Even though every
Elizabeth I know is with a z (infact the three main I know are all
Elizabeth Anne; my nan and great aunt, both in their seventies, and my brothers girlfriend who is 22), I've been finding that my reaction to discuss when not talking about relatives is to spell it '
Elisabeth'. I actually got confused in my half asleep state thinking wait, which one is it. Personally I prefer the s, is softer and I really love
Elsa. However I wouldn't use because so many have it and my niece already has
Beth as a middle name, so if I were to ever honour nan I'd be more subtle with potential
Lillian and
Isabel varieties.
Speaking of nieces, as I've mentioned before my niece
Lola Beth is going to have a little sister,
Elena Maree. My (and I say my because it's my half-brother on my dad's side and this is on my mums side) Oma's name is
Frieda Helene, and I have for a long time wanted to use
Helene in the middle name spot.. I personally have no problem with one being
Elena Maree and having a cousin that's something
Helene, seeing as they'll probably be ten years apart in age at least, and it won't be as if I've just hijacked the name or anything. However would others think it would be odd? I know my sister in law is avoiding
Isabelle and forms because her cousin named her daughter
Rhianna Isabelle.
And on the Elizabeth/Isabelle/Lillian bandwagon, before I was a name nerd, I had no idea that the three were actually related and would happily use them in sibsets or combos... For example wanting to use
Elspeth and
Isobel as sisters when I was twelve (which is how I learnt the shared stem)... Now the idea of putting them together really puts me off and I was wondering is this was the same for anyone else?
And finally:
Eira. I think it is a really pretty name, I am really loving it right now, no matter how it is said. However that's exactly what I was wondering. So the comments on the Welsh copy describe two potential 'eye-rah' or 'aye-rah', and I was wondering if this was the same in Scandanavian countries. When I told my mum the spelling her first response was 'ear-ra' like eerie with an a at the end, which doesn't sound to bad, while my sister in law was inclined to go with eye-rah... I live in Australia...
This message was edited 11/12/2013, 4:24 PM