Having first girl after two boys. Boys names are Ford & Hudson, I like that they both sound preppy. I am very girly and like girly sounding pretty names. I am stuck between Charlotte and Everly, both sound so pretty to me just not sure what sounds better with the boys names? Husband and I are split down the middle, worry that Charlotte will get a nickname because its long and not a fan of that, really just love the full name Charlotte but and I being unrealistic it will eventually be shortened? Loved the name Everly since the moment I heard it, also love that it’s not as long and not as popular as Charlotte as it’s no fun being 1 of 3 in a class.

Thoughts, honest opinion, baby is due in a month May 2018!

Thank you!!!!!

For sibling-name compatibility in both style and popularity, I vote for Everly. It fits well with your preference for preppy and with your preference for pretty. Right now Charlotte is in the Top Ten and Everly is just outside the Top 100—though rising rather rapidly, considering how recently it entered the Top 1000:

(image from ssa.gov)

But it’s very common for parents to choose a different style for the boys in the family than for the girls in the family, so I don’t think Charlotte is at all jarring with the brother names, and in fact I very much like the sound of it; those three names together give me a pleasing Early American feel. I do think the name Charlotte lends itself well to nicknames—but it’s only two syllables long, and we are living in an age when it’s common for kids to be William and Abigail rather than Billy and Abby, so until she’s of the age to choose for herself if she wants a nickname, I think you won’t have much trouble getting her called by her full name. She may, however, decide she wants to be called Charlie or Lottie, so if you hate the nicknames then that’s another point in favor of Everly. On the other hand, Everly is three syllables to Charlotte’s two, and the nickname Evvie is a possibility.

Well, both names seem good to me in their own ways, so I am not much help! Let’s see what the commenters think.

Update (and photo) on Baby Boy Ch@nn, Brother to Riley

Hi Swistle!

I have a weird question. My boyfriend and I have very different naming styles. I like classic, but perhaps underused names like:

Beatrice
Alice
Frances

George
Arthur
Charles

(Basically, I like classic names that are currently coming back into fashion.)

My boyfriend, on the other hand, insists on “pre-Christian” names because he doesn’t feel comfortable with names that remind him of Western expansion. Here are some examples that he finds acceptable:

Freya
Sigurd
Artemis

Sigmund
Torvald
Aksel

I hope you can get a sense of our competing styles. Particularly for boys names, I am having difficulty finding any compromise names. Do you have suggestions?

We live in the US! Thank you!

Yes, I certainly do get a sense of your competing styles. And here is the problem: YOU are choosing baby names for babies born in your own country and time period; HE is choosing philosophies. It’s hard to see where compromise can get a foot in when it’s not “Hm, no, that one’s not really my style” but instead “Hm, no, that one reminds me of Western Expansion.” I can’t help with his naming style, or with whatever the issues are that underlie his style. Furthermore, I notice that the Acceptable names on his list are…not widely international.

My hope is that we are talking here about someone who is Quite Young, possibly a college student taking some classes that are really blowing his mind right now, and that there is still hope for this to be the kind of thing we all laugh about later. A friend of mine is married to a guy who during their dating years was set on animal names (Fox, Bear, Wolf, etc.) for all sons (he did not persist in this wish), and I have a good story about Paul wanting to name a daughter Fenchurch. Or maybe your boyfriend is a serious and thoughtful and well-intentioned global thinker who is trying really hard to do the right thing in every area of his life. Or maybe he just has this one funny little quirk that makes him look bad taken out of context like this. But this letter makes me want to ask you a bunch of follow-up questions about other philosophies of his and what else he considers acceptable/unacceptable, and then ask you earnestly if this is what you want for your life. I’m sorry: this isn’t the answer you were asking for. But your letter made my hands go cold and my mouth go dry. From time to time there have been other letters that have given me a similar reaction, but when the writer is already married and pregnant, it’s too late for there to be any point in me saying so.

