Jana writes:
Baby #3 is due in 4 weeks and we have yet to decide on a name – yikes! The gender is unknown so we’ve got to come up with boy and girl names. Generally, we like to go into the delivery room with two name choices per gender and then we decide which one to use once we’ve seen the baby’s face (and genitalia!).
We would like to use James as the middle name if it’s a boy (my husband’s middle name) and Rose for the middle name if it’s a girl (my mother-in-law’s middle name – don’t ask). Our last name is quite ethnic sounding and similar to “Lombardo”.
So far, we really like Matthew, Connor and Evan as first names for a boy and Elizabeth, Callie and Cassidy as first names for a girl. We tend to shy away from trendy and dual-gender names, but we also don’t want anything too common. And even though Matthew and Elizabeth are in the national Top 10 lists, they do not seem to be all that popular in our part of the country.
Our other children are named Sydney Anne and William Murray (we call him Liam).
Any thoughts and/or suggestions?
Well! *rubs hands briskly* We have our work cut out for us: two girl names and two boy names, and Swistle left this in her inbox for 2 weeks so had to change “due in 6 weeks” to “due in 4 weeks” and so now things are getting A LITTLE DESPERATE. Let’s see if we can hurry.
Girl names first. You’ve got Elizabeth, Callie, and Cassidy already. Consulting The Baby Name Wizard for sibling names, I’ll add Aubrey, Morgan, and Jocelyn.
Elizabeth Rose (ERL); Sydney, Liam, and Elizabeth
Callie Rose (CRL); Sydney, Liam, and Callie
Cassidy Rose (CRL); Sydney, Liam, and Cassidy
Aubrey Rose (ARL); Sydney, Liam, and Aubrey
Morgan Rose (MRL); Sydney, Liam, and Morgan
Jocelyn Rose (JRL); Sydney, Liam, and Jocelyn
Now boys. You’ve got Matthew, Connor, and Evan already. I’ll add Ian, Aidan, and Simon.
Matthew James (MJL); Sydney, Liam, and Matthew
Connor James (CJL); Sydney, Liam, and Connor
Evan James (EJL); Sydney, Liam, and Evan
Ian James (IJL); Sydney, Liam, and Ian
Aidan James (AJL); Sydney, Liam, and Aidan
Simon James (SJL); Sydney, Liam, and Simon
The voting is going to be a little different this time [voting closed; see below], so pay attention, please, class: You’re going to vote for TWO boy names and TWO girl names. There are twelve names in the poll, six for girls and six for boys, and you’re going to choose the four names (two girl, two boy) you think the family should bring to the hospital with them.
[Poll results:
Elizabeth: 49 votes, roughly 25% of girl vote
Callie: 50 votes, roughly 25% of girl vote
Cassidy: 22 votes, roughly 11% of girl vote
Aubrey: 33 votes, roughly 17% of girl vote
Morgan: 19 votes, roughly 10% of girl vote
Jocelyn: 25 votes, roughly 13% of girl vote
Matthew: 44 votes, roughly 22% of boy vote
Connor: 41 votes, roughly 21% of boy vote
Evan: 51 votes, roughly 26% of boy vote
Ian: 11 votes, roughly 6% of boy vote
Aidan: 25 votes, roughly 13% of boy vote
Simon: 27 votes, roughly 14% of boy vote]
[Update! Jana writes:
Hi there,
I just wanted to let you know the final outcome of
our baby name dilemma. Evan James L_______ was born
on Thursday, May 15th (the winning name from your blog
poll).Thanks so much for helping us contemplate names for
our new little addition.Sincerely,
Jana
Yay! Congratulations!]
Thank you to everyone who voted – I really appreciate it!
How about Calliope as a long version of Callie?
I voted for (let me try to remember all four… LOL)…
Callie Rose
Elizbeth Rose
Matthew James
Aiden James
Callie is a name I really like, so I picked it. Elizabeth I like because it’s a nice, classic girls name.
Matthew – picked for similar reason as Elizabeth, a nice, classic boys name. My cousin Matthew is one of my favourites, for personal reasons for picking that name.
Aiden I chose because “Sydney, Liam and Aiden” sound really great together. I sort of like that “Aiden” and “Liam” have that sort of British connection… so they compliment each other well for brother names I think. And Aiden compliments Sydney well with the “d” and “n” sounds.
My top choices are Aiden James and Callie Rose.
BUT…. I’d like to throw Audrey into the mix instead of Aubrey. I almost picked Aubrey… love the sound of it…but I definitely prefer the name “Audrey”.
Audrey Rose… sounds like a classic movie star! And “Sydney and Audrey” are nice sounding sister-names in my very humble (yet wordy) opinion.
Best of luck!
Oh oh, and I definitely love the whole “y” thing that Sydney and Audrey have in common. (I just re-read what I wrote, and the look of the two names together just struck me, haha).
I never do this in just one comment… LOL.
Yeah, Jana, I’m glad to see your name possibilities finally. You know I’ve been bugging you about it. ;)
I voted for Matthew James, Connor James, Callie Rose (love that!), and Swistle’s suggestiong of Jocelyn Rose (like the sound of that).
I wanted Connor on our list of names for my son, but my husband didn’t like it. Oh well, it’s a great name. And I love Matthew. It’s my husband’s name, and he goes by Matt. Most of his childhood he went by Matthew though, and his mom still calls him Matthew. My son is Zachariah Matthew. ;)
Swistle, I noticed you’ve stopped posting your votes. Did you feel like you were being too influential? It did seem like your top choices often ended up in the lead (or maybe your choices are just that good)
I love the Audrey Rose suggestion. So classic and beautiful! I also voted for Elizabeth Rose which is a wonderful name.
As for boys, I think Connor James is nice. Matthew James is a classic, but kind of biblical sounding. I agree that Aiden works well with the sibling names.
Anonymous- Ha ha! You are so observant! The last few entries, I’ve had trouble deciding among several good choices, so I’ve left my choice out of the post (though I still vote in the poll).
I’ve just noticed that Susan and I both spelled Aiden with an -en at the end, and Swistle had it with an -an at the end! haha.
Both spellings are fine. I do prefer the “A-i-d-E-n” spelling, mostly because the only Aiden’s I’ve met have spelled it that way. LOL.
Evan James!!! absolutely perfect w/Sydney & Liam. For a girl its between Callie & Cassidy. Both are super cute!
Thanks, everyone, for your comments and suggestions. We’ve definitely got some more thinking to do!
I agree with the poll.