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 T. When we played the previous game with T, I liked Theodora, Theodosia, Thomasina, Temperance, Tilda, and Tess for girls; Teague, Thatcher, Thompson, Truman, Turner, Tolliver, Terrence, Terry, Ted, Torin, Tully, Tobin for boys. I like Tolliver and Terrance with the longer girl names such as Theodosia and Thomasina; I like Teague and Truman with names like Tilda and Tess; I also like Ted and Tully with Tilda and Tess. For two sisters, I like the idea of going big: Theodosia and Thomasina. But I wonder if I would ACTUALLY choose Tilda and Tess. For two brothers, I like Terry and Ted, or maybe Ted and Tully. I also like combinations of the boy surname names: Thatcher, Thompson, and Truman; Turner, Truman, and Thompson. For one boy and one girl, I like Terrence and Thomasina, or Ted and Tess.

If I were renaming my five kids, I would choose Torin, Ted, Terrence/Terry and Thomasina/Tess for the twins, and Tolliver. I don’t like that my secondborn would have a nickname name, but this is a game and I am going to pick the names I like best for each kid without trying to meet all my usual preferences. (If I WERE trying to meet my usual preferences, I get stuck because I’d want to name him Tobin, which I would never do right after Torin. So then I’d pick Tully—but that for me would probably rule out using Terry for the next boy.)

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.

First post of this series, with longer explanation, here.

You can choose any number of siblings, any number of boys/girls. 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 W. When we played the previous game with W, I chose Winifred and Warren, and I like those fine as a sibling set. I also liked Willemina and William, which I wouldn’t use together, but would use one or the other. And I like Wesley and Winston and Wilson; Wilson joins the Willemina/William group, and I wouldn’t put Winston and Winifred in the same sibling set. Normally I would prefer not to use names as far apart in popularity/style as William and Warren, but I might like it better if they were separated by other siblings: as I had more and more children, I became more relaxed about things like that. For example: William, Winifred, Wesley, and Warren.

Oh! This is the first letter where I have enough names to play it that I am re-naming my existing children! Okay, okay! Then it would be Wesley-called-Wes, William, Winifred, Warren, and…hm. No, I run out of boy names, because after I use William I don’t want to use Wilson, and after I use Winifred I don’t want to use Winston. But that’s okay! Close enough!

First post of this series, with longer explanation, here. I’m inspired to go fairly rapidly through some of these more difficult letters.

You can choose any number of siblings, any number of boys/girls. 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 X. When we played the previous game with X, I chose Xenia and Xavier, and I like those fine as a sibling set. I also liked Xanthe, which I think is nice as a third name in the set: Xenia, Xavier, and Xanthe: all different endings to balance out the matching beginnings. I’d also liked Xia, but I don’t like the way Xia is like Xenia with two letters removed, so I wouldn’t put it in the same sibling set as Xenia, but I like it as a substitute: Xanthe, Xavier, and Xia.

First post of this series, with longer explanation, here.

You can choose any number of siblings, any number of boys/girls. 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 Y. When we played the previous game with Y, I chose Yvonne for a girl and Yates (in honor of Sally Yates) for a boy, and I like those fine as a sibling set: I can see it either as an advantage or as a disadvantage that the Y-sound is not pronounced the same. If I WANTED to have matching starting sounds, I would be pretty happy with Yasmin and Yates. I wanted to come up with more sibling sets, but there are so few Y names.

Maybe this will not be as fun as the alphabet game we were playing before, where we pretended we were naming a fresh new baby and the name had to start with a particular letter. But I was at work the other day, and there were two books near each other, one that mentioned a Hazel and one that mentioned a Harriet, and it occurred to me that Hazel and Harriet would be a splendid sister set for someone who didn’t mind repeating an initial—and in fact, many parents repeat an initial on purpose. So let’s just TRY this and see if we like it.

The rules are much less strict for this game, because it is so much more complicated than before. This time you can choose any number of siblings, any number of boys/girls. 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.

For this first attempt, let’s start with the letter Z. When we played the previous game with Z, I chose Zinnia for a girl and Zeke for a boy, and I do like those in a sibling set. I also like Zinnia and Zachariah. Zinnia and Zipporah is cute for two girls—though I’d much rather be named Zinnia than Zipporah, so that gives me an unbalanced feeling about it. For a very different style, I think Zachary and Zoe are nice together, and I like Zeke and Zelda. I had trouble making brother sets; Z is such a limited letter. But that makes it nice for a starter letter, as we are getting used to this.

We started this in August 2020, and we are finally finishing up!

