Emilia vs. Emily--thoughts?

NicoleWI

We're team green. For girls, down to Lauren, Emily and Emilia and cannot decide! MN for all would be Jane (for DH's grandma). Last name sounds like "KAS-per-zak".

We love Emily and would be using it to honor my grandma, Millie (we're just not going with Mildred!!!). BUT, it's SO popular.

I recently found out that one of my great-grandmas on the other side of the family (whom I never met) was named Emilia. What I like about Emilia:

--honors BOTH sides of my family

--it has a more formal elegance than Emily

--MUCH less common/more unique

--lots of great NN options--Emmy, Emma, could still call her Em, Emily, Mia, Millie, Mila. I like it when you can do this with names. DD is Katherine and I like that she is Katie now, but can be Kate, Katherine, Kat, Katie, whatever.

What I don't like: don't like the sound of the pure full name as much as I like the sound of "Emily." Not sure about the "MEEL-ee-uh" part. Like "mealy?"

Thoughts? Opinions? Thanks. I don't know how we're going to decide. PLUS, we still have Lauren in the mix.

Allie30

I'm a big fan of family names, but I've never understood the trend of "I'm naming my child after a distant relative I never knew before I started combing the family tree for names." If you name your child Emilia, you are doing it for your grandma Milly or because you like the name, not for some relation whose name you didn't even know until just now.I think Emilia is a great name.

But if you don't like the name Emilia, you shouldn't use it.  Because that will be the child's name, even if you use nicknames. That will be the name she is called at all formal occasions, it may be the name she takes professionally... I was in a similar boat -- my husband's top choice had some nicknames I liked, but I couldn't wrap my brain around the whole name, so we picked something else.

If you want the option of Millie, there are some other options:

Emiliana, Emmeline, Mila, Camilla, Melanie, Melissa, Melody, Pamela...

I also like Emily, and if you like it, who cares if it's popular? Before I had my baby, I cared so much how popular a name was, and so I picked something in the 200s on the SSA list -- my baby isn't 7 weeks old and I've already met FOUR other babies named that. It's insane.

NikiBaby

Personally I prefer Emilia over Emily.  I have never seen it spelt that way though I've only seen Amelia in which case she might also get Amy as a nick-name.  I like the idea of using a family name however like the PP said it's not the same if you never met the person! 

I also like Emilia better than Lauren. 

Jinsy80

I like Emily the best (and am thinking of using the same nn...Millie/Milly). Emilia is okay. I don't like the name Lauren. 

magsugar13

Emily or Lauen

shannm

I've seen Emilia and Amelia a lot around here lately.  Actually more than Emily for new babies.  While I like the sound and nn possibilities for Emilia, it looks too much like Emilio for me to ever consider it.

LMS05

I don't like Emilia at all. Emily is lovely. Lauren is fine.

dougsbestgirl

I like Emilia a lot.  We have a niece with that name and she always gets compliments on how lovely her name it. 

ReniaB

Emilia is beautiful!   Emily is a little common

othello888

Emilia...obviously Emily is a cute name too, but super common and more of a "cutesy" name where I think Emilia is more of a beautiful name. I am actually shocked at the amount of compliments that we get on this name. Even my husbands friends love the name and I think that says a lot. We don't use any nn because we love the sound of the full name. It is a great classic name. It is in 3 of Shakespeare's plays (where I first saw it). 

azuremama

My great-grandma's name was Emilia and I'd love to use it, but it doesn't go well with our last name and DH doesn't like it.  She went by Millie. 

I know too many baby Emilys (I can think of 3 off the top of my head).  Lauren seems a bit dated to me (since I know a lot of Laurens in their late 20s, early 30s).