Kelly writes:
I am due with a baby girl in February (around 2/20/10) and we are having a heck of a time naming her! We seem to like a bunch of names but haven’t fallen in love with any. We already have one son, named Aiden Michael. I love the name Aiden but back then, I didn’t really understand how popular the name had become. Though I still love his name, I regret that it is so very common now. I don’t like really unusual or made-up names, but we are hoping to avoid a super-duper popular name for our baby girl. Hmm, what else? Our last name sounds like Foe-dell. Ideally, I would like to use the middle name “Anne” or “Anna” to honor our mothers, since they both share that middle name.
Some of our favorite names so far include:
Delaney (nickname Laney)
Leah
NatalieWe also like:
Lilah
Reese
Gianna
Charlotte (nn Charlie)
Emerson (nn Emmy)
Aubrey (nn Bree)
Jenna
Brianne (but my husband had an ex named Brianna… so… we’re not so sure about this)I like the names Avery, Mia, Paige, and Harper, but my husband isn’t too crazy about those. We’d appreciate any ideas or advice!
Thanks!
Natalie is a popular name (#13 in 2008), and Lila/Lilah is shooting up so fast I would bet on it hitting the top ten before long. Charlotte, Leah, Emerson, Reese, Gianna, Aubrey, Avery, Mia, Harper—all rising in popularity. And it’s so hard to know which ones will just become pleasantly popular (i.e., everyone will know the name and not think it’s weird) and which ones will become regrettably popular.
There are a few on your list, though, that don’t follow the trends: Delaney had a surge in the early 1990s but now seems to have leveled off and may even be decreasing in popularity. Brianne is heading straight down, and Jenna and Paige seem to be going down in popularity as well. (Source for all the names up/down info: the Social Security Administration.)
From your list, I think your best bet is Delaney. It’s not super-popular but it’s not weird either, and it has a great nickname. It’s terrific as a sibling name for Aiden, and it’s great with your surname and with the middle name Anne. Delaney Anne Foedell—that’s my first choice.
Another possibility, similar to Jenna and Brianne, is Brenna. Brenna Anne Foedell is pretty, I think, and the name Brenna feels familiar but is not very common and seems to be decreasing in popularity.
Name update 05-10-2010! Kelly writes:
Our sweet girl was born February 20th and we just adore her. It took us 24 hours to finally settle on her name, but in the end, we just thought she was a Lilah, through and through! Lilah Anne was 8 pounds and 18 inches long, and she’s doing great! Thanks so much for the help and name suggestions.
Delaney Anne is very nice!
I like Delaney too. It was one of my final names, but didn’t make the cut (not because we didn’t like it though!) Some other suggestions:
Cassidy
Mallory
Sydney
Courtney
Cadence
Finley
Kendall
Ainsley
Bethany
Tessa
Stella
Good Luck!
Hey, I know Kelly! Hi Kelly! :)
I like your name list, it’s hard to pick a favorite from it though.
So instead I will offer other ideas, how helpful.
Brynn, Brynn and Aiden
Quinn, Quinn and Aiden
Brooke, Brooke and Aiden
Carey, Carey and Aiden (I really like this for some reason I can’t pinpoint)
Alexa, Alexa and Aiden, if you don’t mind having two A babies.
From your list I like Charlotte and Leah a lot. And I really like Quinn (from above). Here’s a few more for inspiration.
Beatrice
Camille
Claire
Lesley
Naomi
Penelope
Sabrina
Beatrice Anna. Sabrina Anne. Aiden and Lesley. Aiden and Camille.
Good luck!
I love Leah and Delaney. I teach preschool, and I definitely hear a lot of Emersons (Emmy) and Aubreys, they’re very popular.
Charlotte or Carey (Carrie) are great names but they give me pause because of the Sex and the City connection, especially if connected with Aiden.
Gia would be a cute alternative to Gianna.
With a few exceptions (Natalie, Mia, maybe Avery) none of the names on your list are as popular as Aiden, so that’s good news. Of course, as Swistle pointed out a lot of them are rising and it’s hard to know how long or how fast that will continue.
I agree Delaney and Aiden sound great together and the fact that it’s falling in popularity is a plus for you. I do love Leah, though, and I’m fond of Lila and Mia. You have so many lovely names on your list it’s hard to choose. I’d go with Delaney though, for the reasons Swistle cited and also because it’s in your top three anyway. Leah’s my second choice for you.
I “know” Kelly too. :)
I like your names. Love the name Delaney! Leah too! And Lilah as well.
I like Janet’s suggestion of Brooke too.
One of my good friends from college is named Brenna. I had never heard it until I met her and perhaps I’m biased but it’s a really lovely name! She can go by Bren if she wants a nickname. Brenna Anne is nice.
I like most of your choices, especially Paige, Delaney and Avery, in that order. Paige Anne or Paige Anna feels clumsy to me, but the middle name is actually used so infrequently that it isn’t such a big deal, I think.
I also like Melody. The L and D sounds repeated in the last name make it kind of sing-song, if you like that sort of thing. Also, it’s been hovering around 300 on the SSA list for the last decade. It’s common enough not to confuse people, but not enough to make her one of five in her class.
I love the nickname Laney. Have you considered Alaina or even Elaina (if you did not want to repeat your son’s initial)? I think that Alaina Anne works because the ending a sound of the first name is different from the beginning a in Anne. Alaina has been rising but it is still in the 200’s on the SSA list and my hunch is that it will stay put. I’d be interested in what others think about the stability of the name.
It is tricky trying to determine which names will suddenly increase in popularity. When it comes to trying to avoid anything popular, I rely more on my guts than the stats, although I do check the stats. My gut tells me Charlotte, Aubrey, and Lilah are the most in danger of becoming very popular on your list. Of the 3, I consider Charlotte more classic and therefore I think it could withstand some popularity without becoming trendy or too connected to a certain time. Antisocially, I know 3 Gianna’s. Gianna may be one of those names that experience some regional popularity. I live in Massachusetts.
I suggest Gemma. Surprisingly I don’t hear Gemma very often, but it is very similar to very popular names, being like a hybrid of Emma and Jenna. My gut tells me Gemma may rise I little bit, but despite it’s similarity to Emma, and maybe because of it, won’t get very popular real soon.
And this is the problem with spell check. I didn’t mean to say “Antisocially.” That’s what my spell checker came up with when I wrote “Antidotally.” And no matter how many different mispellings I try, my spell checker still suggests “Antisocially.” I tried to come up with an alternative word I can spell but was at a loss. Learn to spell kids – it could save you lots of humiliation down the road…
I was thinking about Melody Foe-dell last night and realize that maybe I didn’t think it through. There’s a good chance people will abbreviate Melody to Mel, making her Mel Foe-dell, more rhymey than sing-song. If you like that, fine, but it I had people rhyming my name all the time, it would drive me bonkers.
Frazzled Mom, I think you wanted anecdotally. And I had to look that up because I kept trying to put an I in it. Merriam-Webster Online sees almost as much traffic from me than Twitter some days.