Hi Swistle,
I wrote to you in 2015 when we were expecting our first baby! You featured our question and we had a wonderful little boy and called him Forre$t James thanks to you and your readers help and advice 😊
We are expecting our second baby and due in January 2018, we are really really struggling with names this time. Not even having a favourite and I am beginning to worry it will be a baby with no name once he/ she is born.
We haven’t found out the sex and are excited to have either a boy or a girl.
We sadly had a miscarriage in March and feel this has clouded our decision on names this time as associated Thelma with a baby girl. We didn’t find out the sex of the baby we lost but if it was a girl it would have been named Thelma.
We don’t want a name beginning with H for our baby as don’t want the same initial as our surname.
Our boy name would have been Marty but we have a close friend with a boy called this so can’t use it.
The names we like this time (but don’t seem to love) are:
Girls:
Thelma (not sure if I associated this with a baby girl and after miscarriage feel differently about it now)Daia or Darla (but a close friend has said she is going to call her baby Dana and we feel this is too similar)
Juniper
Jovie
Sylvie (don’t seem to mind the ie ey rhyming like I did last time!)For boys:
Lynwood (we sometimes call Forre$t woody as a nickname, not out loud just in messages to family and friends so this might be too confusing!)Kepler (like the unusual name but think this may be too extreme)
Grey
And that’s it for boys… 🤔😖
Please help!!
From Jo$eph, K@yley & Forre$t H@rtley
Mazel tov! And I am so sorry about your earlier miscarriage
Similar to Thelma and Sylvie (I assume you thought about Sylvia?)
– Hilda/Hildie
– Irene
– Ilene/Eileen
– Esther/Estelle/Estey
– Margorie
– Evelyn
– Zelda
Similar to Juniper (in my mind anyway)
– Rosemary
– Marigold
– Daphne
– Penelope
I don’t think Darla is too close to Dana. But similar to Darla is Carla. And maybe Barbara?
A brother name for Forrest that keeps calling me is Glenn. They’re both nature names, but they’re also both names that don’t scream “nature name!!!”
And I don’t know why, but I think Edison is similar to Lynnwood. Does that even make sense?
So I love Sylvie because of the subtle similar meaning to Forrest. Cecelia? Estelle is a great suggestion. Delia?
For a boy: Warren or Alden,
Juniper (a type of tree) and Sylvie or Sylvia (which come from Latin “silva,” meaning forest) both have subtle links to your son’s name.
What do you think of Maple or Mabel for a girl? And Linden might be perfect for a boy; it’s also a type of tree, but it avoids the confusing overlap of Lynwood / Woody. I vote for Linden! Or there are the variants Lindon, Lyndon, Linford, and Linton.
On the “tree” theme, there’s also Ash, Palmer, Wilton, and Silas (probably derives from Silvanus) for boys; Aspen, Olive, Laurel, Willow, and Tamara (from “palm tree”) for girls; Rowan for either.
For girls, the Thelma/Sylvia feel makes me think of Margaret, Mary, or Louise.
Darla is not too close to Dana at all…that’s a sweet, underused name.
I like Cassandra with Forrest.
For boys, what about…Fletcher? (Too matchy? I think it sounds good with Forrest. :)) Asher is cute, and pulls in a little tie with Forrest (Ash tree). Miles? Bennett?
I love Darla — and don’t think it sounds like Dana at all.
I love all your choices, and wanted to add Alma or Alba for a girl or Walter for a boy. Love the idea of Linden as well.
Congratulations!
As someone who also dealt with miscarriages, I found that my name choices evolved over time naturally. My later children didn’t end up with the names we had planned on earlier. In retrospect, I think it would have been fine to use those names, though. The new child quickly becomes the name that you had loved. However, if you had a very strong feeling that Thelma was the child you lost, then that could change the equation. Names that may match your style:
Dahlia
Meredith
Tilda/Matilda
Liora
Ellen
Trudy
Lula
Harold
Vincent
Victor
Beckett
Kingston
Leonard
Since you seem to like a surname-type vibe for boys, have you checked your own family tree for ideas? Good luck and congrats!
I’m so sorry about your miscarriage.
I don’t think Darla is too close to Dana, but if it bothers you, what about Delia? Or I love someone’s suggestion of Matilda/Tilly/Mattie.
As for a boy, I don’t think Kepler is too ‘out there.’ When I hear it, I know how to spell it and when I read it, I know how to pronounce it; I think those are the biggest hurdles for unusual names. I would avoid Lynwood based on Forre$t’s nickname.
What about Fable for a girl?
I was at a toy store one day when I heard a beautiful mom call her beautiful little girl Fable- it immediately caught my attention!
F0rrest and Fable- I LOVE IT!
I see that you like both traditional and uncommon names so going to suggest some of both types.
