The name "carolyn"

[SilasLove]

My grandmother passed away just over a year ago, and if we have another girl I would like to use something that would represent her name "Carolyn". My 4 year old daughters name is Madelyn, so I would like a bit of a different variation but Carol just seems to outdated for me. Her middle name was Louise but my husband really doesnt like it at all.

Any ideas??

 

[wannabemomy37]

Names with same letters as Carolyn Louise...

Carly
Carsen
Louisa
Louann
Lois
Carly-Lou
Rowan
Rolinda
Lyndsay

 

[BethMaassen]

Carol Varients:

Caroline
Carrie
Calleigh
Callie
Carla
Charlie
Charlot
Carolina
Lina

Out of those I personally like Calleigh, Lina, and Carolina

 

[Delphine11]

Carola
Carina
Carella

I like Carina best of those, and also like Callie and Carolina.

 

[MnGmakes3]

Personally I love it, this was our top choice for baby.... Then I ended up working with a Caroline and she completely turned me off the name

There's always Coraline if you're into a "newer" name.

 

[BabyJayne]

Carrie
Callie (I love this!)

Or you could go with a variant of Louise?

Eloise
Lois

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I like Cora and Callie.

 

[love.peace]

Not so keen on Carolyn. For me it sounds rather old fashioned. Carly and Carry are cute though.

 

[SilasLove]

We finally agreed on Cara, but I want it pronounced care-uh not car-uh. Now we are butting heads on spelling. He says something like Caira or Carra but it would still be mispronounced and she would have to spell it all the time.

Any spelling ideas?

 

[wannabemomy37]

Hmm that's tough to spell the way it sounds.

Cara is nice and simple but you'd have to just let people know how to pronounce it.

Carra definitely would be car.a to me

Caira looks odd to me but would def be care.a but might get overlooked as Ciara c.air.a

 

[SilasLove]

Okay, we decided on Carea. It looks weird to me, but DH will not agree to traditional spelling. Frustrating.

But I can live with Carea and when I looked up pronunciation it went with care-uh but is a really uncommon spelling. And I think is actually a surname really.

 

[staralfur]

I have to say, if you're trying to avoid pronounciation issues I think spelling it Carea is counterproductive. I started on the second page not knowing what name you were going for and I had no idea how to pronounce it - first reactions are Car-ee-uh, Care-ee-uh, Car-ay-uh for me. I definitely think you'd have much less confusion with the traditional Cara.

 

[SilasLove]

Me too, but I have no energy to argue with my husband anymore. Its so frustrating, and he doesn't get it at all I think.

 

[amzliane]

My daughter is Carragh but she is a car-uh nor a care-uh xx

 

[Starlight32]

I think "Cara" would be easier to pronounce than "Carea" because the latter looks like care-ee-uh.

If he wants a different spelling, what about Carah?

 

[Jbree]

I have a friend called Carlynn x

 

[LoraLoo]

Cehra? Or Carah ( like Sarah?) I'm struggling for alternative spellings.

Personally I love Cara (car-a) Carrie and Callie.

 

[NennaKay]

I went to school with a Kara.

 

[CandiceSj]

Carolyn would've been good just by itself but it sounds very matchy with your daughter... One of my favourite names is Carys. I find it has enough closeness to Carolyn to still be named after her, and it has the y in it in a totally different way than Madelyn to be a really cute sibset.

 

[ZooMa]

Carea is definitely cah-ree-ah. Cara is either care-ah or car-ah, she just has to keep reminding people (but here on the east coast of the US I hear care-ah a lot more and would default to that). Carah is an interesting compromise, but she might get confused with Sarah. Would Carrah like Farrah Fawcett work? Although I'm not convinced that wouldn't get car-ra as well.

Cara is definitely the best choice. Beautiful name, traditional spelling, probably >90% of people would pronounce it care-ah at first glance (think: Sara is pronounced Sare-ah, never sarr-a). I hope your husband listens to the internet on this one.

How about you write it down and ask strangers or acquaintances how they would pronounce it?