Jennifer writes:
Hi!
I am writing to find out how I can get your help!
We are due with a second baby girl in August and are really struggling finding a name that we love. Our first daughter is Charlotte Lucy Grabiner. We are working on using the nickname Lottie more regularly (shes 2.5 now). My husband is Josh and I am Jennifer.
This might be an unusual situation but we actually only have boy names that we love – lol! So I thought maybe if I shared those with you you might be able to come up with some girl names in a similar style so that we can finally find one we really and truly love. The girl’s name does not by any means need to be a feminine form of any of the boy ones, rather I am looking for one that has a similar quality or style to it. I’m not sure how you would categorize our taste (southern, classic, not popular but not too unusual, strong, prep school like – ha ha, ??? I’m having trouble putting it into words). Anyway so here’s the boy name list. Good luck and thank you!!!!
Emmett
Whittaker (our #1 choice for a boy – Whittaker Bates Grabiner, Whitt for short)
Bennett
Everett
Landon
Dexter
Fisher (middle)
Mark (middle)
Bentley
Bates (middle)
Yates
Preston
Graham
Penn
Blake
Anderson
It depends in part on whether you plan to have more children. If you might have a boy in the future, I would want to be careful not to suggest a girl name that would rule out a favorite boy name: for example, if you’re planning more children and would definitely want to use Whittaker for a boy, I wouldn’t want to try to sell you on Whitney. But if you’re definitely stopping at two, I’d be looking for ways to get you something close to the names you weren’t going to get to use. Also, if you’re planning more children and would use Whittaker, I might look for double-T names for this baby as well, just for fun.
Another issue is that it’s common to have quite a different style for girls than for boys. The name Charlotte is vintage, literary, and currently popular; I wouldn’t use those same adjectives for very many of the names on your boy-name list. If I’d seen only your boy-name list and didn’t know you had a Charlotte, I might be suggesting names such as Sloane, Carrington, Britt, Bex, Kerrigan, Presley, Lane, Darby, Padgett, Yeardley, Greer, Ellery, Waverly, Whitley, Hollis, Rowan. If I’d seen you had a daughter named Charlotte but didn’t see your boy-name list, I might be suggesting names such as Evelyn, Eleanor, Josephine, Vivian, Nora, Abigail.
When I look at names that go well with your boy-name style, I keep coming up with options that seem to clash with Charlotte: Charlotte and Peyton, Charlotte and Berkeley, Charlotte and Avery, Charlotte and Lennox. This makes me hesitate to answer your question as asked. Because your daughter’s middle name is also vintage, literary, and currently popular, I tentatively conclude that your style for girls is different than your style for boys—though there is some overlap in names such as Emmett, Everett, and Graham.
Charlotte is a name that can sound sweet or sassy. Others that seem like that to me, without clashing:
Beatrix
Camilla
Cecily
Eliza
Emeline
Esther
Eve
Fiona
Frances
Georgia
Harriet
Josephine
Katherine
Lila
Matilda
Nora
Philippa
Phoebe
Ruby
Simone
Stella
Vivian
Winifred
Name update!
I deeply apologize for this email coming so much later than I ever anticipated. I want to thank y’all and everyone else for the immense amount of help y’all provided us in naming our sweet baby girl.
August 1, 2013 we welcomed our 2nd daughter, Emmeline Rose Grabiner, sister to Charlotte Lucy Grabiner.
Swistle and many commenters suggested the name Emmaline/Emaline/Emeline. As I wrote in my interim update, I was in love with the name Emmaline. My husband, however was not.
Over much discussion we found that we wanted to avoid a nn of Emma due to its popularity (#1 name the previous year). Also, many Google searches later I discovered the historical version of Emmaline is actually Emmeline. I liked that that the name had a history, that it avoided a natural nickname of Emma from its spelling, and allowed for a more acceptable nickname to us of Emmie.
Rose is a family name.
