Hello Swistle!
My husband and I are expecting our first baby this fall and we just found out it’s a girl! I thought naming a girl would be easy, but I was so wrong! We have a few names on our short list but could use some help with middle names or looking at some names we haven’t considered. I’m not super into honor names, but don’t mind a gentle nod to a loved one. Our last name is similar to Radcliffe and our short list includes: Ivy, Frisco (our favorite place to visit in Colorado), Felicity and Marigold (a nod to my grandmother, Marilyn).
I am struggling with the middle name. I always thought I would use my middle name which is Elizabeth. It has been in my family for generations and is my husband’s mother’s name. Im not sure sounds that great with any of the names on my list. I am also oddly concerned with the initials… IER doesn’t look that elegant to me. We will likely have 2 kids in total… but seeing how this first one goes before we make that decision :)
Let me know what you think!
Expectant mom Radcliffe
Especially for first-time parents who may wish to have more children, I like to advise starting the naming process by thinking bigger-picture about your overall naming style, and also looking ahead to sibling names. The story everyone here is tired of by now is that when Paul and I were expecting Rob, but didn’t yet know he was a boy, we were very keen on the name Emerson for a girl—but we hadn’t noticed/realized that Emerson is a strong outlier for our usual naming style (other girl names we like include Elizabeth, Genevieve, Margaret, Josephine, Penelope, Jane, Ivy, etc.), so if we HAD named our first child Emerson, we would have had a huge struggle coming up with sibling names that fit our tastes AND worked well with the name Emerson.
The name that stands out to me as an outlier on your list is Frisco. Ivy, Felicity, and Marigold are all traditional feminine names with a whimsical/storybook/British flair, and they would be lovely together as a little group of sisters; Frisco is a unisex place-name not currently used as a baby name in the United States, and it would sound odd as a sister name for any of the other names on the list. Other issues that stand out to me about the name Frisco: the similarity to the words Crisco and frisk/frisky, and confusion with the nickname people from San Francisco hate.
In a different situation, I might suggest Frisco as a middle name: it’s challenging as a first name, but might work great as a fun and meaningful middle name. But never mind that, because really what I want to say is USE ELIZABETH FOR SURE. It’s your own middle name! It’s been in your family for generations! In the long run I don’t think any of the concerns you mention are going to be actual concerns, and we just recently did a post where it turned out MANY of us regretted not using our own names in our children’s names. Plus, I think it sounds WONDERFUL with all the other names! Ivy Elizabeth! Felicity Elizabeth! Marigold Elizabeth! ALL FABULOUS. But even if it DIDN’T sound so great, I think that’s another concern that melts away with time: it’s so rare to say the whole name together.
(Depending on how similar your surname is to Radcliffe: if it’s VERY similar, I think if I were you I would remove Ivy from the list, because of Radcliffe’s association with Ivy League schools. If you really, really, really wanted to use Ivy, and it was the only girl name you could agree on, and the main concern you were writing to us about was the Ivy League thing, I would likely say never mind, it’s not that big a deal. But with other good options on your list, it’s an association I’d want to avoid.)
Anyway. I don’t want to help you find another middle name. I want you to use Elizabeth. I see no room for regretting using it, and I see a LOT of potential for regretting NOT using it. Let’s focus instead on finding you a few more first names to consider.
Annabel
Beatrix
Cecily
Clarissa
Cordelia
Dahlia
Eloise
Fiona
Francesca
Genevieve
Harriet
Henrietta
Imogen (Midge!)
Josephine (Posey!)
Louisa
Matilda
Millicent
Minerva
Olive
Penelope
Persephone (Percy!)
Rosemary
Winifred
Some of these have initials I thought you might not prefer, but I included them anyway because none of them seemed like deal-breakers to me, and I am generally someone who prefers to avoid awkward/word initials. Part of it is that I was reminded by those recent posts I linked to that I have not thought/cared really at all about my children’s initials since they were babies. Part of it is that NONE of the initials seem like they come even CLOSE to being important enough to be worth giving up using Elizabeth.
Name update:
Hello!
I have an exciting update! After a lot of thought and help from you and the comments, we just kept coming back to Ivy. Happy to announce that Ivy Elizabeth was born in November : ) Thank you so much for your help and making sure I kept Elizabeth as part of her name.
Thanks again!
I definitely thought Crisco right away!
Ivy and Marigold are my favorites from your list. Swistle is right! Definitely use Elizabeth. I really wish the women in my family had a name passed down through generations I could have given to my daughters.
Hmm, I don’t see anything wrong with the initials IER. I’ve never thought about initials being elegant or not.
My favorite from your list is Felicity. My least favorite is Frisco, which I’d put in the “names for pets” category. I didn’t know it was a city in Colorado but I didn’t know it was a nickname for SF that locals hate. But I do think it would be cute on a dog or cat!
Ivy Elizabeth! 😍
I’d also suggest Margot Elizabeth (Margot could also be a nod to Marilyn).
Felicity is my favorite! And agree with an above poster that Frisco is a great name for a future pet. You have a nice story with the name but it doesn’t evoke the same feelings as the other 3. Enthusiastic vote yes for Elizabeth in the middle.
My only association with the word Frisco is the Frisco melt sandwich from Steak N Shake. I think it would be an great middle name for your second child (boy or girl).
I love Felicity Elizabeth! Ivy and Marigold are wonderful too!
As someone who hails from northern CA and definitely cringes when people refer to San Francisco as “Frisco” I am just here to say that I appreciate Swistle for pointing this out SOOOO MUCH. That’s all.
Love the name Olive from swistle’s list. Olive Elizabeth is so beautiful!
