Rose writes:
My name is Rose Elizabeth Morgan. My husband is William Tannon Morgan. We have three children, Elspeth Rose (6), Cole Adrian (4), and Alessandra Gemma (2) (Elsie, Cole, and Alessa). Their middle names are all family names (Will refuses to have his name be passed as a middle name to his son). We’re now expecting twins in April. They’re boy/girl, and we already have a name for her, Isabel Louisa. I’m not completely sold on Isabel yet, it is a different version of Elsie’s name, but Will really loves it, and he’s not said much about naming the others, so we’re probably going to end up using it. So our boy is the issue. We have a few choices for his name.
For the first name, we want something that isn’t totally unusual, but isn’t common. I don’t really care if he’s ___ M.
Our list right now is:
Matteo/Mateo/Matthias: I favour Matteo and Will Matthias, but this is probably our favourite.
Rowan: We considered this for Alessa, but decided we liked it better on a boy. It was the name of one of my teachers in college.
Brock: This is Elsie’s suggestion, and it’s what we’re calling him in the interim. I don’t really like it, but hey, it’s an option. Also, I just realized it rhymes with a euphamism, so… I don’t know.
Charles: My mother’s suggestion. I like it, but it might be just a smidge too popular.
Larkin: My uncle’s name, I really really like it, but I’m afraid it might read: GIRL!
For his middle name, we have a few family names we’ve passed over before, but we still like:
Kellen: my mother’s name is Kellyn, and this would be honouring her.
Linden: Will’s father’s name, I like the pattern of both twins having the middle initial L.
Larkin
William: Will still doesn’t want to pass it down, but I keep trying to pressure him.
Stewart or Bennett: My maiden name was Stewart-Bennett
Louis: If, at the last minute, Isabel isn’t an Isabel Louisa, this is after my grandfather Louis.
Just for a better idea of our style, other names we are still considering for the girl are Felicity, Gwendolyn, Cecily, Charlotte, Lucia (loo-CHI-ah) and Willow (at least I’m pulling for Willow if Will won’t pass down his name).
The name Isabel/Isabelle/Isobel/Isabella is so much more common than any of the others in the sibling group, it stands out to me. On the other hand, I completely know what you mean about how it feels when a parent who doesn’t normally have a strong preference has a strong preference. I would likely use it too—especially because Isabel/Isobel is my favorite of the Isabelle/Isabella names.
For the boy, then, a more common name would be nice. Charles seems perfect: I love the coordinating S-pronounced-Z sounds, and Izzy and Charlie is adorable. “Charles Morgan” has a strong investment-company association for me, but I don’t think it’s strong enough to rule out the name, just something to consider ahead of time. And there are so many other famous Charles Morgans, the associations might be sufficiently diluted.
If you like the spirit of Charles but not the popularity, I suggest George. George Clooney makes the name handsome and charming, and I like the repeating “or” sound of George Morgan. Isabel and George.
Oliver has the same popularity issue as Charles, but I love it with Isabel.
Everett is climbing in popularity but is still relatively uncommon. Everett Morgan; Isabel and Everett.
I also think your idea of Matteo/Matthias is a great one.
Larkin and Rowan both seem too unisex for this sibling group. And Rowan Morgan and Larkin Morgan both seem rhymey/clunky to me. Brock Morgan sounds very, very muscley and tough—an action hero name.
In larger sibling groups especially, I sometimes find it helpful to split the boys and the girls. So here we have Elsbeth, Alessandra, and Isabel, and then we have Cole and ____. This leads me to think of other short boy names: Luke, Milo, Leo, Jude, Hugo, Ian, Gage.
Bennett would work great, if you like it for a first name as much as for a middle. I love the idea of using the mother’s maiden name as a first name, and it’s rare for it to work out so beautifully. I would in fact be inclined to name him Bennett Stewart Morgan. Isabel Louisa and Bennett Stewart. That is really, really fun to me, and I love “Izzy and Ben.”
