Alexandra is expecting her fourth child in a few weeks, a sister for her sons Rafferty and Owen and her daughter Sibella.

Alexandra’s main issues are that many of her favourite names for a girl sound quite a bit like Sibella, and she also loves English-style flower names, but to her these are a mis-match with Sibella. She would prefer something with a European/French/Latin feel to go with Sibella.

Alexandra has noticed she tends to like names that start with A, E, or L such as Aveline, Evangeline, and Luella; she loves romantic, feminine names and prefers ones that aren’t on the current popularity lists.

Her current front runner is Estelle. She loves the meaning, the sound of it, and its French origin. She isn’t sure whether it’s too much having sisters both with an ELL in their name, but she thinks Sibella and Estelle sound pretty together. She wonders how Estelle would be shortened – Stel? Elle? She would consider Estee or Essie, but isn’t convinced by either option.

Earlier in the pregnancy she considered the name Primrose, with Posy as the nickname, which she adores. However she started to think the name was too popular, and didn’t really go with the other children’s names. She also considered Evangeline and Clementine, but can’t quite get behind either.

The middle name would probably be Delphine, a French name she loves that seems a bit different from any of her other favourites.

Alexandra would like to know others’ thoughts on the name Estelle, and if there are any other names that go well with her children’s names (especially with Sibella) she may have missed?

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Goodness, this is the second enquiry about Estelle I’ve received this week! It’s clearly the name of the moment. There’s already a quick poll on Estelle, and so far around two-thirds of people are in favour of using the name Estelle, with just under one-third loving the name. That seems like a good amount of people liking the name, and not an inconveniently high number loving it and therefore likely to use it.

Estelle seems as if it fits in fine with Rafferty, Owen, and Sibella – they all have their own vibe, yet are enough alike in style to rub together well enough. To me Sibella is Australian more than anything else: Sibella is a name more often used here than in any European country, although ultimately from Greek.

I’d probably use a vintage-style nickname like Etty or Essie for Estelle, but I have seen people use the name Star as a nickname for Estelle. There’s something modern, yet rather charming and storybook about that idea. Ellie also seems perfectly reasonable.

I am very surprised that you consider Primrose too popular to use. Even in the UK Primrose is barely in the Top 500, and it’s probably lower than that here. Sometimes people think when a name is fashionable it must be popular because there’s such a buzz around it, forgetting there can be quite a gap between a name suddenly coming into use again, and becoming popular. Estelle is far more popular a name, and that isn’t popular either.

Of course, Primrose might be quite common in your social circle, so if you already know three little girls named Primrose born in the past year, you’re rightfully going to disagree with mere statistics!

Primrose actually seems like a great fit with Rafferty, Owen, and Sibella, as they are all British names. Rafferty is Irish, Owen is Welsh, and Sibella is English. I rather love Primrose with Posy as the nickname.

Evangeline and Clementine would have been fine too, but the middle name Delphine would probably be a little too much in these cases.

Estelle seems like a good match with your chosen middle name, and as a sister to Rafferty, Owen, and Sibella. It’s a pretty, stylish name back in fashion, yet not overly common.

Other feminine names you might like: Lucinda, Evelina, Vivienne, Liliana, Eleanora, Genevieve, and Isadora.

POLL RESULTS
88% of people generally approved of the name Estelle Delphine as sister to Rafferty, Owen and Sibella. 26% thought it was great, 31% thought it was good, and 28% thought it was okay. 12% were not convinced.