So we now have a Charlotte and an Emmeline. And although we don’t use them all that much now, we have nicknames of Lottie and Emmie. Love!
Thank you again and again for all the help!!
Jennifer
I have followed Swistle’s lead and listed names in the same way she did, so many great suggestions I hope I don’t confuse you further by adding to the list of many great possibilities.
Names that I think would go well with Charlotte without knowing your boy name list:
Amelia
Sophie
Hannah
Isobel
Olivia
Emily
Anna or Annabelle
Alexandra
Harriet (Hattie and Rosie)
Elizabeth/ Eliza
Daisy
Holly
Rosemary ( Lottie and Rosie)
April
Hazel
Grace
Amy
Penelope (Penny and Lottie)
Adelaide
Edith/ Edie
Alice
Louise/ Louisa
Clare or Clarabelle
Cate/ Kate/ Catherine/Katherine
Magnolia (Lottie and Maggie) or Margaret
Girls names that feel the same or look the same as your boys names – found this hard and mostly went for names that are surnamey or sound strong or bold to me but I did try to keep Charlotte in mind too:
Emerson
Maddison
MacKenzie
Delaney
Cassidy
Raleigh
Regan
Blaise
Paisley
Blythe
Quintin
Aster
Piper
Lyric
Avery/Ava
Evelyn/ Eva/ Evie
Ivy
This was lots of fun, hope it helps and all the best:)
Wanted to add that Cassie and Lottie sounds good if you liked Cassidy. Cassidy has that surnamey feel and sounds southern too. Charlotte and Cassidy
From Swistle’s suggestions I like Fiona, Harriet, Josephine, and Ruby for you.
Or how about Alice, Grace, or Olivia?
Hmm, to me Charlotte says “classically feminine” while the boy names say “preppy,” so my list includes girl names from both. I really like Sloane, Darby, and Georgia from those Swistle mentioned. You might also like:
Caroline – I like as a sister name for Charlotte
Whitney
Brigid
Sabrina
Patrice
Letitia – Lottie and Lettie, maybe a bit confusing, but cute
Delphine
How did you pick Charlotte Lucy? Do the names have family significance, did you just love them individually, did you have a favorite teacher named Lucy? Figuring out what made you pick Charlotte’s name might help figure out where to look for your second daughter’s name.
From your boys list, and keeping in mind Charlotte’s name, it seems you do like the T sound, with that in mind:
Scarlett – Lottie and Carly (Scarlett Mary and Charlotte Lucy could be Lottie Lu and Carly May)
Harriet – Lottie and Hattie
Martha/Matilda – Lottie and Mattie
Juliette – Lottie and Julie
Another sound that repeats itself in your boy list is – ay – , so with that in mind:
Maisie/Macy
Katherine – Lottie and Katie
Maeve
Adelaide
Some more ‘southern’ sounding names:
Stella
Magnolia
Susannah
Tallulah
Louisa
Azalea
Some left-fielders:
Annesley
Bellamy
Carrigan
Winslow – Winnie?
Brynn
Somerset
Blair
Hadley
Auden
Wren
For middle names, Rose and Mae are always nice and go well with Lucy.
Here’s my list. I tried to find things that would go with Charlotte and Whittaker, but I also included Graham since it seems to kind of bridge the gap between the 2.
Annalise, Ava, Cordelia, Cora, Lilah, Audrey, Emily, Violet, Gemma & Daphne
Charlotte Lucy strikes me as very literary (I’m thinking Charlotte’s Web and Narnia’s Lucy Pevensie). Even if it’s not intentional I think it’s a nice theme that I could imagine continuing, so I would probably try to find a literary name that style wise (not popular not unusual etc.) still seems connected to your boy name list (if that makes any sense).
