What's wrong with the name Embla?

General Name Discussion
1

First of all, I don’t have kids and I’m still a couple years off from expecting, but for years I have been a private name enthusiast. Like probably everyone here, I have extensive lists and despite having no babies in my foreseeable immediate future, I still revamp and add to these lists almost daily. I have a list of general names that I like, and then I have the serious short list. The one name I seem to shuttle back and forth between lists is Embla. It’s been driving my crazy and since nobody in ‘real life’ understands this hobby of mine, I figured it was time to take my question to the internet.

I should say, both my and my boyfriend’s ancestry is mostly Scandinavian. His grandma moved here from Finland and his grandpa is from the Ukraine. His last name is also super Ukrainian. On his mom’s side it’s all French Canadian. (We live on the west coast of [name]Canada[/name].) On my dad’s side everyone is exclusively Norwegian. As a family most of our Norwegian connections have lazily fizzled out, with the last person to visit Norway being my uncle in the 70s. I have always been fascinated with the Norwegian side of our family and over the years have tried to find out as much as possible. Unfortunately, nobody seems to know much and the only person who seems interested in keeping the ancestry alive is me, so I’ve since taken matters into my own hands. A few years ago in university I did an exchange to [name]Sweden[/name] and by chance met one of my now-best friends who is from Western Norway (where my great grandparents were from). I jumped at the chance to stay with her that summer and have since been back four times in 2 years, each for about six weeks, and the last time I even took my boyfriend and 4 best friends from [name]Canada[/name], so now Norway is a huge part of their lives as well. It’s safe to say I truly found my homeland and kind of accidentally created a second family out of the most wonderful friends there. I feel really lucky to have found such a special place there because I know my family history could have so easily been lost with my generation had I not cared. [name]One[/name] of my life goals is to eventually teach my children Norwegian so we can bridge the gap between my great grandparents and me. ([name]Forever[/name] annoyed that my grandpa neglected to teach my dad…I could be bilingual right now! :wink: )

Now that you know my life story (sorry!), you can see that our Scandinavian heritage is important to both of us, and as such this affects potential names and naming styles for our children. I don’t think we will go full-Norwegian/Scandinavian for each name because of pronunciation issues—I am a [name]Kirsten[/name], pronounced ker-sten, NOT like [name]Kirsten[/name] Dunst, and even though my name is pretty common in [name]North[/name] [name]America[/name] I’ve battled being called [name]Kristen[/name], [name]Kiersten[/name], [name]Christine[/name], [name]Christina[/name], etc my whole life and I don’t really care to saddle my child with a similar or worse situation. My naming style overall, regardless of name origin, definitely leans toward unusual names that sound familiar even though they aren’t; for example, my top (non-Scandinavian) girl pick is [name]Lyra[/name].

Anyway, what this has led to is my mostly-futile search for Scandinavian names that aren’t overly weird in English (i.e. unusual but familiar without being familiar, with the added difficulty of bridging different languages) and are pronounced essentially the same in both languages. I never thought I would find one, but my search ended this summer when in Norway I met a girl my age named Embla. I promptly fell in love with her name and went on to google it, expecting it to be all over the charts, only to find…it was not. At all. [name]Even[/name] though (to me) it has a lovely origin as Norse mythology’s answer to [name]Eve[/name], the first woman, and has an interesting and (I think) pleasant feel to it sound-wise, hardly anyone seems to love this name. Quite honestly, this is surprising, since it is so similar to [name]Emma[/name] and [name]Amber[/name], and even [name]Ember[/name], a name rising in popularity in my home province. I asked Embla (we are friends now) about her name and she said she loves it and enjoys having a different name from everyone that is still very Norwegian. So I have been left wondering—what gives? Why does everyone dislike this name?

English-speakers, what makes you shy away from it? Maybe a Norwegian (dearest?) or a Dane (shvibziks?) or a [name]Swede[/name] can shed some light on why this isn’t a popular choice up there. I love this name and would love to use it, even if it’s not often used in its home countries…but if everyone who looks at it in both places automatically gets an ick feeling from it, then I’d rather search for something else.

TL;DR — My Norwegian heritage is really important to me and I want to find a name that works the same in English and Norwegian/Swedish. I found Embla. It’s uncommon, from Norse mythology and is beautiful to me, but nobody seems to like it. Why do you dislike Embla?

2

I dislike Embla because the “blah” sound is so unappealing. In my mind I think “em, blah blah blah”, like one of the adults from the [name]Charlie[/name] [name]Brown[/name] cartoon. I think the “[name]Em[/name]” prefix is pretty tired what with [name]Emma[/name], [name]Emily[/name], [name]Emerson[/name], and all the rest.

3

I think its a nice name. I’ve never heard it before. If you love it so much, don’t worry about other people liking it or not. It seems like a perfect name for you that honors your heritage.

4

I think Embla is exquisite. Being an [name]Emma[/name], I can say that Embla is a name close to mine that I wouldn’t mind having. Powerful mythological old Norse name, and it sounds like the word “emblem” which makes me think of signs, badges, medals, coats of arms, things sure of themselves… A name that means name, in a way.

5

I love the name Embla, it’s so pretty. I know one (well, she’s the daughter of a friend of a friend of mine), she’s so adorable.