Well. *brushes off hands* Let’s see if there are some among us who DO know about pre-Christian, non-Western-Expansion-related names and would be happy to finally have a chance to discuss them.

Update (and bunny-ears photo) on Baby Boy Trude11e, Brother to Miles and Claire

Hi Swistle,

I don’t need to ask for any personal name advice, but was wondering what advice you would give to Chip and Joanna Gaines, of Fixer Upper fame.

Their kids’ names follow a strict pattern thus far. Their boys have single-syllable names starting with D and including a “k” sound (Duke and Drake), and their girls have two-syllable “e” names with short middle names (Ella Rose [edited], Emmie Kay).

They’ve set themselves some pretty strict parameters; where do you think the Gaineses could go with them?

Would love to hear your thoughts, and perhaps I’ll get to write in with a name question of my own one day! (Although I’m getting married in 3 months, so I’m going one major life milestone at a time)

Meg

OH OKAY that sounds fun. Or rather, it’s fun as an outsider: I would not personally want to have to paint myself out of that naming corner.

I know they’ve revealed they’re having a boy, but let’s look at girl names anyway. Starting letter E, double letters, two syllables, and so far we have an -a ending and an -ie/-y/-ee ending. It would be nice to find another two-syllable E-name with double letters that are not -ll- or -mm-; even nicer would be a different ending sound, but we’ll see how that goes.

Ebba
Ecco
Eddi
Edee
Effie
Eileen
Erinn
Esmée
Estelle (double L, though)
Essie
Etta
Evette
Evonne
Evva
Evvie
Evvyn

Well. I think this is a good moment to reflect on why it can be a good idea during the baby-naming process to think ahead to future sibling names. None of these options is as familiar as Ella or Emmie, and some are very different in style. Some of them are kind of reaching, and some of them are REALLY reaching. Quite a few of them seem too similar to the sister names. And some of them make me uncomfortable to look at. If I had to choose from this list, my favorites are Esmée (with the EZZ-may pronunciation) and Etta, but I’m not particularly happy with either of those: Esmée seems confusingly similar to / different from Emmie, and Etta feels too similar to Ella both in look and sound.

But it’s not as if we’ve been given instructions by the parents to find another two-syllable E-name with double letters, so let’s expand the search. At this point I think the name ought to begin with E (not because of the two sister names starting with E, but because of two sister names starting with E AND two brother names starting with D), but we could drop or loosen one of the other preferences.

Edie
Erikka
Eva
Evelynn
Everlee

I feel as if it just CAN’T be another El- or Em- name, and that rules out…almost all of the E-names. I had Emersyn in this list at first, thinking the third syllable and different ending MIGHT make it different enough from Emmie for parents who don’t find Ella and Emmie too similar—but Emmie is such a natural nickname for Emersyn. Same problem with Ellisyn and Eleanor and Ellery and Emery and many others. If I had to choose from this list, my favorites are Eva and Evelynn, and I think I could be happy with either of those: they are similar enough in popularity and style to Ella/Emmie, while different enough in sound. I prefer Eva for the two syllables, and I prefer Evelynn for the new ending.

Let’s see if the boy-name search is any easier. Duke and Drake: both D-names, both one syllable, both ending in -ke.

Deke

That’s it, I think. But as with girl names, no one instructed us to find a name meeting all those preferences, so let’s see what we can find when we remove some of them.

Darian
Dash
Davis
Dawson
Dax
Deacon
Dean
Decker
Declan
Derek
Desmond/Dezi
Devin
Dex
Dirk
Dixon
Dodge
Dolan
Dominick
Donnelly
Donovan
Dover
Doyle
Duncan
Dylan

That was much easier. I spent probably a quarter the time finding boy names as I did finding girl names, and didn’t have to mess around as much with alternate spellings. I think they could go with a one-syllable thing: Duke, Drake, and Dash. Duke, Drake, and Dean. Or they could tie in the K-sound: Duke, Drake, and Decker. Duke, Drake, and Declan.

