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I love Penelope as well. I think it's pretty and sounds really nice.

I was in New York in June and I met a Penelope at a bar. She was British and fabulous, and since that brief encounter, I too have been on a Penelope kick.

I love this name and I agree that it is beautiful. Penelope is one of my favorite characters from Greek mythology. Unfortunately, I could never use it because of a bad association with a person who has this name.

It's lovely on paper, but I think hearing/saying it every day it would start to sound doofy because it's so rhythmic. Also it has a sort of ... passive quality, in my mind. A name for a hapless moonfaced character. My mother said she was almost named Penelope, and felt she dodged a bullet.

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I like Penny though.

This message was edited 8/14/2016, 9:31 PM

I love Penelope. It's very musical to me. I had never thought about the "pee" thing others have brought up. It just doesn't stand out to me, so I'm not bothered by it. I like the sound and I like the Classical reference. I regret that it's now quite popular.

Penelope is one of those names I just can't get into. It feels way too sweet and saccharine, almost sickly, like a stuck up princess. And the sound isn't appealing at all to me, I don't know why, since I like Calliope, but I can't make myself like it. I know a lot of others adore it too, but it's one of the few names I can't stand right now, sorry.

I like it, sounds nice and I like Penelope in the Odyssey.

I really only like the tiny "nel" part of the name, and if I wanted a Nell, I'd opt for Elinor/Eleanor or Helen.

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It's firmly in my "nice enough for other people, but not for me" category.

I'm with you on this one: it is very lovely with a longer history than most names and yet it was used in English as far back as, I think, the 16th century and has never been either too popular or ignored. Given enough daughters, which one never is, I'd certainly use it. I suggested it when our second daughter was born, as she looked very like her father's cousin Penelope (known as Penny), with long red hair; but I was outvoted. The possibility of Nell as an alternative nn is also attractive.

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My only reservation is strictly personal: I knew a girl at uni whose name was Yvonne but, because she squeaked a lot as a baby, she became known as Penny Squeaker (it's OK, I don't fully understand it either!) and was always and only known as Penny from then on. Her other nn at uni was Lopes, as in Penny lopes ...

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I'm amazed that people still stress about the rather ordinary syllable 'pee'! Surely that wouldn't be an issue after the age of about 8, if it ever was? Not one single Penelope that I've known, and I've known plenty, ever encountered it as a problem; but they were all known as Penny and not by the full form. Perhaps that matters?

I want to love Penelope but I can't. I enjoy the way it looks but I hate the "nelop" part of the name and how it sounds.

I love it, but I hate the fact that it's gotten trendy.

Is this not the most beautiful of names?

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No, it isn't, and that's because of the "pee" sound at the end. It's a sound I don't like. Is this because "pee" is a colloquial synonym for "urinate"? Yes, yes it is. A lot of people here speak of sounds and syllables that they don't like and the fact that "pee" is a synonym for "urinate" (and a particularly childish one at that) is as good a reason as any to dislike a syllable.

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I do, however, like the nickname Penny.

No, it's one of the most ridiculous, Muppet-like names around.

I don't like Penelope. My inner child wants to taunt it with "pee pee, Penelope!" Its a geeky name for a girl, much like Preston, Spencer, and Howard on boys. I think it really only became popular after one of the Kardashians started using it, otherwise I can't imagine it becoming popular on its own except among the hipster set.