I think (and Dearest, please correct me if this is wrong ;)) that in Norway Embla is one of the names used by a specific group of the middle class, they’re well educated, have good jobs, cabins in the mountain; nature and traditional things are important to them (they wear casual but very nice clothes). So they choose traditional but special names, like Embla, [name]Hulda[/name], Vilde, Balder, Brage, [name]Lavrans[/name]. But these names are catching one, it was the same kind of people who started using [name]Sunniva[/name], [name]Tuva[/name], [name]Hedda[/name], [name]Sondre[/name], [name]Sigurd[/name], [name]Odin[/name] & Vetle (all in the top 100). But I don’t live there, these are just the observations I make when I’m over there.

6

It sounds like Emblem. If you choose a name from another culture, many people won’t get it.

7

Well, there are 2 parts of the name: [name]Em[/name] - which I like and bla- which, well is and sounds like blablabla… To me, it´s the “b” in the middle that I find quite distracting. [name]How[/name] about Emla? I don´t know if that´s actually a name but it sounds much softer to me and less “bla”. But I do understand that you want to honour your heritage. With that name however it´s a tough choice, sorry.

8

I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. It intrigues me. The sound is different but pretty. Yes, it has that blah sound in there but I don’t think it’s quite the same.

My only hesitation is that I don’t think it translates well to the Canadian/US ear. As someone who comes from a family with beautiful Spanish names that have been butchered by immigration paperwork (none of my uncles legally have the name they were born with… When they came to this country, their names were made more “American” and my poor father’s name gets mistaken for a woman’s name nearly every day) and butchered by English speakers, it has taught me to choose names that translate well in [name]BOTH[/name] cultures. My rule of thumb is to remember that I don’t have to live with the name; my child does.

I do like it. It’s different and fun, IMHO.

9

Embla is rather pretty.

I think Embla may be difficult because:

  1. spelling problems

  2. pronunciation problems

  3. bla ending

  4. cultural misunderstanding

My parents gave me the very [name]German[/name] middle of [name]Irmgard[/name]. I really love it because of the connection to my culture and family. I think that your daughter Embla could learn to love her name.

Another option is to use Embla as a nn.:

[name]Emmeline[/name] [name]Blanche[/name]
Artemsia [name]Blaire[/name]
[name]Clementina[/name] [name]Blanchette[/name]
[name]Poem[/name] [name]Blaise[/name]

10

I think the problem is that it doesn’t sound ‘foreign enough’ - it’s just too close to [name]Emma[/name] and in English speaking countries will constantly be misheard as ‘I think she said [name]Emma[/name], but does she have a slight lisp?’.

[name]Reading[/name] it in your header my first thought was ‘embalmer’ or that it was a mash-up name. My background is Irish and I think if you are using foreign names in an English speaking country your child’s life will be easier if you use ones that immediately suggest Norwegian, Irish, Russian etc to the average English speaker. I love that you want to reconnect with your heritage but I think names you have to keep explaining are hard work.

11

I think that [name]Irmgard[/name] and Norbury summed up the english-language perspective nicely. I’d hit the “like” button multiple times with both if I could.

12

I totally agree - it’s very beautiful and rich. I don’t think many people will get it, because most people don’t care about name meanings or history. It’s not [name]Emma[/name], so people will either love it or hate it. This is a name that deserves to be used, however, and regardless of it being understood, or used in Europe, I would use it because you love it.

13

Personally, I absolutely adore Embla and along with [name]Saga[/name], it’s my favourite female name from the Norse mythology. Here in Denmark, you can hardly say that Embla is particularly popular (sadly). However, its counterpart, Ask, is growing rapidly among the Danish hipsters, the chic Danes and other good people (hippies? I don’t know what you call them …). To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing Danish that makes the name sound weird or give bad associations to it, so I don’t really know why it isn’t (as) popular (as I think it should be). I do think it might all of a sudden get discovered and become a huge hit (much like what’s happening with [name]Saga[/name] right now). I’m stoked you like the name though, it’s absolutely phenomenal [name]IMO[/name] :smiley:

14

It is popular in [name]Sweden[/name], it’s in the top 200 (peaked in 2007, at 132nd place) and I see Emblas in birth announcement quite often. Definitely nothing wrong with it from a Swedish perspective, quite the opposite.

15

With Embla, the sound just isn’t appealing at all. It doesn’t really sound like a name to me, just the “blah” sound is really strong at the end. Like someone else said, it sounds like “em, blah blah” to me.

16

But Embla isn’t pronounced [name]Em[/name]-blah, it’s pronounced em-BLA (“Gudrun” pronounce it very well here).

17

She seems to say “Empla” though. :stuck_out_tongue: (Yeah, I know that’s probably correct in Icelandic.)

I’d say it’s really more like EMB-la than [name]EM[/name]-bla. If that makes a difference to anyone else but me …

18

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with [name]Embla[/name]. I find it pretty.

19

Slight icelandic accent :smiley:

You’re right, EMB-la does make more sense (I’m a dork at spelling things phonetically, so thank goodness for forvo).

20

It’s probably just because Embla is kinda weird and I’ve literliterally never even heard it before.