You’re ruling out Louis as the boy’s middle name if Louisa is the girl’s middle name, but I love a little twin-name gimmick: Isabel Louisa and _____ Louis. It would be far too matchy for first names, but as middle names it’s like a secret twinniness. And the sounds of the names are quite different: loo-EEZ-ah and LOO-iss. But if that seems like too much, I also like your idea of matching initials—either Larkin or Linden. If Louisa is also for your grandfather, then I like the idea of Isabel Linden/Larkin and ____ Louis.
Name update! Rose writes:
Thought I’d let you know, the twins were born April 5, 2012. Isabel Louisa Willow Morgan was born at 4:03 pm, 6 lbs, 4 oz. Matteo Linden Bennett Morgan was born at 4:13, 6 lbs, 3 oz.
We went into the hospital with Felicity Lark Ellen, Lucia Willow, and Isabel Rowan shortlisted along with Belle’s name as the number one contender. We decided to go with two middle names because these are our lasts, and there were so many names to hand down.
For Mattes, we had Charles Linden, Matthias Larkin, and Matteo Charles, with Matteo Charles being the first choice. However, Will’s father lamented two days before the twins were born that Will’s sister was never going to have any children to give his name to, and Will persuaded me that a family name was more important than one I liked more. (as it turns out, I like Linden more anyway). We were originally going to go with Benson when we decided to give them middle name x2, because it fit better, but in the end it just felt wrong to change my maiden name to stick to a six-letter pattern, and we used Bennett.
Now I am seriously thinking of adding a second middle name to everyone’s name. Elsie is totally on board, she thinks it’ll make her feel like a princess, having many fancy names. She’s already picked out Lark, which would make her Elspeth Rose Lark. She’s absorbing my love of names from watching her siblings being named, I think. Cole is disinterested. I think we’d do Cole Adrian Tannon (Will’s middle name and his mother’s maiden). Alessa I’ve always regretted not naming Rowan. She’d be Alessandra Gemma Rowan.
But that probably won’t ever happen. I’ll keep dreaming of all the good names that got away, and love the ones I have. Who knows? Maybe Belle and Mattes won’t be our last and you’ll be hearing form us again in a few years.
I like Isabel Louisa and Bennett Stewart
Izzie and Bennie. Bel and Ben.
Lovely.
I like Matteo. With your children, Alessandra jumps out at me as being Italian, but the other names aren’t, so I think Matteo would bring a nice balance to the siblings’ names.
I really like Isabel Louisa. Isabel is popular, but there is a reason a lot of people like it- it’s a nice name. Isabella might go better with Matteo, but I don’t really think twins’ names have to match.
i love Isabel (slightly prefer Isobel). Isabel Louise sounds very classic. If you decide notto go for Isabel, what about switching the names? Louise Isabel? Louise is ridiculously underused and has lots of cute nn opportunities. Louise Felicity, Luella Willow?
My only hesitation with using Isabel is the nn potential. If Elspeth also goed by Ellie, then Izzy or Belle would be too close imo. What about Isadora?
For boys I think Mateo or Mathias are great. Mateo and Isabel would match nicely with Elspeth and Alessandra, one Italian and one more British sounding name. Matteo Brock would be cute. Matt or Teo would sound cute with Cole.
or Isabel,Alessandra, Elspeth and Cole, Henry.or Liam to honor your husband? Cole and Liam sound good. Liam and Isabel. or Matthew /Guillaume? Kellan Willis? Bennett Eliam?
I agree that Isabel is a little bit off for your sibset, but still a nice name. Would you consider Isadora, Isolde, Isla, Isabeau, or Izora.
For boys I think Matteo or Mathias are good choices.. but I also tend to split the girls and boys.. so for you I would suggest a shorter name would you consider Nico, Luca, Leo or Enzo .. good luck
Elsie has since changed her opinion, and is now calling them Isabel and Isaben. We chose Cole because of a show I love, Charmed, and I was addicted to it while I was on bedrest pregnant with him. (I was trying for Julian with him).
