Hello Swistle!

I’m hoping you’ll be able to help us make some progress on a name. We’ve come up with some options but haven’t made any progress and the baby is due in two months.

Our last name starts with C and is a male character from Friends…not Ross or Joey. We have a one year old son named Tobias Milo (we call him Toby a lot of the time). We’re expecting a second boy on December 24.

We’re both data geeks at heart so we have an elaborate spreadsheet with weighted ratings for each parent on a variety of factors – sound, meaning, popularity, etc. It worked well for Tobias but for this baby, we have quite a few top contenders and no clear winner.

Our ideal name is one that people recognize as a name, but don’t know many people with that name. I’m Dutch and gravitate to more northern European names.

Here are the ones we came up with:
Leo (doesn’t lend well to any nicknames, but one of our favourites)
Schuyler (is it too hard to spell?)
Willem (William is a family name, but feels too popular to us. We’d more likely use it as a middle name.)
Julian (maybe the most trendy on our list?)
Justus (is it too odd?)
Orson (again…a bit odd)
Luca
Felix

Names my husband likes but I don’t: Micah, Malachi, Edmund, Hudson
Names I like but my husband doesn’t: Hugo, Soren, Nico, Silas (too similar to Tobias, maybe)

We haven’t even begun to think about middle names…but with our first son, it worked well to just pick something else from our list with a complementary meaning that sounded good.

If we had a girl, the only name we’ve ever thrown around and both liked is Charis/Karis.

We would love to have your help! We’re at a standstill and would like to pick a name before the baby arrives.

Thanks!

Name update:

Felix William was born a week early – I went into labour just hours after we finally sat down and decided on a name!

We had moved Felix to the bottom of the list and weren’t expecting to reconsider it, but seeing so many comments about how well it matched Toby’s name swayed us in the end. It suits him nicely and we love the meaning!
Thanks to everyone for their help!

Hi Swistle!

You helped us name our son and daughter, Miles Joseph and Claire Marie, and now I would love your advice one more time! We are expecting our third (and last) baby, a boy, this February. I like to talk about names all of the time, but my husband prefers that we have more “productive” conversations about them (meaning, he would rather we look at our list and actually narrow them down vs. talk about new ones “just for fun”). So, we have a list of names, and are pretty certain about a middle, but are struggling with the “being productive” part (don’t worry, I have friends who will talk names with me, and your blog fills this need too).

I had two favorite girl names that I was really excited about: Rose and Lucy. I was also excited to use my grandmother’s middle name, Maxine, as a middle name. Rose Maxine or Lucy Maxine (perfect!). But, now that I need to let those girl names go, I am focusing on the joy I will feel by honoring my dad (who died when I was a teenager) and somehow using his name for this boy.

His name was Eric, and we considered using it as a middle with our first son, Miles. However, we ended up following a long tradition of using my husband’s middle name, instead. Although I like the idea of honoring my dad by using Eric as a first name, I think I would rather keep it in the middle name spot. I also don’t love it as a first name with Miles and Claire.

Here is our list of names:

Benjamin
Thomas
Felix
Max
Eli
James
August

I like Benjamin, and would want to use a nickname like Benny or Benji. Sometimes I wonder if those are too “cutesy” but I like them. Benjamin Eric Trude11e flows well I think. Benjamin does seem much more common than Miles and Claire, though.

I like Thomas and the nickname Tom, but don’t prefer Tommy (which is funny because I just said I like Benny). Thomas Trude11e has alliteration, which I can’t decide on either.

We both like Felix (it was one of our favorites with Miles) but our families have made it clear that they hate it. We could probably push through that though.

I like Max (similar to Maxine!), but wonder if we would want a longer name like Maxwell. I think that gets tricky visually when looking at the full name with our last name: Maxwell Trude11e. Just Max, with Eric as a middle, seems a bit choppy to me. I also can’t decide if I like Miles and Max for brother names, or if they are too close.

Eli, James and August aren’t top contenders for me (though my husband really likes Eli) but they are still on our list.

Do any of these stand out for you? Are there any names that I’m missing that work well with the middle and last name? (I know we’re trying to narrow down, but…) Or sound especially good with Miles and Claire? I would love your advice! Thank you!!

None of the names on the list stand out to me particularly. I first thought James and August did, and they still do somewhat—but James seems a little too common with Miles and Claire, and I feel reluctant to push August when it’s not a top contender. My own favorite is Felix, but I feel reluctant to push a name your family doesn’t like.

With middle initial E and surname initial T, many first name initials will end up spelling a word: BET, GET, HET, JET, LET, MET, NET, PET, SET, VET, WET, YET. Of those, the only one that makes me uncertain is the W. I do prefer for initials not to spell things, but words like GET and SET are pretty innocuous.

I like Simon. Simon Trude11e (SET); Miles, Claire, and Simon.

Or Elliot. Elliot Trude11e (EET); Miles, Claire, and Elliot.

Or Everett. Everett Trude11e (EET); Miles, Claire, and Everett.

Or Emmett. Emmett Trude11e (EET); Miles, Claire, and Emmett.

Or Oliver. Oliver Trude11e (OET); Miles, Claire, and Oliver.

Or Louis. Louis Trude11e (LET); Miles, Claire, and Louis.

Or Edmund. Edmund Trude11e (EET); Miles, Claire, and Edmund.

Or Ian. Ian Trude11e (IET); Miles, Claire, and Ian.

Or Malcolm. Malcolm Trude11e (MET); Miles, Claire, and Malcolm.

