Baby Naming Issue: Hyphenated Surnames One Generation Later

Caroline writes:

I have a Naming Issue question I hope you and your readers might be able to discuss.

My fiancé’s last name is hyphenated. His parents chose to keep their respective surnames (they are still married) but hyphenated their names together to form their children’s surname, MaternalSurname-PaternalSurname. I see why they made this choice, but now it is complicating my future naming plans and I am getting a little frustrated.

I like my full name and its flow and always just assumed I would tack on my partner’s name to the end of my name, First Middle Maiden Married. Adding in the extra name because of the hyphen makes keeping my original surname seem impractical. If you are still following me on this one, my name would then become First Middle Maiden Married-Married. My own surname is short but has two syllables and sounds like a common female first name but is spelled in a non-traditional way. I would consider dropping my middle name and putting my surname in the middle name slot, but then I would feel like my maiden name would become an embarrassing middle name rather than my surname. This would also imply that my husband and I hyphenated our surnames together and I don’t really want to add that implication (not that I don’t approve of that idea).

I feel like the simple solution is to keep my name and he will keep his, but I would really like to share a surname with any future children. I would like for the whole family to share a surname as our “family name.” He would prefer the same but is by no means insistent that I take his name at all. I’m also worried about any future children’s names having to match with this hyphenated name created by his parents. I know that his mother wanted her name to be represented for her children as well, but now I feel like I will have to give up my own name in order for hers to be carried on.

We have discussed my fiancé dropping his middle name to become First MaternalSurname PaternalSurname and then my name becoming First Middle Maiden HisPaternalSurname, but his mother seems to be annoyed by this idea. I don’t want to exclude my future mother-in-law or make it seem like I am starting our marriage by taking her further away from her son. I think that him changing his name makes it seem as though I do not like her and do not want her to be a part of my newly created family when that is certainly not the case. I’m currently at a loss of what do to, but the wedding is May 28 (!) and I would very much like to decide on a surname for myself and future children BEFORE that date!

I think in every conversation I've ever heard on the topic of hyphenating names, someone has always said, "Yes, but what about when their children get married?" Which seems so far off, and always seems like more of a jokey remark ("They'll be Harrington-Smith-Mortons-Jones, har har har!"), and the feeling is usually "Sufficient unto the day are the troubles thereof": when it comes to that point, the children will tackle their own naming problems. But here we are, in that future, and here we have one of the possible outcomes to tackle.

Especially riveting to me is your mother-in-law's reaction and this statement of yours: "I know that his mother wanted her name to be represented for her children as well, but now I feel like I will have to give up my own name in order for hers to be carried on." Yes. This is the problem. I wonder if your husband could present the problem to his mother in that way: explain it exactly the way you did, and ask if she has any ideas for resolving this very tricky name situation. My guess is that she will be stymied---but that she may come away with a better understanding of the situation and more sympathy for whatever you decide.

I agree with each point you brought up: if you take his name, it implies that the one of the two hyphenated names is your original surname; if he drops his mother's surname, that sounds like it's going to create political problems in his family.

I suggest another option: he could drop his father's surname. That seems so much more shocking than dropping his mother's, and yet it's exactly the same: he drops one of his two parental names. He would be First Middle Maternal, and you would be First Middle Maiden Maternal, and your family surname would be Maternal.

This, of course, puts you right back into the patriarchal naming system, but it spares your mother-in-law's feelings. It does lend a certain futility to the whole endeavor: why go through all these complicated naming situations if the entire effect is to change the paternal surname to a different parental surname? Well, indeed.

Another possibility is for your husband to take your surname, dropping both his parents' names. This has the appeal of simplicity.

Another possibility is to hyphenate your surname with his mother's, and both of you take that name. First Middle Maiden-Maternal.

Another option is to create a new surname, either by combining parts of all three surnames (or four, if you want to add your mother's maiden name for balance), or by choosing another name from the family tree (wouldn't it be nice if you both had the same surname somewhere in your trees?), or by choosing something entirely new.

But you said that what you wanted was First Middle Maiden Married, so ALL of these options thwart what YOU wanted for your name, which is indeed frustrating: we make a big deal about each woman getting to choose things her own way, but then we get one of these situations where it's not going to work out that way. I go around in circles: just now I thought, "Wait! She CAN be First Middle Maiden Married-Married! It's just that it will be a VERY BULKY name, and that's okay!"---and then I remembered the problem of it looking, then, as if your hyphenated name includes your original surname, which to me would be significant: if I'm going to go through the hassles of hyphenation for me and for my children, I want it to be because my own surname is in there, not because our family now has TWO patriarchal surnames to carry.

Well. I think we need a lot of input on this. Commenters, help us with this difficult situation!


Name update! Caroline writes:

I have obviously thought long and hard about what to do with our naming situation. I’ve been weighing all of the options listed in the comments and by Swistle over and over. I don’t think my husband quite realized how serious this whole thing was to me until I presented him with the Excel spreadsheet I had made of all the various name combination options we had to work with. Like many people mention when naming babies, I wanted to find a solution that both my husband and I felt strongly about, not one that I really liked and he was only kind of okay with. We sat down with the spreadsheet and we agreed on the options that we liked best. This weekend we had a family dinner with his parents and mine and my sweet fiancé spoke with his mother about my dilemma. She warmed to the situation (she has Asperger’s syndrome and can be quite socially awkward) and understood our dilemma. I don’t think that she minds that I don’t plan to take both names; apparently her misgivings were about him dropping the hyphen and theoretically dropping her name with it.

