Help with girl name

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-02-2004
Help with girl name
8
Fri, 02-10-2006 - 10:05am

Help with girl name



  • DH is stuck on Lilly but it's SO popular
  • would hypenating it as a first name be better?
  • like LillyJoy or LilliBeth or Lillibelle
  • Sounds too 'hillbilly' like Becky-Sue

  • It's OK
  • I love it
  • I hate it
  • Not good name for grownup
  • any suggestions welcome!


You will be able to change your vote.


Avatar for haarlasr
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 02-10-2006 - 10:19am

I don't know that I'd do the double-name quite the way you did with 2 capital letters, but I like the idea. I know a Lilybet and a Lilybeth (both 2 years old), and while I wasn't sure about the names at first, they've really grown on me (and the little girls are adorable!). I know that Lilybet goes by Betsy sometimes, and Lilybeth is called Beth, so in their cases, those longer names gave them additional nn options as well.

Lily is definitely a beautiful name, but common. FWIW, I also know a 2-year-old Lily, Lilly, and Lilith. And Liliana/Lila are getting more common, too. Again, a gorgeous name, but the variants are popular.

Good luck making a decision!

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-29-2005
Fri, 02-10-2006 - 10:59am

If he's stuck on Lily (sorry, the double Ls throw me LOL), I'd probably try for a longer given name and let him use Lily as a nn (that way she'd have the option of having a less common name or use the more popular nn). I think the pp already mentioned Liliana and Lilith. A few others I've seen with the nn Lily include Lila (very sweet!), Elizabeth, Lilias, Eliana, Eliya (this is pretty AND unique! Would avoid the whole popularity issue I think), Lillian(e), Lilia, Delilah, Kelila ... hmmm, I know there are more but I can't think of them offhand. Anyway, HTH! :)

~Kelli


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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-26-2005
Fri, 02-10-2006 - 5:30pm
I agree with Kelli. Lily (one L please!) is pretty and popular, but it's too nicknamey for my tastes. I like a longer name with Lily as a nn. Elisabeth and Lilian are my favorites of the names already mentioned.
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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-26-2006
Fri, 02-10-2006 - 6:03pm

Lily seems no more nicknamey than Rose, Iris, Dahlia, Heather, Jasmine, Violet or Begonia (heheh..).

Any way you lengthen it, you're just adding frill to a standalone good name.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-07-2004
Fri, 02-10-2006 - 9:29pm
Lily is a great name. Lilly is OK. Lillyjoy (or any other combination) is NMSAA. Good Luck!
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-24-2006
Fri, 02-10-2006 - 10:26pm

I don't like Lilly in combo with anything else. I also agree with the PP on Lily with one l only. To lengthen it, I like Lillian, Lillith, and Lila. My name is Elizabeth, and I don't get Lily out of Elizabeth, nor have I or anyone ever thought to use the nn Lily for me. Also, Walt Disney's grandson named his daughter Lilybell, which was a combo of Lily and Tinker Bell, so whenever I see that name that's what I think of. Hope that helped!!

Liz

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-27-2006
Sat, 02-11-2006 - 11:17am
I think Lily is ok..but it is very common. But if you choose to go with one of the 3 listed, I'd go with Lily-Beth. Also not that theres anything wrong with it sounding to hillbilly, because I'm from the south, it does sound very southern.
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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-27-2005
Sun, 02-12-2006 - 1:03am

I'm short on time at the moment so haven't read the previous posts... so I apologise for any repetition.

I like Lily, but love Lillian (or the Scottish variant, Lilias), so personally I'd put that on the birth certificate and use Lily as a nickname. Lillian is is one of the 'old-fashioned' names beginning to be used again, but it is far from being trendy and I think unlikely to become overused. Liliana or Lilith could work too.

Alternatively, historically Lily was often a nickname for Elizabeth, in fact, linguists generally believe that Lillian, early examples of Lily and other variants were derived from diminutive forms of Elizabeth (such as Lili, used in German), since flower names were quite rare until the 19th century. So, Lily could be used as a nickname for Elizabeth, and the connection also makes the forms you suggested, LilliBeth and Lillibelle, reasonable variants of Elizabeth themselves (since Isabelle originated as a Provençal form of Elizabeth and the two names were used interchangeably through the 16th century, sometimes both for the same individual).

Lily could also be reasonably used as a nickname for Susannah (or Susan, Suzanne, Shoshana, etc.), which means 'lily' in Hebrew... Daisy was similarly used in the Victorian Era as a nickname for Margaret because marguerite is the French name for the flower.

I like Lillibelle and LilliBeth (though I'd stick to one L, nix the capital B for Beth, and definitely forget about hyphens... Lilybelle or Lilybeth), but, as I said, both relate back to Elizabeth, and I think they work well as nicknames for that... putting Elizabeth on record allows your daughter more flexibility when she is older. You might consider Elizabeth Lily or Elizabeth Belle to reinforce the nickname (likewise, if Susannah seems like too much of a leap to Lily despite the etymology, perhaps Susannah Lily, called Lily?). I'm not fond of LillyJoy, though, it sounds awkward to me, so if the word is meaningful to you I would keep Joy as a middle name only, or consider one of the many other names that refer to the emotion.

Josie