Laura writes:

Since I realized I was pregnant while reading your blog, it only seems fitting for you to help me name my baby girl. I am due October 16. I really thought I’d settle on a name as soon as I found out the baby’s sex, but here I am at 37 weeks and our list keeps getting longer. The baby’s last name will be Wilkerson, but I tend to prefer Italian or Italian-sounding first names since I kept my (very Italian) last name and I want both sides represented in her name. The middle name doesn’t have to be Italian, it just has to flow well with her first and last (and not lead to offensive initials, something my husband’s parents didn’t consider). Here is the list of names we came up with:

Giana Rafaela (Does this name work? My dad’s name is Ralph so I thought I’d try it out – I like it best with Giana but I’m not sure if it’s too much or not)
Zaira Jane
Sabrina Eve (Open to other middle names)
Lucia Isabella
Adriana (Looking for a middle name that flows like Marie…but any suggestions are welcome)

I’d like some middle name feedback where indicated, and (if possible), a poll on just the first names, and a poll on the first / middle combinations (one per first name – pick your favorite if you suggest more than one). Which name do you like best?

Thank you so much for your help!

How much do I love Giana Rafaela? HOW MUCH? A LOT, that’s how much. Beautiful. Oooo, I want so much to put it with YOUR last name. Imagine THAT lovely rhythm! But it’s lovely with Wilkerson too. I don’t think it’s too much: Giana is an unusual but easy first name, and you can call her Gigi if you want to. CUTE.

But you have a ton of good choices here—I can see why you’re having trouble narrowing it down. Have you tried some of the Narrowing Down tricks? Like, pretend you’ve decided on one name. Say to each other convincingly, “That’s it. That’s the name.” Then see how you feel. Disappointed? Sorry not to be using another name? Satisfied and happy? This helped me to narrow down my girl name when I had a list that included everything from Margaret to Magnolia: I found that one name appealed to me greatly, but not when I thought of actually choosing it for an actual baby—and another name I thought maybe I shouldn’t choose (in my case, because it was too unusual) ended up ripping my heart out when I thought of not using it.

Another good trick is to think of what you might like to name future children, and see which of your current names go best with that style.

Another trick is for you and the other parent to both make lists ranking the names. It doesn’t have to be 1-5 (though it CAN be)—-you can do it like this, for example:

Giana 1
Lucia 2
Sabrina 3
Adriana 3
Zaira 4

And maybe the other parent’s list would look like this:

Giana 1
Zaira 1
Adriana 2
Sabrina 2
Lucia 3

And then you can see where your tastes intersect most.

And here is my most useful trick: which one seems like My Baby? Picture your baby daughter in your arms, and picture each name on her. Which name makes you feel a rush of MY BABY? I have some names I LOVE but they DON’T sound to me like “My Baby”—they sound like Someone Else’s Baby whose name I LOVE.

I don’t shrink back from using a lot of syllables in a name ANYWAY, but I think Italian names sound particularly beautiful when they’re long. Seven syllables for Giana Rafaela seems PERFECT to me. So then a name like Sabrina Eve is just a little disappointing. I would lean more toward Sabrina Gabriella. Sabrina Mirella. Sabrina Gianna. Sabrina Elena. Sabrina Luciana. Sabrina Bianca.

Same for Adriana: the Adriana Marie sort of rhythm is so pretty (Adriana Nicole, Adriana Celeste, Adriana Clarisse, Adriana Corinne, Adriana Elise, Adriana Louise), but I want less French, more ITALIAN. Adriana Valentina. Adriana Rafaela. Adriana Caterina. Adriana Isabella. Adriana Marietta. Adriana Marilena. Oh so pretty!

Well, and yet I like Zaira Jane just the way it is, so go figure.

Okay, let’s have a poll! [Poll closed; see results below.] The poll will be for the first names, and anyone who has a middle name preference to go with their first-name choice can leave it in the comments. I don’t even KNOW what I’m going to vote for—I thought I liked Giana best, but then I kind of talked myself into all the others with the middle name stuff.

Poll results (216 votes total):
Giana: 129 votes, roughly 60%
Zaria: 7 votes, roughly 3%
Sabrina: 20 votes, roughly 9%
Lucia: 39 votes, roughly 18%
Adriana: 21 votes, roughly 10%

Name update 12-19-2009! Laura writes:

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response to my email – your advice was just what I needed! You made me realize that my tendency to pair a long first name with a short middle (and vice versa) was limiting my possibilities. I also really liked your advice about whether the name felt like it belonged to “My Baby”. As much as I loved the name Giana Rafaela in theory, it wasn’t My Baby’s name…but Adriana Rafaela is, and it’s perfect! Our happy, healthy, beautiful little girl was born at 1:09 pm on October 14, 2009, and she had a name by 1:15. Thanks again for all of your help!