Or Wesley. Wesley Trude11e (WET); Miles, Claire, and Wesley.

Or Reid. Reid Trude11e (RET); Miles, Claire, and Reid.

Or Nolan. Nolan Trude11e (NET); Miles, Claire, and Nolan.

And actually I am still very inclined toward James. It IS more common, but I still like it, and I like the overall look and feel of the sibling group. James Trude11e (JET); Miles, Claire, and James.

Name update:

Hi Swistle,

Thank you so much for responding to my questions about naming baby #3. Your response (and your readers) were so helpful. In fact, a few comments included another possible name, Graham. I had loved the name for its single syllable and style, but didn’t think my husband would agree. It turns out he liked it too, and agreed that it made a good sibset: Miles, Claire and Graham. We decided against using my dad’s first name (it would make Graham E., which reminded me too much of Grammy), and went with his middle name, Stewart (which was also my beloved grandfather’s middle name). Graham Stewart was born on February 15th. Here he is in his Easter bunny hat! Thank you again!

Rachel

Hey Swistle!

I’m a long time reader, and I love, love, love baby names. So I can’t believe I’m writing to you for advice. I’m 30 weeks pregnant with our second – a boy – and I just can’t commit to a name. My name is Bridgett, my husband is Evan, and our last name is Sepas, but with a silent T in the front, and pronounced See-pahs.

We have a two year old daughter named Evelyn Claire, and her name is perfect. I told my husband while we were dating that I was having a daughter named Evelyn one day, so the day we found out she was a girl she was named. We gave her the middle name Claire because it means “light” and after years of infertility and miscarriage, she was definitely a light at the end of a dark time in our lives. Her name fits her perfectly, and hearing her say “Yevelyn” just melts my heart.

We’re due with a boy in mid January and I thought we had found the perfect name, but something won’t let me commit. The two names on our list right now are:

-Rowan Lawrence (Rowan is my favorite boy name, and Lawrence, after my beloved Grandpa that passed away)

-Luke Thomas

On paper, Luke Thomas is the perfect name for us. Why?

-My dad’s name is Luke.
-My father in law was Thomas.
-This is the first grandson born since my father-in-law passed away. (We won’t use Thomas as a first name because we already have a nephew named Thomas.)
-Luke also means “light”, just like his sister.
-Thomas is my husband’s middle name.

I think the reason I can’t get completely on board is because it’s a one syllable name. I’m so used to saying “Evelyn” 1000 times a day, and saying Luke just doesn’t have the same flow. It almost feels “blah” to me. But am I crazy? Am I not committing to the perfect name for us because of something as silly as the syllables?

I know I’m probably a little extra anxious, because our daughter was named at 18 weeks, and also because our daughter was born at 31 weeks, so if that happened with this pregnancy, I have approximately 5 days to name this baby boy!

Other names we have had on our list:

Nolan
Graham
Austin
Lawson
Grayson

I would love to hear what you and your readers think. And to get an unbiased opinion. I don’t feel like I can ask any family members because they both include family names, and that’s awkward when you go with something different.

Thanks for considering helping me!

Bridgett

Luke Thomas is the perfect name, but I can see how it could feel too short, especially with “Yevelyn” ringing adorably in your ears. Would it help to have the option of calling him “Luke Thomas,” so you’d have three syllables like you do with Evelyn? I do love a good double name. You wouldn’t have to call him that every time, but it gives you something longer for when you want it. There’s also the nickname L.T. And there are endearments such as Baby Luke, Lukey-Pie, Lukey-Lu, Lukey-my-Lovey, and so forth.

I don’t know if it is true for you as it is for me, but I do find boy names more blah. All of my boys have names I really, really like, but it is only my daughter’s name that DELIGHTS me. There just WEREN’T any boy names that gave me that same feeling. I had to change my goals: for girls I looked for names that delighted me, and for boys I looked for names that gave me a strong warm feeling of happy satisfaction.

I also do love Nolan from your list, but I find I feel sad to lose the Dad Namesake. One of my kids is named after my dad, and it has given me more long-term happy satisfaction than I expected—and I expected quite a bit of long-term happy satisfaction. On the other hand, another of my kids is named after a character on a TV show, and that too has given me quite a bit of long-term happy satisfaction, so I don’t feel inclined to put too much pressure on you.

Name update:

Swistle –

Thank you so much for choosing to post my question. I am so thankful for your advice, as well as the advice of each of your readers. It was so helpful to read each comment. The two that stuck out to me the most: “I named him for a man I really loved, and I have grown to love his name” and “is there a name that makes your husband’s heart leap?”

I don’t think it came across very well in my original letter that I did really like the name Luke Thomas; I just wasn’t sure if it was THE name.

Luke Thomas joined our family on January 5. I still wasn’t 100% sure even hours after his birth, but knowing my husband felt the same way about the name that I did about Evelyn’s name made me commit. And my dad was so honored by his namesake.

The one syllable thing is not a problem. I call him Luke Thomas sometimes, but most of the time, he is lovingly referred to as Baby Brother.

Thanks again!
Bridgett

Hello Swistle!

Long time reader, first time writer!

Before we were married, my husband and I agreed on a couple of things as far as naming our children went: 1) Middle names would be meaningful/honorific names, as both of our middle names are family names; 2) First names would be their own, and have little/no tie to family members, unless it was absolutely something we loved; and 3) My family names would take slight precedence, since I added on/go by his surname and, with three sisters and only female cousins on my father’s side, my surname will likely not be continuing on. My husband told me soon after that he would actually prefer that we use my two grandmothers’ names as middle names for any daughters, since he considers them his grandmothers too, and loves them very much.

