Baby Girl, Sister to Thomas Murray

Stephanie writes:

We’re expecting our second child in December. Our last name is two syllables and starts with M. Our son is Thomas Murray. We both loved Thomas and Murray is a family name. A girl’s name is turning out to be very hard for us. We definitely both gravitate towards traditional, solid, and ‘old’ names with a history, with no desire to create a ‘new’ and unique name while avoiding known trendy names. I love Emily, but husband strongly dislikes. He likes Maria, Marie, Mary, or Margaret. I vehemently object due to the last name (M). Our currently list includes Anne, Anna, Audrey, Claire, and Katherine. I can’t help but feel that we’re choosing from a list that we’re both ok with, but not ones that either of us love. Likely middle names are Marie (I’ll let it in as a middle), Kathryn/Katherine, and Anne.

So, any ideas we’re obviously missing?

Well, so Emily is out, and so are names starting with M. Amelia comes to mind because it’s similar to Emily but maybe different enough that he’ll like it, and it’s traditional/solid/old. Or might you like Emeline? It starts out similar to Emily but has a completely different sound.

Oh! Oh oh oh! How about Ruth? At the pool this summer there was a toddler named Ruth, and I could NOT BELIEVE how cute that name was on a wee girl. Her mom also sometimes called her Ruthie. How about Ruth Katherine M.?

You’ve got Claire on your list, which makes me think of Clara. Clara Marie M.

For old and traditional with history, it would be hard to beat the name Eve. Eve Katherine M.

More possibilities:

Alice
Helen
Jane
Josephine
Rose
Sara(h)

Name update 12-02-2009! Stephanie writes:

I loved reading your suggestions and those of the commenters. Ultimately, we stuck with our list and Audrey Kathryn was born in the wee hours of Friday morning, Nov 27. We decided you were all right and that speculating on the popularity of a name we liked was silly :) Kathryn is my middle name, so our son has his Dad’s middle name and our daughter has mine. Incidentally, she just missed sharing a birthday with me as well, by 3 hours.

22 thoughts on “Baby Girl, Sister to Thomas Murray

  1. Anonymous

    Thomas and Ruth is a great combo!

    Some other ideas:
    – Hannah (Hannah Marie)
    – Elizabeth (Elizabeth Margaret)
    – Charlotte

    Also, have you considered “Miriam” as a middle name? It seems to match the others you are considering. Plus, it has a traditional but under-used feel to it.

    Good luck!

    Reply
  2. Donna

    *warning- highly biased opinion …

    My 2 year old daughter’s name is Clara Dorothy (Dorothy is her great grandmother’s name). I love it, and we have had very good reactions to it. It has a lovely old fashioned solidity to it while sounding current. A nice change from Claire :)

    Reply
  3. KL

    From Swistle’s list I like Alice. I think Alice Katherine is pretty. I also like Emeline Katherine or Emeline Marie.

    Just a few more suggestions:

    Coraline
    Evelyn (Evie is a such a cute nn)
    Constance
    Simone

    When you say historical significance are you looking for somewhat of a historical namesake? I wish I knew specifically what you were looking for – authors? women from mythology? Names of literary heroines? (There are several female mystics from the middle ages with great names imo).

    A few “historical” suggestions

    Helen or Helena (after Helen of Troy)
    Charlotte (after Charlotte Bronte the author)
    Julian (after mystic Julian of Norwich)
    Amelia (Amelia Earhart)

    See this link on a woman named Emmeline who was active in the women’s suffrage movement in England:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmeline_Pankhurst

    Reply
  4. Steph the WonderWorrier

    I second the suggestions of Emeline, Elizabeth or Charlotte (I have cousins who are siblings named Thomas and Charlotte). I also like the suggestion of Alice.

    For other classic girls names:

    Laura
    Isabella
    Jane
    Victoria
    Grace
    Diana
    Julia
    Caroline
    Rebecca

    These are not necessarily in the exact style of the names you’ve liked so far (which seem to be in the Anne, Emily, or Mary category of names), but just a few more classic girls names to try out.

    Reply
  5. Karen

    Some ideas:
    Beatrice
    Beatrix
    Caroline
    Carolyn
    Cora
    Corinne
    Eleanor
    Elizabeth
    Elspeth
    Georgia
    Helen
    Helena
    Jacqueline
    Philippa
    Rose
    Suzanne
    Victoria
    Willa

    I like Caroline a lot – Thomas and Caroline. Or if you prefer more a name that has nickname potential, can’t beat Elizabeth – Thomas and Eliza is sweet. Thomas and Elspeth is nice too – Thomas and Els.

