Laura writes:

Please help. My baby boy is due in March. His daddy is Callum and my name is Laura. We have a very Scottish last name Mac…

His big sister is Rowan Christine. This suited us because the first name is both Scottish and botanical. (Dad was born in Scotland and I’m a treehugger). Her middle name is common in both our families.

I have picked several first names for him. I love them all and cannot decide among them. I would not be disappointed with any of these names:

Alasdair
Bracken
Duncan
Heath
Lachlan
Rannoch

I like the middle name Malcolm because it literally means ‘son of Callum’. However, it does not go with all the names above. James (a family name) might do better with Duncan for example.

Please help me choose.

Thanks!

This is the perfect place for a poll! My own choice would be Heath. I like that it’s a nature name, I like it with your surname, I like it with the sibling name, and I like how easy it is to spell and pronounce. I also think it works with the middle name Malcolm: Heath Malcolm Mac_____.

My runner-up choice would be Lachlan: Celtic and nature as with the name Rowan. I would also love to see the name Alasdair become more common.

Lachlan and Duncan make me think of Declan; I wonder if that would be another possibility.

[yop_poll id=”43″]

Courtney writes:

I really enjoy your site — baby names are a favorite topic of mine! I am the type of person who has had my favorite names chosen since about the age of sixteen. Until I married the love of my life…who happens to have a last name that semi-rhymes with my favorite girl’s name! I haven’t seen this topic tackled on your site, so I thought I’d give it a try.

My name is Courtney, and my husband’s name is John. Our last name sounds like Divine (spelled with an ‘e’ in place of the ‘i.’) We will be trying to conceive in the next several months. If we have a boy, we’ll name him after my husband, whose middle name is Sharp (family name), and call him Jack. However, I am finding that our last name presents some challenges for a girl — only very classic names will go with ‘Divine’ in order to avoid the inevitable ‘that sounds like a stripper name!’ (and yes, I have gotten this quite a few times…) I do love classic names and think this best defines my naming style. I’m not afraid to take a bit of a risk but with our last name, it’s a bit difficult for me.

My favorite girl’s name is Caroline. I absolutely love the name and haven’t found another name that equals it, in my mind. This might be a bit of a stretch, but I also feel that it combines our mothers’ names in a way — which are Karen and Linda. I love the name Karen, but it seems a bit too 1950s to use now. I love names that are traditional, slightly Southern, and very feminine. Vintage is ok — for example, I love a classic name that doesn’t go out of style, but consider a name like Evelyn a little too vintage for me. Catherine is similar and very pretty, but a very close friend just named her baby Catherine. I love the name Grace, but think it might be a little weird (overly religious sounding?) with Divine. I also like the name Claire, which my husband is just ok with. Another name I like is Jane (nn Janie). My husband does not love the vintage names — I haven’t come up with one that he loves yet. An example of a vintage style name that he’s not loving is the name Audrey. His style is a bit more contemporary than mine.

Examples of middle names we could use are Lee (my original middle name and a favorite great aunt’s middle name), Shannon (my current middle name and my maiden name – I don’t care for it as a first name), Virginia (my grandmother’s middle name) and I have also thought about Allison, which is my sister’s name. Mary is also a family name we could use. I am Catholic, so I’d love to include a saint’s name if possible. Since we’d be naming a boy after my husband, we’re looking at my side of the family for a girl. :) John and I aren’t crazy about a lot of our family names, but it would be great to include an honor name of some sort.

I guess my basic question is — is the name ‘Caroline Divine’ annoyingly singsong and rhymey? I love the name Caroline, and so does my husband. It actually is one of the only girl’s names that we’ve agreed upon! Half of me feels like the name sounds like a very sweet, cute girl. The other half says, ‘no one will take her seriously with a rhyming name like that.’ I’d hate to have her teased or pre-judged later in life because of her rhyming name, just because I liked the name so much or couldn’t get on board with something else!

When I’ve asked friends and family, they are about 50-50 on whether or not to use it. What is your opinion? Is Caroline Divine too much? If so, can you recommend some other choices?

Thanks so much!

I have gone back and forth on this for four days now. Sometimes when I say “Caroline Divine,” I think it’s striking and memorable and fine. Other times I think that there are very few rhyming names that don’t sound like stage names: I find myself saying “Caroline…the DIVINE!!” in a circus announcer tone of voice. I think too that it could increase pronunciation issues: if I saw the name Caroline Divine, my first pronunciation attempt would be CaroLYN, because I’d feel silly if I guessed a rhyme where there wasn’t one.