That leads to now. I’m elated to write that I’m pregnant with my first child, a little girl! First girl for either side of our family in 15 years. My much-adored grandmother, Patricia “Pat,” passed away unexpectedly only a few months before I became pregnant, so middle name is a no-brainer, non-negotiable for us. We also don’t like changing the names, so using Patrice or some other variant is a no. We briefly considered using Anne, her middle name, but it doesn’t feel as special or connected to her.

However, Patricia is not exactly the easiest middle name to work with. I am waffling between trying to find something that sounds GREAT with Patricia (that we also LOVE), and saying “forget it!” and just using what we love regardless of how it sounds. I know, realistically, that most people won’t be familiar with their friends/co-workers/acquaintances middle names, so it’s probably more important to focus on how the first sounds with the surname, but I am a Name Nerd, capital-Ns, and it’s proving more difficult than I’d have hoped. I tend to like a lot of longer names that end in -a or -ia, and visually it’s very unappealing to me to repeat that, even if it sounds okay aloud. Add to that, a lot of other names I like end in S or R sounds, and our surname is Swiss-German, sounds kind of like “tuber” with a hard Z/S, so some of the combinations run into each other or just sound so clunky… I’m just a little stuck. I am even thinking about throwing Rule #3 out and using Patricia as a first name, but I am also having a hard time with that, because I’m not crazy about the nicknames, and losing her is still very fresh, and my husband’s best friend is a male “Pat.”

I would LOVE some new suggestions, or just your thoughts on our favorite names. I feel like I’ve seen everything and still none of these feel like a great fit. Right now we are calling the baby Potato (get it? Tuber?).

Our names so far are:

Antonia

Ariadne

Coral

Eve

Florence

Francine

Frida

Gloria

Gwendolyn

Harriet

Imogen

Ingrid

Iris

Juliet

Juniper

Lilac

Lucille

Marigold

Minerva

Nadine

Opal

Phoebe

Roxanne

Sabrina

Tabitha

Veronica

 

Names that have been vetoed because they are too popular, a close relation, or my husband dislikes:

Amelia

Cleo (he says it’s too Miss Cleo)

Clementine

Cordelia

Bernadette

Dahlia

Edith

Fern

Hazel

Ione

Josephine

Lavender

Luna

Margot

Paloma (initials PP–my husband hasn’t said anything so far about Phoebe, and yes, he knows how it’s spelled, but he HATES these initials. Do you think this is a problem? I’m torn.)

Pearl (initials PP)

Persephone (PP)

Ramona

Rose and all Rose variations (hurts my heart because Rosemary was one of my favorites, but I understand my husband’s reasons)

Ruby

Winifred

Winter

Violet

My husband has a well-known, Hebrew/Biblical name that has no nicknames. I have a long, feminine, ancient Greek/Roman name with a million nicknames, and I go by a unisex nickname with most people. We tend to like nature names and older, well-known names, that are either long with easy, intuitive nicknames, or have few/no possible nicknames (just like our names). We slightly prefer the versatility of nicknames, but it’s not a necessity. Had this baby been a boy, my front-runners were Fox, Adam, Ignatius, and Malcolm, with about 25 other options waiting in the wings. We plan on hopefully having three to four kids, and, if we have another girl, her middle name will be Olive.

Thanks in advance for any input!

Mama Tuber

I first zeroed in on Minerva: it’s very high on my own Sorry I Can’t Use It list, and I just love it, and I think it’s great with Patricia. But I love it less with the surname; I think it’s the repeated -er- sound: Minerva Tuber. My tongue twists around it.

It’s hard for me to narrow down the list because I think such a large percentage of them are really good (especially since I don’t share your dislike of the look of two names in a row ending in -a), but some that seem particularly good to me are Florence, Gwendolyn, Marigold, and Sabrina. And I’d bring Cordelia, Josephine, and Winifred back from the veto list, if I had that power.

Harriet Tuber brings Harriet Tubman to mind, but that’s a very positive association and also I’m not sure if your surname actually begins with Tub-.

I too avoid P.P. initials. They’re not out of the question, and I can imagine loving a name so much I would consider them—but since you are planning more children, I would save the P names for when you’re not using a middle name starting with P.

I would take Ruby off the list: to my ear the almost-rhyme is a little comical with the surname. Ruby Tuber. I would remove Juniper Tuber for similar reasons. (Luna Tuber and Winter Tuber are already off the list, or else I would remove them as well.)

I doubt I will be adding anything you haven’t already considered, but here are a few that came to mind when I was looking at other names on your list:

Felicity
Fiona
Genevieve
Georgia
Henrietta
Maxine
Millicent
Simone

I notice you have some groups of names on the lists that, if you were to use one name from the group, it’s possible you’d feel it ruled out using others in the group. For example, if you used one color name (Violet, Lavender, Lilac, Hazel, Coral, etc.), would that mean you would not want to use any of the others? If you used one plant name (Iris, Juniper, Lilac, Marigold, Dahlia, Fern, Hazel, etc.), would that rule out the others for you? If you used Opal, would that rule out Pearl? It is good to think through such things ahead of time, so you can be sure you’re choosing your top choice from any group that would be eliminated once one name was chosen.