Our official decision is for him to drop his hyphen and become First Middle Maternal Paternal and for me to take his paternal surname, becoming First Middle Maiden Paternal. He doesn’t feel that making her surname one of two middle names will really change anything about the way his friends and family feel about him, his identity, or his name. They will still call him by this name, he will still use it, he will still feel attached to it. We both really like the idea of giving our future hypothetical children either his mother’s or my surname as a second middle name but we will be keeping any baby names a secret until the child is born and named (awesome suggestion, readers/commenters!).

My husband has suggested we give any future children hyphenated double first names (i.e. Anna-Claire or John-Michael) as an homage to his mother and father… I’m glad the man has a sense of humor! Can’t wait to marry him this weekend and to see what name people chose to write on cards/monogrammed items!

Baby Boy Finchlee, Brother to Wilhelmina, Calista, Zachariah, Theodore, and Philippa

Kate writes:

ACK! Swistle, I'm so hoping you can help! I'm due to have a C section in TWO DAYS (like, Friday!) and my husband I still have NO idea what to name the baby! We've had a hard time with our previous kids but NOTHING like this...
Our names are Katharine Fay and Jakob Russell. We go by Kate and Jake.Fay and Russell are both family names. (my mom and grandmas mns are both Fay, same for J and his dad and grandpa, that sort of thing). Surname is Finchlee, a combo of the last names we came into the marriage with (we were lucky they were so combine-able--Kate Finch/Jake Lee became Kate&Jake Finchlee).
Our other kids are:
Wilhelmina Fay --9
Calista Rose --9 ------< ID twins--we both loved their first names and Rose is his mother's name.
And they are called Willa and Calla. We think it's matchy but not too matchy and Calla can always go by Callie if she wants.
Zachariah Russell--6 <-----same thing w/ first name. He's Zak.
Theodore Scott--4 <-----Scott is my dad's name. We call him Ted because Theo is a Cosby.
Philippa Darcy--2 <-----Darcy is my baby sister's name and we are really close. Of course she's Pippa.

so Kate, Jake, Willa, Calla, Zak, Ted, Pippa. Oh and our dogs are Icarus and Olympus.

Anyway that gives you an idea of our style.

And first names--well, we are both pretty obsessive and we really like the pattern we have going. This is DEFINITELY our last child and we don't want to name him Aidan or something that just doesn't go with his brothers, who both have long formal names and short, kicky three letter NNs.
The trouble is we are having trouble finding a name...and then Jake's best friend was killed in a car accident last week and now Jake wants to use his name. His name was Lachlan. J suggested Maclachlan which gives us Mac. I like Mac a lot--to me it feels a little similar to Zak and Ted--except of course it rhymes with Zak when said outloud. We've considered Isaac for the first name, Isaac Lachlan, which gives us Ike--but again, so close to Zak, and even closer to Jake. We are sort of thinking of Nathaniel Lachlan/Nat but...well, we live in New England. Gnats can be a problem!

So that takes care of that. We don't want to repeat an initial, BTW.
Ugh. As you can see, we are really and truly stuck. Also, what do you think about naming the kid after Jake's friend? I THINK it's OK, but the other kids all have family MNs and I'm a bit worried. OTOH, we've covered everyone we wanted to cover, both parents, my sister--except Jake's brother, Jesse Nolan.

Oh and of course Max would be great, despite the common-ness of it we both like it a lot-- but my sister Darcy had a baby girl right before I found out I was pregnant and named her Maxine Katharine (after me, yay!) and we see Darcy and her family all the time as we live 15 mins from them. Having a Maxine and a Max is just too close, especially for cousins that are only about a year apart.

So--help! We kept thinking we'd come up with SOMETHING but so far...nothing. Nada. Not a thing.

(Oh--the other kids have suggestions, naturally, but they are currently along the lines of: Harry, Neville, Albus, Severus--guess which books the twins have been reading--or Wilbur and Orville, a current obsession--in desperation I asked Pippa yesterday and she said Egg. While it's certainly three letters it doesn't QUITE match our style!)

Name update! Darcy writes:

This is Darcy, Kate's baby sister. I am really pleased to announce that Kate had her baby yesterday. It's a beautiful baby boy named...wait for it...
FERGUSON NOLAN
K&J wanted me to send out a special thank you to Swistle and her baby naming commenters (commentators?) who gave her the Ferguson idea, they really liked it and it turns out to have been J's best friend's (who was recently killed) middle name but it hadn;t occurred to them. They are calling the baby Gus and he is absurdly cute. Mom, dad, baby, and big sibs are all doing great, even though the twins pushed for Albus Severus til the very last second!

