Our second son is due on May 9th, and we're having such trouble settling on his name! Our last name is Gottlieb (pronounced Got-Leeb), and our first son's name is Nathan Howard. We almost immediately settled on Nathan and Howard is after my husband's grandfather. If this baby were a girl--and I was convinced it was, based on a dream, completely different pregnancy, and the early ultrasound--her name was going to be Claire Abigail. However, the 20-week ultrasound was emphatically boy, dashing all my pretty pink dreams, and putting us right back on the drawing board.
We've gone back and forth over a lot of names and the front-runner seems to be Eli, but I'm just not sure about it. My husband loves it, but it just doesn't seem "right" to me. I'm not sure I like the sound of Eli Gottlieb (too many eees?), and it just seems so short written out (shouldn't there be more letters?). Also, and this is probably in the way-picky realm, I don't like the reversal of the e & i from the first name to the last. People always reverse the i & e in our last name, and by putting the e first in the first name, I feel like it'll make it worse. It's entirely possible that I'm way overthinking this, so can you and your readers give me a reality check? Does Eli Gottlieb work?
Our other front-runners are Robert and Henry. The baby's middle name will be either Robert or Lawrence after my dad (my maiden name was Roberts, my dad is Larry). Unless, of course, I can get my husband to agree to Robert as a first name, and then it will be Robert Elias.
We're open to other names, here's some that we've considered and tabled:
Tobias (nn Toby)
Simon
Josiah (my all-time favorite, soundly rejected by hubs)
Lloyd (I had to give up Josiah to get this one off the list, husband still doesn't understand why I hate it)
Micah
Noah
We're pretty squarely in the "Timeless" section of the Baby Name Wizard, but I've looked through that list so many times and nothing jumps out at me anymore. So, I guess what I'm really looking for is some other opinions on Eli Lawrence, or to see if there's anything out there that I'm missing.
Thanks so much for your help!
I think what might be called for here is a longer name with Eli as the nickname. I notice you like Josiah and Micah and Noah---do you like Elijah? And you like Tobias; do you like Elias? Both of those take care of any extra-E problem for me.
Or there's Ian: similar levels of E-sound, but without the e-i problem, and without an L and a second strong vowel sound. But maybe Nathan and Ian is too much -an.
Lloyd + Elias brought the name Louis to mind. I love it with Gottlieb and with Nathan. Maybe Louis Roberts Gottlieb.
Or Frederick? Frederick Gottlieb; Frederick Lawrence Gottlieb; Nathan and Frederick.
Or Edmund? Edmund Gottlieb; Edmund Roberts Gottlieb; Nathan and Edmund.
Or Daniel? Daniel Gottlieb; Daniel Lawrence Gottlieb; Nathan and Daniel.
I'm wondering if it would work to use Roberts (with the original S) as the first name? Not only would it be your actual maiden name, it would fit in well with the other surname names being used now.
I also love both Henry and Simon from your list.
Name update! Laura writes:
Elijah Lawrence Gottlieb arrived at 3:52 pm on April 24, 2011. Many thanks to you and your readers for the advice and suggestions. We went back and forth over various versions of Eli, Elias, and Elijah, but when he decided to be born on Easter Sunday and during Passover (I'm Christian, Husband is Jewish), we knew we had to go with Elijah. We're calling him Eli and are so happy to have him in our family!
Thanks again!
