Wdyt of Cecily, Irena, Laurel.... Too "old lady" or pleasantly surprising?

[carolinedanielle]

Wondering what kinds of reactions I can expect if I told someone our baby was named one of these names - Cecily, Laurel, Irena or Eliza? Do they fit into the familiar but unexpected catagory, or are they just dated, old lady name? We probably won't share our baby name until he or she is here, so it's nice to be able to bounce some ideas off of those here at nameberry! All thoughts on these would be apprecited!

[alzora]

I think Cecily and Eliza could fit right in with today's little generation. (I recommend Eliza Jane as a double-barrel first...I adore it!) I would LOVE to see an Irena, but she may not fit in as well with the other children. She and her friends may consider it an old, dusty name, but name nerds such as myself would likely be thrilled to see it. Laurel, to me, sounds more like it is from the '70s or '80s. I generally like names from those decades, but I have never cared for Laurel/Lauren/Laura, as people tend to pronounce the first syllable like "LORE" and I feel like it's supposed to be "LAWR"...?

[garnet]

I think all of your names are wonderful and would fit right in today's world - they're very nimble sounding, yet they're also "grounded." If that makes any sense? I'd particularly love to see a little Irene/Irina - what a sweet name!

[baileystar]

I love love love these! Laurel is on my list, and Cecily and Eliza are both other favorites of mine. I do, however, like the spelling Irina over Irena, because I think it modernizes the name a bit. Overall, I think these names are stunning.

[allthatglitters]

I love all of those. I agree that they're unexpected in a nice way, especially Cecily!

[rollo]

Cecily. Laurel and Eliza are well loved nameberry names. I am especially pleased to see that Laurel is coming back I think it is such a sweet name. I like the quirkiness of Cecily and it seems like a name for a very busy little lady and Eliza is kind of dominating in a nice way, a leader I think I would name her Eliza Charlotte.

rollo

[teacherma]

Irena is one of favorite names ever (with the Polish spelling that you have here), and I've developed a love for Cecily as a result of loving Cecilia.
Eliza and Laurel are very sweet names too.

All are totally usable!

[c@29]

I know too many Irene but I love Irena! That's my favourite variation.
Cecily and Lauren are also so pretty and no, I don't think they're old lady names.
I kinda like Eliza, but not so much. I prefer the classic Elizabeth.

[jamesina66]

All name very nice. Laurel is more 70's to my ear as mentioned in a previous post. Irena probably the farthest afield, probably my favorite. Eliza and Cecily both have a Brit vibe for me, I like that! Good to hear you aren't sharing name until birth. What if they don't look like the name you have picked?!

[carolinedanielle]

You all are so helpful! It's nice to have people to bounce my ideas off of. My husband really likes Laurel, and i do too, but he tends to pronounce it more like lore-ull and I usully say Lar-ull. I like the sound of both pronunciations, but I feel like it would annoy me to have everyone pronouncing the name differently. And then there's the whole issue of the similarity between Laurel/Laura/Lauren, it would probably always be misheard.
I really love the name Cecily, but the meaning does kind of bother me some. Unless I could use a middle name that made the meaning a little better. Another thing, would this name work on a girl that ends up being kind of tomboyish? Seems like such a girly girl name.
Any thoughts on the best spelling of Irena? What about Irina? My husband actually prefers just Irene, but to me Irena/Irina sounds a little fresher and we could always use the nn Irene. Any thoughts?
Thanks again for helping me sort through all this!