Name update:

I’m updating sooner than I thought I would because our little girl arrived unexpectedly early! After 36 hours of labor, I was absolutely exhausted and could hardly think about names. My husband initially wanted Juniper, which I love, but when I looked at her, it didn’t feel right. I suggested Phoebe again, which despite the somewhat unfortunate initials, was the only name that really stuck with me. My husband immediately agreed she was a Phoebe, and Phoebe Patricia was welcomed to our family. Thanks for all the advice and input from all the readers!

Dear Swistle,

My husband (Brandon) and I (Julianne) are excited to be expecting our second child this March, and we’d love your and your readers’ input! I have always had a deep love of names – I have notebooks filled with name lists and imaginary families I created just so I could put names together! I thought I had a great list for naming my future children, and then I married an amazing man who was just a little more opinionated on baby names than I expected. :)

Our toddler son is Beckett (nn Beck) James, and our last name is extremely Finnish with lots of double letters and is pronounced “Rah-tick-ah.” I would describe our naming style as fairly traditional/classic with a unique twist. It would take a lot to get us to select a top-20 name, although it’s not out of the question. We love how with our son’s name, people often comment that they haven’t heard it before, but it’s not too strange that they struggle to remember or pronounce it. I felt like I had a similar experience growing up with the name Julianne.

My biggest challenge is that while I like the names on our current list, I don’t feel like I love any of them.

This baby is a girl, and had she been a boy (or if she turns out to be one!) our top name was Charleston (nn Charlie) Luke. Other boy names we loved included Jonas, Rhys, and Lincoln. We are hoping to welcome more children into our family in the future.

Here are some of our frontrunners:

Josie – my husband’s favorite
Bryn/Brynn
Leighton
Cambridge (nn Cambrie) – this is what our son would have been named if he had been a girl
Hannah (although is the “ah” ending too rhymy with our last name?)
Landry
Shiloh
Violet
Charlotte (my #1 but it’s getting way too popular)
Kensington
Evelyn
Vivienne
Isabel

Names vetoed by one spouse or the other: Adalyn, Jacqueline, Annaliese, Lucia (love – but again with the rhyming last name), Jordyn, Mackenzie

Current middle name options (all honor names, but we are open to other options): Lauren, Kate, Esther, Elisabeth

We look forward to hearing your suggestions and promise to update!

Brandon and Julianne

If popularity is a concern, here are the names I would take out of the running:

Isabel: Isabel itself is safely out of the Top 20, but Isabella has been Top 20 for 15 years in a row so far.

Hannah: Gradually falling and is now out of the Top 20, but it was in the Top 20 from 1994 through 2008.

Charlotte: Entered the Top 20 in 2012 and the Top 10 two years after that; it’s still there, and rising (#7 in 2016).

Evelyn: In the Top 20 since 2013 and has risen each year since then (#12 in 2016).

You have a mix of traditional/classic (Charlotte, Hannah) and modern surname names (Leighton, Landry). Do you find yourselves agreeing which way to lean? If you like sibling names to coordinate, and you’re planning to have more children, this is a good time to see if you can narrow down your style. Which seems more like Your Family: breaking up a fight between Cambridge and Kensington, or between Josie and Violet?

Vivienne is a great alternative to Evelyn: similar sounds, but less common. The spelling Vivienne was #245 in 2016; the spelling Vivian was #95.

I like Josie, but as a nickname for Josephine, especially if sons will have longer-form names with nicknames.

Would “Beck and Brynn” make you feel stuck finding another snappy B-name for possible future siblings?

Let’s see if we can find more options to consider.

Along the lines of Charlotte/Hannah/Josie/Evelyn/Isabel:

Alice
Bridget
Cecily
Celeste
Constance
Eloise
Emeline
Florence
Genevieve
Imogen
Iris
Ivy
Margaret (not sure about this with the surname)
Meredith
Miriam (not sure about this with the surname)
Molly
Polly
Sadie
Simone
Sylvie
Winifred

Along the lines of Cambridge/Landry/Kensington/Leighton:

Brinley
Callister (Callie)
Campbell (Cammie, Bella)
Darby
Delancey
Delaney
Emberley
Everly
Flannery
Holland (Holly)
Keaton (not sure about this with the surname)
Lane
Linley
Locklyn
Miller (Millie)
Padgett
Sloane
Waverly
Winslow (Winnie)
Yeardley

Name update:

Dear Swistle,

Thank you for your help! Your advice and your readers’ comments helped direct and steer our baby name choice for our dear daughter who arrived a few days early! In the end we decided that we wanted to go with more of a traditional, clearly feminine feel. Your readers gave us the courage to rethink Lucia as a first name and also brought Esther to the front of our minds (as a first name rather than middle). In the end we were down to Lucia, Isabel, or Esther. When she arrived, there was no doubt in our minds, and we added Lucia (Loo-see-a) Kate to the family. Her brother has already lovingly dubbed her “Lucy.”

With thanks,

Julianne, Brandon, Beckett, and Lucia

Hi Swistle!

I was planning to write to you a little later in my pregnancy, but since you wrote your post about being uninspired, I thought this exercise might be fun to do now.

I have a four-year-old son named after a semi-famous scientist. My husband works in the science field, and I am generally interested in sciency things so it worked out. I also liked that the name was used in a children’s book that I had read 20 years ago, and still remembered that particular character name. If you’re wondering, the name is Tych0.

The issue I need help with is this: We haven’t found out the sex of the second (and final) child, but we have generally discussed names, and for a girl, my husband’s favorites are Anastasia and Aurora. I think both are beautiful names, but something was bothering me about them. And then I realized—my main association with both those names are Disney princesses! It bothers me to have my son named after a scientist and then name my daughter after a princess. Just….No.