Girls:
Celeste
From your list Sylvie although I question if people would call her Sylvia
Alera
Fiona
Della
Boys:
Boman
Marshall
Landry
Unisex: Lakyn
Martha! Similar to Marty, but no confusion with your friends’ kid. And similar in style to Thelma. And I also just think it’s an extraordinarily beautiful name that nobody uses.
I wonder if you’d like Darcy for a girl? It similar but has different sounds than Dana. Or Yardley. Would Louise be too close to Thelma for you to be ok with using it? Forrest and Louise sounds dreamy!
For boys, maybe Davis, Garrett, or Jefferson? I like Grey, too. Honestly, I don’t find Kepler to be too “out there.” If you said the name aloud, I bet most people would know how to spell it. I’m sorry for your previous lost. Best of luck!
So Davis and Forrest or Jefferson and Forrest would be just a little too confederate for me.
Why not Martin for a boy or Martine or Marta for a girl? Like Forrest, Martin’s a surname and Marty would be logical nickname for either. I know a woman nicknamed Marty; she’s a pretty kick-butt octogenarian.
I like Juniper or Grey best from your list. Darla’s not that close to Dana to my ear, and my ear often misinterprets sounds, since it’s not all that functional, so that’s something. That first A has a slightly different sound and RL and N have very different tones. Now Carrie and Gerry, that’s a different kettle of fish.
For a lady:
Selma
Susannah (ends with an ‘h’, but it doesn’t have to, and you can’t hear it. :) ) Also means ‘lily’
Estelle
Mavis
Irene
For another gentleman:
Glenn! (I agree with an above poster on this one!)
Dale
Floyd
Kincade
Kelvin
Rockwell
Congratulations on your little one, and my condolences on the loss of your last child. Best wishes to your family!
Parker, Carter, Ryder, Logan, Miles, Archer
Autumn, Summer, Jasmine, Amber, Emerald, India
Kepler is a great name! What about Reeve or Ledger?
Darla doesn’t sound like Dana to me. Do you like Daria or Delta?
Good luck!
I’m Australian so I don’t have enough associations with Forrest to suggest sibling names. I am commenting to say that I don’t think Dana rules out Darla (or Daria, or Dahlia). Kepler isn’t unusual to me because it is highly familiar through Kepler Wessels, younger people may not remember him though.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I know everyone copes with loss differently but I wanted to share my cousin’s point of view in case it could help you feel closure or comfort in using Thelma. She never knew the sex of the baby she lost, though she had a strong hunch it was a girl and had a name picked. When she got pregnant again she planned to use the same name and explained to me she never believed she lost that baby. She believed it was in a body that wasn’t able to survive and it delayed her meeting her child. But this new baby (she’s 30 w pregnant now, we know it’s a girl) is the same soul and now in a body better able to take on the world.
Good luck. I think you have great choices. My favorites are Kepler ( which I think will fit in great with his generation, not extreme at all) and Thelma if it feels right or Sylvie if it doesn’t.
I’m sorry for your loss. If that baby was a Thelma, at least in your mind, don’t use it for this other baby.
I love the Forrest nn Wood idea. I reminds me of another of Swistle’s blog posts, about an Aurelia nn Goldie, and I think that could work for you.
I also suggest Petra for a girl and Lloyd for a boy.
You have lovely choices, and there are so many wonderful responses. I would like to add Flora and Gwen (Gwendolyn, Gwenyth, Guinevere—take tour pick) to your girls list. I think Heath could be a contender for a boy, or maybe August.
Good luck! Send us an update!
Gareth or Sylvan/Silvan for a boy?
Jovana/Giovanna – nn Jovie. Jovie is such a great nn
Nola
Eleanor nn Nell
Thea, Theodora
Eliza
Susanna
Louisa, nn Lula
Joy
Daria
Ada
JOanna VIvian (Nickname Jovie) – you could do this with a combo of names that begin with “Jo” and middle names that begin with Vi or start with just a V.
— Josephine Violet
— Johanna Violet
— Joy Victoria
JOanna SylVIE nn Jovie could also work! or Sylvia.
The first name that came to mind for a girl was Sybil. I also like the suggestions of Martha and Estelle. I think I would only consider Thelma as a middle at this point. From your list, my fave is Sylvie.
For a boy, I like Gray from your list. A few others:
Burke
Warren
Everett
Sybill is a great idea!
Forrest and Reed? I really like it but are they too matchy?
Forrest and Daisy, Iris or Opal.
Aven is a mountain flower.
I really like the sound of Forrest and Emerald together!
Someone else suggested Dahlia. I LOVE that.
Having suffered through multiple miscarriages myself…I FEEL YOU. Can I suggest getting yourself a Jizo statue? It’s a Japanese Buddhist deity who is the patron saint of, among other things, mothers and children. He’s often used to help usher in peace for women grieving losses. I have a cast iron one from Canoe and the weight in my hand feels appropriate for the losses that I’ve suffered.