I think we do want to go with a longer name (a la Matteo). I’ve been considering Charles, and Will suggested it as a middle name (his current choice is Matthias Charles, where mine is Matteo Linden).
As for Isabel, I’m 99% sure we’re going with it, unless something drastic happens (like, she’s a boy, or my cousin has her baby before me and names it Isabel).
If we do go with Isabel and Matteo, I think we’d call them Sibéal (Shi-BALE, which is an Irish variant of Isabel) and Mattes (Matt-ie-s, after the character he would be partially named after). Or maybe just Bel and Teo… I don’t know. I’m so tired of these babies being in here, their due date is in two weeks, and they show no signs of wanting to come out.
Matthias Linden and Felicity Louise, Matt or Tias and Fellice or Fliss.
What about Louisa Isabel and Saul Larkin? My hubs and I love this combo. We think that Isabel may be a bit too common and Isabel and Elsbeth are a bit too close.
For boys, Saul is our favorite. Here are some others:
– Seth William Morgan.
– Jared Morgan.
– Dexter William Morgan.
Good luck.
Love love love Isabel Louisa and Matteo Linden!!!!
I love the nickname Teo. I think it’s do cute. So I vote for Matteo and Isabel.
I think Mateo (Teo) and Isabel are lovely. It seems like you really have it together, name wise, your children have beautiful names! Good luck!
Would you plan on calling Isabel “Izzy”? With Elsie and Alessa, Izzy might get too tongue twisted. Belle would also be a good nickname.
Oh, I see that you would call her Sibeal, which I think is a great name! Would you consider just using that?
Also so cute that Elsie is calling him Isaben, and reminds me of your maiden name Bennett. That ties in so well together!
good luck!
I LOVE Bennett! It was on my list for years … then I met my husband and he had a young cousin named Bennett! Dangit!
I really love Bennett and Jude with your other kids names.
Bennett Stewart Morgan
Jude William Morgan
Both are awesome!
I like the Louisa/Louis middles, but I also really like Louis as a first name in your sibling set. Both Louis Rowan and Rowan Louis appeal.
Wondering today if Isabel Louisa Willow and Matteo Linden Benson would work (Benson being literally son of Ben, as it fits better with the six letter pattern of Isabel’s name). I’ll as Will when he gets home, but wondering what all you think.
I like Isabel, and I like that all of your girls names start with vowels. As Swistle said it can be helpful to split sibsets into boy/girl–and I like short names anyway, but I don’t like Charles, actually, because Cole also starts with a C. So now I am looking for a common but not too common short boys name…
Nico is one of my favorite boys names, and it goes well with Isabel. My only worry would be calling the boys, does “Cole and Nico!” sound too much like Nicole backwards? But otherwise I like it. Nico Stewart is great. I think Mateo is nice too, but so much less common than Isabel. So…
Nico Stewart
Jack Bennet (OH this is good!)
Max
Reed (great with Cole…less great with Morgan, I think, it sounds very lawfirmish)
Peter (I know it sounds kind of…plain, but its really nice!)
Miles–I like that the I and the L tie this with Isabel. Isabel and Miles; Isabel Louisa and Miles Kellen. Or I like Louis as a middle name for this: Miles Louis Morgan and Isabel Kellyn Morgan, both have a nice rhythm. Or I might do Isabel Larkin Morgan and Miles Kellen/Stewart/Bennet Morgan…
let us know! (USE MILES!)
Ooh,, I do like Isabel Louisa and Myles Louis. Isabel and Myles are a great set and Myles and Cole are great and they share the honour name. Please update us when you have them.
Gorgeous names! I love the nicknames you’ve chosen, too, Belle & Mattes. Such a sweet pair.