If you are of Mexican heritage, my suggestion will probably not be a good one - Deirdre (a very Irish name). If I had my druthers, my own DD would be Deirdre or Noelle, one of which is a family name partially spelled backward in honor of one of her great grands. She ended up with the combo of maternal and paternal grandmothers' first names combined, which DD hates. She wants me to rewind and name her Deirdre. DH didn't like that name when I was pregnant, so we went to L&D still without her name. Did come up with a first and middle prior to her birth, lol. Not at all original, as she is named for her maternal & paternal great-grandmothers' first names.

I like the biblical names, but that's me. Katrina is very pretty, but for us, using the name of something so tragic, to be used as a child's primary name would go against our beliefs in life. It's a very pretty name in it's own right. However, the events of Hurricane Katrina will not likely ever be forgotten, (at least I hope not in my lifetime). In the event that isn't a problem for you with regard to your own beliefs, then Katrina she should be!

If it were me, I'd pick Noelle since she is due to be born on X-mas, a holiday we celebrate.

Congrats to you and your entire family. Please post your final decision. Wow, 5 girls! I have a DC who has 8 girls, and finally the last baby was a boy. Praise the Lord and whatever practice they followed to "get the boy" or they would have a dozen kids by now! DC was an only child, and his wife from a family of 9 sibs.

We just found out we are on boy #4 for DH and boy #2 for me! I had convinced myself we were having a girl so now I have to work on boy names. :)

We were planning on Cara Lynn (my mother's name was Carolyn) DH felt that Carolyn was "old fashioned" so that was our compromise if it were a girl.

I had a friend a while back whose name was spelled Catriona -she was from Scotland, don't know if that was the reason for the different spelling. But she pronounced it just like Katrina. If you like the spelling, it might give you just a bit of space from association with the hurricane.

During the 1980's, I worked in a medical records dept at a hospital. We were the dept that took care of getting the birth certificates completed and submitted to the State. This was back in the day when new mothers actually stayed in the hospital a few days after birth and weren't escorted to the curb with their hours old baby as they do now.

Anyhoo, I would have to go up to their rooms everyday and ask "have you completed the birth cert yet?" and would get annoyed when it took some of them forever to do it. I thought - you're been carrying the baby for 9 months, haven't you given this any thought???? A few were discharged without naming the baby so the cert was filed as Baby Girl or Baby Boy whatever and they had to fix it with the State.

So even though I don't have any name suggestions for you, I will speak for many birth cert clerks when I say thanks for giving this some thought before you deliver. Good luck, it is a difficult decision. I saw plenty of crazy names and wondered how those kids were going to make out in life saddled with such odd names. Pop. Rainbow. They named one boy with so many first names it didn't fit on the line.

Our Christmas baby's middle name is Noelle. It would have been the first name except it was a tongue twister with our last name as well. The other name we considered up until the last minute was Natalie, since that name has a Christmas meaning too. If you like names that end in "a" then Natalya would be a beautiful name, IMHO.

As a Christmas baby myself (12-23) may I say that I would have HATED having a name having anything to do with Christmas. It is irrelevant! Would you name a kid born on Easter, Lily. Or on Feb 14, Valentina? What about Laboria if she was born on Labor Day?

My mom was born on 12-20, my youngest dtr on 12-29, and my gdter on 12-26. None of us has a xmas name. You are naming a child who will have to live with that name as a professional woman. I urge you not to do it.

Shermann, you always say all the right things. What was your point in contributing that? You easily could have stopped after your first sentence.

Myfoursquare, Noelle is a beautiful middle name. I used it too for my Christmas baby. Sadly there are people with strong opinions different than ours, there is no need to make such harsh comments, especially when it is in regards to what someone has ALREADY named their child.

Anele, I wish you well on finding the perfect name for your soon to be 5th baby girl. With all the beautiful names you have already chosen, and so many beautiful suggestions here, I am sure you will find the perfect name for her.

Have you thought of "Mary" names?-- Marie, Maria, Marin (as golddust mentioned) Maris, Mariska (like the actress!)?

I knew someone named Merry once, but maybe that would be a bit much.

What about a version of your own first name, anele. Is Anele your first name? It is my friend's name, spelled Annelle, and I think it is lovely. Her mother's name is Ann. Analiese? Annalee? Maybe I'm on the wrong track, if Anele isn't your own name.

I agree with getting to know the baby a bit when choosing a name. Names are very important. You can always file the name yourself after you go home if you haven't chosen one by the time you go home. Nuisance, a bit, but important not to rush into things if you're not satisfied.

Five girls! How delightful for you. I have four brothers, would have loved having just one sister, and am delighted that my three dtrs and three sons are such good friends with each other.

