Ida is my middle name, named for my grandmother. I like it a lot, though I've also always been grateful to my parents that they didn't use it for my first name.

I think it's going to be a losing battle getting people to pronounce it the way you want them to, as it's a matter of syllable emphasis that people won't remember. Most people will just pronounced it like the instrument. If you're ok with that, I think it's pretty. I know a little girl Viola, she's Italian.

Would Viola been pronounced Vie-luh then?

I love the name Vida which is a combo of the two!

Anonymous wrote:viola (pronounced more like violet, just an "ah" at the end instead of "et". not veye-ol-ah or vee-ol-ah) and ida were my great grandmother's names.
with the return of so many grandma names, i wonder why not these?
gertrude and frieda I can understand. but viola and ida don't sound as horrible to me.

we are thinking middle names and not first names. if they seem to dated or ugly, what about violet and ada instead?

I don't think you should name people names that "aren't so horrible to me" You should think of names that are pretty and that they will also like in the future.

Viola is prettier than Ida. Is Ida a family name? Here are some suggestions ( which you can ignore of course)

Viola and Alice
Viola and Audrey
Viola and Beatrice


If you want to abandon Viola other names you could use

Alice and Beatrice
Audrey and Frances ( Frankie)
Madeleine and Eva/Ava

Congrats!

Anonymous wrote:Love both of them. Honestly, I don’t think Frieda is that bad either.

Poor Gertrude

Love both of them. Honestly, I don’t think Frieda is that bad either.

I think that they’re both lovely, particularly Viola.

It's okay to do ugly and/or embarrassing names for middle names.

These would be terrible for first names.

Love Ida, but Viola is nice too. I wouldn't pronounce it that way at first glance, but it's easy enough to correct.

The only one I wouldn't do is Ada. If you love it, go for it, but it's become trendy and doesn't really fit in with your cute grandma name vibe.

Viola is gorgeous!

Real names:
Idalia
Vida
Aida
Margarida
Adelaida
Alida
Brida
Brigida

I think they're both great. I think they're uncommon but close enough to names that are currently more popular that I would think twice. I really like family names.

Anonymous wrote:Please let these horrible names stay dead.

Rude

Please let these horrible names stay dead.

viola (pronounced more like violet, just an "ah" at the end instead of "et". not veye-ol-ah or vee-ol-ah) and ida were my great grandmother's names.
with the return of so many grandma names, i wonder why not these?
gertrude and frieda I can understand. but viola and ida don't sound as horrible to me.

we are thinking middle names and not first names. if they seem to dated or ugly, what about violet and ada instead?