Will my Flora be teased?

Girl Names
1

Hello,

I’ve got a bit of a dilemma. I’m due a little girl at the end of [name_f]September[/name_f]. I’m so in love with the name [name_f]Flora[/name_f] [name_f]Clementine[/name_f]. And it’s a good fit with my other little girl, [name_f]Annie[/name_f] [name_f]Florence[/name_f]. However, I’m UK based and [name_f]Flora[/name_f] is a brand of margarine over here. Lots of people seem to think I’d be setting her up for a fall. My alternative name is [name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Clementine[/name_f], which I love, but I’m having a hard time giving up a [name_f]Flora[/name_f]. What would you do?

Thank you!

2

[name_f]Flora[/name_f] is margarine in Australia too. I much prefer [name_f]Faye[/name_f]

3

I think she definitely will get teased because of that, and personally I would be upset if my name was a nn for my sisters middle name.

4

I would use [name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Clementine[/name_f]! It’s so spunky and goes great with [name_f]Annie[/name_f] [name_f]Florence[/name_f]. I agree that [name_f]Flora[/name_f] would be kind of repetitive as it is a nickname for [name_f]Florence[/name_f].

5

Though I am not familiar with the margarine brand, based off what other people have said, I’d go with [name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Clementine[/name_f]. It fits very well with [name_f]Annie[/name_f] [name_f]Florence[/name_f] :slight_smile:

6

[name_m]Even[/name_m] if there was no margarine called [name_f]Flora[/name_f], I wouldn’t recommend it simply because you’ve already used [name_f]Florence[/name_f] for your other daughter. It doesn’t work to use such similar names - one is even a nickname for the other - for your children, even if one is a middle name.

You wouldn’t call one daughter [name_f]Annie[/name_f] [name_f]Jennifer[/name_f] and the other [name_f]Jenny[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f], for instance.

Since you like ‘F’ names and names that end in an ‘ess’ sound, I wanted to suggest [name_f]Frances[/name_f] [name_f]Clementine[/name_f], but quickly realized that the nn for [name_f]Frances[/name_f] is usually [name_u]Frannie[/name_u] which contains [name_f]Annie[/name_f], so that doesn’t work, either.

[name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Clementine[/name_f] is lovely.

7

Thank you everyone.

Weirdly, I never really considered that [name_f]Flora[/name_f] and [name_f]Florence[/name_f] are interchangeable, I guess because the stress is different, but it makes sense now you’ve pointed it out.

I think she’s going to be a [name_f]Faye[/name_f] then!

I do love [name_f]Frances[/name_f], but, rather narcissistically, it’s my own name!

Thank you again,

[name_u]Fran[/name_u].

8

No need to give up [name_f]Flora[/name_f] - I’m pretty sure she won’t get teased.
I’m also UK based and know a [name_f]Flora[/name_f] who is not teased at all. I never even thought of the margarine.
People would have to be really sad to make that connection then act on it and by the time your baby is at school I think [name_f]Flora[/name_f] butter will be a less known brand anyway.

[name_f]Flora[/name_f] is a gorgeous name, don’t worry and overthink too much x

9

Also I don’t think the [name_f]Flora[/name_f] and [name_f]Florence[/name_f] thing matters whatsoever.
I know a family who called their first daughter [name_f]Mae[/name_f] and their second daughter [name_f]Olive[/name_f] [name_f]Mae[/name_f] and it seemed normal to me.

10

Also I don’t think the [name_f]Flora[/name_f] and [name_f]Florence[/name_f] thing matters whatsoever.
I know a family who called their first daughter [name_f]Mae[/name_f] and their second daughter [name_f]Olive[/name_f] [name_f]Mae[/name_f] and it seemed normal to me.

11

I would use [name_f]Faye[/name_f] on the accounts that [name_f]Flora[/name_f] is a nickname for [name_f]Florence[/name_f] and that may cause issues but [name_f]Flora[/name_f] shouldn’t cause teasing. We have the same brand here and no one would tease based off that.

12

Imagine yourself as Flora, would it bother you if people occasionally made comments, did it bother you when people said “you’re setting her up to fail”?
I did want do suggest using Florence and calling her Flora if you’re really worried that she might not like the possible remarks but I suppose that would be odd already having a daughter with that as her middle name.

I think in the end, I could tell you, go with what you love, however, I also think it’s important that you yourself are “at peace” with the name choice and that a small group of people online that loves names that many other people would consider unusable or too out-there isn’t talking false confidence into you and that, when the baby is three months old, you’ll be back here making a post about “name regret”.

Do I think she’ll be fine, sure, there are much worse things that a margarine brand that could be your namesake, however, if it already bothers you that other people are pointing the connection out and you’re worried, maybe Flora isn’t the name to go with, or maybe you can find another Flor- name and call her Flora as a nickname (Florentine, Florentina, Florrie, Fleur, etc.).

When I was smaller there was a tv ad for a pudding that was advertised with a cartoon cow (a version of it is still on tv). The pudding and the cow both had my name and the jingle they used was “_ is a cow, that doesn’t just say “moo”, …”, so the teasing potential was huge with that one. I did hear it but it bothered me less than I thought it would, the kids that did say it to me, were already mean and it wasn’t worse than other things they came up with.
The name they chose (my name) was already very popular and had been for a while… and still is to this date, so people didn’t let it influence their decision.
And I doubt that children would pay a lot of attention to margarine, that’s not necessarily a product whose ads are geared towards kids.

So, I would still use Flora as the connection doesn’t bother me, but again, if it bothers you, I think Faye would also make a wonderful sister name to Annie.

13

I agree with [name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Clementine[/name_f]! While I love [name_f]Flora[/name_f], it is definitely too close to [name_f]Florence[/name_f]. Gorgeous names, regardless.

14

[name_f]Flora[/name_f] was in the top 500 UK names in 2014 (most current list I could find), with 101 babies given the name that year. I’m not from the UK and haven’t heard of the brand, but based on that wouldn’t worry too much about it. I think it’s fine to use [name_f]Flora[/name_f] when your other daughter’s middle name is [name_f]Florence[/name_f], unless you’re a family that uses full names a lot. Hardly anyone will know either girl’s middle name, let alone both of them, anyways.

15

I love [name_f]Flora[/name_f], but I think [name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Clementine[/name_f] would be best in this case.

16

I’d use [name_f]Faye[/name_f] [name_f]Clementine[/name_f].