The happy thing, though, is that the adjective divine is a very, very positive one. I can picture people saying, “It’s Caroline….THE DIVINE!!” or “Divine Caroline” pretty often, and I can picture that getting tiresome—but it’s a very different kind of tiresome than “Luke the Puke” or “Cooper-Cooper-Pooper-Scooper.”

I wonder if you’d like Karenna as an updated Karen? Karenna Lin or Karenna Lindy or Karenna Linda would be a pretty way to honor the grandmothers.

Or I wonder if you’d like Josephine: similar in look and style to Caroline, but a non-rhyming ending. A saint name, too.

Another saint option is Genevieve.

Or Winifred.

Margaret Mary Divine is pretty, or Margaret Shannon Divine, or Margaret Courtney Divine.

If you decide not to use Caroline as the first name, I think it would be nice as the middle name: the rhyme would be so much less of an issue there.

Let’s have a poll to see what everyone else thinks about Caroline Divine:

[yop_poll id=”42″]

Update (and photo!) on Baby Girl Rice, Sister to Thomas, Lila, and Audrey!
Update on Baby Boy Billespie-with-a-G, Brother to Aiden and Asher!
Update (and photo!) on Baby Girl Wickland, Sister to Georgia and Nathan!

L. writes:

The sounds of words and sentences has always been very important to me and this has translated to the name search as well.

My favorite rhythm for a name is when the second syllable of the first name corresponds to the first. For example, Amelia Martin.

We are having a baby girl in February and are hoping to find a name that works with our last name, which begins with an “F” and is three syllables. One name that I think works perfectly is Ophelia, but I think it’s off the list due both to its literary associations and potential nicknames.

Can you think of any other multi-syllabic names in which the second syllable is an “F” or a “Ph”?

Thanks so much for your help!

I found myself trying to remember the syllable-dividing rules of elementary school, and partly failing. Tiffany, for example: Is that F-sound in the first syllable or the second? If we were hyphenating it for a line-break, we’d split the two F’s: Tif-fany. So perhaps that means Tiffany has an F-sound in both the first and second syllable. Well, here are some names with an F-sound NEAR the second syllable:

Daphne
Delphine
Epiphany
Memphis
Raffaella
Saphira
Sapphire
Sofia/Sophia/Sophie
Sophronia
Stefania
Stephanie
Symphony
Tiffany

There are also a number of compound name options involving Sophie/a combinations: Sophianna, Sophiella, Sophiemarie. (I was a little surprised not to find an entry for Sophelia.)

I have a soft spot for Sophronia, nicknamed Phronsie in the book series about The Five Little Peppers.

Persephone doesn’t have the ph-sound right where you want it, but I suggest it anyway. I would love to see that name get more common.

Because F is the unvoiced V, I wonder if names with a V would also sound nice to you? Evelyn, Vivian, Ivy, Sylvia, Giovanna, etc.? I suspect, though, that those would not give the effect you’re looking for.

Grace writes:

I’m writing because I’m due with a baby girl set to arrive on May 2, 2014. My husband and I live in the south, and our taste in names I would describe as traditional/Southern/vintage. Our last name rhymes with Nixon, but starts with a D. We have one other child, a boy named Hayden Mansfield. Mansfield was my husband’s grandfather’s first name.

I never imagined we would have such difficulty deciding on a girl’s name. It seems that nearly every first name my husband and I agree upon is wildly popular right now, which is something we’d like to avoid. We also intend to choose from a list of family names for the middle name; these include Catherine and Elizabeth, among others. Our top choices include the following: Olivia Catherine (or Olivia Kate), Emma Catherine (or Emma Kate), Annabel {Middle name not yet decided}, and last but not least Blythe Elizabeth. Other names that we like but have too many friends with daugthers of the same name include Ella, Ava, and Evelyn/Evie. Obviously, Olivia and Emma are very popular right now, which is making me shy away from them. Before finding out I was having a girl, I loved the name Blythe when I heard a childhood friend name her daughter that years ago, but now I’m tending to avoid it because I’m afraid it’s too “out there,” the exact opposite of Olivia and Emma. So, what is your opinion? What do you think of Blythe? Do you think it can be classic, traditional, and Southern, or too risky/strong?

Thank you for your input!

Jillian writes:

We are in desperate search of our unborn baby girl’s middle name. Her first name will be Kinsley and our last name is Babb. She is due to be born early March!

Her brother’s name is Cole Ethan. We loved his name and were sold instantly, but it’s been harder to code the girl name this time around! We didn’t use any family names to name him, so we are thinking of not using any family names for Kinsley. I think she needs a one syllable middle name, but I could be wrong.