Gwen writes:

I’m due in 2 weeks with my 2nd child, a baby boy (But he’s likely to come early as his sister did.) I have an 18 mo daughter, Kate Harlow. We thought we had a name nailed down for most of the pregnancy and JUST noticed that, Houston, we have a problem! Our top name was Leopold, with him going exclusively by Leo. I can’t believe we just noticed the Kate & Leopold connection. Is it too much, or do you think it could work, especially since I doubt he’ll ever go by Leopold? We were thinking Leopold Gray, since we love Gray but feel it’s a little too close to Kate – especially when you’re yelling it across the house. Our second choice is Graham, but hubby isn’t as enthusiastic about that, and we still haven’t nailed down the spelling – Graham or Graeme?

We were also looking at Jude (Feel it’s becoming too common), Fallon (Is it too far out there?), Callum (Both of us used to LOVE but our enthusiasm is waning), Arlo (I love, hubby’s not too sure), Devin, Elliot, and Max (All 3 of which – too common?). Our last name is M0rgan.

Help!

I am going to focus on your original question, because in my opinion it eliminates the need for the other questions. I don’t think the Kate & Leopold thing is a problem. When you mentioned it, I felt a faint twinge of possible familiarity but couldn’t place it. I said to Paul, “Do you know of a Kate and Leopold connection?” and he said he didn’t. So then I looked it up and found the movie from 2001. Well. Hm. Anyone who had seen the movie could very well make the connection, it’s true. Hm hm hm.

Well, as someone who didn’t see the movie, of course I think it’s not a big deal. I say use the names you love, and if anyone says, “Oh, like the movie?” you can blink at them blankly and say, “…No.”

But we definitely need more opinions here. Maybe everyone but me saw the movie, or maybe not everyone saw it but those who DID see it retain a very strong impression of the two names. So let’s have a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Then let’s have a second poll [poll closed; see results below] to see what people think you should name him if you decide against Leopold. I suggest using Leo. It’s a perfectly good stand-alone name and eliminates the Leopold problem, and you were planning to call him exclusively Leo anyway. If you don’t want to use Leo on its own, my vote is for Arlo, a name I think is dramatically underused, or for Elliot, a name I’d use in a heartbeat if Paul and I weren’t both so stubborn about our preferred spellings (he prefers Eliot; neither of us will budge).

Poll results, Kate & Leopold being a problem (262 votes total):
Yes, dealbreaker: 41 votes, roughly 16%
Yes but not a dealbreaker: 61 votes, roughly 23%
Heard of it but no: 134 votes, roughly 51%
Never heard of it, so no: 26 votes, roughly 10%

Poll results, what to use if not Leopold (208 votes total):
Leo: 75 votes, roughly 36%
Graham: 32 votes, roughly 15%
Graeme: 5 votes, roughly 2%
Jude: 19 votes, roughly 9%
Fallon: 4 votes, roughly 2%
Callum: 11 votes, roughly 5%
Arlo: 14 votes, rougly 7%
Devan: 3 votes, roughly 1%
Elliot: 30 votes, rough 14%
Max: 15 votes, roughly 7%

Name update 10-02-2009! Gwen writes:
Thanks for all of you (and your readers’) help! I went into labor – no joke – while I was watching “Kate & Leopold”. Our 6 lb, 2 oz Leopold Gray was born Sep. 29 and is doing fantastic!

Katherine writes:

hi there. my husband and i are expecting our fourth baby on october 2nd. we have two girls and a boy and decided for the first time to not find out the sex of this baby. we have a boy name picked out already, but are having a hard time with a girl name. my husband is convinced this baby is a boy, so we don’t even really talk about girl names anymore, but i think it would be wise to have one just in case he’s wrong : ) our children’s names so far are kaitlyn margaret (margaret after my husband’s grandmother), sydney nicole, and jackson david (david after my husband). if this next baby is a boy, his name will be william kerry (kerry after my dad) and we will call him liam. somehow, we’ve managed to have all two-syllable names, so i’d like to stick with that for this last baby, even if it’s just the nickname.
our two top names at the moment are – sophia, and we would call her sophie (my husband’s pick) and nora (my pick) my mother’s middle name is jean, and so is my mother-in-law’s, so i like the idea of doing nora jean. i don’t think my husband is completely sold on jean, though, so i really don’t know where we are on this…
other names we had on our list are:
olivia
penelope (call her penny) – started as kind of a joke, but it’s still on the list
whitney (maybe not, with sydney?)
abigail
ansley
neriah (i LOVE the meaning of this (lamp/light of the Lord) but don’t think i’m bold enough to use it)
i wish there were more biblical girl names that i liked – i considered esther, but i don’t like it with our last name, parker.
ok, so there you have it. i’m sorry this is so long! any help you have would be great.
thanks so much!

