Update on Baby Boy or Girl Poolick-with-a-D, Sibling to Marshall and Andrew!

Update on Baby Girl G3dd3rt, Sister to Brier and Kinley!

Update on Baby Boy Hadleigh: Lennox or Leo!

Hi Swistle, we have about 6 weeks until we meet our little one and we can’t seem to settle on a middle name. Here are some specifics.

We don’t know if it’s a boy or girl. We do have a girl name selected that we love – Mabry Elizabeth.
We have selected a first name – Franklin but can’t quite settle on a middle name. We would call him Frank or Frankie.
We already have a 16 mos old girl named Ruby Sue.
Our last name rhymes with Miles but starts with a W.

Here’s the problem with middle names for Franklin – traditional names like George, David, Michael, etc all seem too presidential. So we played around with more “trendy” names like Ames, Adler, Finn, etc but they feel like we’re trying too hard, if that makes sense. There must be something in the middle but we can’t quite come up with anything.

To give you background on how we picked our daughter Ruby’s middle name, it is my mother in law’s middle name. And we absolutely love the name Ruby Sue but we don’t have any other family members’ names that seem to sound right with Franklin.

Any advice you have would be so helpful.

Thanks!

Hm. I see what you mean. I think, though, that some of your examples already successfully avoid the issues. Michael doesn’t feel presidential to me at all, even though George does. And even George, which because of two recent presidents and the famous first president SHOULD be UTTERLY presidential, also makes me think of Prince George, George Michael, Boy George, George Clooney, George Takei, etc.

Franklin Michael seems like a very nice choice. I think you could get a similar effect with any traditional name that doesn’t immediately evoke a president. I had Franklin James in mind, for example, without even realizing that we’ve had SIX presidents named James. The name James is so diluted by many associations, it doesn’t smack of presidency the way, say, Clinton or Lincoln might. But there are also a whole bunch of other traditional names not used by a president at all:

Franklin Alex
Franklin Alexander
Franklin Caleb
Franklin Charles
Franklin Daniel
Franklin Edward
Franklin Isaac
Franklin Jacob
Franklin Joel
Franklin Joseph
Franklin Joshua
Franklin Lucas
Franklin Mark
Franklin Matthew
Franklin Nathaniel
Franklin Nicholas
Franklin Patrick
Franklin Paul
Franklin Peter
Franklin Philip
Franklin Robert
Franklin Samuel
Franklin Stephen
Franklin Timothy

Update on Baby Girl Cooper-with-an-H, Sister to Wayne and Jerry!

I’m having a baby girl in Febuary. We are having difficulty deciding on a name. The truth is I’m having difficulty being completly sold on a name. My husband and I decided on Scarlett Elizabeth Archer as of yesterday. It sounds so cool to me one second then the next I think it’s too risky and I want to name her Charlotte instead.

So here is some background information. My husband has a daughter who is six and we get her part-time. Her name is Sophie Lorene Archer. My husband’s name is Kyle Joseph Archer. I’m Mary Elizabeth Archer.

I want to pass on my middle name. I also thought it would be neat if both girls had a name that began with S. Althought, the two names seem so different. Just wanted to see what your throughts were?… Thanks, Mary

Stylistically, I vote for Charlotte: Sophie and Charlotte sound more compatible to me than Sophie and Scarlett—though I think Sophie and Scarlett are fine together, if you prefer Scarlett.

One thing that might be helpful is your reaction to my vote: Do you feel disappointed that I sided with Charlotte? That may help you feel more sure about Scarlett. Do you find instead you’re relieved? That may help you feel more sure about Charlotte.

Based on the number of distressed letters we get from parents saying “We gave our first two kids the same initial; do we have to continue with that? We don’t like any more names that start with that letter!,” I might lean toward using different initials—though I do like the way the shared S helps bridge the small style gap.

If I say only the first and last names without the middle name as a buffer, Scarlett sounds like an adjective and Archer sounds like a noun. The Scarlet Archer. This also keeps me from suggesting Ruby or Violet as additional candidates, especially with how similar the sound of Violet is to the sound of the word violent.

I wonder if you would like the name Lucy? It has the style and sweetness of Sophie and Charlotte. Lucy Archer; Sophie and Lucy.

For another S name, I might suggest Sadie. Sadie Archer; Sophie and Sadie. Or maybe the matching endings make them TOO similar.

Or perhaps a soft C would give the SOUND of matching, without actually sharing the initial. Cecily Archer; Sophie and Cecily.

