This will be a full post later on, but I want to collect some data as I’m working on it: If you saw the name Meara, how would you think it was pronounced?

I am new to this, but I THINK I have set things up so that you can see new Swistle Baby Names posts in your Facebook news feed, if you like to follow blogs that way:

https://www.facebook.com/SwistleBabyNames

I think that if you follow that link and click the “Like” button, new posts should start showing up on your Facebook page.

Sara writes:

Hello to you Swistle and your wonderful helpers!
We are very much hoping for some name wisdom, as we seem to be stuck. We are expecting our 2nd little girl in June and she will be joining big sister, Adelaide Fiona. (We were really close to naming her Fiona but having the last name, Ryder, Winona Ryder seemed too close. Now we wouldn’t change it for the world, Adelaide is just right for her)
Baby sister coming in June has two potential names and we are struggling to choose. The two names are Juliette & Nicolette. Obviously, only one can be used and we don’t know which. We love and adore Juliette, (especially this spelling but would people pronounce it JU-lee-ette or would they say as Juliet – Jul-jet) if pronounced right, but fear the popularity of the name and my husband is unsure of how irritating it will be for her to say: My name is Juliette with TE at the end.
We also love and adore Nicolette, as it is similar to Juliette but is much less popular. We think it has a very elegant touch to it. Both names are French as her first name will honor my French heritage as Adelaide honors husband’s German roots.
We want a French name but are also worrying about the length of the names. We don’t mind long names but Adelaide has Ada and Addie as occasional nicknames but we don’t see any we like for Nicolette or Juliette. Another thing someone pointed out was that Nicolette made her think of Nicorette. IS this an issue?
After writing all of this out, I worry we haven’t found the name for her at all. Had she been a boy her name would’ve been Dashiell or Lucian (we really wanted to use Mason, had it not been so popular).
Right now, as you see, we are struggling. We want to find her name fast. Should it be Nicolette or Juliette or a third? We hope you can help us out!

A couple of years ago at kindergarten drop-off, one of my twins had a Nicolette in class—AND this Nicolette had the kind of parent who says the child’s name with every single sentence. So I got a nice year-long exposure to the name and, if it helps, never thought of Nicorette. I’m not sure why, since they’re only one letter off from each other, but those two names are just completely separate in my mind. Even after I read your letter and put it into the spreadsheet, I’d forgotten the Nicorette thing by the time I came back to it.

Probably because of Nicollette Sheridan (who was born in the early 1960s), and because of the immense popularity of the name Nicole in my own generation, I feel like Nicolette is different in era/style from Adelaide, and Juliette feels like a better fit to me. But I think either one works.

I suspect either Nicolette or Juliette would develop its own nickname over time. Maybe it would be something not related to the name, or maybe her sister will call her Nini or Leelee, or maybe one of the nicknames you don’t like would turn out to fit her perfectly. (I’m trying to remember which Liz I know whose parents said they’d really wanted to avoid the nickname Liz—but then it turned out she was “SUCH a Liz!”) Or maybe you’ll find you like a nickname better if it can be combined with the middle name, or with a nickname of the middle name: for example, Nicolette Louise could be Lettie Lou.

Juliette does not seem very popular to me yet. According to the Social Security Administration, the name Juliet was #252 in 2011 and the name Juliette was #377; the name Adelaide was #407 but climbing at a much more rapid rate. I’d expect to see them at very compatible rankings when the 2012 data comes out next month.

I think you’re right that a Juliette would have to specify each time that her name was spelled with an -ette instead of an -et. But speaking as a Kristen who always has to specify that it’s with a K and an -en, I can say it hasn’t been something that’s seemed like a burden. So many people have to spell their names (is it Trisha or Tricia? Jen or Jenn? Isabelle or Isabel? Sophia or Sofia? Aiden or Aidan? Sarah or Sara? Lila or Lilah? Ann or Anne?), it feels like a normal thing to me.

Which of the two names do you LIKE better? I found I couldn’t tell from the letter; if I could tell, I would probably push you in that direction.