I love Nora Jean, too, and I was thinking it seemed like such a natural fit, and then I realized why it sounded familiar: Norma Jean was Marilyn Monroe’s real name. Well, but that’s not a very strong association—I only know it because of the Elton John song “Candle in the Wind” (“Goodbye, Norma Jean / Though I never knew you at all…”), and that song is, what, 35 years old?

I can add a few more biblical girl names to consider:

Jordan
Junia (2-syllable nickname Junie)
Lydia (2-syllable nickname Liddy)

I think Jordan is particularly nice with Kaitlyn and Sydney. You could still use Kerry as a middle name: Jordan Kerry Parker. Or you could put Neriah there, since you love it but feel a little nervous about using it: the middle name slot is excellent for slightly-too-nervous names. Jordan Neriah Parker. Or Jordan Whitney Parker would be nice, if you love Whitney but think it’s too close to Sydney for the first-name slot.

Or perhaps Lydia, since then all your girls would have a Y and everyone would have different initials. Lydia Jean is nice. Or Lydia Kerry.

I guess my own first choice would be Lydia Jean, but I’m unduly influenced by liking to give everyone a different first initial (it’s so handy in my household for labeling things). If it weren’t for the initials thing, I think my first choice would be Jordan Neriah.

Name update 10-05-2009! Katherine writes:

hey there! thanks so much for all of your help… we had decided about an hour before the baby was born that if it was a girl, she would be named nora jean. however, our little boy, william kerry parker, was born on october 1st and we couldn’t be happier. : )
thanks again!

Kim writes:

My husband and I are trying to figure out a name for our baby girl, due 10.5.2009. Her big brother’s name is Maxwell, but he is always called Max.

Names I like and thoughts on them:

Lily – I love this one, but my husband doesn’t. Also it’s popular, we know people who have just used it or want to. But, I like the idea.
Cailin – This is one both my husband and I could be happy with, but I worry about it being too trendy and the same as all the other Jaylyns, Braylyns, etc.
Vivian – Another one both my husband and I like, and was his grandmother’s name so has special meaning. It is one of the only ‘antique’ names he likes. My only problem with it, really, is that I don’t care so much for ‘Viv’ and am not sure I can get over that. ‘Vivi’ is kind of cute though.
Ivy – Husband absolutely hates, but I really like.
Hazel – Ditto to Ivy.
Eva – I like, but maybe too close to ‘Ava’, of which we know a lot.
Brooke – I like. Kind of 80s.
Kate – I like. I’m not wild about ‘Katherine’. I like that it’s a classic name, but I feel like I want something more.
Kyla – Husband likes. I hate.
Josephine – I love this one, but don’t really care for any of the nicknames – Josie, etc. Our last name is long and I think it’s too much of a mouthful to use as a first name, but this was my grandmother’s name and I would really love to use it as a middle if it works out.

Newer ones we have thought of but haven’t discussed much are Grace and Nora.

I think my favorites are probably Lily, Ivy and Hazel, but our top two (because we could actually agree on them) are probably Vivian and Cailin right now (which Josephine for the middle), with Kate at a distant third. I would love any thoughts on any of these from the list and any new suggestions that are similar to my taste.

Thank you!!

Taking out the names that one or the other of you dislikes, we are left with these:

Cailin
Vivian
Eva
Brooke
Kate
Josephine
Grace
Nora

My first suggestion is one I’m sure you’ve already thought of, which is to name her Katelyn and call her Kate. Katelyn (or Catelin or Caitlyn or Katelin) manages to avoid being clumped in with the Braelyn/Jalen/Kaylin group, and gives you a longer version for the nickname you like. Katelyn Josephine is lovely.

I would be interested in collecting impressions from the readers on the spelling Cailin. My eye went right over it, assuming it was Caitlin—but I don’t know if it would be that way for everyone. Even when I realized it wasn’t Caitlin, it looked to me like Caitlin-missing-the-T. I think I would go with a spelling such as Kaylin or Kaylen or Caylin to make it more clear, but I’m not sure.