Baby Boy Wiedlocher, Brother to Cedric James

Laura writes:

Our second son is due to arrive on May 11, 2011 and we have everything ready, except for a name. We are in need of serious help. Our first son is named Cedric James. We love Cedric because its unique but not hard to spell or pronounce. It has a strong, masculine name meaning which we also like. James is a family name (my father). For our next son we would like to follow a similar pattern; a first name that has a strong/masculine name meaning, is unique, but easy to say and spell followed by a family name. We have decided on Jack for the middle name, after my husband's maternal grandfather. It has been really hard for us to find a first name that meets the criteria and goes with Jack. I have argued for using John or Jackson as middle names but Husband feels very strongly that the middle name be Jack. Just Jack. Here is where it gets even more tricky, our last name is Wiedlocher (pronounced weed - locker) and we want to be sensitive to the fact that this is a mouthful of a last name and will be constantly mispronounced and misspelled for both boys their whole lives. My name is Laura and my husband's is Zachary.

We have a short list of names that we both like: Ethan, Logan, and Landon. But do you notice how they don't really fit our criteria?! Ethan is the only one that has a strong name meaning and all three seem like popular baby names right now.

We have also considered: Caden (but does this sound too similar to Cedric? I feel like I would constantly be calling for Cedric but saying Caden. Or the other way around.)

Husband likes Ethan the most right now because of the name meaning and how it sounds with Jack, despite it being popular. I don't love it though. I am hoping for a first name that has a softer first syllable because I like how that sounds with our last name, which starts with a hard w sound.

If we were having a girl or if our next child is a girl, names that we love are Emelia (Emma), Elizabeth (Lizzy), and Charlotte (Charlie).

I have been diligently reading your blog for months hoping that the right name for our son would serendipitously be suggested by you or one of your readers. I have high hopes that you (and your readers) will be able to suggest name combinations that we had not considered or at least weigh in our top three choices.

Thank you so much for your help!

Here is something I've noticed in previous posts where the desired middle name was Jack: something about that particular name makes a "Panama Jack"/"Indiana Jones"/"Crocodile Dundee" sound with the first name. The first name ends up sounding like an adjective for Jack, which then sounds like the first name. I know your husband feels strongly about this, but I'd say it's one of the main things blocking you from finding The Right Name, and I'd add my opinion to yours that he reconsider this. Could the middle name be after his father instead, to better parallel your first son's name? Was his grandfather's name John, and Jack a nickname? (Though of course if his grandfather always went by Jack, the name John may not seem like him at all.) Are there other family names that could be used instead?

Well. It sounds like the middle name is fixed as Jack, so I'll proceed with that assumption. When/if you feel like you're backed into a corner trying to meet certain criteria, remember that the name only needs to fit your criteria if YOU TWO want it to fit the criteria: if a name you love fails to fit in one area or another, you can choose to decide not to hold the name to that requirement. Criteria can help to narrow things down---but when your criteria are outranking your opinions, it's time to rethink. And now I will say criteria some more, because five is not enough for one paragraph: criteria criteria criteria.

Caden and Cedric do have a lot of things in common (start with C, two syllables, D-sound in the middle), but to me their style clash is intense: Caden/Cayden/Caiden/Caeden/Kaden/Kayden/Kaiden/Kaeden is modern and part of the trendy Jaden/Hayden/Aiden/Brayden set, while Cedric is old fashioned and rare.

And you're right: Logan (#36 in 2009), Logan (#17 in 2009), and Ethan (#2 in 2009) are all significantly more popular than Cedric (#702 in 2009). (All stats from The Social Security Administration.) So let's go questing for some new possibilities.

Alan Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Alan
August Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and August
Conrad Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Conrad
Darian Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Darian
Franklin Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Franklin
Gideon Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Gideon
Isaiah Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Isaiah
Karl Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Quincy
Louis Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Louis
Malcolm Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Malcolm
Quincy Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Quincy
Roland Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Roland
Rufus Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Rufus
Ryland Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Ryland
Stanley Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Stanley
Terrence Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Terrence
Tobias Jack Wiedlocher; Cedric and Tobias

I'm not very knowledgeable about name meanings. In part this is because so many meanings are more like..."meanings." They vary from baby name book to baby name book: one of my name books says Cedric means "model of generosity" and another says it means "battle chieftain" and another says it was made up by an author for a novel in 1819 and doesn't mean anything. Very few meanings are official in any sense: some come from what someone in the Bible said the name meant (but what did the name mean before that?); some come from the meaning the name would have as a word in another language, if it were a word instead of a name; some come from a baby name book author's imagination. Many come from such a long stream of related names and their derivations ("sounds like X, which is a shortened version of Y, which is a version of the name Z from another language, which comes from the root word for..."), there's almost no connection at all. (I've written more on this subject here: Baby Naming Issue: Name Meanings and Baby Naming Issue: A Problem With a Name's Meaning.)

However, name meanings are important to YOU, and so it doesn't matter if they're important to me or not, and so I'm using The Oxford Dictionary of First Names and The Baby Name Bible to look up the meanings of the names on my list above.

Alan: possibly from the word "rock"; handsome, cheerful
August: great, magnificent; majestic, venerable
Conrad: bold counsel; bold advisor
Darian: rich, kingly
Franklin: freeman; free landholder
Gideon: he who cuts down; feller of trees
Isaiah: God is salvation
Karl: free man
Louis: renowned warrior
Malcolm: devotee of Saint Columba
Quincy: estate of the fifth son
Roland: famous throughout the land
Rufus: red-haired
Ryland: island meadow
Stanley: near the stony meadow
Terrence: [no known meaning]
Tobias: God is good


Name update! Laura writes:

Thanks so much for your help. You and your readers helped Zach and I get around our baby name road block. We moved past Logan/Ethan as name choices and thought we would go for either Roland or Nolan. But then last Wednesday (May 11) when our son was born we both looked at him and felt like neither of those names fit him! Zach came back to the hospital the next morning with the name Elias, nickname Eli and I loved it. Cedric James is now the proud big brother to Elias Jack.

