FWIW, there is a Rhiannon at my gym and she said she can immediately tell what generation someone is from by their reaction to her name. They either say “oh, like the Fleetwood Mac song”. Or “oh, like Rihanna the singer?”. She hates her name.

Callie (but not Calliope) is probably the only name on the list that I like.

I honestly don't like any of them.

Nobody is going to call Miranda Randy so use that if you love it. Callie is a cute name by itself and I would just use that and not Calliope.

My favorites are Thea, Virginia, and Miranda. Hard no on Calliope because people will forever be saying it like it rhymes with soap. Also like Daisy but it’s pretty uncommon knowledge that it’s a nickname for Margaret so she will also be explaining that forever.

The only ones I liked on your entire list are Daisy and Miranda. And Molly as a nickname.

Rhiannon UGH NO
Daisy (maybe on its own, maybe as nickname for Margaret) DAISY OK, MARGARET UGH
Maxine UGH
Molly UGH
Virginia, nn Ginny UGH UGH UGH
Daphne GOOD
Thea, maybe Theodora as a full name UGH NO
Calliope, nn Callie UUUUUGGGGHHHH NOOOOOO
Miranda (no nickname, and we actively dislike Randy as a nn so nervous about this one though we really like it) UGH NO
Michaela MEH

Thea, or Daisy with Delphine as the full name.

Nothing she constantly has to spell for people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would say hard pass on Rhiannon, though it is a beautiful name. Don’t make your daughter’s name the basis for “Oh, like the song” for her entire life.

Not sure that people born in 2023 are going to run into that many people with strong associations with a song that was released in 1975. Associations with Scooby Doo for Daphne might be a bigger issue!

Molly is very popular as a dog name, if that bothers you.

For me, personally, Michaela is tainted by the surge in creative spellings of it that were popular a while back (McKayla, Mikayla, etc) although I think the original name is pretty.

Fair enough, but it’s so rare that most people who have heard the name at all will know it from the song. The rest will just constantly mispronounce and misspell it

Lovely list! I can’t imagine anyone using “randy” as a nickname for Miranda- it’s awful. So I wouldn’t worry about that. I love Daphne and Ginny the most.

I hate michaela. I had a friend named Michael-a and also one pronounced like mikayla. Both are awful.

I love Margaret/Daisy; this was on our very short list.

Daphne, Maxine, Miranda and Michaela are ok. I know a teenaged Miranda and no one ever calls her Randy.

I'm on the fence about Thea. I really dislike Theodora. Also, some people will say Thee-a and some will say Tay-a, just FYI.

I don't like Molly, Ginny, or Calliope (although I do like the nn Callie).

I really hate Rhiannon.

Anonymous wrote:I would say hard pass on Rhiannon, though it is a beautiful name. Don’t make your daughter’s name the basis for “Oh, like the song” for her entire life.

Not sure that people born in 2023 are going to run into that many people with strong associations with a song that was released in 1975. Associations with Scooby Doo for Daphne might be a bigger issue!

Molly is very popular as a dog name, if that bothers you.

For me, personally, Michaela is tainted by the surge in creative spellings of it that were popular a while back (McKayla, Mikayla, etc) although I think the original name is pretty.

The only one I like is Thea

I would say hard pass on Rhiannon, though it is a beautiful name. Don’t make your daughter’s name the basis for “Oh, like the song” for her entire life.

This is a rough list of names we've come up with that neither person has vetoed. It's kind of all over the map. Would like feedback (associations, like/dislike, etc.) just to get a sense of how these names might be received. We don't want to tell friends or family about names we're considering because we made that mistake last time and people were really annoying about it. So trying to use DCUM to get that same kind of feedback, but from strangers instead of my mom or our friends, who were sometimes hypercritical or kept trying to push certain names/nicknames on us and just pestered us too much. TIA!

The list:

Rhiannon
Daisy (maybe on its own, maybe as nickname for Margaret)
Maxine
Molly
Virginia, nn Ginny
Daphne
Thea, maybe Theodora as a full name
Calliope, nn Callie
Miranda (no nickname, and we actively dislike Randy as a nn so nervous about this one though we really like it)
Michaela

Also open to suggestions. Only parameters are: no names that start with a vowel, the first initial "M" would be nice but we aren't restricting ourselves to that. Also open to middle name suggestions because we have absolutely no idea!