I think Vivian Josephine is perhaps the best name of all (especially with the family connection), but am reluctant to lean on it too hard in case you decide against the nicknames. Vivi is super-cute.

Other combinations I like a lot: Nora Josephine, Eva Josephine.

I think you’ve got such a good list to work with here, I hate to muddy things up by adding suggestions. Let’s have a poll over to the right [poll closed; see results below]—and we can discuss the spelling of Cailin in the comments section.

Poll results (243 votes total):
Cailin: 8 votes, roughly 3%
Vivian: 110 votes, roughly 45%
Eva: 24 votes, roughly 10%
Brooke: 6 votes, roughly 2%
Kate: 11 votes, roughly 5%
Katelyn: 33 votes, roughly 14%
Grace: 12 votes, roughly 5%
Nora: 39 votes, roughly 16%

Name update 10-06-2009! Kim writes:

Just wanted to update you – Vivian Josephine was born on 9.30. We
were pretty sure about it by the time the post came up, but I was
second-guessing myself, so I was so glad the majority liked that one –
it made me even more positive we made the right choice. Our little
Vivi is doing great. Thanks everyone for all the help!

Patty writes:

I’m pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl, and have no idea what to name them! Our 16-month old son is William Ryan, or Will, and we’re having a hard time with the twins’ names. I don’t want anything too cutesy or matching. For the boy, my favorite name is Henry, but my husband doesn’t like it. We tend to like traditional or old-fashioned names (Sam, Ethan, and Owen are a few I like). The top contender right now is Thomas, which means Twin and was my dad’s name, but I’d rather use it as a middle name. For the girl, our top pick right now is Hannah, but if we do end up with Henry, I’m not sure we want to do two H names. Other girl names we like: Lauren, Emma, Emily, Caitlin. I love Grace, but already have a Will, so don’t want to use that! Our last name starts with a B and is 3 syllables. Any suggestions?

My twins were my hardest babies to name! I wanted a LITTLE TIDGE of matchiness, but not TOO MUCH. And none of the boy names we liked seemed to go with the girl names we liked—or else they went too much. What we finally did was separate the two decisions: we thought to ourselves, “If we were having a girl now, what would we name her? And then if we scooted forward in time to the next pregnancy and found we were having a boy, what would we name him?” And then we went with those names.

Unfortunately this turned out to mean zero matchiness, but we hadn’t been able to find any that had the right tidge anyway. Elizabeth and Edward (the pseudonyms I use for my twins on my blogs) would have been the perfect tidge with their matching initials and matching whiffs of royalty but utterly distinct sounds.

Oh, hey—would those be good possibilities for your twins? Elizabeth and Edward? Elizabeth Grace and Edward Thomas, perhaps—that would be a good way to use the name Grace without the Will & Grace problem. Gosh, I LOVE that: William Ryan, Elizabeth Grace, and Edward Thomas. Or if you don’t like Edward, maybe Edmund?

From your lists, here are some pairings I like:

Emma and Sam
Sam and Hannah
Ethan and Hannah
Lauren and Owen
Ethan and Emily

Just for fun, and because you and I have Lauren, Emily, and Ethan in common, here are some sets we considered for our twins:

Eric and Lauren
Eric and Genevieve
Eric and Anna
Eric and Jane
John and Emily
John and Eliza
John and Lauren
John and Genevieve
Eric and Claire
Eric and Emily
Charles (Charlie) and Genevieve
Charles (Charlie) and Elizabeth
Charles (Charlie) and Jane
Alec and Genevieve
Ethan and Genevieve
Ethan and Jane
Malcolm and Genevieve
Jonathan and Genevieve

Your husband doesn’t like the name Henry but you both like Hannah, so here are a few more boy names to try with Hannah:

Hannah and Caleb
Hannah and Daniel
Hannah and Elliot
Hannah and Emmett
Hannah and Evan
Hannah and Gavin
Hannah and Isaac
Hannah and John
Hannah and Nathaniel
Hannah and Oliver

Go nuts, everybody: choose sets of twins from the parents’ list of possibilities, choose boy names to go with Hannah, or choose whole new sets from thin air.

Name update 10-05-2009! Patty writes:

Well, the babies arrived last week, and as we waited for me to be wheeled into the OR, my husband and I finally came to an agreement on names: Samuel Thomas and Lucy Elizabeth were born on 9/29/09 and are doing great!

