Meghan writes:

Hi! My name is Meghan and my husband and I were hoping you could help us with picking a name for our little girl expected to arrive in mid-April. We have a two year old son named Greyson James and our last name is Christie, spelled and pronounced just like the girls name. We almost immediately agreed on our sons name and it suits him perfectly. His middle name, James, is the same as my husbands and is a family name on his side. We would like to try and use a family name for our daughter’s middle name as well but if we find something else we love that is negotiable. The family middle names we are considering are Lynn, for his grandmother, and Katherine, for my great grandmother. Right now I think we are having a problem similar to many other posts in that we do not agree on many names or one of us finds a fault with almost every name the other comes up with. We agree that the name should not start with “C” or “K” and should not end in “ie” or “y” as this sounds a bit sing-songy with our last name. Here is a list of names we are currently seriously considering:

Harper- I love this and think it would sound nice with “Lynn” as a middle name but my husband says he cannot see himself using this name on a normal day to day basis.

Rowan- My choice as well, however, he concedes that he does like this but that it sounds too much like his sisters name (Rohanna).

Ella- We both have always really liked this name but are concerned with its popularity. I do not want her to have a name that she will have to share with someone in her class, etc. I am also concerned that if we were to use this that it does not go well with Lynn as a middle name and my husband does not like it with Katherine. Do you think Ella Lynn is too many “L”‘s or double letters?

Lastly, here is a list of other names we have considered but discareded broken down into his list and mine:

My list:
Selah- pronounced Say-La, husband will not even consider
Alivia- too popular even though it does not start with “O”.
Adalynn- we both agreed on this at first but now feel sort of indifferent towards it.

His list:
Eva- we know many Evas and Avas
Evelyn- too popular
Leonna- Sounds too old fashioned to me and we know someone with a daughter named “Lianna”
Adrianna- I vetoed this one.

We would love to hear your opinions and any feedback on the current names/ suggestions of other names would be great! Thank you!

 
I don’t mind the repeating double letters of Ella Lynn (in fact, I like it), but I don’t like the repeating L sounds, or the way the two names run together. I do love the sound of Ella Katherine. But I would advise against Ella for you in any case, since popularity is important to you: Ella was #14 in 2009—much more common than Evelyn and Eva.

I think one of the only problems with the name Harper is there’s no nickname for it: otherwise I would suggest your husband use the nickname until he adjusted to the full name. I wonder if you’d like Juniper instead: it’s similar, but has the easy nickname Junie. Juniper Christie sounds great to me, and I like it with Greyson.

Rowan is so good with Greyson, too. I wish I could suggest Romy or Romilly as possibilities, but they both end in Y. Rosella? It has the Ella you like, plus the Ro sound. Rosella Christie.

Or Bronwyn? It has the feel of Rowan, but won’t be too similar to Aunt Rohanna. Bronwyn Christie sounds wonderful to me. Bronwyn Katherine Christie; Greyson and Bronwyn.

A name my mom recently encountered is Elowyn. It’s similar to Ella and Rowen and Evelyn. Elowyn Christie. It doesn’t work well with either middle name possibility, I don’t think; are there any other names of female relatives you could use?

Fiona, too, has some of the sound of Rowan, though it increases the femininity. Fiona Katherine Christie; Greyson and Fiona.

Name update! Meghan writes:

Sorry it has taken so long to write with our name update! Just wanted to let you know our daughter, Ella Catherine, was born on April 21, 2011 and was a tiny 5lbs 12oz. My husband and I decided that in the end popularity was not as much of a factor as we once considered. Ella was the original name we both loved and after discovering that Catherine was not only my great grandmother’s first name but my grandmother’s middle name (thus the spelling change from K to C), we knew we had to use it! We absolutely love her name and think it suits her perfectly! She and big brother, Greyson, are doing great! A big thank you to you and the other readers for all of your suggestions and advice!

I have also attached a picture!