Bethany writes:
Hi! My name is Bethany. My wife’s name is Kathryn. We generally go by Beth and Kate although by our full names as well. Our last name is hyphenated and rhymes with Wall-Ridges.
We have identical twin daughters, Harriet Lucille and Matilda Corinne. They are known to everyone else as Harriet and Matilda but at home we often call them Hattie and Mattie, because we are evil. They are 4 and so far do not object but I’m sure they will!
We are due to have a son in very early November. He will be the only one in our house with a penis for the foreseeable future. Even our dogs are female and this almost certainly our last child. So we want his name to be strong but not overpowering, if that makes sense. Our girls names are of course pretty old fashioned and classic names with kicky nicknames. Since he will almost certainly be the only boy in our family we want his name to feel special without singeling him out. I hope this makes sense!
Our girls are named, in assorted ways, after our mothers (Kate’s mum’s first name is Corinne, my mum’s middle is Lucille). So we’d like to cover our dads with the boy. Happily they both have Edward somewhere in their names so that will be our sons middle (i see its your sons name as well!)
but for first names we are a bit…stuck.
Here’s our shortlist. Please let us know what you think!hers:
James
Henry (but we are not repeating initials, how else are we going to label anything?)
Phillip but i hate Phil
Frederick but I hate Fred/Freddy
Andrew but hate Andy (see a pattern here?)
note that Kate doesn’t hate these nicknames but she doesnt like them either.mine:
Owen
Seymour out of left field but like it
Oliver
Caspian totally doesn’t fit with our girls but I LOVE)thank you!
I think Caspian might fit very well with the girls’ names. I agree it sort of SHOULDN’T fit well, and yet I’m finding it DOES for me: Harriet, Matilda, and Caspian. Oh, I think I know what it is: I think it’s that for me, all three are book names. (Harriet from Harriet the Spy and Harriet You’ll Drive Me Wild; Matilda from the Roald Dahl book; Caspian from Narnia.)
Atticus gives me that same feeling. Harriet, Matilda, and Atticus.
It’s too bad about Henry—I do love that name. I wonder if you’d like a name I think of as belonging to the upcoming batch of similar names: George. George Edward Wall-Ridges; Harriet, Matilda, and George. Georgie or Geordy are both very cute nicknames.
I also love James from your lists. Harriet, Matilda, and James. Really, really nice.
Do you like Simon? Harriet, Matilda, and Simon.
Or Ian, one of my own top favorites. Harriet, Matilda, and Ian.
Or Felix? I think it’s got a lot of the quirky charm of the girls’ names. Harriet, Matilda, and Felix.
Same with Arlo, which has been on my love list ever since Arlo’s Theme Song.
Or Charlie is also adorable but a little less uncommon: Harriet, Matilda, and Charlie.
Ooo, how about Wesley? Harriet, Matilda, and Wesley. I really like that, and I love the nickname Wes.
Or Ezra: Harriet, Matilda, and Ezra.
I think my favorites are George, Ian, and Wesley.
Name update! Bethany writes:
Thank you so much for using our question!
we loved reading all of the answers/comments especially yours. We got a TON of ideas and in fact we did not decide for sure until he was two days old. we went to the hospital with Felix, George, Caspian, Quinlan and Wesley. We thought Wesley was most likely, but then our little guy was born and we brought Mattie and Hattie to see him, and we asked them to tiebreak between Quinlan and Caspian (he just didnt look ike a Wesley). They started calling him Q! So his name is
Quinlan Edward. we LOVE it, love that he’s our 5th, love that we can just call him Little Q and Baby Q, and we are so happy. thanks again for all the help!
i vote for henry and ezra. such a good pairing with your girls’ names!
If you both like Caspian (and you didn’t say whether or not your wife does) I’d go with it. It has some of the quirkiness of Harriet and Matilda even if it’s a different sort of quirk if that makes sense.
On the more conventional front, I like James and Andrew very much with your girls’ names and I don’t think Andy is an inevitable nickname. He could be Drew or just plain Andrew. A lot of kids go by their full names. Similarly, Phillip could be Pip, or just Phillip. Owen is a long-time favorite of mine as well.
If you want more ideas, how about Benjamin or Linus or William?
How about Nathaniel, nickname Nattie? Or Nate, of course.