Here is the game we are playing:

We are going to pretend that we are naming a baby and that the name MUST start with a certain letter, and so we will need one name starting with that letter for a boy and one name starting with that letter for a girl, or else one name that would work for either, EVEN IF we don’t like any of the names that start with that letter enough to Actually In Real Life choose them. It is just a game where we place artificial restrictions on reality in order to create the kind of tension that makes games fun—like when you have to choose what foods you’d eat if you could only eat three foods for the rest of your life: the fun is in thinking it over AS IF it were a real forced decision, while KNOWING it is not. There is a baby! It MUST be given a name with a particular letter! That is the game.

After that basic concept, we can decide our own sub-rules, based on what makes the game fun and not stressful. Some examples:

• I’m not planning to play that the name has to fit with the names of my other children or with the surname, though this would be an option for anyone who would LIKE to play it that way; I think I will have more fun if I pretend it is a stand-alone baby and that the surname is not an issue, though I may change my mind as we go. (And if I narrow it down to a few options and can’t decide, I might use siblings/surname as a tie-breaker.)

• It is also fine to narrow it down to a few finalists without getting to The One Name.

• The boy name and girl name don’t have to work TOGETHER: we are only naming ONE baby, so you’d only use one or the other. But you MAY play that the names have to work together, if that’s more fun.

• It is fine to wave aside issues such as a friend who already used that name, a famous person with the name, etc., if that makes it more fun and less stressful to choose. This is just pretend, so you can pretend that those things aren’t issues if you want to. (Or you can let the issues stand as they are in real life, if THAT is more fun.)

• We can also all make our own decisions about whether the names have to be ones we think we’d ACTUALLY USE in that hypothetical scenario, or just our FAVORITE names starting with that letter, regardless of whether we think the names are practical; I am not sure which way I will play it, and I likely won’t be consistent.

• If you already have a child with a name starting with the letter we’re working on, you get to pick again from all the names that remain; you don’t have to choose your child’s name as your favorite just because it WAS your favorite: this is a FRESH baby, and you wouldn’t give it the same name as your existing child. (If you would normally prefer not to repeat an initial within a sibling group, you can just pretend that’s NOT a preference for the sake of the game.)

• You can do as much or as little explanation as you like in your comment: you can just list the names you chose, or you can explain your process/preferences/reasoning/runners-up, or whatever is most fun.

Today’s letter is A. For a girl, I already have Annabel and Anastasia (the anna-STAY-zha pronunciation) on my list. I also like Abigail and Alice and Anna and Anne, in an “If someone ELSE named my baby, and the name was any of those names, I would be more than fine with that” way. Really, I like way more girl A names than I expected, because I also like Ariadne, Athena, Audrey, Augusta, Agatha. I am having a very hard time narrowing further than Annabel/Anastasia. It’s mostly because I feel as if the -bel/-belle names have had their surge and that the surge has passed—so even though I am not tired of the name Annabel, I wonder if I would regret using a name that was part of a Name Group. Anastasia feels like A Lot of Name—but I LIKE girl names that are A Lot of Name. Okay, I choose Anastasia.

For a boy, I had Alan on my list for Henry (family name + Alan Alda), but it doesn’t feel right to me anymore. Albert and Alfred are favorites of my heart; I am not sure I would use them on an actual child quite yet, but I am hoping they will come back into style in time for a grandson. I like Alistair and Anderson and Aidric and Arlo and Abbott, but they’re not my usual naming style for boys (Top 50 / very familiar). Actually, as I’ve been writing this, I’ve come back around to Alan: it feels like a warm, friendly, stable kind of name to me—kind of dated, but I’ll bet it’ll be back, and “It’s a family name” works well in the meantime. I choose Alan.

Now you! If you want to! Only if it’s fun and not stressful! Feel free to adjust the game-play to be fun and not stressful!

I am going to be sad to see this series end!

Here is the game we are playing:

We are going to pretend that we are naming a baby and that the name MUST start with a certain letter, and so we will need one name starting with that letter for a boy and one name starting with that letter for a girl, or else one name that would work for either, EVEN IF we don’t like any of the names that start with that letter enough to Actually In Real Life choose them. It is just a game where we place artificial restrictions on reality in order to create the kind of tension that makes games fun—like when you have to choose what foods you’d eat if you could only eat three foods for the rest of your life: the fun is in thinking it over AS IF it were a real forced decision, while KNOWING it is not. There is a baby! It MUST be given a name with a particular letter! That is the game.

