Help! We still need a girl's name!!

[didkisa]

Ok, we have less than three weeks to go and we still haven't agreed on a girl's name!! Getting a little worried now!

However, yesterday I came up with one and tonight DH actually said to add it to the short list! I couldn't believe it! But...I'm still not completely convinced and we don't agree on the nickname to go with it. Plus, I can't come up with a middle name I like with it. Soooooo...please tell me what you think and any suggestions you may have:

DH's all-time favorite girl's name is Amanda (I think it mostly has to do with the fact that he's a huge Boston fan!). I've never liked the name--no offense to anyone with that name! Plus, my nephew's mother's name is Amanda. Lovely lady and a lot of fun, but I wouldn't want her to think we were naming our child after her.

The name I've wanted to use throughout the pregnancy is Anna, after my favorite grandmother.

Then I stumbled across the name Ananda, which means "ultimate bliss". It's kinda cool in that it combines both our favorite names! That's symbolic and symbolism is very important to me! I would like to use either Ani or Andi as the nickname, but DH would like to use Nandi, which is still too close to Mandy--and I really don't care for that name, either. We're also concerned with people calling her Amanda by mistake.

And what in the world could we use for a middle name, if we have one?

[NamastePlatypus]

Irie is mine, it is rastafarian for no worries, that is me!!

I like Ava and avery and ameila, all are popular now:

Poppy is one that I LOVE!!!!! Irie Poppy is what I would want my dd to be called!

[memz]

I think Ananda would confuse people and she probably would get called amanda.

I too like Ava or Alana which means "precious awakening" which I think is pretty cute.

[cynde]

i like it

i think Ananda is pretty. And people worry too much about if a name will be confusing or hard to pronounce mine is and it really hasn't given me much grief at all.
I think the middle name should be short and simple - one syllable perhaps.

[PiePie]

I like Nandi.

[didkisa]

Originally Posted by NamastePlatypus

Irie is mine, it is rastafarian for no worries, that is me!!

I like Ava and avery and ameila, all are popular now:

Poppy is one that I LOVE!!!!! Irie Poppy is what I would want my dd to be called!

Soooo funny you mentioned Poppy because I thought of that a few weeks ago and laughed right out loud!! Why? Because of our last name...I'll just say my dad's nickname for the baby is "Opie" (get the Opium/Poppy connection there??) I love the name Poppy, but it would be so cruel with our last name!

I mentioned Avery to DH before, but he thinks it's more of a boy's name--probably because of Avery Brooks. Whatever... will have to mention Ava to him.

Originally Posted by cynde

i think Ananda is pretty. And people worry too much about if a name will be confusing or hard to pronounce mine is and it really hasn't given me much grief at all.

That's a concern of ours because of my name, which I pronounce differently than the "majority" and have been given quite a bit of grief from people who pronounce it "correctly"! : People can be downright rude and cruel! What irks me the most is when people tell me they have a friend who pronounces it the "usual" way and that's why they can't seem to remember how I pronounce it...OK, I have a friend named Joe, so should I just start confusing your name with his?? Yeah, a bit of a bone of contention for me...(I have a friend named Marisa--Muh-ree-sa--who has the same problem I do and it bothers her, too.)

For Star Trek fans, I always think of TNG's android, Data, who, when someone called him "Daa-tuh" he said, "My name is "Day-tuh". When they asked, "What's the difference?", he responded matter-of-factly, "One is my name, the other is not."

[Full Heart]

Can you do Ananda with 2 n's? Annanda? Just a thought to get it to look less like Amanda.

You may find once she is older that you will like a totally different nickname than the 2 you have thought of. I was deadset against Annie (dds name is Ann) and it ended up being perfect for her. Then I have a son named Joseph and we call him Joe-Joe. Which I never saw that one coming, just happened upon him one day. But we aren't big with nicknames so we don't even consider it when naming our babies honestly.

As for a mn how about Joy.

[jkg]

Ananda Luna
Ananda Chloe
Ananda Isobel

Just a few ideas...Ananda is a lovely name!

[deuxceleste]

Originally Posted by Full Heart

Can you do Ananda with 2 n's? Annanda? Just a thought to get it to look less like Amanda.

You may find once she is older that you will like a totally different nickname than the 2 you have thought of. I was deadset against Annie (dds name is Ann) and it ended up being perfect for her. Then I have a son named Joseph and we call him Joe-Joe. Which I never saw that one coming, just happened upon him one day. But we aren't big with nicknames so we don't even consider it when naming our babies honestly.

As for a mn how about Joy.

Eek! To me, Annanda looked MORE like Amanda than Ananda did!

Annanda
Amanda
Ananda

Just checkin.

I dunno.

[ccohenou]

Sorry, I don't have a girl's name either - but my curiosity is piqued and I must know how you pronounce Colleen! Long "o"?

On the middle name - we have middle names that are meaningful family-wise but I don't know if they necessarily 'go together', they're def. not names that we would have used for first names. B/c really, how often does anyone call herself by first+middle? I've probably spoken my children's full names aloud less than a handful of times since filling out their birth certificates. So I wouldn't stress too much about it.

[didkisa]

Originally Posted by ccohenou

Sorry, I don't have a girl's name either - but my curiosity is piqued and I must know how you pronounce Colleen! Long "o"?

Yes, that's it, exactly! (same as Colleen Dewhurst)

[Yo Becca]

There used to be a v-jay on MTV whose name was Ananda, but she prounounced it Uh-nahn-da, not Uh-nan-da. Like naan bread. I thought it was beautiful, and not easily confused with Amanda b/c the middle sound is different. Then Nandi wouldn't sound like Mandy - it would sound like Ghandi.

As for a middle name - the field is wide open! Anything on your short list? any family names you want to honor? One or two syllables would sound good...

If you can't agree on this name, there are some other really cute "A" names, like Annabelle (DD's best little friend), Audra, Alexis, Amalie... And we have friends with a 2 yo named Avery and it's a super cute name and a good one for a girl to grow up with (sounds good at every age) - I don't think it's common enough as a boy name to be immediately associated with boys.

[Avena]

I really lik the name Ananda. Our new one came last week and we had no name! I wanted to meet the new one 1st to see what felt right...I found this site http://www.babynamenetwork.com/index.cfm I like it because you can find the name by origin! We choose a tibetian/sherpa name. I wanted our kids to have a name that had meaning, something a little less common.Unlike the un-original name my mom gave me!

Good luck & Happy naming!

[NamastePlatypus]

I loved the name Audry or Aubry