Update (and photo) on Baby Girl Leigh

Hi there,

My husband and I have a looming due date (May 29) and we’re at an impasse with girls names! We’re not finding out the gender of our forthcoming little one and have decided that if we have a boy, he’ll be John Owen (and we’ll call him Owen).

Our last name is Smith, so we are somewhat limited to choosing names that don’t end in ‘s’ as we both feel that we don’t want the first and last names running together. Sad though, because that eliminates some of the names we like.

That said, we’re on pretty opposite ends of the spectrum with names that we like. My husband like liquid letters and Norwegian-inspired names. Here are some he’s rooting for:

Karen (pronounced Car-en)
Kiersten
Lilly/Lillian
Ellie/Elle
Ellen
Emma
Sophia

I, on the other hand, tend toward more of the classic grandmother names. I’m pretty wary of overly popular names as well. On the top of my list are:

Edith (not doable with the last name), but with the nickname “Edie”
Eliza/Liza
Evelyn/Everly (nickname “Evie”)
Mae (after my grandmother)
Maeve (love this Irish name as we spent our first year of marriage living there)
Eva/Ava/Aoife (prounced like “Ava” but with an “f” sound instead of a “v”, also Irish)
Frances
Louise
Herriot (for a middle name perhaps)
Rosalyn
Liesel
Miriam
Greer

Where we overlap:

Hannah – I like, but don’t love
Piper – same as above
Lane/Laney – doesn’t feel like the one, but I like
Eve (pronounced to rhyme with Bev)*
Joules

*Eve seems to be our most viable options at this point because we both like it. I just don’t want to have the name be mispronounced as Eve (rhyming with Steve) and my husband doesn’t like any of the longer forms of a name that would be shortened to produce the nickname.

So, gosh, we’d love some outside perspective and any feedback you’re able to give!

Thanks kindly,
Cory Smith

The name “John Smith” is a very bold choice. (For those of you thinking, “But…!”: those are exactly the things that make it a bold choice.) Is John a family name? Why are you planning to call him by his middle name? That sort of thing can help us get a handle on your overall naming preferences and priorities, even though you aren’t asking for help with a boy name.

In the U.S. English language, the correct/standard pronunciation of the name Eve is the one that rhymes with Steve. The level of hassle you would encounter to get it pronounced to rhyme with Bev would be significant and lifelong. The information we’re missing here is your reason for wanting the name pronounced differently. For example, is it a namesake name, or a name from another country/language where it is pronounced like Ev? In the U.S., if you want it to rhyme with Bev, I would strongly suggest spelling it Ev: it’s an existing name with the pronunciation you prefer. If you spell it Eve, I think you will have to reframe the situation in your mind: if you think of people as mispronouncing it when they use the usual pronunciation, I think you will quickly lose your minds with frustration. To save your sanity, you will need to accept that the pronunciation you prefer is the one that would be considered a mispronunciation in U.S. English, and let that infuse your standard explanation with patient, cheerful understanding: “Oh, actually it’s pronounced Ev. She’s named for my Irish grandmother, and that’s how it’s pronounced there”—or whatever the reason is.

Along the same lines, the pronunciation KARE-en is so common and widespread in the U.S., and there are so very many Karens (the name was Top 100 from 1938 until 1986), I think trying to get people to pronounce it CAR-en would be exhausting. I am not sure what spelling to recommend for the pronunciation you’d prefer. Karren? No, that looks like a typo. Carren? Hm. Carin? Maybe, but that seems more like a spelling of Corinne. None of those seem ideal to me. Perhaps commenters will have some suggestions. (I would suggest the name Corinne, but it’s so similar to Cory. For that matter, so is Karen-pronounced-CAR-en.)

