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Petra - really like Petra. It's somehow slinky and icy but strong and spirited, I'd absolutely use it but everyone I know IRL hates it. I floated it with my mother and she was not a fan, one of my sisters has bad associations with the names... so it's a no-go for me. Shame, because I think it's effortlessly cool. Paula is the opposite, it's very home-body mum-jeans someone's-nice-grandma-who's-not-given-up-dying-her-hair-blonde. I think Paula is friendlier and more approachable, Petra is cooler, more chic, prettier, and more youthful.

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Sybil / Sibyl has an association with an old sitcom here in the UK, Fawlty Towers, but I think that association is either dying out or soon will be. It's still quite dated and elderly feeling, however the meaning and history of Sibyl is very cool - I don't know if I prefer Sybil or Sibyl, I do find that -byl ending very heavy but writing this now I for some reason find Sibyl with it's literal-word factor a bit fresher?? I don't know. It's somehow both softly demure and heavy sounding, but it's a name I find intriguing and don't dislike, I just change my mind about it a lot - sometimes it appeals, sometimes I find it too dated. Cecile in comparison feels youthful and springy, but in this very specific and dated way, a now moving-out-of-trend kind of youthfulness - I picture a pretty, naive Amelie-esque girl with a cute bob, bright lipstick, infectious smile and stylish sundress, she brings spring/early summer sunshine with her, her colour palette is new-spring-greenery, lemon yellow, the coral of her lipstick, and her soundtrack is some previously popular hit-of-the-moment only it's sung all breathy with acoustic guitar for extra whimsy. It feels youthful in this way which is unyouthful now, like some cynical attempt at youth that's behind the trend, somehow inauthentic. So, dated, heavy, but some cool history to it, vs... youthful, but in a dated, artificial way? And yet for what it's worth, I kinda like both... as middle names only though!