Thanks again!

Baby Boy McBride, Brother to Benjamin Patrick

Ashley writes:

I check your blog daily for insight on naming baby #2. It's a boy and I'm due June 2nd. I'm Ashley, my husband is Patrick. And we have a very hard time agreeing on names. :)

Our first child is Benjamin {middle name Patrick} and it took forever to name him. But we love his name and it's so perfect for him. Any chance that can happen twice?! Although, I think we've used up our one agreeable boy name with Benjamin!

Our last name is McBride. Benjamin's name is very strong and I want that for this sweet boy, too. I've been researching names and making lists and letting myself get pretty stressed out about naming a child! We have a girl name set, but these boy names are just too much for us! :) We would like several children, so here's hoping at least one is a girl to cut down this stress of baby naming during pregnancy :)

Here is the {very short} list of names we agree on {as in we both like the names okay}:
Andrew {My husband is already calling this baby Andrew. I don't mind it, I just don't know if I love it. And I don't like the nickname Andy at all. But I do like Drew. This name is so wishy-washy for me}
Jackson
Owen
Evan (Does this sound odd with Benjamin? Benjamin and Evan.)

Names I like, but my husband does not like at all:
Levi
Ethan
Issac
Collin
Henry
Everett

Names my husband likes:
Calvin (which I don't mind, really. But we've had so many people say negative things about this name. It's tainted the name for me)

Middle names:
Calvin
Shotwell (family name)
Knox
John (family name)
Reid (last name of close friends of ours)

We tend to like more traditional names and also like having a family name in there - first or middle. Benjamin and Patrick are family names, which worked out nicely. But it didn't happen on purpose. In fact, we just found out that Benjamin is a family name and he's two.

Could you just name this baby for me?! :) Your help would be so appreciated!

Okay, I will! Wesley Reid McBride. Ben and Wes.

I would have used Wesley John (I love family names) except it seems like that takes the pleasing John Wesley association from a suggestion to a declaration. Shotwell would work too, but is Wesley Shotwell the perfect amount of cowboy or is it too MUCH cowboy? I wasn't sure. Calvin would work as a middle name (this would decrease negative feedback while still letting you have the name), but then it seems like John Wesley AND John Calvin.

I wanted to suggest Callum as an alternative to Calvin, but I'm afraid the blend with your surname might sound like Calla McBride.

Would you be willing to consider John as a first name? It's a name that I think seems "too plain/common" at first consideration, but then sounds surprisingly fresh and interesting on an actual child. There are so few children named John actually going by John. And John McBride sounds so wonderful to me, I can hardly stand it. Maybe John Shotwell McBride, so each boy has two family names?--or maybe it would be better to save some family names for future children. John Michael McBride has a nice crackling sound, or John....heh, I almost suggested Wesley. Maybe use your maiden name or another family surname (I think those tend to work particularly well with John as a first name), or use a name that you really like but wouldn't want to consider as a first name.

If John seems too short, maybe Jonathan. Benjamin and Jonathan make a nice brother pair. Jonathan Reid McBride, maybe, or Jonathan Calvin McBride (I THINK that works without too much of a John Calvin reference).

If Andrew is "not quite," do you like Anderson? Anderson McBride, Benjamin and Anderson. I'm not sure what to do about a middle name for it. Maybe Reid: Anderson Reid McBride. Oh, but then his initials spell ARM. Anderson John McBride?

Or do you like Anthony? Anthony R...oh, ARM again. Anthony Shotwell McBride. Anthony Knox McBride.

Or Joshua: to me, the name Joshua has the same "strong but kind" sound as the name Benjamin. Joshua Calvin McBride, Ben and Josh.

Nathaniel is in that group for me as well: Nathaniel Reid McBride, Ben and Nate. Strong but NICE.

Or Nicholas? I like the sound of Benjamin and Nicholas. Nicholas Reid McBride, or Nicholas Calvin McBride.

I once knew a Benjamin whose brother was Christopher. Christopher McBride. Christopher John McBride, or Christopher Reid McBride.


Name update! Ashley writes:

I am so grateful to you and everyone who commented about name suggestions! More so, though, I was so encouraged to hear all the positive things said about "Andrew". Our sweet boy came early, on May 17th, and is so precious! We chose the name Andrew Reid McBride. Sure, his initials are ARM, but the name is so great for him and we love that we can tell him how special the name is to us! Big brother Benjamin loves his little brother and it's pretty stinkin cute to hear him say, "Where's An-dew?" :)

Thank you again for your help and suggestions!

Baby Boy or Girl, Sibling to Cambria Rogue

Laura writes:

I am due May 20th 2011 and I do not know the sex of the baby yet. I’m doing okay with girl names but having no luck at all with boys. My husband and I have plain traditional names, Laura and Joshuah. We have an odd last name that I just don’t worry about when naming a child because there is no helping it sound less funny. Our 1st child is named Cambria Rogue. We are looking for some unique but not to strange. Something almost romantic and masculine. Josh is into music I’m into art and we are very open minded but just haven’t run into something we both like for a boy. Our list is very small so far Josh like the name Bentley (I’m not a huge fan) and I liked Adare (Josh isn’t a fan) and that’s where it stops. The only thing I think we are avoiding is the letter J. Any ideas?

