Your child's heritage is an essential part of who she is, and you may want her name to reflect that.  你的孩子的传统(种族和文化传承)是她必不可少的一部分，你可能希望她的名字能够反映这一点。这是为什么我想找一个容易读的中文名字。

但是乐爸说了，我们在国外讨生活，还是入乡随俗，起一个易懂，简洁的英文名字吧，标新立异也许对将来的社会交往带来不便。我想也行，我们普通老百姓，在哪里生活就说哪里的话吧。先准备一个，有备无患。

英文名字不好起，主要是对英文名字没有什么感觉。英文名字固定就那么多，流行的名字恨不得有成千上万的孩子叫那个名字。生僻的名字我们又拿不准。

以下是乐爸和我昨天选出来的，我又整理了注释和过去几年流行程度。

Ivy

- 根据《The Baby Name Bible》，Nature name. Quirky, offbeat, energetic centrury-old name enjoying the beginnings of a deserved revival.

- from parents.com:  A nature name for the evergreen climbing plant with small yellow flowers ultimately derived from the Old English "ifig." Used as a girl's given name since the 1800s and peaked prior to the turn of the 20th century.
- from babycenter.com: Ivy is a genus of 15 species of climbing or ground-creeping evergreen woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to the Atlantic Islands, western, central and southern Europe, northwestern Africa and across central-southern Asia east to Japan.

- 是Ivy League (常青藤学校) 中的常青藤。流行度还可以。我们即不想找太流行的，也不想找生僻的。一些妈妈可能因为"poison ivy"这个典故(电影角色)而放弃这个名字。

- 使用频率排名(美国) - 来自babycenter.com

Claire/Clare

- 根据《The Baby Name Bible》，Clare - Latin,“bright and beautiful”. Claire is the French variation of Clare. Luminous, simple and strong.  Claire is one of those special names that is familiar yet distinctive, feminine, but not frilly, combining historical depth with a modern edge.  Although it's enjoying revived popularity, it will never be seem as trendy. 

- from babycenter.com: Origin: Latin, Meaning: bright, clear

- 听起来很可爱的女生名字。含义也好。流行度可以接受。

- 使用频率排名(美国) - 来自babycenter.com 

Sophia/Sophie

- 根据《The Baby Name Bible》，Sophia - Greek "widsom."  Ancient name with a sensuous sound and high-minded meaning, heading toward the top of the charts without losing much of its sophisticated beauty.  Sophie is the French variation of Sophia.

- 乐爸对这个名字情有独钟，因为含义好，是智慧的意思。我的顾虑是这个名字太popular流行了。

- 使用频率排名(美国) - 来自babycenter.com 

Lila

- 根据《The Baby Name Bible》，Arabic, night; Hindi, "the free, playful will of God", Persian, "lilac".  Names with double sound - Lila, Lola, and Lily - have recently caught on, particularly among the celebrity set.

- from babycenter.com: Arabic, night.

- 起源是阿拉伯语! 意思是黑夜，也不太理想。

- 使用频率排名(美国) - 来自babycenter.com 

Lily

- 根据《The Baby Name Bible》，Flower name.  One of the delicate century-old flower names making a return, Lily has many irresistible attributes: a cool elegance and a lovely sound, a symbol of purity and innocence, and a role in Christian imagery.

- 使用频率排名(美国) - 来自babycenter.com 

Serena/Serene

- 根据《The Baby Name Bible》，Latin, "tranquil, serene".  Its as calm and tranquil as its name implies.

- 使用频率排名(美国) - 来自babycenter.com 

Ivory

- 根据《The Baby Name Bible》，Word name. Ivory was last popular a hundred years ago - oddly, more for boys than girls.  No serious comeback in sight for either sex.

- 已经认识根据上面的解释，还是算了吧。

Willa

- 根据《The Baby Name Bible》，Feminine variation of William.  Increasingly fashionable, with its combination of Willa Cather-like pioneer strength and the graceful beauty of the willow tree.

- 使用频率排名(美国) - 来自babycenter.com 

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大宝Ella这个名字是我们翻名字字典和英文名字书找到的，当时还找了一堆其它的名字。后来在Andrew家的baby shower聚会上，女生们一致投票认为Ella是待选十几个名字里最适合的一个。

Ella的含义是:

- 根据《The Baby Name Bible》，German,“all, completely”; English,“fairy maiden” - one of the fastest rising names among the glitterari.

- 根据网络资源，Ella有不同的含义，取决于起源地:

- English: a variation of Eleanor and Ellen meaning "beautiful fairy"

- French: "Medieval given all"

- Greek: "light", "torch", or "bright light"

- Old English: "elfin", "a fairy maiden"

- Old German: "other foreign"

- Spanish: "she"

ORIGIN & HISTORY:

Ella originated as a short form of any of various names containing the Germanic element "ali", which means "foreign" or "other"

POPULARITY:

The Social Security Administration only has records of names dating back as far as 1880, where the name Ella was at its recorded high at number 13. It also remained at number thirteen the following year. It gradually decreased in popularity, being knocked out of the top 100 for the first time in recorded history of popular names in 1928 at number 101. The decline of the name continued and finally went out of the top 1,000 girls' names in 1984, where it stayed out for three years, came back in for one year in 1988 at number 945 and went back out only for one more year. Since then, the name has regained it's popularity and was ranked number 21 in 2006.

- 使用频率排名(美国) - 来自babycenter.com