Thanks for your help!

Katherine writes:

We are having a baby girl due September 29, and we’re still really stuck on the name! We currently have two little girls- Lilly Samantha and Kira Madeline, who we had no trouble naming. Their last name begins with a C and ends in -ing. We want our baby girl to have a shorter first name and a longer middle name like her sisters. I’m leaning toword two syllables, to go with her sisters, but I’d be fine with one as well. Right now we are thinking about Alexandra and Charlotte for a middle name, but the big issue is the first name. My top two are probably Maya and Faith, but I don’t totally love either of them. I also really like the name Halle (I like that spelling rather than Hallie) but I’m worried it sounds to similar to Lilly. I love the name Hunter as well, but I don’t think it really goes with our others. Some other names we’ve considered are:

Bryn (my husband likes it, I don’t)
Abby (It seems too much like a nickname to me, and I don’t love Abigail)
Taylor (not sure if it goes with the others…and I don’t love it)
Nina
Leigh ( I LOVE this name, but I don’t like the idea of having two kids with the first initial)
Lea/Leah (same problem as Leigh)
Becca (I like Becca, I hate Rebecca, and Becca feels too much like a nickname)

I also love Allison, Hannah, and Natalia, but these all seem too long to go with Lilly and Kira. I want them to be about the same length. I also love the name Niamh, which is Irish, and both my husband and I have Irish backgrounds, but I worry about naming my daughter something so uncommon that so few people will be able to pronounce.

I love the names Veronica and Victoria, though I think both are too long to go with Lilly and Kira.

I love Sydney as well, but again it seems to long for me, visually.

Thank you so much!!

I leaned heavily on the “Short and Sweet” section of The Baby Name Wizard (still linking to old edition because it seems like I need to link SOMEHOW to the book—but what the hey, Amazon.com? Ever going to list the second edition?), and then added a handful more your list brought to mind:

Alia
Anya
Ayla
Beck
Beckett
Bria
Britt
Cleo
Esme
Eva
Mia
Mila
Romy
Tessa
Tia

My favorites from that list are Alia, Bria, Britt, Mila, and Tia. I love the names like Anya and Eva and Romy, but I wonder if those sounds are a little heavy with Lilly and Kira (the book listed Roma instead of Romy, which is even heavier).

Name update 09-28-2009! Katherine writes:

Eden Alexandra arrived Friday, September 25, at 9 am. She is a beautiful, delicate little girl and her name fits her perfectly. Thank you so much, all of your suggestions and the comments from the readers helped to narrow down what we really wanted and it was a comment from a reader that put Eden in our head and made us fall in love with it. Thank you!!

Susan writes:

I just stumbled upon your blog and would love some help coming up with names for our third child (a girl!).
Our children’s names are Elisabeth (nn Ellie) and Jackson (nn Jack) and our last name sounds like “Tom’s”. We like names that can be shortened into cute nicknames but will also be strong adult names. We have been somewhat unlucky in choosing names/nicknames that we thought weren’t too popular or trendy only to discover that the year we had our children, those names jumped up the rankings; this time around, we’re hoping to do a better job! We do like classic names, which I know by definition are more popular, but as long as we’re out of the top 10 or 20 list, I think we’d be okay with the choice.
So far, the only two names we can somewhat agree on are:

Catherine Rose (nn. Caty or Catie or Caitie?) This is the name my 4 year old daughter has picked out and stood by for the past 4 months, and actually it is what we almost named her when she was born.

Ainsley Rose (nn? Would Annie work? Other ideas? We don’t want Lee…)

Any input or other ideas? (Rose is a family name and will most likely be the middle name.)

 
There is, as you’ve found, no good way to prevent a name from getting popular around the time you use it: we all tend to like the same names at the same time. One way to improve your odds is to check out the Social Security Administration trends: type in the name you’re considering and look at, say, the last 50 years. A name like Jack didn’t get popular in one single leap: it stayed pretty steadily where it was until the early 1990s when it began making a series of small but significant leaps each year.

The name Jackson went up even more dramatically starting in the late 1980s and early 1990s, traveling from #521 in 1986 to #241 in 1991 to #136 in 1996 to #72 in 2000.

The nickname Ellie only hit the Top 1000 in 1992, but then went rapidly up in popularity:

(screenshot from SSA.gov)

Look at that fast mover!

So anyway, all that is to say that if you want to avoid the name everyone thinks is unusual but then it turns out to be pretty common, look for the rapid (or even steady) risers. Any name that hangs around looking bored for a few decades and then goes whooshing upward should be avoided.