Or you could do Andrew and go with Drew as a nickname…..
I like Owen the best from your list and James the best from your DW list. I love the idea of Charlie!! And I’ll suggest Eli or Elliot, Samuel and Felix. Or Finley, Jonah , Spencer or Griffin.:)
Harriet, Matilda and Owen*
Harriet, Matilda and James
Harriet, Matilda and Eli
Harriet, Matilda and Samuel
Harriet, Matilda and Felix
Harriet, Matilda and Finley*
Harriet, Matilda and Jonah
Harriet, Matilda and Spencer*
Harriet, Matilda and Griffin (nn Fin)*
My favorites are*
I also LOVE Julian!! Julian Edward Wall-Ridges. I love love this name! And Oliver!!
If you like Caspian but aren’t quite sold, what about Casper or Jasper?
Yes, there’s the friendly ghost thing to worry about, but there are lots of little boys named Felix and no one seems to mind the cat association.
Hattie and Mattie are so cute. I am not a fan of rhyming given names, but I like rhyming nicknames for some reason, especially on twins.
I really like George / Geordie. Geordie reminded me of Gordon / Gordie – I feel Gordon is surprisingly underused, and Gordie is so cute with Hattie and Mattie.
My second favorite of Switsle’s suggestions is Felix. It was one of the few names my husband and I both really liked for our son, but didn’t use it because like you, we didn’t want repeating initials – Fiona and Felix. You make a good point about labeling. What if you all have drink bottles and can only label the caps? You need distinct initials! That settles it!
The only downside to Felix for you is I am not sure of any nickname, but maybe nicknames aren’t as important to you as I concluded?
What about:
Sylvester (or Silvester) / Sy, Si or Sly. Harriet, Matilda, and Sylvester. I like Hattie, Mattie and Sly – he’s the sly one. Hah – hah. Is that corny?
Ferdinand / Ferdie. Harriet, Matilda, and Ferdinand. Hattie, Mattie, and Ferdie.
Good luck.
I immediately thought books, too. So Charlie, from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Simon from “Sport”. Peter from “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing”. Caspian from “Prince Caspian”. Cedric from “Little Lord Fauntleroy”.
Oh! Ferdinand from “The Story of Ferdinand”. Stuart from “Stuart Little”. Oliver from “Oliver Twist”.
I thought Julian immediately! And the nn Jude is nice and strong, and Julian has a softer sound that I think goes very well with Harriet and Matilda (maybe you can switch to “Happy” and “Tilly” as they get older, before they hit 13 and want to scream from being Hattie and Mattie.) Kidding. :)
I think you have a lot of nice options. Good luck and congratulations!
If you are ok with the name Phillip, and are looking for an alternative nickname, how about Pip? Hattie, Mattie and Pip? I might die of cuteness.
Love Andrew (my son’s name). We also hated Andy, so we call him Drew. What do you think of Edward James? I like the reverse very much.
Silas Edward
Walter Edward
Stuart edward
George! My brand new nephew is named George which made me kick myself for never putting it on my baby name lists. (I was sure my SIL would go with Henry or William this time – we have VERY similar naming styles.)
I also love Caspian and who cares if it’s matchy!
Speaking of literary references, don’t forget Ender is an AWESOME nickname for Andrew!
I like the idea of using a solid, three-syllable name for your boy. Julian is nice, as is Caspian. Two of my favorites, in fact! How about Dorian?
Griffin, although not three syllables, is a nice masculine yet non-traditional/boring pick. As is Roarke, if you’re into Ayn Rand. Or maybe Conan?
And for the final brainstorm, what about Quinlan/Quinton/Quentin since he makes up your 5? (nn Quincy? or just Q?)
Harriet, Matilda, Julian
Harriet, Matilda, Andrew (Ender)*
Harriet, Matilda, Caspian
Harriet, Matilda, Dorian
Harriet, Matilda, Griffin
Harriet, Matilda, Roarke
and sticking to the R’s,
Harriet, Matilda, Roman.
Harriet, Matilda, Conan
Harriet, Matilda, Quinlan (Quincy)
*I think this one is my favorite! Ender was also the third child!
I love Julian!