You have lived in Ireland for a year and so I think it’s best if I assume you have better information than I do about this, but I want to raise the point as one that may need more investigation: I was pretty sure Aoife was not pronounced like Ava-with-an-f, but instead like Eva-with-an-f: EE-fa. My daughter is acquainted with an Aoife whose parents’ families are both from Ireland, and they pronounce it EE-fa. My working theory about the possible explanation for this is that the long-E/long-A sound is not quite a direct translation from Irish, and so some people fall to more of an E-sound and others to more of an A-sound.

The spellings Herriot and Joules catch my eye in a list of traditionally-spelled options. Unless you have specific reasons for the alternate spellings, I suggest using the standard Harriet/Jules. I think the name Harriet Smith is terrific.

From your joint list, my top choices are Piper and Lane/Laney. Lane Smith seems like a dashing and unusual choice, while still being easy to spell and pronounce. I might instead consider the spelling Laine, with the nickname Lainey. According to the Social Security Administration, the spelling Lane was given to 1,224 new baby boys and 85 new baby girls in 2016; the spelling Laine was given to 30 new baby boys and 92 new baby girls in 2016. (The name Piper was used nearly exclusively for girls.)

A similar option is Delaney, used for 9 new baby boys and 1,198 new baby girls in 2016.

Or I wonder if you’d like Elaine with the nickname Lainey? It’s a grandmother name, and very similar to Ellen and Lillian from your husband’s list.

The name Hannah may be more popular throughout the population than you’d prefer: it is only recently out of a dozen years in the Top 10.

From your husband’s list, my favorite is Ellen. It’s currently uncommon (#655 in 2016) but has the fashionable Ell- sound.

With the surname Smith, I am more than usual on the side of staying away from popular names. Emma and Sophia are both in the Top 10 as of 2016; Emma has been there since 2002 and Sophia since 2006. Kiersten is much less common (not even in the Top 1000 as of 2016), but is more Mom Name than Grandmother Name.

From your list, my favorites are Eliza, Mae, Rosalyn, and Miriam.

It seems as if the two of you are so close with his Ellie/Elle/Ellen/Emma and your Eliza/Evelyn/Eva. Your husband doesn’t like any of the Ev- names, but I would explore further in the Em- and El- categories. Elodie? Emmeline? Elena? Eleni? Eleanor? Elianna? And have you already tried your husband on Evelina, pronounced ev-ah-LEEN-nah? It’s similar to several of his choices, and gives you the Ev. Evelina Smith.

Or I wonder if you two would like Genevieve? It has the Ev/Eve/Ava/Eva type of sounds, but it’s less common. Or Geneva? or Vienna?

My husband and I are struggling to name our first baby, a girl, due on May 1, 2018.

We have three names that we have both liked but are not 100% committed to any of them.

I generally prefer somewhat traditional names with family ties, and my husband likes names that sound a bit more sophisticated than I would choose.

Our last name sounds like Catrell. These are the three names we have both agreed as potential contenders:

Kathryn Mae nn: Kay
My husband’s mother is named Kathryn and we liked the way it sounded with Mae. My grandmother’s name is Kay, which I think is sweet, but my husband can’t picture calling a little girl.

Sally
We both LOVE the name Sally but are struggling to find a middle name that doesn’t sound too southern when paired with Sally. It is also the name of my great aunt.

Lily Ann
I suggested this to my husband, and he didn’t mind it, so we added it to the list.

Some more names I like:
Beatrice
Liv
Holly

Some names my husband likes:
Stella
Maeve
Victoria

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Mairzy

I immediately seized upon Sally. I love that name and would love to see it more in use. I think the key to avoiding the southern sound is to pick a serious, longer, non-bouncy middle. Sally Kathryn. Sally Elizabeth. Sally Margaret. Sally Eleanor. Sally Rachel. Sally Veronica. Sally Rebecca. Sally Juliet. Sally Josephine. Some of those would still lend themselves to the southern sound if you/she later wanted it: Sally Kay, Sally Kate, Sally Beth, Sally Jo, etc. Another option would be to put a surname in the middle: your maiden name or another family surname.