One of my favorite "romantic and masculine" names is Everest. It's exotic but familiar. One of my friend Mairzy's favorites is Sterling: again, exotic yet familiar. Other possibilities:

Aidric
Alistair
August
Claude
Corbin
Cormac
Dario
Dashiell
Declan
Desmond
Donnelly
Edmund
Everett
Finian
Gabriel
Greyson
Heath
Hugo
Kiefer
Lachlan
Maverick
Orion
Pierce
Rafael
Redford
Rohan
Roman
Sebastian
Stefan
Theodore
Wyatt

Some of these might work particularly well as a middle name: Maverick, for example, would be a good pair with your daughter's middle name Rogue.

[Update in comments section.]

Baby Boy or Girl, Sibling to Joseph, Benjamin, and Gracie

Kelly writes:

We have 3 children born within 22 months of eachother...
twin boys: Joseph Isaiah and Benjamin Michael
girl: Gracie Belle

Need both a boy and girl name for a future sibling. Nothing starting with M. We like biblical names and southern sounding names (but the following are NOT an option: Micah, Jonathan, Jared, Noah, Claire, Molly). Projected due date in May.

For a boy, I suggest Isaac: Joseph, Benjamin, Gracie, and Isaac. Maybe Isaac Matthew.

Or Daniel: Joseph, Benjamin, Gracie, and Daniel. Maybe Daniel Elias.

For a girl, I suggest Cora: Joseph, Benjamin, Gracie, and Cora. Maybe Cora Mae.

Or Ruby: Joseph, Benjamin, Gracie, and Ruby. Maybe Ruby Mae.


Name update! Kelly writes:

We decided on Levi Nathanael.....so, all 3 boys are named after the sons of Jacob in the Bible.

Baby Boy Gottlieb, Brother to Nathan

Laura writes:

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!

Baby Girl Campbell, Sister to Emerson, Rose, Liam, and Noah

Renee writes:

Hi Swistle, my name is Renee and my 5th (and final!) child is due on the 28th of April. One of my favourite things about having children is naming them, however I'm not having so much fun naming this baby.

My kids names are Emerson "Emmie" Louisa, Rose Susanna, Liam Davis and Noah James. All middle names honour family members, but for this baby I would just like a middle name that ends in 'a' so that it fits in with Emmie and Rose's middle names. I have step-sisters named Jennifer and Rebecca, so if you could think of a name that honours both of them I would consider that, but I don't want to honour one of them, but not the other.

Anyway, as you can see we have an Emerson and a Rose - names that are completely different in style! So honestly, I am feeling a bit lost and I don't really know what name I want. I would like to steer clear of names starting with E, R, L and N, but if I fell in love with a name I would use it, except for E names as we also have a niece named Elli. Emmie and Elli are very similar names, so we would not only like to steer clear of E names, but steer clear of names ending with an 'ee' sound as we also call Rose, Rosie, sometimes too. We also have a niece named Nala, so that is off-limits to us too.

Here is our name list, though none of the names feel like 'the one' or we can't use them:
Mila - I would use this, but my husband isn't as keen on it.
Scarlett - Both like, but don't love.
Grace - I love this, but I would end up calling her Gracie. Emmie, Rosie and Gracie with a cousin Elli is no good!
Ava - We know a couple of little Ava's, so no good for us.
Isabella - Like this, but don't really love.
Sophia - This is my favourite name (apart from my girls names), but Emmie has a best friend named Sophia, and we are very close with her family.


So there you have it. One big mess!!!

I hope you can help us :-)

My sense of order and consistency itches at the idea of giving the first four children family middle names and then not doing the same for the fifth. But I also dislike the idea of trying to honor more than one person with a single name: I think it ends up honoring neither one. This second opinion is at odds with what I have for you, which is a combination name to attempt to honor both Jennifer and Rebecca: Jennica. This is a name I think is cute ANYWAY---a good alternative for someone who loves the name Jessica but felt it got worn out in the 1980s and 1990s. AND it ends in an A.

Rose, Liam, and Noah all have a similar style; since you call Emerson "Emmie," I think that fits right in with the others.

Since you like-but-don't-love Scarlett, would you like Charlotte? It goes well with the style of the other names. Charlotte Jennica Campbell.

If you like-but-don't-love Isabella, I'd suggest Annabella and Arabella---except I don't like the repeating -bell sound with Campbell.

If you love Grace (or any other name with a natural -ie nickname), I think you could reframe the situation: an Emerson, a Rose, and a Grace with a cousin Elli. Only the nicknames repeat the -ie ending, and MANY (most?) nicknames end in that sound.

Along those lines, I suggest Molly. I know, it makes it even worse by repeating not only the -ie sound but the -llie sound! But---Elli is a cousin, not a sister, and Molly seems like such a different name.

