Diane writes:
Hoping you can help us out. I am pregnant with a boy. Definitely a boy. And we have no ideas about what to name him. I tend to like classic, Old Testament sorts of names and have suggested Jacob, Samuel, Ezra and Lucas (which isn’t really Old Testament, but has the same feeling.) I also like Hunter and Thaddeus.
Hunter is a variation on an old family name.
My husband has pretty much vetoed all my choices outright, except for Lucas and Hunter (both of which he said “weren’t terrible”)Other things to note:
Our daughter is Claire Barbara – her first name is one we both liked and Barbara was an aunt of my husband’s who passed away.
I was thinking I might like to honor my cousin Nan, who passed away just shy of three years ago.
Our last name is Germanic and rhymes with Stanline.
My husband was a veto-er, too. What I did was have HIM come up with a list. Then I laughed and laughed, because it was all names of Cool Kids From High School. Soon we were making progress. Not, uh, EASY progress, but progress.
That’s where I might start in this case, too: asking your husband for HIS list. That might give a better idea of the meeting place between what you like and what he likes. Failing that, we’ll start with your preference for Old Testamenty names, combined with the names on his Not Terrible list: Lucas and Hunter.
The Baby Name Wizard has a specific list for Old Testament names, which certainly gives us a good start. What I did was look at each name and think, “Does this seem like someone who thought Lucas and Hunter were Not Terrible would also think this name was Not Terrible?” My conclusion: “Hey, he chose the only two names on your list that didn’t sound Old Testamenty. He doesn’t like Old Testamenty names.” I changed my focus: Old Testament names that don’t sound quite so Old Testamenty.
Asher Stanline
Caleb Stanline
Ethan Stanline
Jared Stanline
Joel Stanline
Joshua Stanline
Nathan Stanline
Reuben Stanline
Simon Stanline
Zachary Stanline
None of these just CALL OUT to me as the solution to the situation, though. If he doesn’t like Jacob and Samuel, he probably won’t like Caleb and Joel. If you’re thinking Samuel and Ezra, I suspect Nathan and Ethan won’t satisfy.
Would anyone else like to try?
Name update 05-31-2010! Diane writes:
Hi Swistle – I don’t know if I ever updated you, or your readers about what we decided to name our baby, nearly nine months ago.
Benjamin Colin. It meshes nicely with his big sister’s name, Claire Barbara.
We were undecided about right up until the end. Then as I was lying there, in the throes of labor I started thinking about the names in my head. And talking to the unborn one (oversharing? Maybe. But whatevs.) I decided then and there, that his name was Ben. So I told my husband so.
Lucas is the Latin form of Luke (a NT name). Would Marcus or Elias appeal to either of you?
I also seem to like Old Testamenty names. Our first son is Jonah (do like that one?) We were vaguely worried that people would make whale jokes, but really it’s only happened a couple of times in two years, and it’s only been with old ladies at the grocery store, so it hasn’t bothered me.
We are having the hardest time with our second boy name for this Nov baby, because I like the OT names, but don’t want the names together to scream ‘bible!’ because we’re not religious folks. So I’ll totally be watching the comments for more ideas!!
The first name we’ve both felt ok with is Aaron. Maybe you might like it – OT-ish, but not only OT?
What about Daniel (Dan was one of Joseph’s brothers in the OT) or David or Benjamin? Benjamin is pretty popular these days, so you might want to avoid that, but I think all of them sound good with Claire (a favorite of mine, admittedly).
Good luck! I have very similar taste and my husband is the one who typically pulls out the “you mean like the whale?” comments. Pft!
Update:
We’ve actually come up with a short list of names (two of which I asked hubby to suggest…good idea)
Colin
Benjamin
Zachary
We’re strongly leading towards
Colin Benjamin Stanline, but are also considering Benjamin Colin. I’m partial to the second one, but only slightly more than the first. He, of course likes the first more than the second. And added benefit, as we are both D names, we like the idea of having both kids (since we’re only having two) have the same initials. CBS.
Oh, and Luke was vetoed by both of us, since we are Sci-Fi geeks and didn’t want the Skywalker reference, and Marcus and Daniel were declined because we know someone with those names, and that was one of the rules we settled on.
I had the same sort of issues with my husband. I loved Ezra, Gideon, Oscar, and Theo, but he hated them. We actually ended up with a James, which still felt kind of old-fashioned and slightly biblical to me, but current to my husband.
I was going to suggest Nathanial as a middle name to honor cousin Nan, when I saw your updated post regarding the possible name of Colin Benjamin (or Benjamin Colin). I like the sound of each of those and think Claire and Colin are quite nice together, with the added bonus that both kids would have the same initials. I’d go for it!
I was perusing the Baby Name Wizard and Colin stuck out at me too. Since you like the matching initials, I say go for it.
I say go with Colin. I might not have two “in” fn mn endings though. Instead of Colin Benjamin how about Colin Nathaniel – I was thinking along the lines of the Nan honor name as well. It might be better for your kids not to have all three initials the same. Colin Zachary could be nice, too.
I like all the names on your update list so it’s hard to choose. All three sound good with the surname to me. Zachary and Benjamin are special favorites of mine, but I think Colin or Zachary sound best with Claire. So I guess I’d go with Zachary, but I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them.
have to laugh … your two children’s middle names are my parents first names :)