But I also love the idea of Kay. In the past few months I’ve gotten to know a woman named Kay, and I can personally attest to the pleasingness of the name: I like to say it, I like to see it, I like to hear it. It’s a name I’d wondered about before, but I’d never encountered a Kay and thought maybe in usage the name would sound like K. or ‘kay, but so far it doesn’t. It sounds sweet but not diminutive. I like the idea of naming her Kay directly (with a different middle name), instead of as a nickname for Kathryn, especially if the child’s surname is your husband’s: using your grandmother’s name instead of your mother-in-law’s name gives the full name a little more family balance.

If you decide to go with Kathryn but your husband isn’t sold on Kay, I suggest the nickname Kit.

I’m reluctant to find you any more ideas, because I am so keen on you using either Sally or Kay—and since I don’t know the family tree, I can’t help you push your case for family names, which is something I would dearly like to do. But I will force myself to come up with some names anyway.

Sally makes me think of Molly and Polly.

Liv and Stella make me think of Sylvia/Silvia/Silvie.

Maeve and Kay make me think of May/Mae. It’s fairly common as a middle name, but fresh and surprising as a first name.

“Fairly common as a middle name, but fresh and surprising as a first name” makes me think of Rose.

Liv and Maeve and Lily and Holly make me think of Ivy. That’s another name I’d really like to see more of.

Lily and Victoria make me think of Lydia.

I wonder if you two would like Josephine/Josie for a nice mix of sophistication and friendliness.

Oh, or would you like Alice? Sound-wise, it’s almost a rearranged Sally.

Or Flora would be pretty and unusual without being difficult to spell or pronounce.

Hi Swistle!

I am expecting my third child late summer. It’s going to be our last! We aren’t going to find out the sex beforehand, but are having some serious issues with either boy or girl names – help!

Our last name starts with a “Shm” sound and rhymes with Pitt. I am really not a fan of first names that end in “S” in general because of how it pairs with our last name.

We have two boys:
Broderick Anderson (Brody)
Thompson Abraham (Tommy)

As you can see, we are a fan of last names as first names. This third baby will have the middle Dean no matter what (in honor of my Grandma whose name was Willa Dean).

We have considered Theodore for a boy, but recently nixed it because between the two of us, we can’t get on board with either Theo or Teddy as a nickname. I’ve always loved Cameron, but my husband is not a fan.

If it’s a girl, i want her to have a really feminine first name since her last name isn’t so much. The one name we can both agree on is Adeline, although my one reservation is that we have a niece Madeline, and is that too similar even though ours will have the long “i” sound?

I have also always liked Amelia, but my husband isn’t a fan.

I appreciate any help you can provide – We are just at a loss!

It would be fun to see if we could find another boy name that was an unusual/fresh surname-name with a familiar nickname. No reason we MUST—just, it would be fun to look. I’m leaning heavily here on the Last Names First section of The Baby Name Wizard:

Callahan/Cal
Callister/Cal
Corrigan/Cory
Cortland/Cory
Davison/Davy
Finnegan/Finn
Maxfield/Max
Nicholson/Nick
Robinson/Rob
Robertson/Rob

I find the ones that end in -son a little hard to say with the surname—not to a deal-breaking point, but enough to notice. Plus, those repeat the ending of Thompson—again, doesn’t have to rule them out, especially if you mostly call him Tommy.

More possibilities:

Carter
Crosby
Griffin
Keaton
Lawson
Meyer
Redford
Sullivan
Wesley

If your husband isn’t interested in Cameron, I wonder if he’d like Camden? Broderick, Thompson, and Camden; Brody, Tommy, and Cam.

I don’t think Adeline is too close to Madeline for cousins, especially if I’m assuming correctly that your niece uses the -linn pronunciation.

