [name_f]Liberty[/name_f] [name_f]Willow[/name_f] [name_f]Ottilia[/name_f] – and the heavy use of L’s here – [name_f]Felicity[/name_f] [name_f]Abigail[/name_f] [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] – L’s here too – and [name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f] [name_f]Florence[/name_f] [name_f]Honoria[/name_f] makes me tired just saying it).

I would say my favourite is [name_f]Genevieve[/name_f] [name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Leona[/name_f], and maybe [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_f]Lyra[/name_f] [name_f]Felicity[/name_f] although I find it too long. [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_f]Lyra[/name_f] by itself is great.

Sorry, some names with two middles I think are great but these come across very try hard and stylistically mismatched.

I like [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_f]Octavia[/name_f].
I agree about [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] not fitting.

Yikes, there is a lot of name in each name, maybe too much, if that makes sense.
Honestly, my first impression would be that the names, or the bearer of said names, are too pretentious-sounding.
Styles are running all over the place and not in a good or creative way either.
Individually, you have some beautiful names, but the combos are both hard to look at and even hard to say.
The only individual name that I feel might seem pretentious is Gwenaelle.
The real issues are with your combos! You have such a lovely list and there are better permutations of the names you have. Keep messing around with them and try to keep a steady ‘feel’ or theme going with each combo!

[name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] [name_f]Octavia[/name_f]: There’s a lot going on here. All of the names have very sharp heavy sounds, and they’re all dense with syllables.
[name_f]Liberty[/name_f] [name_f]Willow[/name_f] [name_f]Ottilia[/name_f]: [name_f]Liberty[/name_f] [name_f]Willow[/name_f] I could tolerate, but [name_f]Ottilia[/name_f] seems like it was just stapled on the end to complete the two middle theme.
[name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f] [name_f]Florence[/name_f] [name_f]Honoria[/name_f]: Like your [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] combo, there’s just a lot of harsh sounds and it doesn’t roll off the tongue easily.
[name_f]Felicity[/name_f] [name_f]Abigail[/name_f] [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u]: [name_f]Abigail[/name_f] [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] is cute on its own, and [name_f]Felicity[/name_f] at the beginning is okay, although I don’t love it.
[name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_f]Lyra[/name_f] [name_f]Felicity[/name_f]: [name_f]Lyra[/name_f] [name_f]Felicity[/name_f] is pretty, but like above, I don’t love [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] on the front.
[name_f]Genevieve[/name_f] [name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Leona[/name_f]: Still a lot of name, but I like this combo the best out of all your combos. It’s not too heavy, and it’s the right balance of sounds and syllables to make the whole thing flow.

The only one of your names out of your first names not yet in combos that I think sticks out is Avenly, and that’s because it looks made up to me. I think in the middle spot you could maybe get away with using some of your more unusual choices, but I put them in categories to show where I think they fall on a weirdness scale:

Completely normal:
[name_f]Hope[/name_f], [name_f]Rose[/name_f], [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u], [name_f]Willow[/name_f], [name_f]Abigail[/name_f], [name_u]Vivian[/name_u], [name_f]Ophelia[/name_f], [name_f]Virginia[/name_f]

A little weird, but still familiar:
[name_f]Astrid[/name_f], [name_f]Enora[/name_f], [name_f]Victoire[/name_f], [name_f]Saskia[/name_f], [name_f]Venetia[/name_f], Isola, Eudoria, [name_f]Theodora[/name_f], [name_f]Arietta[/name_f]

Completely out there:
[name_f]Fleurette[/name_f] (reminds me of broccoli florets?), Gwenaelle, [name_f]Mireia[/name_f], [name_f]Alouetta[/name_f]

Obviously it depends where you live; what’s weird to me may be normal or common where you live. I also think it’s worth noting that Nameberry’s definition of weird is probably a lot looser than some other baby name sites, haha. I hope this didn’t come off as rude. That wasn’t my intention at all. [name_f]Hope[/name_f] this helps!

Well put. I completely agree with @roseofjune on every point. Except that I am kind of entrigued by Gwenaelle…
I would say the same as pps: You have some great names to work with, but I would try mixing them up again into new, shorter combos with less going on.

Also one tweak to make [name_f]Felicity[/name_f] [name_f]Abigail[/name_f] [name_u]Brooke[/name_u], which flows better than [name_u]Brooklyn[/name_u] and makes the name not as lengthy. That would then be my favorite!

[name_f]Felicity[/name_f] [name_f]Abigail[/name_f] [name_u]Brooke[/name_u]

:slight_smile:

I think what puts your names “over the top” is the fact that they are a mouthful. [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f], [name_f]Felicity[/name_f], and [name_f]Genevieve[/name_f] are not particularly unique these days. They are still fresh-sounding (especially if there are not any running around in your neighborhood), but she probably won’t hear any gasps of “That’s unusual!!” when introducing herself.

I personally don’t care for the double middle name thing. That does sound like it’s trying too hard, unless you’re doing it specifically to honor someone. [name_m]Skip[/name_m] the second middle, and I think you have some really lovely combos that don’t sound so pretentious:

[name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_f]Lyra[/name_f]
[name_f]Liberty[/name_f] [name_f]Willow[/name_f]
[name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f] [name_f]Florence[/name_f]
[name_f]Genevieve[/name_f] [name_f]Leona[/name_f]

HTH :slight_smile:

Thanks to all for your help! I’m definitely not the best at combos, and reading your replies has helped me see why. I’m going to make a few polls to find some better combos, so if any of you could vote on them that would be great!