Anne
Aurora
Beatrice
Clarissa
Cecilia
Ellis
Fleur
Lavinia
Georgia/ Georgie
Caroline
Louisa
Katherine
Alice
Emily
Magnolia
Samantha
Pearl
Reese
Natalie
Lauren
Helen
Susannah
I almost always agree with Swistle’s genius, but I think she missed the mark this time! There are PLENTY of spunky girls’ names with Southern, preppy charm. Here are a few I think would work marvelously with your family:
Georgia (Georgie)
Caroline
Clementine
Mary ______ (Mary Claire or Mary Kate would be lovely)
Annabel (Annie, Belle)
Piper
Virginia (Ginny)
Delilah (Lila/h)
Felicity
Brooke
Belle
Clara
Daisy
Margaret (Maggie, Maisie)
Savannah
Alexandria (Allie, Alex, Lex)
Augusta (Gussie)
Susannah (Susie, Annie)
Violet
Emmett makes me think Emma or Emily (but I wouldn’t do Emily unless you want endless comparisons with the Brontes).
Both Charlotte and Lucy are author names (Bronte and Montgomery), so maybe you’d like more author names? Georgette (Heyer), Josephine (Tey), Agatha (Christie), Louisa (Alcott), Frances (Burnett), Noel (Streatfeild), Enid (Blyton), Joanna (Spyri), Jane (Austen), Margaret (Maron), Dana (Stabenow)
Re: the suggestions of Georgia, Savannah, and other place names. Although Charlotte, on its own, as a girls’ name, isn’t often associated with the city of Charlotte, once you start adding in other Southern place names, it gets a little theme-y for my tastes.
Otherwise – fun project! The adult Charlotte I know DID in fact go to prep school, so I can make the link between your boy list and that name quite easily.
I like the suggestions of Magnolia and Adelaide.
Paisley popped into my head and now I can’t get it out. Paisley Yates Grabiner maybe?
Meredith
Simone
Sophie
Tess(a)
You need a name that works with both Charlotte and Whittaker, Lottie and Whitt. You want a name that would sound at home on a prep school playground.
From Swistle’s suggestions, I really like Frances (Frannie) and Matilda (Tillie). I also like Beatriz, but I would use Dante’s spelling of Beatrice.
Here are my other suggestions:
– Edith (Wharton), nn Edie, Charlotte, Edith, and Whittaker.
– Edna (St. Vincent Millay), nn Edie, Charlotte, Edna, and Whittaker.
– Evangeline (Longfellow poem), nn Evie, Charlotte, Evangeline, and Whittaker.
– Corrina (Greek poet), Charlotte, Corrina, and Whittaker.
– Vanessa (Jonathan Swift), Charlotte, Vanessa, and Whittaker.
Perhaps categorizing your styles into a theme is overcomplicating things. Instead, let’s think of names that go with both Charlotte and Whittaker (and Lottie and Whitt) nicely.
Kathryn (nn Kat, Kit, Kitty, Ryn)
Charlotte, Whittaker and Kathryn
Lottie, Whitt and Kitty
Madeleine (nn Maddie, Leni)
Charlotte, Whittaker and Madeleine
Lottie, Whitt and Leni
Josephine (nn Josie)
Charlotte, Whittaker and Josephine
Lottie, Whitt and Josie
Avalon (nn Ava?)
Charlotte, Whittaker and Avalon
Lottie, Whitt and Ava
Miriam (nn Miri)
Charlotte, Whittaker and Miriam
Lottie, Whitt and Miri
Works well with both Charlotte and your “Boy Name” List:
Daphne
Claire
Jillian
Sadie (either directly or as a nn for Sarah)
Evangeline
Good luck! Hopefully this is helpful. :)
I see someone else already suggested Gemma, and that was literally the name that jumped into my brain when I read this! There are lots of names I’d second (Magnolia, Harriet nn Hattie…) but Gemma seems to bridge the gap nicely. A bonus is it’s neither insanely popular or completely unused. I notice you didn’t mention a set middle name, in which case Gemma Claire is divine and gets my vote. Charlotte Lucy, Gemma Claire and perhaps a future Whittaker? :)
Also, Lottie and Gem? Please. So adorable!