After that basic concept, we can decide our own sub-rules, based on what makes the game fun and not stressful. Some examples:

• I’m not planning to play that the name has to fit with the names of my other children or with the surname, though this would be an option for anyone who would LIKE to play it that way; I think I will have more fun if I pretend it is a stand-alone baby and that the surname is not an issue, though I may change my mind as we go. (And if I narrow it down to a few options and can’t decide, I might use siblings/surname as a tie-breaker.)

• It is also fine to narrow it down to a few finalists without getting to The One Name.

• The boy name and girl name don’t have to work TOGETHER: we are only naming ONE baby, so you’d only use one or the other. But you MAY play that the names have to work together, if that’s more fun.

• It is fine to wave aside issues such as a friend who already used that name, a famous person with the name, etc., if that makes it more fun and less stressful to choose. This is just pretend, so you can pretend that those things aren’t issues if you want to. (Or you can let the issues stand as they are in real life, if THAT is more fun.)

• We can also all make our own decisions about whether the names have to be ones we think we’d ACTUALLY USE in that hypothetical scenario, or just our FAVORITE names starting with that letter, regardless of whether we think the names are practical; I am not sure which way I will play it, and I likely won’t be consistent.

• If you already have a child with a name starting with the letter we’re working on, you get to pick again from all the names that remain; you don’t have to choose your child’s name as your favorite just because it WAS your favorite: this is a FRESH baby, and you wouldn’t give it the same name as your existing child. (If you would normally prefer not to repeat an initial within a sibling group, you can just pretend that’s NOT a preference for the sake of the game.)

• You can do as much or as little explanation as you like in your comment: you can just list the names you chose, or you can explain your process/preferences/reasoning/runners-up, or whatever is most fun.

Today’s letter is B. For girls, I have Beatrix and Bianca on my list. I also like Belinda and Bridget and Bronwyn. I like Bonnie, but I want it to be a nickname for something else. If it weren’t for Amelia Bedelia, I think I would like Bedelia. For a total style outlier, I like Beckett: I like the way it can go to Bec or Becca or Becky or Bex or Kit or even Etta, depending on the person. I choose Beatrix.

For boys, I have Benjamin on my list. I also like Barnaby. I feel warmly toward Bertram/Bertie because of P.D. Wodehouse’s Jeeves stories, but I don’t think I’d be ready to use it. For a total style outlier, I like Broderick; it’s fun to say, and the Matthew Broderick association is a pleasant one. I would choose Benjamin.

Now you! If you want to! Only if it’s fun and not stressful! Feel free to adjust the game-play to be fun and not stressful!

Here is the game we are playing:

We are going to pretend that we are naming a baby and that the name MUST start with a certain letter, and so we will need one name starting with that letter for a boy and one name starting with that letter for a girl, or else one name that would work for either, EVEN IF we don’t like any of the names that start with that letter enough to Actually In Real Life choose them. It is just a game where we place artificial restrictions on reality in order to create the kind of tension that makes games fun—like when you have to choose what foods you’d eat if you could only eat three foods for the rest of your life: the fun is in thinking it over AS IF it were a real forced decision, while KNOWING it is not. There is a baby! It MUST be given a name with a particular letter! That is the game.

After that basic concept, we can decide our own sub-rules, based on what makes the game fun and not stressful. Some examples:

• I’m not planning to play that the name has to fit with the names of my other children or with the surname, though this would be an option for anyone who would LIKE to play it that way; I think I will have more fun if I pretend it is a stand-alone baby and that the surname is not an issue, though I may change my mind as we go. (And if I narrow it down to a few options and can’t decide, I might use siblings/surname as a tie-breaker.)

• It is also fine to narrow it down to a few finalists without getting to The One Name.

• The boy name and girl name don’t have to work TOGETHER: we are only naming ONE baby, so you’d only use one or the other. But you MAY play that the names have to work together, if that’s more fun.

• It is fine to wave aside issues such as a friend who already used that name, a famous person with the name, etc., if that makes it more fun and less stressful to choose. This is just pretend, so you can pretend that those things aren’t issues if you want to. (Or you can let the issues stand as they are in real life, if THAT is more fun.)

• We can also all make our own decisions about whether the names have to be ones we think we’d ACTUALLY USE in that hypothetical scenario, or just our FAVORITE names starting with that letter, regardless of whether we think the names are practical; I am not sure which way I will play it, and I likely won’t be consistent.

• If you already have a child with a name starting with the letter we’re working on, you get to pick again from all the names that remain; you don’t have to choose your child’s name as your favorite just because it WAS your favorite: this is a FRESH baby, and you wouldn’t give it the same name as your existing child. (If you would normally prefer not to repeat an initial within a sibling group, you can just pretend that’s NOT a preference for the sake of the game.)