Also… OMG, Atticus. Hattie, Mattie, and Attie. ;)
I think I like Felix the best, Felix Edward is so cute! The others I like are George ans Atticus. All are great choices.Love your girls names btw!
I LOVE Caspian with your set. It’s an amazing book and an amazing character, which is kinda the theme on my names list, LOL.
-Angela
This comment has been removed by the author.
I really enjoy your girls’ names very much, and think you have some nice suggestions already, both on your lists and from Swistle (love George/Geordie!) and from posters.
I personally would avoid names with obvious nicknames that one of you dislikes. Even though you can call a young Philip Pip or Flip and totally avoid Phil, that only lasts until your son reaches an age where he starts having opinions of his own. Factoring in a tendency to rebel against parental constraints, the chance of your child deciding to use the nickname you dislike becomes nontrivial. I know that any kid can always decide to go by some other nickname not based on their name, so it’s not like you can ever PREVENT this from happening, either, but picking a name where you hate one of the intuitive nicknames that other people might be apt to try seems like it’s just inviting trouble.
So that being said, you’d be left with James, Owen, Seymour, Oliver and Caspian from your lists. I think Oliver is the best stylistic match for your girls’ names of these, and Ollie would be a nice at-home nickname counterpart to Hattie and Mattie. James, while classic and lovely, is a good bit less striking, and Owen seems very different style altogether… which is totally fine, many people have a different boy naming style than they do for girls. Seymour isn’t that out of left field – it has the pleasant fustiness that Harriet has in the US – and neither is Caspian, for the reasons others have mentioned.
Caspian makes me think of Casper, Jasper, Crispin and Tarquin, some of which have a more similar antiquey/Britishy flavor to Matilda and Harriet.
I really like Leopold, nickname Leo, for you! Ferdinand (Ferdie) and Silvester (Sly) are also brilliant suggestions from the previous poster, and make me think of Bartholomew (Bart) and Lysander and Alistair.
I also like Theo as a name for you – could be short for a number of things, from Theobald to Theodosius to the more expected Theodore. The more unusual names would not so easily slip into “Ted” as a default nickname.
Is there a chance you might use Edward in the first name spot? I think a little Ned would fit very well with Mattie and Hattie.
I like Seymour from your list. And the suggestions of Atticus, George and Alistair.
What do you think of Duncan? It has the same old time feeling of your girls names (which are fantastic, by the way) with the same quirkyness..
Duncan Edward Wall-Ridges
Harriet, Matilda and Duncan. Love!
I personally think Caspian goes well with Harriet and Matilda. Caspie could be a cute nickname for just your family :)
Cassian or Cassius could also be an alternative – nn could be Cash.
In the same vein, what about the name Kieran? Kieran Edward sounds great imo.
James is a classic name that will never be wrong. Hattie, Mattie, and Jamie are very cute.
Related to the name James is Jacob – Jacob Edward; Matilda, Harriet, and Jacob?
Seymour is also nice, Sy, Hattie and Mattie :)
Some other ideas:
Harriet, Matilda and
Arthur (Artie)
Cyrus (Cy)
Franklin (Frankie)
Jasper (Jas)
Tobias (Toby)
Leander (Lee)
Percy
Cormac
Sullivan (Sully, Van)
Sounds like we have similar tastes in names (if my son were a girl, he was going to be named Harriet, Matilda or Hazel). His name is Milo, but on our short list was Henry, Ezra, Amos and Atticus – I think they all sound nice with Edward.
I love Eugene for you. Eugene nn Gene. Eugene Edward. Harriet, Matilda, and Eugene.
Also like Adrian. Adrian Edward is beautiful. It is a bit concerning that the name is ranked as much more popular than your girls’ names.
I like the suggestions of Walter and Atticus.
Would Amos be too far out there? I love it.
An alternative nickname for Frederick is “Fritz.”
That is my uncle’s name and my nephew’s middle name.
I think that goes well with Harriet & Matlida
I knew a George Edward who went by Ged, and I always liked that nickname. (That is, if you like George but want a nickname option1)
Quinlan Edward is WONDERFUL! Congratulations to you and your family!
Yay! I feel a bit proud one of my suggestions made a difference, although the full masterpiece of Quinlan Edward is all you and is really perfect!
(Now if I can just find a name for my own bump due in 8 weeks time :))
– Ceew