Just piping in to say I’m another one with a longer list for boys than girls. I like Stellan more than Stella, Milan rather than Mila and so on, so this seems like fun! The obvious suggestions would be Emma, Emily, Evelyn, Eva, Penelope or Grace all of which are gorgeous with Charlotte. There are already so many good suggestions, so I’ll try not to repeat!
From Whittaker:
Waverly
Willa (or Wilhelmena/Willemena)
From Landon and Anderson:
Lisanne
Annaliese
Lillian
From the Bs:
Beatrix/ Beatrice
Bellamy
Bette (maybe from Isabetta?)
Brigitte
From Graham, Everett and the ‘et’ endings:
Greta
Vivienne
From a combination:
Gloria
Natalie
Dorothy
Eleanor
Flora
Millicent
From the middle names:
Faith
Mae
Bay
Kate
Rita
My favourites would be:
Charlotte Lucy and Willa Mae
Charlotte Lucy and Beatrice Faith
Charlotte Lucy and VIvienne Bay
Charlotte Lucy and Lisanne Rita
I think Susanna, spelled this way too, fits perfectly with Charlotte. It is also a very pretty, underused name in my opinion.
Charlotte Lucy and Susanna Jane perhaps?
Nicknames Susie (too cute), Anna, Annie or Zanna.
I also think that the name Jenna sounds great with Charlotte and is maybe a better fit with the boys’ names you like.
Charlotte Lucy and Jenna Louise perhaps?
All the best!
Have you considered any of the names from your boy list for a girl? I know Blake is becoming more popular for girls, in fact in my neighborhood we have girls named Charlotte and Blake who are both in kindergarten. Even though Charlotte is a classic/traditional girls name and Blake is more androgynous/surnamey, I do feel like they are both trendy for girls right now so it wouldn’t seem weird to me if they were a sibling set.
Other names I think go well with Charlotte:
Holland/Hollis, nn Holly
Phillipa, nn Pippa
Eden/Edith, nn Edie
Eve/Eva/Evelyn, nn Evie
Caroline, nn Carrie or Callie
Lillian, nn Lily
Elizabeth, a million possible nicknames :)
Annabelle, nn Annie
Arabella, nn Ari
Rosalie/Rose/Rosemary, nn Rosie or Romy
Harriet, nn Hattie
Henrietta, nn Hennie
Meredith, nn Merry
good luck!
I think the focus is a little too strong toward finding a “matching” sibling name; I don’t think Charlotte falls squarely in a highly specific name category from which you cannot deviate. I tried to work with your list of boys’ names to create similar sounding girls’ names that sound alright to me with the name Charlotte. Here’s what I came up with, my apologies if I’m repeating previous suggestions!
Emmett > Emma/Emmaline, Ellis, Ella, Ellery
Whittaker > Whitney, Willa, Wilhemina, Winnie
Everett > Everly, Avery, Everlyn, Evelyn
Landon > Linden (this is one of my FAVOURITE girl names!)
Dexter > Odessa
Fisher (middle) > Finley
Mark (middle) > Marlowe/Marlo/Marla, Marcy, Mallory, Marina, Marta/Martha
Bentley > Penelope
Yates > Yale/Yael/Yail
Preston > Paisley, Paige
Penn > Penelope, Penny, Drew, Sloane
Blake > Blakely, Blythe, Brooke
Anderson > Antonia, Annette, Andrea, Drew (Anderson reminded me of Andrew which led to Drew as a female version)
I hope this helps!
I typed some of your boys’ names into babynamewizard.com to see what came up for sibling names. Here are some options [I starred my favorites]:
Lillian [Lily]
Brett
Cameron
*Marin/Maryn
Addison [Addie]
Meredith
Blair
Blaine
Blake
*Justine
Aubrey [kind of a tongue twister w/ Grabiner]
*Avery
*Elise
Phoebe
*Talia
I think an -er name would be awkward with Grabiner, but since you like Whittaker:
Harper
Parker
From others’ suggestions I like:
Penelope
What about Bryn or Brinley?