So I thought it would be fun to crowd-source and see what woman scientist names people could come up with. It’s surprisingly hard especially compared to male scientists. I know I could just Google, but I’m looking for names that are not totally and completely obscure, names that people might have heard of before and just don’t remember. That’s what I like about Tych0’s name. Some people have never heard of him, but sciency folks get a little twinkle in their eye when they hear it. My current list is:

Marie (Curie)

Jane (Goodall)

Kathryn (Johnson, from Hidden Figures)

Ada (Lovelace)

Mae (Jemison)

Sally (Ride)

…and that’s all I can come up with off the top of my head, sadly. I’d be excited to read what other names you and your readers could think of that fit this category.

Thanks!

Faye

There’s a book on my Christmas wish list that I wish I had now so I could consult it:

(image from Amazon.com)

Women in Science, by Rachel Ignotofsky

Ada Lovelace is the scientist who came immediately to my mind; and because her name is unusual, the scientist comes to my mind whenever I hear it. That’s my favorite from your list.

I can add Elizabeth Blackwell and Grace Hopper. But the names Elizabeth and Grace don’t bring the doctor or the mathematician/programmer to my mind.

I know we’re seeing what we can think of off the tops of our heads, but here’s a link to Wikipedia’s Women in Science page, in case anyone would like to jog their memories: Wikipedia: Women in Science.

Name update:

Hi Swistle,

This is an update for my post, Science-Related Names for Girls, that you published about a year ago. I can’t believe its been that long!

We did not find out the sex of our baby before birth, but I had a strong feeling that it was a girl. So much so, that I couldn’t focus on figuring out boy names at all. (Does that happen to other people?) Our top names for girls were Ada, Octavia, Luna, and Z0ra. I thought I would end up with an Ada because it seemed to fit so perfectly with the theme. We did have a girl, and her name is Z0ra Valentin@.

We originally found her name on our family tree; she was my husband’s great-grandmother. I’m a big reader, so I also liked the association with the author. Just a little while after deciding on her name, I saw your twitter poll on people’s impressions of Z0ra, and it cemented that it was perfect for us. Vintage + space princess is exactly what we wanted. We chose Valentin@ because I wanted something that worked for the Italian-speaking side of my family, and also for the first female astronaut.

So my son’s first name is space/astronomy-related, and his middle is from our family tree, and my daughter’s is vice-versa. We love her name, and we also loved all of the comments and suggestions on the original post. Thank you!

Faye

Hi Swistle,

I am due on Oct 23, and we don’t know the gender of the baby. We are dead set on a girl name, but nothing feels quite right for a boy! Our last name is @lexander, and we have a daughter- Echo Marie.

If we have another little girl she will be Lorelai Catherine. Lorelai seems unique, feminine, and tied to Echo in maybe a mythylogical sense (that theme isn’t important) and Catherine is a very special family name (like Marie).

For a boy, originally our choices were Harrison or Henry, but now these choices seem way way to popular and basic? I didn’t name my daughter Echo to be weird, I just liked the name! But I’d like to stay out of the top 100. I also want to avoid my children sounding like a group of military call signs! Echo Foxtrot Alpha! We heavily considered Adler which feels like a good fit, but I keep thinking Adler @lexander sounds like a total tongue twister. Another boy name we really liked but now seems too out there is Indiana. I would also like to use the middle name Manning (my maiden name), with Bayer as a secondary option.

Please help!

You may already know about my extreme soft spot for maiden names used as children’s names, and so perhaps you anticipate my immediate, eager question: Would you consider using Manning as the first name? Manning @lexander. Echo and Manning. Well, if not, I love it as the middle.

Henry feels common to me with Echo, but I think Harrison is great. I don’t know a single kid named Harrison—though of course that will vary tremendously by area of the country. It’s a more common name than Echo, but it isn’t so common as to be a surprise. I like it, and I think Harrison @lexander sounds very nice.

Harris is even less common—more along the lines of Echo’s popularity. Harris @lexander; Echo and Harris.

Or Davis. Davis @lexander; Echo and Davis.

Or Rufus. Rufus @lexander; Echo and Rufus.

Or Gus. Gus @lexander; Echo and Gus.

I agree about Adler @lexander. I wonder if you’d like the name Aidric? Aidric @lexander; Echo and Aidric.

One of my favorites of the -son names is Lawson, certainly not influenced by a cute lanky funny boy in high school. Lawson @lexander; Echo and Lawson.

Every so often, usually when Paul is re-reading the Narnia books to the littler kids, I wonder if the name Caspian will ever come into common usage. I see it was given to 158 new baby boys in 2016, so it’s in the range of the usage of the name Echo. Caspian @lexander; Echo and Caspian.

Poking around in the Social Security database in that same area, I see Boaz. This is a name I’m surprised hasn’t joined the popularity of Noah and Isaiah and Ezra and Elijah. Boaz @lexander; Echo and Boaz. Bo for short.

And Smith! That’s a fun one. Smith @lexander; Echo and Smith.

And Murphy! I would love to see a Murphy on a class list. Murphy @lexander; Echo and Murphy.

And Garrison! Similar to Harrison, but definitely less common. Garrison @lexander; Echo and Garrison.

Name update:

Hi Swistle! Our beautiful baby girl was born Oct 30. Lorelai Catherine is so sweet and fits her name, and her nickname- Cubby – perfectly.