It's a hectic time to have a baby, but you get onto it after a while. In our family it's a giant nine day party these days, every birthday, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day all celebrated separately! Wonderful fun! I rest for days when it's all done for.

My foursquare and polly, like happens many times here I had not read all the posts in the thread, did not realize you had named your dtrs Noelle. I'm sorry. I hope your dtrs grow up liking their names.

I knew someone named Merry Christine once. That was definitely too much.

How about Christina/Christine Angela/Angelina translated(by me)meaning Christmas Angel. ;o)

I'm a December birthday person too, 12/18 and I have to say I can totally relate to what Sherrmann was trying convey. The idea of naming a Christmas baby with a Christmas name sounds nice but truth be told, most people with birthdays so close to a major holiday don't want their birthday (or name) associated with the holiday. While I'm grateful I don't have a Christmas related name, my birthday has always been combined with Christmas in some way and truth be told, I hate it.

That said, I still think Noelle is a beautiful name.

I like Katrina, but I understand the dilemma of having it sound a lot like Calista. But if you love it, go for it.

For both of my boys we had a list of names in the delivery room (we did not know we were having boys), but they both were named something that did not exist on the list. Sometimes you have to hold the baby then the name will come to you.

I always liked my name, because it was unique in that there weren't 3 girls with the same name in my class, but it wasn't so unusual that people did a double-take: Angela. There were 3 Michelle's, 3 Jennifer's and 2 Carrie's in my class through elementary school.

I accept your apology Shermann.

I always loved the name Noelle, regardless of her birthday.

PS- My daughter thinks she is the luckiest girl in the world b/c her birthday is the day after Christmas. My older DD's birthday is in November, so when we celebrate with the family it is always for BOTH girls. I will NEVER lump her birthday in with Christmas. DD1 always gets a special celebration with her friends separate from her sister so she doesn't mind "sharing" the celebration with the family party.

Back to DD2, on her actual birthday- we do something very special as a family. Last year, she wished for snow, and we received 2 1/2 feet of snow stranding our family here for a surprise sleepover. Not sure what we will do this year, but I certainly cannot plan for snow. And at last I pick a day in January that she celebrates with her friends.

So with all that said, she feels like she has the best birthday ever!! And with all the celebrating we do, I couldn't agree more.

Anele, are you still considering Katrina, or have any of the names mentioned here struck a cord with you? I recommended Paulina with your last baby, love the name, not sure if you liked it or not.

Also I am not sure of your heritage, but in DH's family which is Italian there is a Filomena, Domenica, Elena, Antonia, and Lucia. Just a few that were not on the top 10 baby name list. My other daughter is Nina, and you rarely hear that.

I worked with a girl named Oana, (pronounced Wahna) she was from South America, she was a beautiful girl with a sweet disposition and whenever I think of the name I think of what a beautiful soul she is.

I know a Katrina. She is beautiful, creative, and highly intelligent. I thought of her, not the hurricane, when I saw the name.

My son and daughter-in-law had a struggle coming up with a girl's name this year. (Fortunately, they had a boy.) The one name they agreed on, sort of, was Eva (pronounced Ava).

A friend's granddaughter is named Ksenija, pronounced Saynia (two syllables, emphasis on the first). She'll have to spell it her entire life, but I hate to tell you how often I have to spell Susan.

My second daughter was born the day after Christmas. We named her Gillian.

Congratulations!! Five daughters sounds wonderful.

Polly, that is really great to hear and I know from personal experience she will appreciate that effort when she's older. I've noticed parents these days are much more sensitive about those things and I'm glad for that.

On the flip side, my daughter was born the day before Halloween and because of my experiences, I've always separated the two. Halloween parties from Birthday and so on. Then when she was turning 13 she asked why I wouldn't ever let her have a Halloween themed party for her birthday...LOL Go figure!! Of course that year we did!

I also love names like Aida, Emilia and Eloise. Another favorite is Colleen.

I'm a teacher and this year I have a CeCe (pronounced SeeSee) in my class. Her mom's story is that when she was coming around from the drugs someone asked her what the name was she slurred the name (I think it was Sarah) and whoever it was thought she said CeCe and recorded it on the chart. When she really woke up, everyone was calling the baby CeCe and she said it just seemed right so they kept it. Maybe it is because this kid is really sweet, but I just love the name.

I also like Macy and Kaycee so maybe I'm just a 'see' name kind of person.

Katrina is lovely.... and like some others have said previously, the event, in time, will fade.

Along those lines, what about Cadence or Kadence??

11 years ago when we had our twins, we named them Olivia and Isabella- people were shocked at the "different" names we chose. Fast forward 5-10 years and they are in the top 5. Sigh. Still love the names =) Our 2 boys have fairly common names, which I don't mind either!

dixiedo, you just reminded me of a name I considered also, Dixie, which was my grandmother's name.