We like cute, not too traditional names, but not so over the top trendy.

Some middle names we’ve considered:

Elyse
Sophia
Grace
Rose (my mom wants Rose after her middle name, Rosalie, but I’m not sold)
Isabella (thinking that would be a mouth full)

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

With Kinsley ____ Babb, I like a 2-syllable (especially with the emphasis on the second syllable) or 3-syllable (especially with the emphasis on the second syllable) middle name—though I think the 1-syllable options work, too, and I like Kinsley Rose Babb very much. Kinsley Sophia Babb would be exactly to my tastes. I like Kinsley Elyse Babb for rhythm, but would prefer something without the repeating -lee and -s- sounds.

I also like 4-syllable names with the emphasis on the second syllable: Kinsley Elizabeth, Kinsley Amelia, Kinsley Olivia, Kinsley Victoria.

Do you have any names you would have liked to have used for the first name, but couldn’t because they weren’t great with the surname, or because a friend recently used the name, or because it seemed too common/uncommon for your tastes? Those can make great middle names.

Would you LIKE to use a family name, but you feel like you shouldn’t because you didn’t use one for your son? Even though I like sibling names to coordinate, I do think it’s fine if there are differences of this sort.

What I like to do when choosing a middle name is take a baby name book or the Social Security name list and just skim through it, saying each name with the first and middle, jotting down any names that seem like possibilities. Each person’s list will vary depending on tastes in names and rhythms, but here’s what my list looks like:

Kinsley Adele Babb
Kinsley Aurora Babb
Kinsley Brianna Babb
Kinsley Briella Babb
Kinsley Eleanor Babb
Kinsley Fiona Babb
Kinsley Michaela Babb
Kinsley Noelle Babb
Kinsley Rosella Babb
Kinsley Sabrina Babb
Kinsley Sierra Babb

Korrine writes:

Hello! I am hoping you and/or your readers can help my husband and I with our baby naming dilemma! This is our third baby, due in April, and our second daughter. We have a daughter named Claire Noelle and a son named Evan Andrew. My name is Korrine (Corinne, but spelled weird) and my husband is Andy. Our last name sounds like Hanley, but starts with an S.

With both of our other children, we were able to decide very quickly on names we both liked and that was it! This time, though, my husband has a few he likes that I have issues with or just don’t like and I have a number of names I really like that I think fit well with our other two as well as our last name but he hates them!

We (I) have a few requirements: 1) I don’t want it to end in an s sound because of our last name starting with s (which rules out Grace, one I really like) 2) for similar reasons, I don’t like anything that ends in -ley (so Molly and Carly are out, too) 3) I would like to use my mom’s middle name for this baby since I have my grandma’s middle name – it is Jean, making one syllable names awkward (I could be tempted to choose another middle name if the ‘right’ first name doesn’t go with Jean) 4) my name was/still is always mispronounced, so I prefer names that won’t be butchered too much, though I do like slightly less common names.

So here’s the list of the top picks so far:

Husband picks:
1) Ella – I don’t hate it, and it is a family name, but I feel like it’s too close to Evan
2) Emma – I actually love this name, but I think it’s too popular (I’m a teacher, so I always see the “popular” names from kids’ birth years in class when there are 3 or more of a certain name – Samuel and Taylor were very popular in 1999-2000!
3) Colette – I don’t dislike it, but I’m worried it will be too confusing with Claire and Korrine already in our family (bonus, it is French and I teach French, so I like that!)

My picks:
1) Jillianne
2) Aubrey
3) Harper
4) Lorelei
5) Paige
6) Alayna
7) Norah

As you can see, we are all over the place. If I could find something I like as much as Emma and Grace, but which met my other naming requirements, I would be so happy! I like those two because they feel like they fit with Claire and Evan and I think they are classic and pretty and would grow with the baby.

Am I being too picky? Should I just go with Emma since it meets all the requirements other than popularity and we both love it? Would it be too weird to name her Emmalyn/Emmaline and call her Emma? Is Emma too close to Evan? Would naming her Gracie to avoid the s sound running into our last name be too nicknamey? Any help you could provide would be MUCH appreciated!

I don’t think it would be weird to name her an Emma name such as Emeline and then call her Emma—but I don’t think it would help very much, either, if you plan to always call her Emma. I think Evan and Emma are similar, but not so similar that I think they can’t be in the same sibling group. I think it would be charming to call her Emma Jean: this would set her apart from the other Emmas a little, and also make her name less similar to Evan’s. Claire, Evan, and Emma Jean.