If you love the name Sophia, I think you could reconsider using it: I think it's sweet that it's the name of Emmie's best friend, and it's not likely to cause MUCH confusion even if you're good friends with the family. Or you could use it as a middle name, since it ends in A. Charlotte Sophia, Molly Sophia, etc.

Ava and Mila make me think of Amelia. Amelia Campbell is wonderful, and it doesn't have a natural -ie nickname. But because it ends in -a, it's trickier to find a middle name to match the first two girls'. MUST it match the first two girls' names? Amelia Grace Campbell would be so nice. But perhaps Amelia shares too many sounds with Liam anyway.

Clara or Cora would be pretty, and they don't end in -ie or have a nickname with an -ie. But they end in -a, so again with the middle name problem.

In short, I recommend dropping at least one (and maybe both) of your optional restrictions (the "not ending in an -ie sound, either in name or in nickname" one and the "middle name ending with -a" one). I think that combining those (and the problem they create in combination with each other) with the difficulties already inherent in choosing a name to go four sibling names AND avoiding repeating initials AND avoiding any similarities to cousin or friend names, is what's making this so difficult---more like doing a complicated logic puzzle than choosing a baby name. But since I'm also advocating adding an ADDITIONAL optional restriction (giving a family middle name), you know I will be completely on your side if you keep the other restrictions as well. In which case I suggest Charlotte Jennica or Charlotte Ava or Charlotte Sophia---but the -ie thing means you can't call her either Charlie or Lottie. So let's see if anyone else has ideas!


Name update! Renee writes:

First of all, thanks to Swistle and all the comentors (?) for your help naming our baby girl.

A week early, on the 21st of April, Amelia Renna Campbell was born. To the person that suggested Renna - thanks, we love it and so do my sisters - and thanks Swistle and everybody else who suggested Amelia! We weren't 100% on the name before Amelia was born, but once she was here we quickly decided that she was an Amelia. We (mostly me and the kids) have been calling her Mila and sometimes I call her Mila Ren as we sometimes call Emmie, Emmie Lou. We are all in love with her!

(I will attach a picture of Amelia from her newborn photo's!)

Baby Boy or Girl, Sibling to Ivan and Gwendolyn

Shannon writes:

I'm having a lot of difficulty coming up with a girl's name for this baby. I think we are set on a boy's name. Here's some back round information:
We have two kids, Ivan Bradley and Gwendolyn Ruth. Gwendolyn goes alternately by Gwen or Gwendolyn. I'm pretty sure that if this baby is a boy we will name him
Nathaniel Jeffrey. I feel like Ivan, Gwen & Nate sound good together.

My husband is sick of me changing my mind and really doesn't want to think about names until the last minute. I dread going to the hospital without a solid choice for either sex. We've talked about the name Veronica for a girl but it's such a strong name and I think people either love it or hate it. I've even read on some boards that people automatically assume someone with this name is stuck up or a total b*tch. I'd hate for people to have that snap judgment of my daughter!

Here are some parameters for names. I like names that are clearly male or female. I'm not a fan of anything with questionable spelling and/or of the Greyson, Braiden, Makayla, etc. style. I'd like a girl name that is similar to Gwendolyn. Feminine not trendy and has room to be played with nickname wise. I'd really like to avoid anything that is incredible popular right now. Ivan and Gwen are names that, in my opinion, are different enough without seeming pretentious or trendy. I realize Nathaniel is more popular than my kid's names but I feel it's a solid choice. Jeffrey is my father's name.

Anyway, I'm due 4.25.11 and I don't know what I'm having. But I guess I need more help with a girl name. Thank you very much!

I think Veronica is great, and I think every name will have its own set of people who will say unpleasant things about the name as if their own personal dislike of it means the name itself is objectively bad. "Reminds me of a stripper," they'll say, and add "Sorry!" as if they feel bad that their individual association obviously rules out the name permanently for everyone. (Perhaps it is obvious I feel a little PRICKLY on this topic. Veronica = "stuck up b*tch," MY FOOT.)

Another possibility is Victoria, though I don't think it goes as well with Gwendolyn. Maybe Cordelia, or Isadora if you don't mind repeating an initial.

I wonder if you'd like Francesca? I think it goes well with Gwendolyn: similarly feminine and unusual, and with lots of nicknames (Frannie, Frankie, Chessie).

Or Imogen?

Ooo, or Anastasia? Or Willemina/Wilhelmina? Or Philomena? Josephine?

Or Minerva?


Name update! Shannon writes:

It's a Girl! Despite her due date, she finally arrived on the morning of May 1st. Thank you again for including my question on your blog. There were so many beautiful names suggested. My husband loved them too. In the end, I think your post gave me the confidence to go ahead and name my daughter Veronica. Thank you, thank you! So her name is Veronica Jane. Jane is a family name after my Aunt Jane who is a really cool lady in her 90s. True story, while filling out the birth certificate info as I was chatting to my husband, I nearly wrote "Mars" as her middle name. Whew! Glad I caught that one.

