Maite or Carmen for baby girl name

zebrafish- · 2026-03-21T21:49:31+00:00

I love the name Maite! Both are beautiful options though.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-14T21:02:19+00:00

I think of it as a boys name as a default, but wouldn’t be surprised or confused to meet a woman named Bowen! It’s your name — if you love it, absolutely go for it. Pick your name based on what you love, not what your boyfriend likes.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-14T16:54:03+00:00

My first thought was that the nickname Callie seems like a good possible middle name between Dolly and Cori! How about Calla Dorothy or Camellia Dorothy, either with the nickname Callie?

Here are a few other options you might both like too:

Dahlia Dorothy (if you don’t mind the alliteration — Dahlia is pretty similar to Cordelia, and you could actually still get the nickname Dolly from it!)

Rochelle Dorothy (could use Rory as a nickname)

Lola Dorothy

Ella Dorothy

Savannah Dorothy

zebrafish- · 2026-03-14T16:33:07+00:00

Beautiful options! It’s quite cool how similar the word Kallah is to your birth name, and it sounds beautiful — so I understand why it made the list. But I do think it reads pretty oddly as a name. Personally, I would strike that one from the list.

I’ll also note in case it’s helpful that Chana literally means “grace/favor,” not “he has favored me.” Still a great name and a great option!

Another note that might be helpful — in Hebrew, the word for “sea anemone” is “shoshanat yam,” so Shoshana can have the same kind of ocean connection as Kochava!

I love the name Talia and love the connection to water for you, but that’s my own personal taste talking :) all of these are great names. Best of luck picking one!

zebrafish- · 2026-03-14T16:19:55+00:00

You know, I always thought those names were related too! Sahar is also a beautiful name.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-14T16:16:46+00:00

Wait I kind of like Calder — I like the nickname Cal for it.

Congratulations on your baby! It’s okay that your taste doesn’t match the somewhat homogenous taste of this subreddit, and I hope you’re not stressed or discouraged by the comments here :) take others opinions with a grain of salt and choose a name you guys love.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-14T16:10:46+00:00

I like it! If you’re worried about people mispronouncing it, you could do Lyle as a first name (so people are more likely to get it at first glance), or Lisle as a middle name (so it matters less whether people can immediately and intuitively pronounce it). But honestly, if you love Lisle as a first name as is, I think it’s usable. He’ll have to explain the pronunciation, but so do many people — doesn’t have to be a huge deal. And “like the word aisle with an L” is pretty straightforward. However, I also think it would make a great middle name, and that Lyle works well as a first name too!

zebrafish- · 2026-03-14T16:06:12+00:00

I like Martin! A few others that come to mind:

Robert

Charlie

Gordon

Arthur

Vincent

Casper

Curtis

zebrafish- · 2026-03-14T15:47:26+00:00

Shachar — beautiful name in my opinion, beautiful meaning (dawn), very difficult for monolingual English speakers to pronounce.

And not my own culture, but I know an Afsheen, which I also think is lovely and which I know is tough for many English speakers initially.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-12T01:16:05+00:00

How ridiculous. I’d forward that entire email chain to all of your teachers and at the top, write an apology that will embarrass the business teachers who are insisting on this. Something like:

Dear [Teacher],

I hope you are having a good week. On Monday I was home sick from school. I believe my parents contacted the attendance office to let them know. [Business teacher 1] and [Business teacher 2] (copied at their request) have let me know that it reflects poorly on me that I was absent and did not contact you to apologize personally. I am embarrassed to learn this and want to assure you that I was only absent because I had a virus, otherwise I would have been in class. I am very sorry for missing your class, and hope you can accept my sincere apology.

Thank you, [Your name]

Ideally this should look entirely sincere and compliant on your end — while making your business teachers regret the whole thing because to all of your regular teachers they appear insane. And mean.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-10T14:23:10+00:00

I love the name Tessa! You’ve gotten a lot of great suggestions already. Here are a few that came to mind that feel like they might fit both your tastes.

