WDYT of Arabella?

I adore the name Arabella for a future daughter. Some middle names ideas are Marie, Mary, and Claire. My DH likes Claire as a middle name, and Mary/Marie are in honor of my wonderful mother-in-law.

So here are some ideas:

Arabella Claire
Arabella Mary
Arabella Marie

My future sibling names would be Declan and Dominic for future brothers and Gabrielle and Anastasia for a future sister. Note that I don’t have any human children, but we do want children in the future.

I like [name_f]Arabella[/name_f]. I’ve met a few Arabellas through the years.

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It does feel a little bit upper class, or frilly, but I think it’s pretty.

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For me meaning matters a lot, and so it bothers me that [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] has an ambiguous meaning/origin.

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[name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f] is lovely. Have you considered [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Claire[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f]? That way you get to use both names you like.

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I personally wouldn’t pair [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] with [name_f]Gabrielle[/name_f] as siblings, the endings are very similar.

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[name_f]Arabella[/name_f] and [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f] are lovely together.

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[name_m]Declan[/name_m] feels stylistically quite different from [name_f]Arabella[/name_f], but I think [name_m]Dominic[/name_m] works nicely.

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I like it. Its very pretty and has strong girly girl vibes but the array of nicknames makes it more flexible if that ends up not being the right vibe. I think I would rank the middles [name_f]Mary[/name_f], [name_f]Claire[/name_f], [name_f]Marie[/name_f]. The boy names go great. The girl names are matchier than I would personally go for but they’re lovely names. If I were to pick which ones I would go for I’d pick [name_m]Dominic[/name_m] and [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f].

I like the name [name_f]Arabella[/name_f]. It’s very pretty, I like the way it flows off the tongue when I say it.

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Similarly to @etymology[name_f][/name_f], I’d like to suggest [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f] [name_f]Claire[/name_f]. That would probably be my top pick for middle names. After that, I would go with [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f].

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I agree with previous posters that [name_f]Gabrielle[/name_f] is a bit close in sound. [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] & [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f] go wonderfully together as sisters. I like both [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] & [name_m]Dominic[/name_m], and [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] & [name_m]Declan[/name_m].

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I adore [name_f]Arabella[/name_f]! [name_f][/name_f] She’s on my own short list. [name_f][/name_f] I love [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Mary[/name_f] from your options! [name_f][/name_f] [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Claire[/name_f] is also very lovely, though.

[name_f]Arabella[/name_f] is lovely! [name_m]Bright[/name_m] and elegant but sweet too! [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Claire[/name_f] is nice!

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I think I’d probably say choose [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] or [name_f]Gabrielle[/name_f] in terms of future sibs?

[name_f]Arabella[/name_f] is very pretty. It’s growing in popularity here in the UK. I think it used to have quite a posh association to it but it’s popular in my working class city now

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It has lots of nickname potential, but I love it just as it is, too. If you like nicknames then you might like Ara/Ari, Belle/Bella, Elle/Ella/Ellie, or even Abi/Abbie.

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[name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Mary[/name_f] would be my pick from the names you have listed.

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[name_f]Arabella[/name_f], [name_m]Declan[/name_m], [name_m]Dominic[/name_m], [name_f]Gabrielle[/name_f] and [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f] would be lovely siblings!

I think [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] is cute! I like the [name_f]Ara[/name_f], [name_m]Ari[/name_m], [name_f]Bella[/name_f], etc nickname options that come along with it. I think Mary/Marie is a really nice middle name option to honor your MIL!

[name_f]Arabella[/name_f] is pretty, girly, rather strongly evocative of a particular vibe/personality, and a fine name if you love it.

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I only have mixed feelings because it seems excessively posh/princess-y (even if you’re not, it just has that feel) and a bit ‘much’ sound-wise, since it combines the strong ‘Ar’ sound with the frilly ‘bella’ ending. (I may prefer [name_f]Arabelle[/name_f] ?)

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[name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Mary[/name_f] and [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f] are lovely. I think my favorite is [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] [name_f]Mary[/name_f], [name_f]Mary[/name_f] goes a long way towards grounding [name_f]Arabella[/name_f].

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[name_f]Arabella[/name_f] and [name_m]Declan[/name_m] go together well, so do [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] and [name_f]Gabrielle[/name_f]. I’m less sure on [name_m]Dominic[/name_m] (could definitely work, but doesn’t seem to be the same style) and [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f] (too similar to [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] IMO, they’re both long frilly names starting and ending with ‘a’).

The meanings of [name_m]Declan[/name_m] and [name_m]Dominic[/name_m] are both related to either a saint’s name or a meaning related to “prayer”. I saw that [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] can be “yielded to prayer”, which is why I selected [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] of [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f] for a first daughter.

Yes I know Arabella can be given that meaning…what bothers me is that the etymology doesn’t point to orabilis being the origin of the name…and so yielding to prayer is not the original meaning, which is what I meant by the ambiguity being disappointing for me. I don’t think many people care about that kind of thing, but it’s one of my personal quirks.

It is possibly a variation of Annabelle…which itself was probably an alteration of Amabel which came from Amabilis (itself a saint’s name)…meaning lovable…which if that is the case then lovable is still a lovely meaning…but for me I would then rather go for a name closer to the origin like Amabelle, Amabella or Amabilia than Arabella with it’s uncomfirmed origins. - but that’s just me personally.

If I wanted the meaning ‘yielding to prayer’ Orabella would be what I would go with as this does come from Orabilis with that meaning

I agree Anastasia has a beautiful meaning!

It’s cool that Declan and Dominic are also saints names, what I meant more is style wise Arabella to me fits more with names I would expect to be used by the upper/upper middle class…Declan for me doesn’t fall into that category so an Arabella and a Declan would feel unexpected and incohesive to me…that doesn’t mean don’t use it if it feels cohesive to you :slight_smile: I also know a sibset of Finn, Elijah and Arabella and that feels equally stylistically incohesive to me…but if it’s what they wanted to name their children cool :slight_smile:

I would expect an Arabella with names like…

Arabella, Anastasia, Priscilla, Cecilia, Eloise, Clementine, Florence, Henrietta, Romola, Persephone etc.

or Arabella, Benedict, Nicholas, Gregory, Peregrine, Alessander, Augustine, Aurelian, Sebastian, Amadeo, Mateo, Luca, Anton, Perseus etc.

[name_f]My[/name_f] husband has [name_m]Irish[/name_m] ancestry, and [name_m]Declan[/name_m] is name that we both love. [name_m]Dominic[/name_m] goes well with [name_m]Declan[/name_m]. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband also likes the nane [name_f]Alina[/name_f] [name_f]Marie[/name_f] for a girl. [name_f]Arabella[/name_f] is more of my style name-feminine and longer.

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that’s cool, I was just explaining my impressions and opinions :slight_smile:

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but don’t let my opinions sway your choices, they are yours to make :slight_smile:

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