Baby Girl DeHart, Sister to Ty Noble

Haley writes:

We are expecting our second child, a girl, the middle of April, and I am going out of my mind trying to find a name for this little person. When we named our son it was 100% painless, it’s a long story but we just knew that his name was Ty, I think because of that this time around is twice as painful. Our style is pretty all over the place. We want something that is familiar, and classic, I don’t mind popular, but would like to avoid trendy or top 10. My husband and I both have very classic names so I don’t want her to be the odd one out with a bizarre name. A good nickname is very important, I tend to shorten or nickname those I love. Her middle name will be Jen or Jennifer after my amazing mom!
Here is our list so far:

Atley - I love this name, my husband hasn’t vetoed it but has issues with it. For me it has alot of what I want, not overly girly, but still able to be feminine. A little spunky, plenty of nicknames, and definitely not top 10. I also feel like it goes well with Ty. My problem with it is that every time I tell someone this name they either make me spell it for them or spell it themselves to make sure they have it right. Is it so unusual that it falls into the strange category? It has a familiar sound to me but maybe that’s because it has been rolling around in my head for months now.
Addison - This is my husbands compromise to Atley, I do really like the name, but I am having a hard time getting over where it sits on Social Security website.
Josie - Husband likes, I am meh--
Emery - I love, husband is meh
Elsa - Husband is undecided and I am afraid it might get butchered a lot.
Anistyn - Nickname? Not sure I like Ann or Annie
Austyn - Husband likes, I can’t get past no nickname
Lucy - Struggling with the nickname Luc (loose), and it's top 10 in our area.
Ryland
Ashtyn
Alice
Nellie
Hattie - We are both a little meh, but it’s still on the list
I guess I should also include our three year olds suggestions of Tyla and Cactus

Vetoed:
Scarlett
Dillen
Quinn
Vivian - (I cried when husband vetoed)

Names we love that we can’t use:
Allie
Rylie
Drew
Sydney
Emmeline
Madeline
Audrey
Jessie

After rereading this I realize that I really am all over the place. Guidance please!! I keep thinking that I just haven’t heard the right name yet, and maybe its also a little because my husband really isn’t loving anything either. Of course maybe I am just way over analyzing this whole thing….(me??, no way!) Thanks so much for any suggestions! I can’t wait to settle on a name so that I can dream about something else at night. :)

Atley is indeed a highly unusual name: according to the Social Security Administration, it was given to only 22 girls in 2009. That's the same as the number of girls who were named Christopher that year. I think with names of that sort, it's good to have a quick-reference to help people incorporate it: in this case, something like "It's like Ashley, but with a T instead of an S-H." Or if you went with Atalie/Ataley, you could say "Like Natalie without the N."

Padgett comes to mind: it doesn't solve the classic/familiar issue at all, but it's similar to Atley and I think it's such a cute name.

Or would you like Shelby or Brinley? They have some of the sound of Atley, while being more familiar.

If Addison's popularity is the main sticking point, I suggest Adelyn and Avelyn and Emerson, and perhaps Adeline and Evelyn.

A name similar to Emery is Everly, which makes me think of Ellery, which makes me think of Ellis, which makes me think of Hollis.

I think Elsa is wonderful with your surname: Elsa DeHart. I don't THINK it would get butchered---or at least, I can't see many ways to mispronounce it. And it's good with Ty. This is my favorite from your list.

This is a little out of nowhere, but would you like Paisley? Paisley DeHart; Ty and Paisley. There aren't a ton of easy nicknames, but I can picture saying Paisy-Daisy.

I think Kiefer is an adorable name for a little girl---but again, nickname issues. Keef? Kiki? Efie (I'm imagining it sounding like Evie)? And the -fer means Jennifer as a middle name won't work. (Perhaps Cactus instead?)

I think Winslow is gone for boys, which makes it excellent material (with good nicknames) for girls.


Name update! Haley writes:

Our little girl Ally Jennifer DeHart made her debut on April 12, 2011. I was so hoping that everyone who told me the second I saw her I would just "know" what her name was would be right, but not so much. My husband and I had gone through both of the hospitals name books twice and still nothing we could agree on. My husband really wanted to name her Austen, but she was so little and sweet I felt she really needed something more feminine, I was pulling realllllllly hard for Elsa, it just seemed to fit her but my husband just didn't like it at all. So the name we settled on as we were walking out the door was Ally. Looking back I had thrown that name out early on because we have friends, who also happen to be our neighbors, with a baby girl who is named Alee. But in the end the name is everything I wanted, It's a traditional name that's not too trendy, everyone was really shocked, they said "That wasn't even on the list!!" haha! I am so glad its over, thanks again for all your help and the help from all the readers, it really did help!

Baby Boy J. (Rhymes With Bronson)

E. writes:

We are due 4/2/11 with our first child, a boy. We are still struggling finding some names that fit our child. I tend to like vintage names while my husband tends to like modern ones.

Some names we have put on our short-list are:

Henry
Nicholas
Emmett
Samuel
Patrick

We hesitate to use Henry because of its popularity. With our VERY most common name, rhymes with Bronson, I fear Baby Henry would be one of thousands.
I really like Nicholas, nn Cole, and it doesn't seem as popular as the Henrys will be.
Emmett is one we just recently fell upon, but my name is very similar- sounds like Em-uh
Samuel seems over-used, especially in our town. Loads of Sams seem to be at the preschool these days.
And Patrick gives a nice nod to our love of Ireland. We traveled there last year just before getting pregnant. But there are no nice nicknames. Paddy, Pat and Rick just seem uncolorful.

The middle name would possibly be my maiden name, 2- syllable word starting with T and ending in M. It's a nice gender neutral name.