The first step with girl names, I think, is to figure out your general style. Adeline and Amelia make me think of classic/vintage girl names such as Abigail, Annabel, Audrey, Clara, Claudia, Cordelia, Eliza, Eloise, Emeline, Flora, Josephine, Lillian, Lydia, Margaret, Molly, Olivia, Sylvia, Victoria.

But if you’re looking over that list and thinking, “Hm, no, no, nope, hm, no, meh, no,” then it might be that I’m way off and your style is actually Names that Start with A, or French Names, or Still Surname-Names But with Good Feminine Nicknames, or any number of other categories. This is one reason I’m so fond of The Baby Name Wizard: names are sorted by category, so you can look over a whole group of names and think, “Yes, we like a LOT of those” (and then spend more time evaluating all the other names in the category) or “Nope, that is DEFINITELY not us.”

Hi there –

Your post (and the comments!) helped us name our second son, Theo, in 2014. After two devastating losses halfway through pregnancy in 2016, I am now 7 months pregnant with a baby girl. I’m hoping naming her will help me feel more hopeful and connected to her. I’m still worried I won’t get a baby out of this (even just sending this email feels like a huge leap of faith and “how the heck can you expect to need a baby name!?”). But I need to name her either way.

She’s due in mid-May, our last name is Cadaret (rhymes with Cabaret), and my boys are named Gabriel (Gabe) and Theodore (Theo). If she was a boy, I’d probably rally for a name with the nickname Gus.

As we explore girl names, I’m a little wary of the fact that several of the names we like are similar to other names (Adeline/Adelaide, Isabelle/Isabella, Lillian/Lilliana, etc). I’m worried about having a name that is confusing in the sense that people forget which version it is. I know a few friends named Lauren or Laura who hate how often their name gets mixed up with the other one. Is that a problem I need to worry about? I am kind of thinking I’ll steer clear of those kind of names, even though I do quite like Caroline (which is often confused with Carolyn).

Names we (or just I, but whatever I’m stubborn) like:

Isabella or Isabelle
Charlotte
Abigail
Amelia
Lily or Lillian
Penelope nn. Penny
Eleanor
Caroline
Josephine nn. Josie
Margaret nn. Maggie
Eloise

We have a trend for naming a more formal name with a nickname (Gabe and Theo), but I’m not married to the idea.

Please advise, oh wise baby namer.

Thanks,
Ashley

As a Kristen sometimes mistaken for a Kirsten, Kiersten, or Christine, I can confirm it’s definitely an annoyance—though it was not annoying enough for me to take it into account when naming my children. If you suspect it’s something that will drive you nuts, you’re wise to think of it ahead of time: my guess is that although practically any name is sometimes mistaken for another name, the Margarets and Penelopes of the world deal with it less often than the Isabelles and Adelines.

Two names on the list catch my attention for issues with the brother names. The first is Eleanor, which rhymes with Theodore. The second is Abigail, which for me is too close to Gabriel.

Looking at the name Margaret with your surname, I wonder if it would lead to pronunciation issues: Margaret Cadaret LOOKS as if the two names would rhyme, but they don’t. This bothers me for reasons I can’t quite put a finger on, but it is enough to take Margaret out of my top choices even though it’s one of my favorite names. Charlotte Cadaret gives me some of the same feeling, though lessened because the endings aren’t exactly matched.

My top choices from the list are Penelope, Josephine, and Eloise. Of those, my guess is that Eloise is the most likely to be mistaken for other names (Heloise, Eliza, Eleanor, etc.), but that the others are about as safe as names can be: that is, a Josie might sometimes be misheard as a Rosie, but only to the unavoidable extent ANY name might sometimes be misheard or misremembered. (Households containing Penelopes and Josephines should feel free to confirm or deny this.) And I love that Penelope and Josephine both meet the preference for a natural nickname along the lines of Gabriel/Gabe and Theodore/Theo.

Normally my next step would be to come up with more suggestions, but I feel as if you’ve got this covered: you have a good list with lots of strong candidates.