We got so many awesome suggestions for boy names from your readers and in your post, looks like we will have to try for a boy in a few years :).

Hello Swistle!

I am very excited to be able to write to you with my baby name conundrum! We are expecting our second baby in early March — the sex will be a surprise. We have one daughter, her name is Aurelia Mae but we exclusively call her Goldie, and she is a Goldie through and through. Our surname is Ke@ting.

I’d love for the siblings’ names to match but not TOO much, if that makes sense. For instance, I really like names like Ruby, Pearl, and Opal but gemstone names might be a little too much with Goldie. I also love the idea of saint names, but have a hard time finding actual saint names that I like — it turns out that there was a Saint Aurelia, but that was accidental and I only figured it out after Goldie was named. The other issue with matching siblings names is, which name do we try to match the style of, the given name or the nickname? I feel like Aurelia and Goldie are pretty different in style.

I would love suggestions for names of both sexes, but boy names are particularly difficult for me. If Goldie had been a boy, her name would have been Jasper, and that is still definitely a front-runner for a boy for me. However, I would like some other candidates since I keep hearing about dogs named Jasper and it’s starting to sound like a dog name to me.

I would love you and your readers’ input!

Thanks!

The nickname/name coordination issue is an interesting one. In GENERAL, I like to coordinate the given names and let the nicknames land where they may. When nicknames are rhyming, clashing, or cutesy, it doesn’t matter nearly as much to me as it does when it’s the given names. I might still personally prefer to avoid a rhyming/clashing/cutesy nickname pairing, and I’d hope to think of any issues ahead of time rather than run into them later by surprise, but it’s a much milder preference.

Did you intend all along to call Aurelia by the nickname Goldie, or did it just happen? If you always intended to call her Goldie, or if it just happened but you feel that’s more your real style, then I would aim for similar names for future siblings: either Aurelia/Goldie combinations for all, or coordinating all the names with the name Goldie. If you intended to call her Aurelia and the nickname just happened, but you still feel Aurelia is more your style, then I’d start with names more like Aurelia and see if a Goldie-type nickname works/happens.

All right, let’s find some possibilities to consider. I think you are absolutely on track with options such as Ruby and Pearl and Opal: those have the same pleasingly antique sound as Goldie, plus the sass. More:

Ada
Bessie
Bonnie
Daisy
Dolly
Elsie
Faye
Flora
Hazel
Lois
Lottie
Louise
Mabel
Maeve
Maisie/Maisy
Marilla
Millie/Milly
Minnie/Minny
Olive
Polly
Rosie
Roxie
Sadie (repeats ending of Goldie)
Sallie/Sally
Stella
Tillie/Tilly
Trudy (repeats ending of Goldie)

I feel particularly fond of the name Sally. I would so love to meet a little Sally. And with your surname: Sally Ke@ting! I feel a little faint with love.

I am less certain about names to coordinate with Aurelia. I looked it up in The Baby Name Wizard to see where the author puts it, and she says it’s “a romantic relic of ancient Rome” and that it had “a Victorian-era revival.” Ohhhhhhh, and she notes it comes from a Latin word for golden! Ah ha! I see what you did there! So let’s add another naming path possibility for you, which I am not going to try to follow but maybe you would want to: finding another longer name with a Latin-word-base-related nickname!

Back to the Baby Name Wizard. The author suggests sister names such as Lavinia, Aurora, Adelaide, Eleanora, Emmeline, Theodora, Beatrix, and Viola; and brother names such as Lucius, Sebastian, Rupert, Hugh, Edison, Augustus, Conrad, and Elias. I am all-in on Lavinia: it’s another name from ancient Rome, and it’s great with your surname and with the name Aurelia. You could go with a nickname such as Liv or Livvy or Vinnie. Lavinia Ke@ting; Aurelia and Lavinia; Goldie and Livvy.

For boy names, I’m less sure of your style. The names I think of when I think of Jasper are names such as:

Adrian
Alistair
Arthur
Charles
Edmund
Elliot
Everett
Frederick
George
Julian
Louis
Malcolm
Miles
Nolan
Oliver
Russell
Simon
Wesley

Or you wouldn’t want to go for something like Alfred or Albert, would you? I have a soft spot for those names and I’m hoping they’ll come back soon.

When I hear that people have given “dog name”/”stripper name” feedback on other people’s name choices, I wonder what on earth the feedbackers were thinking. I reluctantly agree that there are certain names I might privately feel that way about (Fido, for example, would ring a “dog name” bell in my mind whether I wanted it to or not, even though I’m not sure anyone IS naming dogs Fido anymore), but in general I think what happens is that people tend to give their pets names that they like, and so a certain percentage of those pets end up with names that are currently in style for people. Sometimes the trend in pet names is a little ahead of the trend in people names, because a name that is just about to come back into style has a certain sound that feels pleasingly whimsical/unusual/amusing/formal/silly: I named two cats George and Oliver because I thought I’d never want to use those names for actual children; a decade later I had an entirely different feeling on the topic, and wished I’d gone for names I’d ACTUALLY never want to use for actual children, such as Mittens.