In the meantime, if it would be fun to consider more possibilities, I suggest Celeste. It’s probably my top favorite French name for girls right now. Celeste Ryder; Adelaide and Celeste.

Or wait, maybe Simone is my favorite. Simone Ryder; Adelaide and Simone.

Or maybe it’s Genevieve (unless Genevieve is only French if it’s pronounced like john-vee-ev, which I also like but it’s not the version I’m thinking of). Genevieve Ryder; Adelaide and Genevieve.

Or Noelle. Noelle Ryder; Adelaide and Noelle.

Or Estelle. Estelle Ryder; Adelaide and Estelle.

Or Lisette is pretty. Lisette Ryder; Adelaide and Lisette.

I see Eloise on a list of French names; I don’t think of it as smacking of Frenchness—but if it’s French enough, it’s probably my actual first choice. Eloise Ryder; Adelaide and Eloise.

Let’s have a poll, too, to see which of your two finalists everyone prefers! (This is my first time using this new kind of poll, so let’s hope for success but brace for failure.)

[yop_poll id=”2″]

Liz writes:

We have just one week to go until our baby boy arrives and need your help naming David’s brother! Our surname (pronounced tir-boarg) is kind of a mouthful and we always need to clarify pronunciation and spelling. So we’re keen on familiar, classic names like David that feel friendly and timeless, and wont be constantly misspelled.  We also like names that seem appropriate on a little boy as well as an old man.

The challenge that we’ve had naming #2 is that many of the names we like either start with a T or end with “ter”, and we’re not sure how this repetition sounds with our surname.   We both like the name Peter (my father’s name) since it is a timeless name that you don’t hear much on little boys these days (much like David), but wonder about the repetition of “ter”.  As an alternative, we’d like to use it as a middle name if possible.

My husband’s first choice is William, which I like because it is classic and warm sounding, but I’m afraid with all the Williams and Liams out there now that he’ll be lost in the crowd.  But maybe that’s silly with such a classic name?  I also have many Williams on my side of the family so it seems overused to my ears. Although William Peter sounds very distinguished to me (but maybe too much for a little boy?).

My husband’s other favorites include Daniel (I’d like to avoid siblings with the same initial), John (family name on his side, too common for me), Theodore, and Carter.  Names I like (but do not necessarily meet our criteria) are Ethan (husband thinks it is too “soft”), Evan (ditto), Joshua (ditto), Simon, Robert, Grant, Owen, Lucas (Luke), Tyler, Jeffrey, Gregory and Landon.

I’m hoping you can help us find a timeless name that fits well with our surname before this baby jumps into our lives! Thank you!

I tried saying Peter with your surname several times aloud, and I think I prefer Peter as the middle name. I love the sound of William Peter; I think it would be adorable on a little boy and yet great on a grown man.

The names David and William seem to me to be the traditional classics of different eras: William feels more recent, even though both names have been popular all along. Perhaps it’s because William AS WILLIAM is more current: a generation or two or three ago, so many of the Williams were Bills. Or perhaps it’s just that classics drift in and out of stylishness (even if their popularity stays pretty steady), and William currently feels quite stylish.

Theodore, Carter, Evan, Simon, Grant, Owen, and Landon also have a much more modern sound than David to me.

I would be more inclined to look at the traditional names that were in style when I was a child, or when my parents were. Daniel, Joshua, John, Robert, and Jeffrey all fall into the category I’m thinking of.

Andrew, maybe. Andrew Tirboarg; David and Andrew. Andrew Peter Tirboarg.

Stephen Tirboarg; David and Stephen. Stephen Peter Tirboarg.

James Tirboarg; David and James. James Peter Tirboarg.

Adam Tirboarg; David and Adam. Adam Peter Tirboarg.

Michael Tirboarg; David and Michael. Michael Peter Tirboarg.

Nathan Tirboarg; David and Nathan. Nathan Peter Tirboarg.

Aaron Tirboarg; David and Aaron. Aaron Peter Tirboarg.