I can’t recommend the name Felicity enough! Our Felicity is now in elementary school. She loves her name and it continues to elicit delight from other people who hear it for the first time.
I can imagine wearing the name Ivy, Marigold, or Felicy. I do not think I would appreciate being named Frisco, personally. (Disclosure: I have never heard of Frisco, CO but I used to live near SF.)
I wanted my daughter to have pronounceable initials like mine (eg, ROG) but ended up choosing the names I loved even though the initials were a jumble (eg, RKG). Almost a decade later I had almost forgotten how hard I tried to find a “better” option, and my daughter sure hasn’t noticed.
I’m named after a town in Colorado (think Aspen or Vail, not Crested Butte or Beaver Creek). While I obviously love the inspiration behind the name Frisco, I think there are other ways to channel the Colorado spirit that are more in line with your overall naming style!
I can imagine Frisco being sort of a fun family pet name (as opposed to a for general use nick name) for Felicity.
Love Felicity Elizabeth.
I commented on both the name regret post and the no-regret post about using my middle name for my daughter’s first name – it’s a family name that goes back several generations as a first or middle and I LOVE it. I love the name, and the fact that we share it, and the family history she is now a part of. I would strongly encourage you to use Elizabeth as one of your daughter’s names. It’s so special sharing a name with my daughter.
I originally wanted to use my middle name as her middle name as well and wasn’t sold on it as a first name because it’s long and it has nicknames I don’t like (which haven’t been an issue so far but she’s only young). I could not fathom not using my middle name and would deeply regret it if we hadn’t used it at all.
On the issue of flow, I agree that meaning trumps slightly clunky flow or slightly strange initials. Flow and initials feel so important at the time but I don’t think it matters much afterwards. It just becomes their name. The first and last inital are probably more relevant, but still, pick a name you love (especially the first name, which you will say and write and spell all the time). For future babies I have my heart set on middle names that don’t have great flow but being named after family members matters more.
(For what it’s worth I don’t think my daughter’s first and last names flow as well as her first-middle-last, and I wouldn’t have picked those initials for her, but the names are perfect for her and full of meaning and I wouldn’t have it any other way.)
Also, I’m not sure how to link to it but this reminds me of the poster who was part of a long line of Sarahs and thinking about whether to continue the tradition with her daughter.
Oops… Having found and re-read the Sarah post it is not at all what I remembered it to be! Sorry :)
I think Frisco would be a cute nickname for Francesca or Frances! Both go beautifully with Elizabeth.
I understand about initials as my husband has vaguely comical ones in the Ima Hogg vein. IER is not in the same category. I R would be more commonly used or simply I Radcliffe. My kids never use their full initials just on their own.
I know this won’t really mean much to you as it’s a completely different country, but just adding my two cents worth to the discussion. I come from South Africa, and the first thing I thought of regarding Frisco was our very cheapest and probably one of the oldest brand of instant coffee in SA, Frisco, which brings up unfortunate connotations of falling on hard times if you have to buy it.
I would possibly opt for Swistle’s suggestion of Francesca instead.
Of your other favourite names, Ivy Elizabeth is my favourite, it is really beautiful ♥️ All the best!
I thought about this again last night & it occurred to me that Frisco was a very popular General Hospital character in the 80-90s. His love interest was named Felicia on the show. If you were to use Felicity now and had a boy second, it might knock out Frisco for him. Or if you used Frisco now & wanted to use Felicity for a 2nd girl. I know Felicity & Felicia aren’t the same name but when I said Frisco & Felicity together I immediately pictured the General Hospital characters. Or maybe the reference doesn’t matter at all; certainly not a deal breaker, but I just wanted to point it out. For reference I’m nearing 40yrs old.
As someone who has kids with the final initials G-P, I can say that if something has to give, initial flow is a good one to forget about! My kids are MJGP and NFGP neither of which are remotely catchy, and it turns out it’s something I rarely think about.
The other thing I wanted to say is that I don’t think Radcliffe is technically Ivy League? It’s kind of part of Harvard but if you thought Ivy League you’d think Harvard not Radcliffe? Correct me if I’m wrong though because I’m not even American! My only skin in that game is that I think Ivy Elizabeth is lovely.
Hm, you seem to be right. Thanks, I will change the wording.
Okay, odd-woman out here. Which is strange because I usually fully agree! I’ve thought a lot about using one of my middle names for my (hypothetical) daughter: Anne. It is a name from both of my parents’ sides (it’s my mom’s middle name too and nods to my aunt) and my MIL. So it seems obvious that I should pass it down to my daughter. But ugh, as a middle name, it just feels SO BORING and filler to me. I feel similarly about all of the “common” white/English-ish middle names. Elizabeth. Jane. Marie. Catherine. Lynn. Lee. Agh. It just wouldn’t feel special or unique to give my daughter one of those middle names, including my own!
That being said, I do find all of those names striking as first names :)
And if I were you, I’d probably do something like giving her two middle names… something like Felicity (spunky nn Frisco! Totally works!) Marigold Elizabeth Radcliffe. To pass down mine but to also get to choose more names ;)
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the initials IER, but if having a pleasing set of initials is important to you, go with Marigold Elizabeth! Then her initials would be MER, which can be pronounced like the first syllable of Marigold and could be a sweet pet name.
I assume you’re not from a part of the country that monograms everything, because there’s only one vague “issue” with the initials IER that jumps out for me: the monogram would be IRE.
Definitely a non-issue.
I adore Ivy Elizabeth!
Coming here to suggest Laurel if you like Ivy and Marigold… Laurel Elizabeth avoids the Ivy League connotation to me while still having pleasant mild connotations of honor & achievement.
Such a beautiful name: Ivy Elizabeth! I love that combo!