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Help[Opinions] Re: Sylvia or Delaney
in reply to a message by Christine
short answer: Sylvia.
tl;dr - That's a strange choice. This reminds me a little of when we had three names picked out for our daughter. One more fashionable style, the others more classic. We used the fashionable one, because I felt like the classic ones were overdressed for our family's style. No regrets - she loves her name and so do we - but neither would I have regretted using a classic name, and I have a suspicion now, nine years later, I might have been even more pleased with myself if I had.
Classic names have a value that trendy names don't have, and it only increases as names diversify and the chances of running into other people with the same name decrease (a significantly smaller percentage of kids get named a top ten name, than 25 years ago, for example).
I think if I were going to be the child born in 2015 and growing up as either Sylvia or Delaney, I'd much, much rather be Sylvia. (Would you? Asking yourself this might help you decide) Especially if I could call myself Sylvie, which sounds younger and more fashionable than Sylvia. I'd rather be a Sylvia at any age except maybe while I was under 17. They'll still be naming babies Sylvia (sure maybe not many, but some) in a hundred years when she's a grandma ... not sure I can say the same about Delaney. (But, those first 17 years seem as long as the next 70, so that's a point. lol)
Delaney has a very appealing sound. But it seems very similar to Mackenzie and Madison - a surname-name fad already on its way out of fashion, and liable to make a 2015-born young woman sound older than she is. (My own name was popular about 20 years before I was born, and then it crashed out of style, and this "sounds older" effect did disappoint me when I was a young woman) And anyway I feel it's too much a surname. Maybe I'd feel differently if I knew a Delaney personally for a while, though - it's not an outrageously common surname.
Anyway either name is good but Sylvia's my preference.
- mirfak
tl;dr - That's a strange choice. This reminds me a little of when we had three names picked out for our daughter. One more fashionable style, the others more classic. We used the fashionable one, because I felt like the classic ones were overdressed for our family's style. No regrets - she loves her name and so do we - but neither would I have regretted using a classic name, and I have a suspicion now, nine years later, I might have been even more pleased with myself if I had.
Classic names have a value that trendy names don't have, and it only increases as names diversify and the chances of running into other people with the same name decrease (a significantly smaller percentage of kids get named a top ten name, than 25 years ago, for example).
I think if I were going to be the child born in 2015 and growing up as either Sylvia or Delaney, I'd much, much rather be Sylvia. (Would you? Asking yourself this might help you decide) Especially if I could call myself Sylvie, which sounds younger and more fashionable than Sylvia. I'd rather be a Sylvia at any age except maybe while I was under 17. They'll still be naming babies Sylvia (sure maybe not many, but some) in a hundred years when she's a grandma ... not sure I can say the same about Delaney. (But, those first 17 years seem as long as the next 70, so that's a point. lol)
Delaney has a very appealing sound. But it seems very similar to Mackenzie and Madison - a surname-name fad already on its way out of fashion, and liable to make a 2015-born young woman sound older than she is. (My own name was popular about 20 years before I was born, and then it crashed out of style, and this "sounds older" effect did disappoint me when I was a young woman) And anyway I feel it's too much a surname. Maybe I'd feel differently if I knew a Delaney personally for a while, though - it's not an outrageously common surname.
Anyway either name is good but Sylvia's my preference.
- mirfak
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