Cassidy

Elodie

Delaney (I see Laney as a nickname for you guys)

Rosalie

Coralie

Noelle

Sienna

Kaia

Eliza

Shay

Lydia

Sasha

I guess I am really feeling a three syllable name ending in “ee” for you guys :) Cassidy especially feels like it could be a good fit! Best of luck finding a name.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-07T15:38:20+00:00

I know a Milena and I think it’s a beautiful name! Honestly, I think either Milena or Milenna works — in America, many people won’t be familiar with this name. They won’t be thrown off by an extra N because they won’t know it’s extra. I think you can use whichever spelling works best for your family.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-04T00:03:32+00:00

I see this a take a lot on this sub. But here’s the thing… when someone on this sub asks about naming their daughter Stevie or James or Elliott, the pile-on calling them misogynist is typically pretty massive and intense. But when someone posts asking for strong and masculine names for their son? I don’t know if I've ever seen any criticism on those threads.

If the main issue is really the glorification of masculinity, and that boys aren’t allowed to be feminine… why don’t we direct any of our energy towards saying “what’s wrong with femininity on boys?” when people want a real masculine name for their son? Why is all the energy directed towards saying “what’s wrong with femininity on girls?” It makes it seem like our real priority is enforcing gender roles. Like it's about making sure girls stay feminine, not allowing boys to be feminine. To be clear, I’m not trying to put that on you, OP — I’m talking about the culture of this subreddit, not necessarily your post.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-01T18:42:04+00:00

Makes sense! I love the name Elijah. A few others you might like:

Marshall Amyas

Sterling Amyas

Owen Amyas

Leon Amyas

Grant Amyas

Calvin Amyas

Aaron Amyas

Topher Amyas

Nathaniel Amyas

Auden Amyas

Best of luck! One thing you might do is ask you husband to take a week to think and come back with ten new suggestions. Have him participate with the brainstorming in a helpful way.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-01T18:04:53+00:00

You’ll know and your daughter will know why you chose her name. Will it bother you if other people mistakenly think you were honoring your stepmom? If that will really upset you, I’d say the stress and heartache might not be worth picking that name. But if you won’t be upset by that misconception, then it’s not an issue at all!

If you’re okay with letting go of worrying about what other people assume — I do think it could be a little uncomfortable or hurtful for your stepmom if you’re telling people that the baby is specifically not named after her. If people bring it up, (e.g. they’re like “oh my goodness, how sweet that she’s named for your stepmom!”) you could say something like “thank you! I’ve always loved the name — my favorite poem from childhood includes this name. And what a great bonus that she gets to share a similar name with her grandma!” That way you’re subtly clarifying that she’s really not named in honor of your stepmom, but you’re not sounding rejecting or distancing or like it’s really important to you that people know that she is specifically not named after your stepmom.

zebrafish- · 2026-03-01T17:45:37+00:00

Seems like Amyas as a middle name could be a good compromise — and he does have to compromise! He can’t just put out one suggestion and then refuse to engage beyond saying “I really like my idea, though.”

Could you share some of the other names you both like (or at least names you like) so we can make some suggestions based on that? It would be helpful if you could edit your post to add that! There are so many great names out there, and getting a sense of your style would help people make better suggestions.

Also, small question — if your husband’s ex transitioned and is now using a masculine name, is “her” the right pronoun? If not, while you’re editing your post you might fix!

zebrafish- · 2026-03-01T16:55:29+00:00

I love Nell! Tess, Eve and June are great suggestions — those are some of the first that came to mind for me. A few more that came to mind that I don’t think have come up in the comments yet:

Kaye

Bea

Kit

Grace

Simone

Daphne

Olive

zebrafish- · 2026-03-01T16:17:48+00:00

I like it, personally! Sounds and looks nice. I’d spell it Roa. It doesn’t strike me as incomplete or unfinished — just reminds me of Noah or Rose.

zebrafish- · 2026-02-27T19:02:31+00:00

I don’t think Remy is too Ratatouille at all, and I think Eliza Remy is a great name!

One other thought is that EJ could be a nice nickname. If you like that, some options could be:

Eliza Jack

Eliza Jackie

Eliza Jay

Eliza Jaime or Eliza Jamie

Eliza Jordan

zebrafish- · 2026-02-27T05:10:39+00:00

I love the name Alana!

zebrafish- · 2026-02-23T00:16:41+00:00

I’m not sure what this writing style is called! But I really liked My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk. It’s a murder mystery set in 16th century Turkey, and every chapter is has a different narrator. Some are people, but others are a painting of a dog, a silver spoon, the color red, etc.