Sherrmann, you have not offended me at all. It is very relevant to us, and she absolutely loves having it for a middle name. I chimed in because Anele mentioned they were already considering that name, and I wanted to mention we used it for the middle name since it also didn't flow well with our last name. People with December birthdays often have very strong feelings one way or the other, and I can respect that. I don't love my own name and I wasn't named after anything, so that can be the case with any name that is chosen. Please do not think that you have hurt my feelings! We all like different names, thank goodness, or this would be a pretty bland world!

Christmas or not, I love the name Holly. No time to read all replies...sorry if I'm repeating. Another apology if I'm stepping on toes, but suggest you not name all children with same beginning letter of alphabet. Had a discussion re. this recently with a group who all agreed it gets confusing remembering which name is which child.
Have a beautiful December baby girl!

Christmas or not, I love the name Holly.

I also like the name Holly, in fact if my first child had been a girl she would have been named Holly Marie. But I don't know if I would name a December baby Holly.

Some of my "unused" girl names are Louise, Remy, Natalie and Tessa.

I knew a family where the father was Don, the son was Don, and the daughter was Dawn. I can't say those names and make them sound different from each other. Unless you're George Forman, why would you name two kids the same name?

(Hey dixiedo, I was just thinking about you and wondering if you had been around lately.)

Te he. I know a Joe and JoAnne who named their kids Joe and JoAnne, and a Bertha and Harry who named their kids Bertha and Harry, but call the kids Cookie and Chip!

My high school Drama teacher, Mr. Hawk, named his children Kitty and Tommy.

I don' t know what gets into people when it comes to naming their children. My husband worked with a man named Mike Hunt. (You might have to say it a few times to hear the problem.) No man on earth could hear that name even once and not snicker. Mike says his parents had to do it on purpose, or they would have named him Michael. He calls himself Michael.

If anyone is interested in the Mexican cultural association of death with La Calavera Catrina, read on ...

Here is a link that might be useful: Info

Hi hhireno!!!! Only get to stop in every now and again =) Good to "see" you!!

another girl's name that i think is beautiful is Gabriella and it can be considered to have a christmas connection i suppose...

Isabella Jane
Harper Leigh

Thank you all so much. I am very grateful to you all for your help-- insights, name suggestions, and funny stories!

I had asked DH if he would want Noelle as a name even w/o the December birthday, and he said yes. We both do like the name a lot-- very musical sounding and elegant. However, again, I think with our last name it won't work since it starts with "l."

This thread keeps giving me good things to consider re: Katrina, too. I am keeping it on the "table." :)

So many of the names you've suggested I have run by DH and he has vetoed them, but he has not come up with any new ones. It is frustrating.

Polly, Paulina is a gorgeous name and one of the first names I suggested to DH. It's sort of exotic sounding but not wholly uncommon. He told me it's because it's his brother's name (Paul). He loves his bro, but I guess it's going too far for him! Antonia was another of my suggestions early on but it got vetoed.

auntjen, thank you for the link. We are not of Mexican descent but my mom lived in Mexico for years and we were raised to be bilingual So, when I said Katrina to my mom it horrified her. The other problem is that the middle name is going to be Rosalinda or Linda (depending on the 1st name). She is a childhood friend who passed away when she was 10 and I was 12. Her mom is Mexican. I am worried about the death association with the name Rosalinda for the sake of her daughter, along with the hurricane and Mexican art. BUT, I do know a Mexican family that named their own DD Catrina, so it must not be totally off-limits?

Opinions on the name Anya? Her name would then be Anya Rosalinda or Anya Linda. DH does not love the name but, other than Katrina and Noelle, it's the only name he thinks is sort of OK (again, he does not love it.) I like that it has a good meaning as an Irish name (spelled Aine, but I don't think I could give another of my girls a hard-to-spell name, esp. as there is a common alternative).

Thanks so much again. I am still laughing and crying for poor Mike Hunt.

Aine, was one of the names I was going to suggest. Love it.

My original choice of Noella would work with your "L" last name.

And as for Paulina- our last name begins with P- and since I inherited the initials "PP" and even adults laugh at it, I couldn't do that to a child. All "P" names were not even in the discussion. But truth be told, Polly is my screen name, my real name is a variation of Paulina, and I never correct anyone when they call me that, since I always wished it really were my name. I have a friend whose name is Polina- she is russian, and it is pronounced the same, but sort of loses the association with "Paul."

Since I work in a NICU, here are a few that I have come across over the years that struck me as beautiful, and not all that common either:
Mila, Alina, Emilia, Mae, Inna, Brielle, Carys.

Let us know what you ultimately decide after DD5 arrives, and good luck in finding the perfect name.

Poor Mike Hunt.

