Jennifer writes:

I really hope you and your readers can help me and my husband choose a name for our little girl. We have narrowed down the first name to three possibilities: Annabel, Anna, or Elizabeth. I have always liked Elizabeth, Anna is a family name on my side, and Annabel I just thought of from Anna. My husband prefers Anna and Elizabeth. He worries if Annabel sounds too Southern, old-fashioned, or Disneyish. We do live in the South though, and are pretty old-fashioned people! I am leaning toward Annabel or Elizabeth. Anna sounds a little too serious to me. If we use Anna or Annabel, we are thinking we should maybe not use Elizabeth as a middle name in case we have another girl someday, and vice versa. (This is our first child.) We also aren’t sure about middle names, but here are our ideas:

Annabel Catherine
Annabel Kathryn
Annabel Elizabeth
Annabel Hiers
Annabel Teresa

Anna Catherine
Anna Kathryn
Anna Elizabeth
Anna Teresa

Elizabeth Briggs
Elizabeth Hiers
Elizabeth Teresa

Catherine, Kathryn, and Elizabeth are all family names on my husband’s side, as is Hiers (pronounced high-ers). I also have a niece named Katherine, so that’s why we did not want to use it as a first name. Teresa is from my family, as is Briggs. We are open to other names, but feel pretty sure about the choices for first names. We like having family connections and names that flow nicely together. Some other names in our familes are Mary, Colleen, Laura, Kelly, Ellen, Lillian, Nora, Augusta, Jean, Virgina, Margaret, Pauline…

And Jennifer writes again:

We have narrowed it down (I think) since my last e-mail to Anna Kathryn, Annabel Hiers, Annabel Kathryn, and Elizabeth Briggs.

Okay, I’ll put those four finalists in a poll to the right [poll closed; see below], but everyone feel free to chime in if you prefer other combinations!

[Poll results (264 votes total):
Anna Kathryn: 62 votes, roughly 23%
Annabel Hiers: 50 votes, roughly 19%
Annabel Kathryn: 79 votes, roughly 30%
Elizabeth Briggs: 73 votes, roughly 28%]