Anyway. There are dogs named Jasper and Max and Jake and Sophie and Charlie and Bella and Sam, and there are people who enjoy telling people about their pets’ names (look at me with my George/Oliver story), but those two things don’t make the name Jasper any less usable for a human baby. I can picture meeting a baby named George and saying, without it first going fully through the brain-to-mouth filter, “Oh! I had a cat named George!”—but without AT ALL thinking George was “a cat name” or that it was weird on a person. Just blurting out the connection with recognition and delight, and without considering that perhaps a better reaction would be “Oh! I love that name!,” and maybe save the cat-name story for another time. Or I can picture anyone, when asked to consider a name candidate, doing so by going through a list of associations that included movie/TV characters, book characters, examples of the name being used in their social circle, and ALSO mentioning that they’ve heard it on two dogs and a cat; I personally would leave out the dog/cat detail, but I can picture someone including it in the research data. I think people who instead raise one nostril and say, “[Name]? That’s a DOG name,” about a name that is known to be used for humans, should no longer have the privilege of hearing other people’s baby name candidates.

…Oh. Wait. On re-reading, I see it’s not so much that people have been doing this to you, but more that you’ve been encountering dogs named Jasper. Well. Ahem. My rant is perhaps misapplied in this exact case, but if people WERE telling you it was a dog name, THEN I WOULD HAVE YOUR BACK.

Jasper is a semi-precious stone, but I’m not sure that is common knowledge. I do know it, and would probably not think anything of siblings named Goldie and Jasper; or I might think, “Ah, what a pleasing and subtle tie-in!” I think it’s great with your surname, and a very good choice.

Name update:

Hello Swistle!

I have a name update for you! Thanks so much to you and your readers for your suggestions, they were so much fun to read and provided a lot of great ideas. Our little girl was born on March 6th in a very exciting, barely-made-it-to-the-hospital fashion. We named her Clementine Mary Ke@ting — photo is attached!

Thanks again,
Katie

Hi Swistle!

My second daughter is due at the end of October. Her sister’s name is H@rper Je@n H@ll. My daughter and I both share my husband’s last name. H@rper’s middle name is from my maternal grandmother and my aunt (mother’s sister who passed away several years ago). This will most likely be our last child.

We have been settled on the name Arden for this baby for a little while now and both still love it. However, I am getting concerned that it is too close in sound to my nephew’s name, Ryden, who lives very close to us. My husband thinks I’m crazy and that it’s not too close and/or doesn’t matter. I’m probably just getting naming jitters as my due date approaches, but it has started to bother me some. So, I guess I’m looking for validation that these names aren’t too close and won’t bug me forever, though I’m sure nobody else can tell me that part for certainty. Some other names we both like are Paige, Audrey, Juliette, and Rosalie, with Paige and Audrey being the other 2 top names. The problem with Paige, though, is that I really prefer a multi-syllable first name with our last name. Some names I like that we can’t use or my husband has vetoed are Imogen, Elodie, Cameron, and Leighton.

Now to the problem of the middle name. My husband would like to give this baby girl the middle name Mary after his grandmother who passed away a couple years ago. I love the idea of giving this baby his grandmother’s name as a middle except that I really am not fond of the name Mary. To me, it is an intensely religious name and I have a hard time separating it from Mary, the mother of God, the Virgin Mary. I grew up catholic (though would not consider myself so any longer) and have a hard time not associating the name with anything else. My husband was not raised with any sort of religion and does not carry the same association. I think I really have issue with the idea and image of the Virgin Mary and what it implies about purity and ideals for girls/women today. I’ve been working on getting past this association, but I still can’t fully commit. I also like that both girls would have a great grandmother’s name as a middle. Some other middle name possibilities are Jane (my paternal grandmother’s middle name), Frances (maternal grandfather’s middle name (Francis) who passed away when my mom was a young girl), Paige, and Maeve (Paige and Maeve both just names we like). My husband really wants Mary as the middle but is willing to ultimately let me decide. Also, any names related to Mary, like Mae, just don’t seem like true honor names. Will this association just not be a big deal once she’s here and it is part of her name? I guess I’m hoping that by typing this all out and getting other’s opinions, I will get some kind of clarity.

Thanks for your help,

Rachel

Name update:

Hi! Thank you for posting my question and concerns regarding the middle name Mary for my daughter and to all those that responded. We named our daughter Arden Mary and I think her name is just beautiful! I am totally over any hang-ups I had with the name association and am so glad we chose to honor my husband’s grandmother. Her name fits her perfectly!
-Rachel

Dear Swistle,

Longtime reader, first-time caller. I’m due in exactly one month with a baby girl who is still nameless. Her older sister is Anna. Anna got my favorite name, my forever-favorite name, the one I doodled as a pre-teen, the perfect name, the name that when I find it or derivatives (Anneliese, Annabel) on lists I still get an involuntary “ooooh I like THAT one” feeling before remembering “Yes, that’s why you used it already.” Anna’s last name (which is also my husband’s name and will be this baby’s last name) is Stussman without the T.

Anna: is my great-grandmother’s name, is familiar, is spell-able, has a lovely meaning, has personal significance relating to that meaning, derives from Hebrew (we’re Jewish, but with a fair amount of W. European background, too) but is not full-on Hebrew/biblical, does not sound silly with a Jewish last name, is classic, is (subjectively) pretty, lends itself to nicknames, lends itself to a natural Hebrew name, rhymes with Banana…etc. I will not find another name I like as much or that ticks as many of my preferred boxes, and I am working on accepting this.

Anna’s middle name is a location that starts with “Beth-“, because I had a normal middle name and always wanted a weird one. It has literary significance to my husband and me, and delightfully lets us call her Annabeth, which we do, and Betty, which I did not expect to use as a nickname (at ALL) but frequently do.

So now we’ve got number two on the way, and again we are considering Cora, Delia, and Elizabeth (runners-up with Anna).