Gracie does seem nicknamey to me, and I don’t think it helps very much: Grace St____y has a little issue with merging S-sounds, but Gracie St____y has a little issue with repeating end-sounds.

My first additional suggestion was Celeste, but then I realized the -ste runs right into the St- of the surname.

My second thought was Stella. It’s like Ella, but less like Evan. But since Ella is a family name, I’d be reluctant to change it. I would still suggest Stella in its own right, though: not as a family name, but just as a good choice with Claire and Evan. It strongly alliterates with the surname (Stella St_____y), which would be a plus for some and a minus for others.

I wonder if you’d like Annabel? The sound of it is similar to both Emma and Ella. Claire, Evan, and Annabel.

From your list my favorites for this sibling group are Norah/Nora and Aubrey. I think I’d like Audrey even better than Aubrey, because it feels more classic/traditional like Claire; Aubrey feels more like it fits with the Bree-/-bree names. If Jillianne were Jillian, that would be another favorite. More possibilities:

Charlotte Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Charlotte
Eliza Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Eliza
Elizabeth Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Elizabeth
Hope St____ly (similar to Grace; not great with Jean); Claire, Evan, and Hope
Juliette Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Juliette
Laurel Jean St___ly; Claire, Evan, and Laurel
Leah Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Leah
Lydia Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Lydia
Marissa Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Marissa
Sabrina Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Sabrina

Because you both love Emma and popularity is the only issue, I’m a little torn. On one hand, I think the Top 10 is completely usable, and that it’s a mistake to dismiss great names just because a lot of people agree they’re great. On the other hand, the name Emma has been in the Top 10 for eleven years now, and it isn’t falling at all yet. I’m worried that I’ll put my “No, you should USE it!” vote behind it, and then you’ll regret it as the Emmas start hitting your classroom in full force. Still, it’s hard for me to resist the Emma Jean idea.

A. writes:

We are expecting our second daughter end of this month (December). Our
first is Avery, with her middle name being a family name. We chose
Avery simply because we liked it without much thought to it being
popular and unisex. We’re struggling with our dd#2 name because we
don’t necessarily want to have to choose unisex to match but also
don’t want people to assume we have a boy and a girl.

Our top name is Charlotte nickname “Charlie”. My feeling is Charlotte
and Avery aren’t too opposite as both are French and have been used
through the ages. I also see them as cute southern names, then again
we live in the northeast so what do i know! If unisex is the way to go
we do like Reagan. Although our fear with Reagan is the liberties
people may take with spelling and pronunciation. Ree-gan vs Ray-gan
and I always had to spell my name for people and it gets old. My style
tends to be more classic/popular again names (ie Charlotte, Olivia,
Evelyn, Amelia) and my husband leans more towards the unisex names (ie
Taylor, Sam) but really likes Charlotte and was actually the one to
suggest it.

Side note, any name that starts with “J” or “A” is off the list. Too
many “J”s in the family and we don’t want our girls to both start with
“A”. We are open to other names as well. Popularity doesn’t bother us
that much and the Middle name will be a family name again, most likely
Ann or Lynn. If it had been a boy we like classic names and probably
would have gone with Matthew. I should also mention that this will be
our last and so matching future names is not high on the priority
list.

Thank you!

I think of Avery as a modern unisex surname name, and Charlotte as a feminine vintage revival. Avery doesn’t feel French to me: Wikipedia and The Oxford Dictionary of First Names say it’s an English surname name that comes from the Norman French pronunciation of Alfred, so I don’t think the two names go together on that basis.

But I don’t think the two names are a clash, either, especially if you plan to call her Charlie. And as you say, you don’t necessarily want to be stuck with one parent’s style just because the first child was named in that style. I could see it causing an issue if there were going to be a third child later on (because it might feel as if two children coordinated and the third was left out), but if you’re stopping at two I like that each parent’s style is represented. Avery and Charlotte are both currently fashionable, which helps them feel more coordinated; it also helps that although Avery is unisex, it’s currently used more often for girls (in 2012, there were 8272 new baby girls and 1998 new baby boys named Avery).

Reagan seems like a great choice, too. I would expect most people to be clear on the spelling and pronunciation, but I’m hoping someone among us is/knows a Reagan and can weigh in on that point. But it sounds like you prefer Charlotte/Charlie, and would be choosing Reagan only for style-matching concerns; in this case, I’d side with Charlotte. Let’s have a poll to see what everyone else thinks:

[yop_poll id=”41″]