Leah writes:
I’ve been lurking around your blog for a few months now so I know what good advice you & your readers usually give and believe me, do I ever need it!
Here’s the deal. I’m due to give birth to our 3rd child in about 2 weeks. Throughout this whole pregnancy (or at least for the past 20+ weeks of it) we’ve believed that this baby was a girl, so of course we picked our name accordingly. And we had such a good name picked out, too. Abigail Elizabeth. Love it. But…
My Dr. ordered a second ultrasound last week to assess placental site (I’d been having some light bleeding, luckily everything is OK though) and while assuring us that everything looks great in there, they also told us that our supposed little girl is actually a boy! My husband and I are thrilled, of course (especially as we already have 2 beautiful girls. Isadora, called Izzy, age 4 and Arabella, called Bella, age 2), but now we can’t for the life of us think of what to call the little guy!
We want his middle name to be Richard after both of our grandfathers, but we CAN NOT agree on a first name that we both really like (there are 2 in the running so far, but that’s it), and neither of us likes Richard enough to make it his first name.
Names we both actually like but can’t use as they’re already being used by close family and friends include: William, Jacob, Scott, Preston, Oliver (so sad about this one, as it’s the one boy’s name that I’ve loved forever, but my sister stole it last year).
Names that we can use and also both agree on are sadly few. In fact there only 2 so far, and I don’t really love either one. They are; Harrison and Camden.
And there are some others that we both kind of like but we don’t think they sound good with Richard (Kevin, Brad and George come to mind. I don’t know why, but any of those names paired with Richard just rub me the wrong way)! Names that go with our last name aren’t a problem, at least, as pretty much everything sounds OK with it (rhymes with Lake).
So,we both prefer somewhat classic boy names & if you or your lovely readers could come up with anything better I’m all ears!
Please help!
The names you like for boys are a somewhat different style than the names you like for girls. We have the same situation in our family, and so I struggled a little naming our girl: should we force ourselves to choose names that matched our boy names in style? or should we use the style of girl name we liked? We went with the girl name we liked.
Because the name Oliver was on my list, and because the boy-name style you like is the same as the boy-name style I like, I wonder if you’d like some of the other boy names from our list:
Charles/Charlie Richard; Izzy, Bella, and Charlie
Leo Richard; Izzy, Bella, and Leo
Henry Richard; Izzy, Bella, and Henry
Milo Richard; Izzy, Bella, and Milo
Elliot Richard; Izzy, Bella, and Elliot
Eric Richard; Izzy, Bella, and Eric
Malcolm Richard; Izzy, Bella, and Malcolm
From that list, my favorite candidates are Charles/Charlie, Leo, and Milo. But let’s see what everyone else thinks! Vote in the poll at right, and choose up to two favorites!
[Poll results (228 votes total):
Harrison: 21 votes, roughly 9%
Camden: 7 votes, roughly 3%
Charles/Charlie: 40 votes, roughly 18%
Leo: 32 votes, roughly 14%
Henry: 31 votes, roughly 14%
Milo: 43 votes, roughly 19%
Elliot: 32 votes, roughly 14%
Eric: 6 votes, roughly 3%
Malcolm: 16 votes, roughly 7%]
[Update! Leah writes:
I’m very happy to announce that our little man was born 6 days earlier than expected, at 8:17 a.m. on July 23! He’s 8lbs 7oz and 21 inches of pure perfection.
And as for his name?
Well, I really fell in love with your suggestion of Milo, but the husband kept vetoing it whenever I brought it up. His reason? The freaky 1998 horror movie of the same name. He said he wouldn’t ever be able to look at our son without thinking of the creepy kid in the movie if we named him Milo. I fought hard for this name, but in the end decided it wasn’t worth it if it upset the husband so much (poor guy was almost in tears when I insisted that since I was the one who had to carry and birth the boy I should be able to name him whatever I wanted).
So when I finally let go of Milo I liked the idea of using Charles/Charlie a lot too, but again the husband said no. Apparently Charlie was the name of the kid who used to bully him in grade school & brought back too many bad memories or something. He was never this opinionated when we were naming the girls, who knew he’d be so picky about boys names?
Finally I saw the suggestion of one of your readers (Christa, I think it was) for Owen. At first I didn’t love it (not like I did Milo *sigh*) but the more I thought about it, the more it grew on me, until finally I was convinced it was the name I wanted. Thankfully Hubby didn’t have any bad memories/associations attached to this one, & so Owen Richard he is!
Thanks to everyone for the helpful suggestions!]
What about Owen Richard?
Izzy, Bella, and Owen.
I thought of it because it starts with ‘O’ just like Oliver.