Or Celeste. Celeste Archer; Sophie and Celeste.

Your middle name would make a lovely first name with lots of nicknames. Elizabeth Archer; Sophie and Elizabeth/Libby/Ellie/Betsy.

Annabel Archer is sweet and distinctive and gives several nickname choices. Sophie and Annabel/Annie/Bella/Anna.

It might be fun to use both parents’ middle names: Josephine Elizabeth Archer. Josephine Archer; Sophie and Josephine/Josie/Jo.

Update (and photo!) on Baby Girl or Boy H@rtley!

Update on Baby Naming Issue: Okay for Cousins to Share the Same First Name?

Hi Swistle,

We are in a baby naming predicament. I currently have 2 kids (a girl named Piper Jade and a boy named Milo Boyd and our last name is Richards). I am 22 weeks pregnant, Due December 18th, with my third baby (boy) and the name that my husband (Dan) and I can’t get out of our heads is Judah. Now if the first thought that comes to your mind when you read this is “Hey, isn’t that the guy that betrayed the savior?” Then you would be on the same page as 99% of our friends and family. My husband and I know that Judah is NOT Judas but because of this negative association I am hoping to find a backup name or at least some reassurance that our son will not forever be known as the betrayer of the Savor if we go with Judah. I would love your insight. What are your thoughts?

Thanks,

Shannon

It’s tricky. The name of the Savior-Betrayer is Judas, as you mention, and so Judah ought to be fine. But if a name strongly reminds us of another name, it can be difficult to use it, however unfair that is.

It’s interesting to me that your friends and family aren’t instead objecting to the association with the biblical Judah. Now there’s a guy with some scandal.

I think there are two routes you could go here. One is to stand your ground. The name Judah is rising quite quickly in popularity: according to the Social Security Administration, it hit the Top 1000 in 1997, and by 2014 had risen to #243. As a name becomes more common, it gets less surprising to hear it, and even strong associations begin to dim. I think it’s following Noah and Elijah and Ezra: those names used to be very unusual and super-biblical, but now they’ve been mainstreamed. While it’s still possible to use them in honor of their biblical characters, it’s even easier to use them without taking it into consideration.

Plus, the name you are considering is Judah, which IS IN FACT different than Judas. Your friends/family: “Like OUR SAVIOR’S BETRAYER??” You, with look of mild surprise: “No, no: JuDAH.” (Bonus points if you add “You know: the patrilinear ancestor of Jesus.”) (Cash money for a video of you saying conversationally to them: “I mean, he’s only the ancestor because his daughter-in-law dressed as a hooker so he’d have sex with her. But still! Ancestor high-five! Thank goodness he didn’t follow through with his plan to murder her while she was pregnant, amirite?”)

Will your child be forever associated with Judas the betrayer of Jesus? Short answer: no, of course not. IS your child Judas-the-betrayer? No. Would he even share a name with Judas? No. Will your family cling to this concept so vigorously that even decades down the line they will still be upset about it? Well, you know your family better than we do: WILL they? Is there any similar situation in the family you can look at—maybe another time there was an uproar over a baby’s name and the uproar either died down or it didn’t?

The other route is to accept it. To think of it as one of those situations many of us have, where there is a name we really want to use, and we can’t use it because it’s the name of someone we used to date and our spouse is still jealous, or the name of our new step-mother and using that name would hurt our mother, or the name of someone who became notorious after we fell for the name. Sometimes there’s theoretically no reason the name can’t be used anyway (“I liked that name LONG before I dated him! I don’t even THINK of him when I say that name!!”), but it just isn’t going to work. We and you may all agree that the name SHOULD BE fine, but that doesn’t mean it IS fine in the context of your particular circle. If you think friends and family will shudder every time they hear your child’s name, it may be in his own best interests as well as yours to choose something else.

For example, how about another stylish biblical name?

Abel
Abram
Barnaby
Cyrus
Elijah
Ezekiel
Ezra
Gabriel
Gideon
Isaac
Isaiah
Joel
Jonah
Levi
Reuben
Simon
Tobias

I especially like Simon: I think it’s great with Milo and Piper, and I like that all three first names would have long-I sounds. Perhaps you could use Jude as the middle name, and then all three would have four-letter middle names with a strong D sound!

You might not like any other name as much as you like the name Judah—but if you decide the name Judah is not usable for your family, the best choice may be your second-choice name.

Update (and photo!) on Baby Boy Korver, Brother to Judah Samson!