Emilia

If Emily is the girl-next-door of the name world, Emilia is her cousin who studied abroad and came home with markedly better shoes. Same Latin roots, same faintly steely meaning, "rival" or "industrious", but with an extra syllable that lends it a good deal more drama.

For all that flourish, it stays wonderfully practical day to day. It tucks neatly into Lia, Emi or even Mila, so your daughter can be as ornate or as gloriously offhand as any given moment happens to require. It is a formal name that keeps a very relaxed weekend wardrobe on hand for whenever things get sticky, muddy or generally out of control.

The rankings show a name clearly on the up. Emilia is number 7 in Argentina and popular a long way beyond it: number 31 in Mexico City, number 40 in Canada, number 41 in the United States, number 45 in England and Wales, number 55 in Australia, number 83 in New Zealand and number 89 in Catalonia. It has quietly become one of those names you hear called right across every park, in several languages, on the very same afternoon.

It carries some genuine heavyweight company, too. Emilia Clarke keeps it firmly in the modern spotlight, while Emilia Fox has long flown the flag on screen. Reach back a little further and you find Emilia Pardo Bazán, the Spanish author and editor, and Emilia Plater, a Polish noblewoman, a whole lineage of women who plainly took that 'industrious' part of the meaning very much to heart.

For a matching set it slots in beside the warm Latinate favourites without the slightest hitch. Set it next to Mateo, Lucas, Sofia or Olivia and the sibling group instantly sounds effortlessly, almost unfairly elegant.

What makes it especially clever is that it lets you have things both ways. Choose Emilia and you get the sweep and romance of the longer form on the birth certificate, yet every one of those easy nicknames is waiting the moment your daughter fancies something plainer. It is a name that dresses up beautifully for the grand occasions and dresses down without a fuss for a muddy Tuesday, which is about as much as anyone can reasonably ask of a few syllables.

The only real dilemma is the quiet family feud you have now started with yourself, Emily or Emilia, plain or ornate, the everyday or the grand? That is the exquisite agony of the whole affair: the closer two names happen to sit together, the harder the choice somehow becomes. Take your time over it.