Elliott. Perfect. Sounds great with Richard and with the girls’ names, and I just love it. I am clearly not alone, since right now it’s in first place with 4 votes.
I voted for Milo, but I think Miles would be even cuter! Miles Richard.
While these are all wonderful, lovely names, I don’t think they are romantic (or is it “exotic?”) enough to stand up to Arabella and Isadora. Malcolm definitely comes closest.
I went to my baby name bible (BNW) and came up with a few:
Dashiell Richard
Julian Richard
Everett Richard
Calvin Richard
Isaac Richard
Felix Richard
I also seriously love Archer and Jasper. Not sure about the -er ending with the R middle name, but as you loved Oliver you might not mind!
If you hate all of these suggestions, I won’t be offended! I just hear Isadora & Arabella and think those little princesses need to have a brother with a dashing, heroic name! :) Best of luck!
I love all the names. I voted for Milo, which I find stands out the most.
Another exercise I did was try to see what names came to mind before I saw Swistle’s suggestions.
On my own Henry, Charles and Calvin all came to mind, and two were suggested by Swistle and Calvin was suggested by a poster so I feel you would do well with these names too.
And then another poster suggested Owen, which is one of those names I love but can’t use so I love to see other people use it.
It made me laugh when I saw the names Bella and Milo because those are the names of my two kitties!!! I voted for Elliot. I dated a guy named Elliot in HS and always liked the name. I also like the idea of Miles. Cute names!
What about Henry?
My hubby’s name is Richard Charles, which sounds good to me but he says he used to get called Princess by the kids in school for having such an “English” sounding name. Although if that’s the worst they had on him he was probably alright.
I voted Harrison, but I probably shouldn’t have bothered seeing as you aren’t sold on it to begin with.
A short from of Henry is Hank, but it sounds a little too country compared to your daughters’ names. The rest of the names don’t sound right with Richard to me. Sorry.
I voted for Elliot because I love it, which may or may not be much help to a person having to name an actual personal baby.
Miles and Malcolm I like as well. I WANT to like Charles, but it’s just too standoffish for me.
As far as I know, I’ve typed everything just the way I want to say it. But I don’t have my glasses on to make sure so just interpret this comment by the spirit, not the letter.
What good name choices! A few of them are on my baby name list as well. I voted for Harrison and Elliot from Swistle’s list.
I’ll also throw in a couple more that I think go well with Isadora/Izzy and Arabella/Bella:
Gabriel/Gabe
Adrian
Wesley/Wes
Spencer
Good luck and congrats!
I think Elliot is a nice alternative to Oliver, so that’s my vote.
I have a Charlie at my house, so I’m partial to that one as well.
I also like Miles and Milo–i’m always suggesting them to people who are stumped for baby names.
Wow, what a surprise!
I voted for Elliot. I feel that a lot of the names on the list do not go with Isadora or Arabella. I think Elliot would stand up to those names. You may even call him Eli for a nn.
Also, as another poster commented, Owen is a nice alternative to Oliver. I also like (as yet another person mentioned) the name Archer. I think this would fit nicely with Izzy and Bella.
I voted for Malcolm and Milo because they were my favourites in the poll. I love Malcolm because I met the most adorable toddler named Malcolm a couple of years ago, and it really turned me on to the name.
HOWEVER… I’m now totally into the names that other posters have suggested here! I totally agree, we need something that goes with Isadora and Arabella a little better.
I love the suggestions of names like Aidan or Wesley. I have only come across the name Arabella in British novels, so I feel that a British-ish name would best; and that will also suit Richard well too.
Aidan (or Aiden) Richard
Wesley Richard
How about some other British-ish names…
Alistair Richard
Alec Richard
Benjamin Richard
Edwin Richard
Ooh, I like Owen! And it goes so well with Richard.
I think Owen has to go on my list now!
I like Owen too! But now, I’m in love with Arabella for my mythical next daughter. Thanks
My ex-husband just named his new baby daughter Abigail Elizabeth last month and my 2 week old boy is an Owen…what a small world
What about Alexander? I think it holds up well with Isadora and Arabella and Izzy, Bella, and Alex is just precious.
Didn’t read all comments, sorry for any redundancies.
With your girls’ names, this came to mind:
Colum Richard “Lake” (which is Irish, sounds prettier than it looks)
But, if you’re more traditional;, what about Colin?
Izzy, Bella and Colin
Trying to come up with a baby name. Not sure what we are having yet. Boy middle name Richard, Girl middle name Dianne. So far i like Mason Richard and Ella Dianne. My other children are Ryleigh Victoria, Carly Elizabeth and Jacob Dylan.
Suggestion Please…