First post of this series, with longer explanation, here.
This time we are not listing our favorite names starting with a letter, as we did before: we are forming SIBSETS. You can choose any number of siblings, any number of boys/girls, any number of sibsets. This might be TOO broad in scope and, as we play, we might come up with better guidelines. But for now, the idea is that we are imagining a little sibling set of children (they do not have to be our own children), and all of their names are going to start with the same letter, and we will just see how things go from there. As before, you can say as much or as little as you like about your decision-making process, and you can choose multiple sibling sets (“This is what I’d choose for two girls, this is what I’d choose for three boys, this is what I’d choose for one boy and one girl…”) or just one—whatever is most fun / whatever you have the time and energy for on that particular day. I liked the idea some people had of re-naming their actual children with matching initials. (I am not going to attempt that with the more difficult letters.)
Today we work on the letter U. I have been procrastinating on this letter. When we played the previous game with U, I was pretty much at a loss; under pressure, I chose Ursula (which I at least appreciate) and Umberto (which felt like a cultural steal). I was also able to imagine using Una. I don’t think any of these work particularly well in sibling sets. Ursula and Una feel as if they both got U__a but one of them got more name than the other. Umberto feels like a style clash with Ursula, though maybe it works with Una: Una and Umberto, yes I think that’s pretty okay. Going back to the very short list of U names, I don’t see anything else I want to use, but if I were forming some sibling sets for someone else, I might pair Ursula and Ulysses, or (and I’d like to state ahead of time that I would advise against using the names in this next pairing, but I think they go together stylistically) Unity and Urban. But in short, I look forward to moving on to T.
I don’t love many U names, but girls are a bit easier. Una, Unity, and Urina are all nice together. Ursula is also nice, but my young daughters are obsessed with The Little Mermaid and I can’t imagine Ursula as anything other than the villain. For boys, Ulysses is nice, as is Urban. If I were to rename my kids with U names, they would be Ulysses, Unity, Urina, Una and Ulyana.
I think U is actually a bit easier since there are so few U names I like.
I chose Una and Ulysses for my favorites, and I think those work nicely for sibling names. I like that they start with a different sound (Oo-na and You-lysses) and have different internal sounds as well, not too matchy.
Ursula and Ulysses! I am bummed that the Little Mermaid ruined Ursula for an entire generation and then some. It’s such a fantastic name.
I actually love the name Ursula despite of The Little Mermaid being my favorite film as a little girl. I “reclaimed” it sort of in high school as the name of my fictional gryphon character when I was a part of an online community called The Gryphon’s Guild. Back then, we did a lot of role playing and writing collaborative stories. Ursula was a gryphon of my own creation… part snowy eagle and part polarbear (hence the name “Ursula”… aka “little bear” from the name Ursa meaning “she-bear”.)
Anyway, long story short: I would definitely use Ursula in a sibset with the letter U. Now for her siblings…
I would probably keep the mythological and/or Greek connection and choose Undine for a sister and Urian for a brother. Ursula, Undine, Urian. They all have a different pronunciation for their initial “u” sound, which is kind of cool, and don’t repeat an ending sound.
Umber and Usher would work, though not my style at all.
I would probably use Upton as it is a family name, though not very first name friendly.
I would hope for only one kid if I could only use U names!
Ulrike and Ueli maybe? I like them both individually, but I’m not sure I love them as a sib set. U is a tough letter for this exercise!
Ulrich, Unity and Umbelina.
Ulani, Uma and Uziel
I find this letter extremely tricky, but want to play! My son has a friend Unitus (so the name now feels warm and familiar – pronounced “unite us”), so I have one down! Renaming my current children B-B-G, I would choose: Unitus, Ulrich, and Umrah.
Ursa & Ulysses
Ursa & Uma
Ulysses & Ulf
Una & Ulla
Una & Ulrich, I guess.
Don’t love U!
Oh gosh this isn’t an easy one!
So, renaming my kids + fictional (in my dreams) third baby:
Ursula
Umberto
Ulla
Unity is ruined for me by Unity Mitford, Ursula bumped up several hundred points by the Kate Atkinson book Life After Life. On a tangent, she is a GREAT fictional namer – Pearl, Ruby, Ada, Isobel, Effie, Juliet, all before they were (as) mainstream.
I really like the sound of Una for girl’s name but it must be spelled oona, which defeats the whole premise. Umbra might work.
For a boy, I like Uther. And he’d get a middle name that starts with P and isn’t pendragon, maybe Phillip. Uther Phillip, yeah I like that.
Uriel, Ubaldo, Ulises and their sisters Uma and Ursual
*Ursula.
Ulysses, Ursula, Ulrich, and Uma. Of those, the only one I would actually consider for a real-life child is Ursula, but I am relatively satisfied that the sibset goes together without any huge outliers in style.
Looking forward to T, S, and R!
Una
Ursula
Ukko
Urban
Ulli
Uria
Ursulaide & Uriah