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It's not horrid, but I don't like the sound of "Bella", plus it really is irritatingly frilly, and as I have said before, narrow. I could not imagine a truck driver or a dollar store clerk named Arabella.

I've tried and tried to like Arabella because I do like its nicknames, particularly Ara, but it's way too frilly for me. Weirdly, it reminds me of the word horrible, too.

Trump's Grandaughter

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I liked it well enough until Ivanka named her daughter Arabella Rose, then it kind of became unusable to me (and brought a lot of attention to it). I think it could work, especially with a strong middle name to keep it grounded. I think Ari / Arie is an extremely cute nickname and also keeps some of the frills away if she turns out to be a no-frills type of girl.

I think Arabella is gorgeous. Bella is the obvious nn, which I personally love. You could always use it as a mn.

Arabella is frequently in and out of my top 10. I don't think I'd actually use it for a child, but I do love it. The popularity is a concern but I don't think she'd ever be in the top 100. I too dislike all the nicknames but Arabella has four syllables so I'm thinking its very likely to get shortened to something.

It's a lovely name, and it has more of a backbone than Ariella, but it's close enough to popular names for girls, such as Isabella and Ariana / Arianna, that it seems even more popular than it actually is. I expect that it will keep rising in popularity. I'm surprised that it took as long as it did to enter the top 1000 in the U.S.

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I prefer Arabelle to Arabella. Arabella is a bit too frilly for me, but that's true of most -ella names. I tend to go for -elle over -ella names.

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I hate Bella, and I'm not too keen on Ella, but I like Elle, Ellie, and Ara as nicknames for Arabella.

This message was edited 7/18/2012, 7:29 PM

I think it definitely pretty but it's not as frilly as similar names like Isabella, Annabella or even Gabriella. It has a more regal sound to my ears and isn't nearly as popular as those other names. A nickname isn't strictly necessary and it would even make a lovely middle name.
If Bella, Belle, Ella, Elle and Ellie don't really interest you what about nicknames Ara, Ari or Ray?

Arabella is gorgeous. But it would be pretty hard to avoid a nn at some point. You could be ~~that~~ mother who uses the formal name while everyone* else uses a nn. [I do that with my niece Maureen. Mo is super cute as a nn, I just can't resist the temptation to use Maureen whenever I see her. I'm ~~that~~ aunt. Or the teacher in "Leave It To Beaver" who always addressed him as Theodore. :-P]

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As for popularity, that's up to you of course. Personally, if I really loved a name enough to use it popularity wouldn't stop me. Plus, there is so much more variety now that being a top name is not the same as it was in the past. We have mothers of kids with names like Noah here on the board who say he's the only one in his class.

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One last observation. I've been coming to this site for almost ten years now. Every once in a while a name will appear in the public and for a short time there is buzz about it. I remember when "White Oleander" was made into a movie. Someone was heartbroken that her favorite name, Astrid, the main character's name, would now become so popular that it would ruin it for her. While the name became more well known, it didn't take over the planet. Arabella may rise further in the popularity charts than Astrid did of course. Belle / Bella names are on the rise generally. But it feels the same as Astrid. So unless you want a name with absolutely no mention in the media (I'm thinking of Ivanka Trump's dd), I'd say Arabella is safe for now.

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* This is an exaggeration. A nn isn't 100% unavoidable. More like 70%.

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