I have a neighbour named Katrina, but she goes by Trina, unless it's a legal document.

Polly, do you think we should spell it Aine or Anya? My one DD is Niamh, which is so hard to spell, but it is very common in Ireland and is strictly an Irish name, so I could not think of another way to do it. Otherwise it would seem so made up. Anya is a "real" spelling, though I do like the look of Aine.

Do love Noella, but our last name starts with LA so still too much of a tongue twister. Wish I had my maiden name!

I tried another variation of Paulina with DH-- Paola-- and DH still had a problem with it, but I will try with Polina. That is pretty, and Lina is a nice nn.

Love the names you listed . . .can't use the M names because of one DD. Carys was on my list last time but everyone vetoed it. Will have to run the others by DH. Like I said, he keeps vetoing my suggestions but has none of his own.

I also love the name Linnea . . .he used to be OK with it (should have used it then) but vetoed it this time.

Thanks again for your help!

homemaker, that is a cute nn!

Polly, guess what? I just ran Paulina by DH again . . .it's been months since I first suggested it . . .I guess he forgot and/or he's stopped caring because he said it was OK. He likes it better than Anya, too, which means it's in the running!

Paulina Rosalinda sounds dumb, though, doesn't it? And Paulina Linda (esp. with our L last name) is too much, too, huh? I already told my friend's mom we wanted it as a middle name because I wanted her permission. Can't do Rose/Rosa because it it the mn of one of my DDs.

I have an Aimee, Derek and Max as my kids' names. Two out of three I chose but I grew to love Derek's name. It was a name I would not have chosen. Don't be afraid to think out of the box.

Anya Rosalinda is really pretty. Love that. Some other names that are pretty with Rosalinda are

Elena Rosalinda
Milena Rosalinda
Olevia Rosalinda
Sofia Rosalinda

I don't have any suggestions for you - naming is such a personal thing. As my screen name makes apparent, I have four kids - two boys and two girls. I can't imagine having to come up with FIVE girl's names. My first and last were girls and we did not have a name picked when I had my last daughter two weeks early. She wasn't named until 30 minutes after she was born. We ended up going with Patricia but we mostly call her Tricia. Have NO idea how we got to that name as it wasn't on our list and isn't a family name but both dh and I are part Irish. My oldest daughter's name is Marie. I've always loved that name - not common for a first name but so many people use it as a middle name. I think it is so classic and pretty without being common.

I have to say, I'm glad to hear that you don't use the same first letter with your girls. One of my oldest friends has five girls (after baby #3, they decided to try one last time for a boy and ended up with twin girls!). Her daughters' names are all so similar that I can never keep them straight. They are Colette, Camille, Cecile, Chloe and Claire. I like each of them on their own, but all together - ACK! Tongue twister!

I didn't think about using different letters with my kids but recently was thinking about how nice it was that their names all start with different letters. I recently started using a new online calendar and use their first initial to identify whose activity is whose (like D-soccer; M-lacrosse). In my family, my brother, sister and I were all M's though my mom didn't plan it that way and our names do not sound similar at all so it worked fine).

My sister has two December babies - Grace and Lauren. She used Grace back before it made a comeback but now I hear it a lot more.

Congratulations on your baby girl!

If you use Paulina, I would use a middle name that doesn't end with an a. Like Grace, Marie, Lynn, Rose, Cecile, Katherine, Ann, etc.

"Mike Hunt" was a joke in a movie - American Graffitti, perhaps? Does anyone recall?

I love the name Anya. So pretty! Paulina reminds me of Paulina Porizkova, and there's nothing wrong with that - she was, after all, a supermodel ... but I immediately flash on an image of her in one of the Cars videos from the 80s. The mind is a very strange thing, no? ;-)

Auntjen, the Michael Hunt I am referring to is older than "American Grafitti." He is a sports reporter at hub's paper, his byline is Michael Hunt. For some reason, I cannot post a link, but google Michael Hunt or go to jsonline.com. Parents can be very dumb some times.

My first married name was 'Cox'. We used to laugh about the names we could stick on a son. Harry, for instance.

I had that name for 14 years, Aimee had it for 24 years. I couldn't believe how many times I was asked to spell it. I'd get so tempted to give people the body part version of the spelling, just for the reaction but never could bring myself to actually do it.

When married to my first husband, my initials were PMS
:c)

How about Miriam Rosalinda. If you indeed like Irish names, there is Siobhan but that would definitely go against the no odd spelling.

My mother's last name changed to Feeler when she married for the 2nd time. A most unfortunate name to have.

I dated a guy with the last name of Doody once. I think if I had married him (and it never got that serious anyway) I would have kept my maiden name.

I checked out a book today for a little girl named Catalina, and thought, hmmm, I wonder if anele would like that...