View Message

In my school growing up, we had twins a year younger than myself named Ylva and Edda. I honestly adore that twinset, I like the simplicity to both of the names, and I think they fit well together without really being similar at all.

---

To be honest, I prefer Ylva over Alva, I think it is about having two different vocals in the name, it just sounds more delicate to me. But I do think Alva is also very pretty, and I like how "alv" means "elf" in Norwegian, it just makes it a bit more magical to me. And the word in the name doesn't make it weird either, because having "alv" in names has always been common, as we also have old names like Alvar (m), Alvilde (f), and even just Alv (m), where in the last one the variant Alf is probably much more common now.

---

Ylvie sounds very sweet, but is better for a nickname in my opinion.

I dunno about Ylva. I don't think I can say the initial vowel right ... I read that it's not a phoneme in English. I'd say il-va or eel-va, but I think it might actually be closer to ul-va or ool-va, which is too close to anatomical terms for my comfort. It's a neat name in theory though, cool meaning and neat letters. Ylvie reminds me of Sylvie with the S lopped off but it's not bad.

---

I kind of agree with Mar that Alva has an almost masculine vibe. Not too masculine, just very spare and "strong" sounding.

---

Both are good ... I'd choose Alva because of my pronunciation limitations, but if I were not so limited I'd rather be Ylva.

---

I also like Elva, more than either.

This message was edited 9/6/2018, 10:04 AM

I dislike both, and both of them are common in Sweden but for different generations. Ylva is more common for adult women 35 years or older, while Alva is super common for children.

Ylva is pretty common here in Sweden, but not very popular at the moment. I've never heard Ylvie, at least it's not used here. But I like Alva more; I think it's a bit sweeter.

I would choose Ylva. Alva has a more masculine vibe to me. I liek both these names, but not as much as Elva. Of course, my daughter is Elva :)

---

Ylvie seems a more immature name to me. More of a nickname. I don't really like the look either.