Elizabeth feels like it ticks the most of all my many preference boxes (classic, subjectively pretty, derived from Hebrew, familiar, spell-able, nicknames), but I am having a tough time committing to a name with “-beth” given Anna’s middle name (which we use). It feels like we used it already (and in my head, when we used Beth- for Anna’s middle name, I was committing to giving up Elizabeth for a hypothetical future daughter). Alas, I have none of the feelings for Eliza that I do for Elizabeth.

Delia has been my favorite, I think, but my husband has it in his second tier. I really like Cora, but just not quite as much. That said, I think it’s our presumptive front-runner.

Other contenders:
Maya–popularity curve is a little trendy for my taste
Zoe–same
Alice–concerned it runs into Stussman; too many sibilant sounds? Also has the word “lice” in it.
Margaret/Marguerite–we both love this (so many good nicknames!) and the meaning (“pearl”) is a family surname on my side, but he loves Margaret and I love Marguerite and we may be at an impasse. We’ve tabled it for now. I also don’t feel like it’s as “pretty” as Anna or Elizabeth.
Emma–sonically confusing with an Anna; literally the number one name last year in the US.
Talia–TOO Hebrew? He really likes this one.
Elizabeth Delia, nn Edie–my husband has a ton of Ediths in his family tree so this would sort of be an honor name. Otherwise, my preferred nicknames for Elizabeth are in the “Lizzie” family.

Names I love and/or would seriously consider that he has vetoed or just doesn’t like as much:
Lydia
Madeline
Valeria
Catherine/Katherine
Winifred (Winnie!)
Shirley (I have told everyone I know that this one is going to come back, but no one believes me)
Laurel

Middle name for this baby will likely be Mayberry (family surname to honor a specific deceased loved one), or perhaps Poppy (nickname for my husband’s beloved grandfather, now deceased) but oh, the other wonderful odd-duck middle names I have on my list:
Valley
Lenity (virtue name with personal significance)
Amarintha (family name, and I love Marin, pronounced NOT like the county)
Marigold
Roses (this occurred to me late one night and I LOVE it)
Aurise (family name)
Roisin
Galilea
Auden (literary significance)

Names I love but are too close to us (friends/family have or use these names):
Lucia
Abigail
Josephine

My husband is very reactive on this front and not super-articulate, but does have preferences that have led us to the shortlist of Cora, Delia, Elizabeth, Maya, Zoe, Alice, Margaret/Marguerite, and Talia.

Had this been a boy, she likely would’ve been Isaiah King or, possibly, Gideon Leander. Other boy names I love and might pull for in a future hypothetical pregnancy include Bennett, Elias, John, and Malachi. The people we’d like to honor had names like Ovid, Paul, and King. (Luckily, we have very few female relatives who have passed away that we’d want to honor.)

So…what should we name the baby? Am I missing something wonderful I can present on a silver platter (i.e. text message) to my husband?

Sarah

Oh, I too wished for a more unusual middle name! Mine is one of the few that basically everyone my age has: it’s no fun to tell it, on the rare occasion I am asked about it.

I agree with you about Elizabeth: I think it’s GREAT with Anna, and meets so many of your preferences—but I feel as if Anna now has dibs on Beth/Betty. If you were absolutely set on Elizabeth and wanted with all your heart to use it, I would say I thought it would be fine, and I DO think it would be fine, but I think it would be better to choose something else.

Alice S(t)ussman has too many S-sounds for my ears, too. And I find it difficult to say.

From your lists, my favorites with the name Anna are:

Catherine
Cora
Laurel
Lydia
Margaret

I would add:

Audrey
Bonnie
Claire
Clara
Claudia
Eva
Fiona
Flora
Gemma
Georgia
Greta
Hope
Iris
Ivy
Jane
Jillian
Joy
June
Leah
May
Meredith
Molly
Nora
Pearl
Rachel
Ruby

I am especially drawn to the simpler names, the ones that the eye skips past in the baby name book but then end up being fresh surprises. Jane, for example. Jane Mayberry Stussman; Anna and Jane. I think that’s my favorite. Familiar, spell-able, has a lovely meaning, a feminine form of John which derives from Hebrew but is not full-on Hebrew/biblical, does not sound silly with a Jewish last name, is classic, is (subjectively) pretty, lends itself to nicknames. If you were to give up on this whole thing and tell me I could name the baby, I would choose Jane.

Pearl seems like a good option for solving the Margaret/Marguerite issue. Pearl Mayberry Stussman; Anna and Pearl.

Or would you like Margo? Margo Mayberry Stussman; Anna and Margo.

Name update:

Thank you for your help! Baby Stussman is here and her arrival helped us pick her name. Both my husband and I found that our favorites didn’t suit her: names like Delia and Elizabeth and Katherine seemed a little too…stately? Ladylike? Un-warm? for our new rosy-and-round-cheeked baby, and my husband said that he wanted something more unique and “sparky” for her—a name that no one else he knew had. In the end, we were down to Cora and Marguerite (nn Maggie, Meg, Daisy, etc.), as apparently “warm” to me meant “has an R.” We didn’t settle on her name until 30 minutes before discharge, sigh.

Pleased to introduce Cora Mayberry Stussman. Over the past 6+ weeks, we have called her Cora, Corey, Co, Coey, Corazon, Cora May, and the most often by far, Coco. Her sister still calls her Sugar Water (sometimes Sugar), and boy howdy does it suit her. This baby is very, very sweet.