    Good luck! I like your son’s name very much. You can’t really go wrong with the naming style you and your husband gravitate toward, in my opinion!

    Reply
  6. Carolyn

    Here are some of my favorite underused, traditional names:

    Genevieve Ruth

    Georgia Marie

    Lydia Jane

    Virginia Katherine

    Reply
  7. Stephanie

    By names with history, I really mean that it has to be a name, not a word or invented name. DH strongly dislikes names that aren’t names originally, i.e. flowers, virtues, etc. So no Rose, Lily, Grace, Faith, Hope, etc.

    We considered Ruth, but it fell from the list at some point. I think we’re leaning toward Audrey, but fear that it is rising in popularity and we’ll find out down the road that we picked the next Olivia, Ellie, what have you. We live in an urban/yuppie area where everyone tries to avoid the hot name but seems to unwittingly pick the same name anyway. Also, a large catholic family so some names have been used that keep us from wanting to use them…such as Emeline, Jaqueline, and Eve-baby will have a cousin Ella and a cousin Ava :)

    Reply
  8. M.Amanda

    Oh, and my grandmother is Frances. It is a bit too old fashioned for my taste, so we’re planning on using it for a middle name, but it is a solid, old name.

    Reply
  9. Anna

    These came to mind
    Louisa Anne/Katherine
    Eleanor Katherine
    Adela Katherine
    Francesca Anne
    Isabel Anne
    Helena Anne
    Julia Katherine
    Sylvie Anne
    Josephine Anne
    Violet Anne/Katherine
    Annabel Katherine
    Georgina Anne
    Lucinda Anne
    Eloise Anne
    Penelope Anne
    Susannah Anne
    Sally Anne

    I am Anna my sister is Katherine. I think they are both lovely names.

    I also like Arabella Margaret & Aurelia Katherine I think they are really pretty.

    Reply
  10. Anonymous

    Annelise
    Audra
    Alexandra
    (I seem to be stuck on “a” names)

    I also really love Eliza. It’s so pretty and reminds me of Katherine, Anne, and other names of that ilk.

    Reply
  11. Leslie

    I love Swistle’s suggestion of Amelia. It seems like a nice combination of Emily and Maria, and also has the beginning “A” of many of the your other choices (Anne, Anna, Audrey). Audrey is also pretty, and while it does seem to be climbing in popularity, it still has a ways to go to the top 10 (it’s currently #44 in the US). Lovely options!

    Reply
  12. Frazzled Mom

    I like Alice, Beatrice, Helen, Helena, Josephine, and Laura.

    These may be repeats: Lucy, Julia Nora, Susana.

    And some of these may be a little less traditional, but they still have history:

    Cecilia, Johanna, Naomi

    If our second was going to be a girl (we found out this week we are having a boy), we were considering Cecilia.

    Another name we were considering was my husband’s grandmother’s name, Martha. I know you want to avoid M names because of the last name. Our last name also begins with M, and I was against M names for that same reason. But my husband and I were having difficulties finding names we both liked. I first suggested Martha as a middle name, and then I went to behindthename.com expressing the difficulties my husband and I had agreeing to girl name. I said one of the few names we both really liked was Martha, but I had reservations about alliteration. Many posters responded that in real life alliteration makes names memorable which made me reconsider my “No M name” stance.

    Reply
  13. ashley

    i love alice too! and anna – very classic.

    and if you like A names – our daughters name is Alta, its an old 19th century name (we named her after Rockefellers daughter!). Alta would fit perfect with katherine or maria. i’ve only met one other Alta since she was born 2 years ago and she worked a vegetable stand in the country and was in her 90’s!

    Good luck!

    Reply
  14. Missy ~

    Hmmm, here are some additional ones I can think of:

    Estelle
    Vivian
    Rachel
    Kate
    Cora
    Laura or Laurel (not sure how “old” this is)

    Love the suggestions of Clara, Eliza and Genevieve! Our last three babies were going to be Genevieve if it was a girl, but we ended up with 3 boys:) Thomas is such a solid name, I think anything will sound great with it. Good luck!

    Reply

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