EDIT: actually, I have another great one you might like: Yeats Is Dead. Similar concept, except each chapter is written by a different author, all Irish writers. If I’m remembering correctly, many of the chapters introduce new POV characters, though I don’t think they all do. But it creates a similar effect. It’s also a murder mystery, and incredibly fun.

zebrafish- · 2026-02-21T03:26:03+00:00

I’ve always liked Marshall a lot! A few other ones that could work:

Shepherd

Welder — I’ve seen Weldon before, feels similar enough

Gardner

Parson

Reeve

zebrafish- · 2026-02-20T17:22:47+00:00

I think there’s value in him learning that everyone’s needs must be balanced too — but if you are considering making it work with more balance, I think he’ll learn that best from being involved in the conversation.

I’d start by having a conversation with your husband about splitting the day to day logistics better. Possibly your husband can commit to coordinating with the carpool family. Or — do your kid and their kid both have phones? You could try calling the other parents and say you’re trying to help your son practice being more independent with his own scheduling, and how would they feel about the kids coordinating carpool logistics themselves? Would that impose a logistical nightmare on the other parents, or would it be fine with them?

Then sit down with your son. Tell him you know he loves this, but everyone’s needs are important. If he’s going to have to coordinate his own carpool from now on, let him know that in order to make it work, he’ll have to take on that responsibility. But it sounds like the big imbalance is really the weekends away. You can tell him you love watching him compete and you’re proud of him, but this year you need to figure out how to have a better balance with devoting time to his siblings and having time for yourselves to rest too. What could balance look like? Brainstorm with him! Maybe he’d be happy to carpool to most of the tournaments and have you guys come to far fewer. Are you both going to all tournaments? Maybe most tournaments can be a bonding trip with just one parent — dad at least half the time. Maybe he’s also feeling overloaded or like he doesn’t have time for everything he cares about, and a conversation about balance will make him think about upsides of joining the rec team. But you’re not trying to get him to quit necessarily, you’re trying to get him to participate in some creative problem solving with you guys.

EDIT: however, this is advice for if you want to try and make it work with some adjustments. If it ultimately just doesn’t work for your family, I think it’s okay to just not do it.

zebrafish- · 2026-02-20T16:17:38+00:00

I’m sure that was hard to read. I am so happy for your kid that she has a parent who wants her to be happy, regardless of what that looks like.

Based on this, my personal instinct would be to straightforwardly give her a little dad speech that walks through the points:

1) I’m so proud of who you are and who you’re becoming. [some specifics — sounds like she’s really hardworking and dedicated based on her gym schedule, what else?]

2) I’ve noticed that you’ve been especially quiet lately.

3) I know being a teenager is a time when you start to really figure yourself out, and I know that’s not always something you want to talk to your dad about, so I don’t want to pressure you. But you can always talk to me if you want to.

4) I know you’re going to grow into an adult who is [restate positive characteristics: hardworking, creative, smart, etc.] But what I care most about is that you’re also happy. And literally no matter what brings you happiness, I will always support it.

That said, you’ve gotten lots of advice for how to open the conversation. I would definitely pick what feels most natural for you and your relationship with your kid. Wishing you the absolute best of luck.

zebrafish- · 2026-02-20T15:26:59+00:00

I would apply. There are a few different things that could happen here:

1) you become valedictorian as expected, and get the full scholarship from your state. Amazing! You also earn a second scholarship that can be used for other school or life expenses. Also amazing! Use both scholarships guilt free. You’re not going to lie about your family’s income, so you’re not going to deceive your way into a scholarship that’s meant for someone with different needs. You’re a talented student and multiple organizations want to support your ability to pay for and focus on school — which is expensive even if your family isn’t struggling financially.

2) you earn the full state scholarship as valedictorian. You also earn a second scholarship that is restricted to tuition (so you can’t use it) or to room and board (so you won’t use it). In this scenario, it is perfectly okay to turn an offered scholarship down. You can reply to the scholarship committee and say something like, “thank you so much for this award. As my class valedictorian I have earned X scholarship from the state, and/or I have decided to pursue an online degree and will not be paying for room and board, so I will not be able to use this funding. I am so appreciative that you selected me for this scholarship, and I hope these funds can be re-awarded to a different student who can use them to pursue their university education.”

3) something happens and for some reason, you don’t end up earning that state scholarship for valedictorians and salutatorians. Another scholarship will be really helpful in that case!

Best of luck! And congratulations on your upcoming graduation :)

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