Gina writes:

I came across this today and am dying to see your suggestions. I’m due in mid-November with my second baby, the sex is unknown. We have one daughter named Renee Rose and we are struggling with coming up with boy or girl names this time.

Girls: We both like Camille, Jocelyn, Josephine, Katherine (Kate), Jane and Erin. I like Lynea and Lyra but he doesn’t like any of them. I would like another feminine name like Renee if it is a girl and he hates harsh sounding names like Beth.

Boys: We both like Cameron, Sean, Ryan and sort of Liam but I don’t really want two R names (Renee and Ryan). I like Kaleb and Julian and he hates them both. We both are drawn to the classic names like Peter, Paul and Mark but like ALL of them and not ONE of them.

I don’t want anything that isn’t obviously a name or anything that ends in the EEEE sound because of our last name. No places and no odd, made-up names that no one has ever heard of. Other than that, I’m fairly open (haha)!

From your girl name list, I like Camille best: Renee and Camille both have a French sound, so I like the way they go together. Renee and Jocelyn, Renee and Erin—I like those too. I’ll add:

Elise; Renee and Elise
Noelle; Renee and Noelle
Celeste; Renee and Celeste
Corinne; Renee and Corinne
Nicole; Renee and Nicole

From your boy name list, my favorite is Sean. I’ll add:

Dean; Renee and Dean
Joseph; Renee and Joseph
Benjamin; Renee and Benjamin
Nathaniel; Renee and Nathaniel
Nicholas; Renee and Nicholas
Stephen; Renee and Stephen

Let’s make one giant poll with all the girl and boy choices. Please choose one girl name AND one boy name. [Poll closed; see below]

[Poll Results:

Girl names (243 votes total):
Camille: 92 votes, roughly 38% of girl name vote
Jocelyn: 15 votes, roughly 6%
Josephine: 10 votes, roughly 4%
Katherine (Kate): 14 votes, roughly 6%
Jane: 3 votes, roughly 1%
Erin: 10 votes, roughly 4%
Elise: 25 votes, roughly 10%
Noelle: 21 votes, roughly 9%
Celeste: 15 votes, roughly 6%
Corinne: 28 votes, roughly 12%
Nicole: 10 votes, roughly 4%

Boy names (235 votes total):
Sean: 35 votes, roughly 15%
Cameron: 24 votes, roughly 10%
Ryan: 6 votes, roughly 3%
Liam: 34 votes, roughly 14%
Dean: 12 votes, roughly 5%
Joseph: 15 votes, roughly 6%
Benjamin: 22 votes, roughly 9%
Nathaniel: 32 votes, roughly 14%
Nicholas: 38 votes, roughly 16%
Stephen: 17 votes, roughly 7%]

[Update! 11-21-2008 Gina writes:

thanks so much! a little boy, cameron paul was born on 11/13. it was so fun to see what people voted for! thanks!]