Cold feet on Fionnuala

[Teapig]

DH and I thought we had our name pretty much agreed, we were choosing between these three options:
Fionnuala Olive Bo
Fionnnuala Ottitilie Bo
Fionnuala Romilly Bo
But then I got cold feet on Fionnuala. I like it but don't the shortened versions of Fionnuala much, Nula and Finn are a bit too masculine for me. We thought we'd use the nickname Lula but now I'm not so sure.

Other names I like are:
Sophie (but DH hates it)
Tabitha (likely go be shortened to Tabby and my niece is Abbey)
Ottilie (likely to be shortened to Tilly and other niece is Lilly)
Isabel (but close friend has pipped me to the post)

Any thoughts on Fionnuala or any of the above would be great!

[Teapig]

Just realised some terrible spellings in my first post, flaming phone. Fionnnula Ottitilie was meant to be Fionnula Ottilie. DH and I just had a good laugh about naming her Ottitilie, which would by Titty for short lovely!

[TeaBrick]

Is it Fionnuala or Fionnula?

[onedev]

I love Fionnuala - my favourite girls name ever. If we'd had a girl (we have 3 boys), then that would have been top of my list with Nuala as her nickname.

I think it's a beautiful name

[orangepudding]

I think it's awful, don't like Bo.

Like your other choices, especially Tabitha. Don't worry about nick names you don't need to use one.

[scrumpkin]

Not sure about fionnula but olive and ottilie ate my all time favourite names.

[scrumpkin]

*are

[Graceparkhill]

In my experience you won't have much influence over nicknames. DS1 has name given to him by DS2 when he learned to speak- still in use 12 years on and DS2 has nicknames given to him by friends of his big brother over the years.
Only people who use DS2's proper name are teachers.
Go with what you like and follow your instincts ( in all baby things,not just names)

[sarahseashell]

I'd go for tabitha and ottilie and not worry about nicknames

[BoyMeetsWorld]

I disagree that you have no influence on nicknames- of course a child may acquire others as they go, but if you always call your child by a nn from the offset & it's what they think of themselves as / answer to others are likely to use it. Schools also ask you to state what name your child goes by now.

I think Lula is a lovely shortening & shed have the chance to go by Nuala instead if she felt it too babyish as she got older. Particularly like it with Olive, not keen on the other 2 middle names with it (like them as names in own right but bit pretentious & waffly with Fionnuala)

[ManicMuppetMania]

I don't like Fionnuala at all but then I'm from Ireland and its in the same category as Gertrude here!

[OutragedFromLeeds]

I think Fionnuala is awful, sorry. I like Sophie and Isobel. Not really keen on your other choices either.

[BehindLockNumberNine]

Ottillie is my altime favourite out of your lists.
Really really dislike Fionnuala. (sorry)

Go for Ottillie (my nn for that would be Ottie but am Dutch and lived in Germany for a long time so that may influence that one...)

[Teapig]

Thanks ladies! Really helpful to have everyone's thoughts. Interesting to hear that Fionnuala is in the same category as Gertrude in Ireland, we're in England and I don't think it has that sort of association here though is a bit unusual.

Reading the comments has made me think that two of our middle name choices were a bit waffly.

We're now considering:
Fionnuala Olive (Bo), I'm having cold feet on the 'Bo' so may drop that
Ottiliie Niamh
Isobel Ottilie

[BoyMeetsWorld]

Still like Fionnuala Olive best (Lula).

Also think Isobel Naeve would be nice, not so keen on alternatives as they stand (sowwy!!)

[BoyMeetsWorld]

Isobel Niamh even (sp)

[Teapig]

Thanks boymeetsworld. I think Fionnuala Olive is my favourite I'm just having a bit of a wobble for some reason.

[Ruprekt]

Ottilie Bo would be my choice.

Ottilie is beautiful and could be Ottie for short.

You can insist on no shortenings though.

Not keen on Fionnuala.

[BoyMeetsWorld]

Ooooh Ottilie Bo is lovely :)

But still like Fionnuala Olive (no I don't have a child with this name haha just think the 2 names are lovely together)

[SminkoPinko]

I think Gertrude is nicer than Fionnuala and Bo! And Gertrude is awful... But I think we probably don't share name tastes as I only really like Sophie and Isabel from your list, so ignore me except as an indicator of what a random stranger on the internet thinks, if that is in any way important to you!

[SleighbellsRingInYourLife]

I prefer Finola to Fionnuala.

[AppleOgies]

I'm chuckling at Ottitilie!

To be honest I don't like any of the names. But if you and your DH do then go for it. I expect you DD will end up being Fen at school.

[Greythorne]

Sorry to have to ask, but is Fionnuala pronounced Fin-oola?