Michelle vs. Mae - what's the style?

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-18-2006
Michelle vs. Mae - what's the style?
7
Sun, 10-08-2006 - 11:02am

I keep going back to these two middle names to use for Lorelei. As most of you know by now, Michelle is my mn and Mae was my grandmother's mn. I think either one of these sounds fine together, I just believe they give Lorelei a different "feel", KWIM? Lorelei Mae seems to have a more old-fashioned feel to me. Whereas Lorelei Michelle seems completely different...how I'm not sure.

If you saw these two names - LORELEI MAE or LORELEI MICHELLE - what kind of feel/style would you attribute to them?

This may help me in determining which mn I use, so I appreciate your feedback...as always! :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-13-2005
Sun, 10-08-2006 - 11:14am

I think both mn are very nice & have a great family connection..


Lorelei Mae- I agree this has a more old fashion feel.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-08-2006
Sun, 10-08-2006 - 11:24am
I think that Lorelei Mae is the best. It just sounds so nice together. I mean I like both of them but I think that Mae would be better for the middle name. Just some advice. Good luck on that, at least you have picked out a name, I can't even do that yet....
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-14-2003
Sun, 10-08-2006 - 12:34pm

I personally perfer Lorelei Michelle, because I like the repetition of the L sound. Also Lorelei Mae is kind of hard for me to say. Lorelei has this kind of exotic feel to it, and teh Mimchelle just brings it home, whereas Mae is so old-fashioned I feel ike it doesn't do Lorelei justice. Or maybe I'm just not a fan of "Mae". HTH!

Steph
Mommy to Claire Elise

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-08-2004
Sun, 10-08-2006 - 12:37pm

I don't want to step on any toes here, so my feedback is just my honest opinion of the two names. I hope that's what you wanted.

First of all, I wanted to say that I love the fact that you want to include a family name. That's also very important to me, and I think it adds so much to a name.

As for the names themselves, you're right. They each have a very, very different feel. To me, Michelle is very 1980s. I knew about 6 girls named Michelle, or whose middle names were Michelle, when I was growing up. They were all born in the late 1970s or early 1980s. I think it's very much like Grace or Emma now. For that reason, it's never been a name that really appealed to me because I so closely associate it with a certain decade, and that's pretty much exactly the opposite of what I want in a name. Now, that's not to say that it's a bad name; likewise, I would never say that Grace or Emma were bad names. They're all fine.

Mae, on the other hand, is timeless. It was my grandmother's middle name, and I've often thought of using it. It's short and catchy, and it lends itself to lots of cute nicknames (among them, Maisie, which I think is quite adorable). Also, because it's short, it makes a cute part of a double name; being from the South, double names are a huge part of our culture. Lorelei Mae, to me, is classic, sophisticated, and beautiful. I absolutely love it, and I love that Mae would be after your grandmother.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Sun, 10-08-2006 - 2:06pm

Honestly, if I saw those names, I would think that Lorelei Michelle was named after her mom or her mom's sister and Lorelei Mae was named after a grandma or great aunt. ;-)

Neither name is really trendy or popular right now (although Mae might be at the beginning of the trend toward old-fashioned names) but they've both been very popular with previous generations. Both are great, classic, feminine names.

There were a lot of older women I grew up around (my grandma's age) who had Mae as a middle name. I associate it with being a country girl because of them and because it was used in a lot of old movies for simple, country girls. (Sally Mae is kind of a cliche for that kind of character.) I also associate it with Mae West who was smart and sophisticated.

Michelle I associate with a lot of people I grew up with who had it as a fn or mn, and those are people who are having babies now. That's why I would think she was named after her mom or aunt.

I know it's a hard choice but I really don't think you could go wrong with either one. Good luck.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-29-2005
Sun, 10-08-2006 - 2:49pm

I haven't read the other replies yet, but to me Mae is a bit of an old-fashioned filler mn (if I didn't know it was for your grandmother), while Michelle seems very 60s/70s trendy.

If I ran across a birth announcement for Lorelei Mae, I'd assume the parents either

a) didn't know what type of mn to pair with such a great, unique fn, so they went with a filler

or

b) were naming her after a relative (as you are)

Lorelei Michelle, on the other hand, would seem a very odd pairing (again, this is assuming I didn't know Michelle was your mn), Lorelei just becoming more familiar in the U.S. (but still not popular, so relatively "fresh" sounding, KWIM) and Michelle having an extremely dated feel. Also, since Michelle is dated, but not "old" yet, I wouldn't be as likely to assume a family connection here, if that makes sense. Using my own dated name, Kelli, as an example, I would feel the same if I came across a little girl named Anneliese Kelli, KWIM?

Just out of curiosity -- because I can't remember all the family names you'd listed before -- what was your grandmother's fn or maiden name? I know these might not be options for you, but I'm curious. ;)

~Kelli

Ps. I think this may have been suggested, but if you don't want the overall old-fashioned feel (I think you'd mentioned this), you could use a variation of Mae ... Maeve, Maegan/Megan (just the sound or the Mae- spelling) or even a double name, like Clara-Mae, for example. Just some thoughts. Hope it helps, and good luck!


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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-05-2006
Sun, 10-08-2006 - 9:06pm

Mmmm... Hard to tell!

My first impulse was that Lorelei Michelle sounded more balanced, but then, I couldn't help but think that these two names together are a very... different combination. Lorelei is that legendary mermaid from Northern Europe, whereas Michelle has such a 1950s feel to it, and nothing of a fairy tale. Someone said that Mae is more timeless, and that's what I think too, so I'd say Lorelei Mae :)