• You can do as much or as little explanation as you like in your comment: you can just list the names you chose, or you can explain your process/preferences/reasoning/runners-up, or whatever is most fun.

Today’s letter is C. For girls I already have Celeste, Claire, Clara, Clarissa, and Cordelia on my list. I also like Catherine and Cecily and Cora. I like the sound of Charity and Clarity. I love the name Claudia, but it’s the name of Paul’s ex. I didn’t realize how many girl C names I liked until this post. If I’d had to choose a C name when I was actually naming my actual girl, I think we would have chosen Clarissa. Naming one now, and with the idea that we can ignore things that would be complications in real life, I think I’d like to choose Claudia.

For boys, I already have Charles and Calvin on my list. I also like Caleb. I like Clarence because of a book; I’m hoping to see it come back soon, along with Laurence and Florence and so forth. I choose Charles, called Charlie: that was one of our finalists for Henry, and I’m not excited about it, but I still like it and feel like it’s a good solid choice, and that’s all I ask of my boy-name list candidates.

Now you! If you want to! Only if it’s fun and not stressful! Feel free to adjust the game-play to be fun and not stressful!

Here is the game we are playing:

We are going to pretend that we are naming a baby and that the name MUST start with a certain letter, and so we will need one name starting with that letter for a boy and one name starting with that letter for a girl, or else one name that would work for either, EVEN IF we don’t like any of the names that start with that letter enough to Actually In Real Life choose them. It is just a game where we place artificial restrictions on reality in order to create the kind of tension that makes games fun—like when you have to choose what foods you’d eat if you could only eat three foods for the rest of your life: the fun is in thinking it over AS IF it were a real forced decision, while KNOWING it is not. There is a baby! It MUST be given a name with a particular letter! That is the game.

After that basic concept, we can decide our own sub-rules, based on what makes the game fun and not stressful. Some examples:

• I’m not planning to play that the name has to fit with the names of my other children or with the surname, though this would be an option for anyone who would LIKE to play it that way; I think I will have more fun if I pretend it is a stand-alone baby and that the surname is not an issue, though I may change my mind as we go. (And if I narrow it down to a few options and can’t decide, I might use siblings/surname as a tie-breaker.)

• It is also fine to narrow it down to a few finalists without getting to The One Name.

• The boy name and girl name don’t have to work TOGETHER: we are only naming ONE baby, so you’d only use one or the other. But you MAY play that the names have to work together, if that’s more fun.

• It is fine to wave aside issues such as a friend who already used that name, a famous person with the name, etc., if that makes it more fun and less stressful to choose. This is just pretend, so you can pretend that those things aren’t issues if you want to. (Or you can let the issues stand as they are in real life, if THAT is more fun.)

• We can also all make our own decisions about whether the names have to be ones we think we’d ACTUALLY USE in that hypothetical scenario, or just our FAVORITE names starting with that letter, regardless of whether we think the names are practical; I am not sure which way I will play it, and I likely won’t be consistent.

• If you already have a child with a name starting with the letter we’re working on, you get to pick again from all the names that remain; you don’t have to choose your child’s name as your favorite just because it WAS your favorite: this is a FRESH baby, and you wouldn’t give it the same name as your existing child. (If you would normally prefer not to repeat an initial within a sibling group, you can just pretend that’s NOT a preference for the sake of the game.)

• You can do as much or as little explanation as you like in your comment: you can just list the names you chose, or you can explain your process/preferences/reasoning/runners-up, or whatever is most fun.

Today’s letter is D. This was a bit of a challenge for me.

For girls, I like Delaney and Darby and Darcy, but for other people’s babies. I encountered a Delia in real life and it made a strongly positive impression on me, enough to put it on my list along with Dahlia—but I think I’d prefer it as a nickname for Cordelia. I’m drawn to Delphine, but would want it to be more common/familiar before I used it. I think I would choose Delia—except, no, immediately I pine for it to be short for Cordelia instead. So I choose Dahlia. No, Delphine. No, Dahlia.

For boys, I like Dean and Davis and Declan and Duncan and Desmond, but pretty much all for other people’s babies. I had Daniel on my list for each pregnancy, but we passed over it so many times, it has an odd feeling to me now. I think in the end we WOULD choose Daniel. I like the warm friendliness of the nickname Dan. I think I like the name Dean better, but I don’t like the job-title sound of it. Well, that’s the way my heart is tugging, so for this game I am choosing Dean! No, Declan.

Now you! If you want to! Only if it’s fun and not stressful! Feel free to adjust the game-play to be fun and not stressful!