Hi Swistle!
I found your blog a little before getting pregnant and have been a huge fan. My husband and I are expecting our first child, a daughter, in about two months. We are American and plan to raise the baby in the US. While we’ve discussed names together a few times and borrowed some name books from the library, nothing has really come up that’s been a true YES for both of us.
Our last name is like Duffie with a different spelling, and we are Jessica and John. If the baby had been a boy we definitely would have chosen James, but are not necessarily looking for ‘J’ names. Obviously, things may change but we would like to have one more baby in the future.
We both like names with a lot of nickname potential. For example, our cats are Claudia and Leona, but are often respectively called Kip/Kiki and Yona/Yogurt (so I felt totally called out by that baby girl McTune letter!!! haha). We will likely use the baby’s full name and nicknames interchangeably.
My potential name list is kind of short. My top favorite name ever for this baby is Georgia (Gigi, Georgie), with Theresa (Tess, Reese) being a moderate second. For me, Georgia feels like a perfect combination of recognizable but not overused, classy, and wears great throughout life and on any personality. Unfortunately, it doesn’t bring any particular joy to my husband. Juliet would be my third place, but I have a very strong unpleasant association with a Jules, so that’s out. Most other names I find myself feeling kind of ambivalent about. Some names I’d put in my ‘decent, but not wow’ category are Keira, Maya, and Cassandra. I like Claire and Antoinette as middle names, if that helps give a clearer picture of my naming style.
My husband really likes the names Alice, Madeline, Imogen, and Juliet (although he agreed to rule it out over the strong nickname possibility Jules). For ‘decent but not wow’, he likes Cassandra, Claire, and Veronica. He also likes Antoinette as a middle name, but not as a first.
Other observation:
Some ‘D’ names can sound silly with our last name (Daisy is cute but Daisy Duffie sounds like a Fairly OddParents character), as do some names that end in a -y sound. I’m cognizant about this for nicknames as well. For example, the name Madeleine is nice, but Maddy Duffie has a lot of ‘Ds’ and the repeating -y sound. Other potential names kind of melt into Duffie, such as Alice Duffie -> Alicestuffy and Jade Duffie -> Jay Duffie, and I don’t love that either!
I know you are a proponent of considering the woman’s last name, which as you can see from my email address is uncommon. I like that name and still use it sometimes, but I enjoy the anonymity that Duffie has afforded me. It also has a similar region of origin as my mother’s maiden name. As such, our family is sticking with it! I hope you can help me rise to the challenge of finding a name we both love that works with our last name too.
Thank you!
I think the name Georgia is perfect, and so my first hope is that this will be one of those letters where we first hear that the spouse (almost always a husband) is not on board, and then later we get a follow-up that the spouse came around to it and in fact ended up choosing it.
I wonder if either of you would like Geneva? Geneva Duffie. I like the way it repeats the SOUND of your first initials without repeating the actual letter. And I like the nicknames: you’d still have Gigi, and also Genna/Gen, and also Eva and Evie and Neva and Nevie. I know at my house we would end up calling her Gevie (I don’t know if we’d spell it that way) and Jeeves and so forth too. Geneva Claire Duffie; Geneva Antoinette Duffie.
Or Genevieve. Genevieve Claire Duffie; Genevieve Antoinette Duffie.
I agree that Alice kind of mushes into the surname, and the absolute OCEAN of Maddys in my kids’ schools makes me reluctant to endorse the otherwise wonderful Madeline—but I love Imogen from your husband’s list. Imogen Duffie. It’s underused but not difficult, and it has fun nicknames: Immy and Gen/Genna, Mo, and also Midge. MIDGE!! Imogen Claire Duffie; Imogen Antoinette Duffie.
Theresa/Tessa and Veronica make me wonder if either of you would like Vanessa. Vanessa Duffie.
I also want to push both of you to like Veronica, even though it’s only on your husband’s Okay list. It’s just such a terrific name, and it has nickname options: Ronnie is retro; Nicky could work; Nica feels more modern; she could use Vera, too. And even though this is not usually my sort of thing, I like that it is KIND OF a combination of your two names: the -on- sound of John, the -ica of Jessica. Jessica, John, and Veronica is pretty fun to say, as long as it won’t make you feel pressured to repeat sounds for a potential future child.
Now that it has occurred to me, I wish to pressure you to name this baby Winifred. WINIFRED. Winnie! Freddie! Winifred Duffie could give us a little bit of an issue of -d running into D-, but I’m not finding it’s causing an issue when I say it: I just pause for the merest moment between the two names. And I suppose Freddie Duffie is a little too much swap-the-letters-around, but I can’t talk myself out of it!
I think Juliet could be added to the middle name list, since you both like it, and since it is very likely from that position to result in any use of the nickname Jules. Vanessa Juliet. Veronica Juliet. Winifred Juliet.
I started thinking “Linnea” (linn-NAY-ah) as I was re-reading the letter, but now I don’t remember why. Linnea Duffie. Linnea Claire Duffie; Linnea Antoinette Duffie; Linnea Juliet Duffie. Linny, Lin, Naya. Oh, I see now: it was because of the cat’s name, Leona. They do share sounds, but they’re not TOO-too similar, and perhaps the cat could rely more on her nicknames.
Theresa, Cassandra, Alice all make me think of Annelise. Annelise Duffie. Annelise Claire Duffie; Annelise Juliet Duffie.
Susanna. Susanna Duffie. Susie, Annie, Anna, Zuzu. Susanna Claire Duffie; Susanna Juliet Duffie.
Cordelia. Cordelia Duffie. Cory, Delia, Lee. Cordelia Claire Duffie; Cordelia Antoinette Duffie; Cordelia Juliet Duffie.
When I think “name with lots of nicknames,” I think Margaret. Margaret Duffie. Meg, Maggie, Daisy (maybe too cute with the surname as a given name, but I think fine as a nickname), Greta, Margo, etc. Margaret Claire Duffie.