The name Catherine looks pretty safe, losing popularity steadily year by year. The nickname is another story, and harder to figure out. The spellings Cate and Catie and Caitie aren’t in the Top 1000, but Kate is rising. Also, there are many, many, many Caitlyns, Katelyns, Kaitlyns, etc. already using that set of nicknames, so it’s a little tricky to tell how many you’ll have in your area.

Ainsley doesn’t have much data, but it hit the Top 1000 for the first time at #481 (in 2001), and that’s a big jump. It’s pretty much stayed in the 400s since then, but I’ve been hearing it disproportionately often on people’s name lists so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was poised for another big leap.

Okay! On to the suggestions:

Anna Rose Toms, nickname Annie
Elisabeth, Jackson, and Anne; Ellie, Jack, and Annie

Joanna Rose Toms, nickname Jo
Elisabeth, Jackson, and Joanna; Ellie, Jack, and Jo

Mary Rose Toms, nickname Molly
Elisabeth, Jackson, and Mary; Ellie, Jack, and Molly

Margaret Rose Toms, nickname Meg (the nickname Greta is rising)
Elisabeth, Jackson, and Margaret; Ellie, Jack, and Meg

Sarah Rose Toms, nickname Sally (the nickname Sadie is rising)
Elisabeth, Jackson, and Sarah; Ellie, Jack, and Sally

Susanna Rose Toms, nickname Sukie
Elisabeth, Jackson, and Susanna; Ellie, Jack, and Sukie

Let’s have a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (202 votes total):
Catherine (Catie): 63 votes, roughly 31%
Ainsley (Annie?): 21 votes, roughly 10%
Anna (Annie): 26 votes, roughly 13%
Joanna (Jo): 5 votes, roughly 2%
Mary (Molly): 16 votes, roughly 8%
Margaret (Meg): 38 votes, roughly 19%
Sarah (Sally): 11 votes, roughly 5%
Susanna (Sukie): 22 votes, roughly 11%

Name update! Susan writes:

A huge thank you to you and your readers for all of the naming advice! Catherine Rose was finally born on Oct. 14th and our older daughter is thrilled that we used the name she picked! We, too, love that there is a “story” behind her name.

Kate writes:

I have been reading the blog for awhile now and never thought I would actually need to write in for help…but alas here I am. My husband and I found out we are having a boy – due September 29th. Initially when we found out we were having a boy we were somewhat on the same page with names so decided to take a break over talking about it at every moment (okay that was more me) since we knew we still had 20 more weeks to decide. Well now we are fast approaching and when the discussion resurfaced we are TOTALLY on the wrong page. We have a couple of names we like but I don’t think any that have totally wowed either of us. Neither of us are opposed to going into the hospital with a top three but we can’t even agree on those at this point.

The last name is Jones so everyone keeps telling us we can go way out there with the first name but part of the problem is I have always liked somewhat more traditional names, I am not really into some of the more “invented” names if you will. With that said I don’t want the name to be the most popular name out there either where every kid on the playground has the same name as my little boy. The only other hang-up is the syllables in the name – it may sound crazy but I prefer to have at least two syllables in the first name since our last name is so short. Some names we have discussed haven’t so I am not opposed to going the single syllable route, just prefer more than one.

So without further ado here is the list we are working with:

– Gavin

– Isaac

– Everett

– Elliott

– Graham

– Charles

– Emmett

– Marshall

– Mitchell

Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated!

If I could COMPEL you to use the name Isaac, I would. Isaac Jones! It’s wonderful! Modern yet ancient! And I love how both names have an S that sounds like a Z.

But I also love your other options. If I had to pick a Top Three list for the hospital, I’d choose Isaac, Elliott (which I’d spell Elliot and my husband would spell Eliot, and neither of us would budge, and that’s one of the main reasons we didn’t use it ourselves), and Emmett.

Let’s have a poll over to the right to see what the rest of us think [poll closed; see results below], and we can put our Top Three lists in the comment section.

Poll results (229 votes total):

Gavin: 30 votes, roughly 13%

Isaac: 56 votes, roughly 24%

Everett: 36 votes, roughly 16%

Elliot: 43 votes, roughly 19%

Graham: 13 votes, roughly 6%

Charles: 6 votes, roughly 3%

Emmett: 27 votes, roughly 12%

Marshall: 10 votes, roughly 4%

Mitchell: 8 votes, roughly 3%

Name update: Elliott