Just some more suggestions to add to your growing list! Some may be duplicates, but this is what I thought of before looking at suggestions from others.
Lavinia
Gwendolyn
Evelene
Octavia
Nellie
Rosetta
Blanche
Phoebe
Georgiana (nn Gigi)
Geraldine (Gigi again)
I’m going to throw in one of my current favorites, Cecelia, nn CeCe. Lottie, CeCe, & Whit. Charlotte, Cecelia, and Whittaker.
Darcy?
You might be interested in playing around with Nymbler (nymbler.com), which allows you to generate lists of names based on names you already like. I put in Charlotte and Whittaker and came up with:
Ella
Ava
Josephine (Josie)
Constance
Michaela
Jane
Harper
Philippa (Pippa, Phillie)
Audrey
Alice
Victoria
Rose
Adelaide (Addie, Adele)
Clara
Hannah
Georgia (Georgie)
Rosabel (Rosie, Belle)
Lena
Violet
It also came up with a bunch of other names that didn’t seem to fit your style (Mathilde?), so it’s worth going back to Nymbler to poke around.
Leighton seems like a really good fit.
I love the nicknames Lottie and Whitt. Totally southern and charming! I like Georgiana with Georgie as a nickname and Evangeline with Evie as a nickname. It also sounds good with the sibling names. Lottie, Whitt and Georgie or Lottie, Whitt and Evie :)
When I read your list: “southern, classic, not popular but not too unusual, strong, prep school like” Ainsley/Ansley immediately popped into my head.
Have you considered Whittaker for a girl or will there potentially be #3? I think it works just as well and works with Charlotte too. I actually had it on a potential girl list but had a boy)… Whittaker Jane, Whittaker Faye?
I also really like Jane, Paisley, Phoebe, Helena (nn Nell?), Magnolia (Maggie, Nolie, Lia) or Magdalene (Maggie or Lena), Waverly, Susannah (Sunny), Penelope (Poppy), Mallory (I know this can sound a little dated to some but I really like it and like Charlotte and Mallory together though not sure about Lottie and Mallory or Lottie and Molly – maybe too matchy sounding). I love Georgia but not sure with Charlotte if a little to place-namey. Or how about…
Zoe
Sylvie
Norah
Blakely
Quinn
Avalon
Edith (adore Edie… side note, I also love Enid!)
Sage
Tess (You could even do Theresa/Therese nn Tess… or you could just name her Tessa but I love the simplicity of Tess. Lottie and Tess.)
Cora
Ruby
Dahlia
Give us some more feedback and lets go from there!
I like the suggestion of Darcy and also Simone. I know a sister set called Charlotte and Simone. The best suggestion may be Cecelia. Lottie, Cece and Whitt.
Hi y’all!!
This is so fun AND so helpful! Thank you!!! I need to really sit down and sift through all of the suggestions with my husband but to answer a few questions…
We chose Charlotte partially for the city name and partially because we just loved it.
Lucy is a family name – great grandmother.
Right off the bat I can tell y’all that some of these names I love but alas we can not choose do to close friends/relatives having just chosen the name for their little girls:
Stella
Eleanor (Elle) (which unfortunately rules out any of the Emma names too and I LOVE Emmaline, even though my husband does not, Emma is too popular for him)
Georgia
Lilliana or Lilly
Jane
Annabelle
Clara, Claire
Grace
I think that covers all the ones suggested that have to be eliminated. Also, my husband has vetoed a double name :(. :(.
Oh and also our last name is pronounced as one syllable (Eliminate the I – so Grabner), if that helps.
Thank y’all again and again!!
*due*
Oops also no Adelaide.
Thank you!!
I agree, the names don’t need to match so much as have the same feel to them.
My favourites that I think would go well with Charlotte (and a Whittaker):
Emmaline
Adalaide
Adeline
Penelope
Gemma