Other names that I love but haven't convinced husband about:
Alfred
Dock (family name and means 7th son of 7th son, does not appear on most baby name sites at all)
Curtis
Graham

My husband likes these, and I will never agree to them:
Carrick
Riley
Jude

Can you help us come up with some alternatives for our short-list? We plan to name the baby after we meet him, but it would be grand to have a few more names to choose from, seeing as we are so undecided about any one of them.

Thanks so much!

It is true I had male friends AND a brother so my associative powers might be uncommonly attuned, but I caution against Dock J___son: with a surname that can be used as a slang term for a Certain Male Part, I would avoid a first name that rhymes with another slang term for the same Part---especially when the whole name together, if it were Doc instead of Dock, is the name of a company that sells a Certain Variety of Adult Product.

It's hard to compare the popularity of Henry and Nicholas: Henry is #71 and rising; Nicholas is #32 and falling after spending a decade in the Top 10. Samuel is #27 and holding pretty steady.

I wonder if you'd like other Irish names? Another name that reminds you of your trip, maybe? Or: Brody, Connor, Corbin, Declan, Eamon, Evan, Finian, Flynn, Garrett, Grady, Ian, Keegan, Lorcan, Neil, Nolan, Owen, Riordan, Ronan, Tiernan. Do you like Riley any better if it's Rylan, or if it's spelled Reilly? Or Carrick better if it were Cormac or Kendric?

Since you like Emmett but it's similar to your name, I wonder if you'd like Everett instead? I love that name, and I think it's so dignified with your surname. I also love Elliot.

Since you like Alfred and he likes Carrick, would you like Frederick? I love that one, too, and think it's so underused.


Name update! E. writes:

We had our Baby Boy on March 31, 2011. We named him Andrew Porter. My husband never could come around to our top picks, so he chose Andrew out of the baby name book, and I chose Porter from the book as well. Neither has any family significance, but he definitely looks like a Drew.

Baby Boy Scott, Brother to Delaney and Amelia

Madelyn writes:

My husband and I are expecting our third child, a son in late March 2011 and we cannot agree on a name at all. We have 2 daughters together named Delaney Evelyn and Amelia Callyn. With Delaney (nickname Laney), it is my mother-in-law's maiden name and Evelyn was my grandmother's name. Amelia was a little more complicated to name. I wanted the name Mia for her, but my husband argued that it was not a full enough name and so Amelia was the comprimise, even though 95% of the time, I call her Mia. Her middle name came from her paternal grandfather (Cal) and the ending of name (-lyn). With baby #3, my husband and I just cannot seem to agree on a name. Our list is:

Jacob Landon- I love this name, but it has just become so popular these days especially where we live.
Dylan/Dillon- He loves this name, but I am on the fence about it
Nolan- my brother in law recently had a little girl name Noelle, so we don't know about this one.
Cameron- I love this name, but hubby is on the fence about it.

Names we have taken off our list:
Henry, Luca, Everett, Emmett, Connor, Sawyer, Dean, Liam, Evan

Thank you!

Since the girls have family names, are there any boy family names you'd like to use? Some other possibilities:

Austin
Braden
Caleb
Callum
Camden
Carson
Darian
Declan
Devin
Ethan
Kellan
Nathan
Owen
Quinlan
Rillian
William
Wyatt

I hesitated with some of the D names, wondering if they were too close to Delaney. But since Dylan isn't too close, and since you call her Laney, I left them in.

I was also uncertain about a number of names that could look like surnames: with a surname that is also used as a first name, it seemed like a surnamey first name might cause more confusion.

I thought Wyatt Scott seemed like kind of a cool name with all those double Ts. Elliott Scott would give a similar effect.

If Cameron is not quite right, Camden or Callum might work.

If Dylan is not quite right, Darian or Declan or Devin or Kellen might work.

If Nolan is not quite right, Kellan or Nathan or Owen or Quinlan might work.

If Jacob is not quite right, Caleb might work.

If Landon is not quite right, Logan or Brogan or Brolin or Brody or Brandon or Lachlan might work.

And any on-the-fence name might work better as a middle name. Caleb Dillon Scott. Camden Jacob Scott. Wyatt Nolan Scott.


Name update! Madelyn writes:

Well our baby boy finally arrived on April 3rd, 2011, 2 weeks late! We went into the delivery room with a choice between the names Kellan and Caleb, both from your suggestions. When our son arrived though, the names did not suit him well at all and it was back to the computer to look at other suggestions from you and your commentators. We looked back and I realized that my heart had all along been staying with Jacob, a name I have loved for a long time. So, it came to be that our son is named Jacob Rillian. Rillian was used to give the name a little flair and I love it because I've never heard it on another child before. Thank you!

Baby Boy Russell

Carolyn writes:

I'm currently pregnant with a little boy (my first baby!) and am due March 14. Until we started talking about specific names, I was totally unaware that my husband and I had such wildly different views on names, and the process of trying to find one we both like is FREAKING ME OUT! ;) (Which of course means that all ANYBODY asks us lately is what we are going to name the baby! As if traveling for the holidays, being pregnant, and having to find a new place to live all at the same time wasn't stressful enough!)

I have been leanings towards fairly traditional names that lend themselves to a shortened version and won't condemn my baby to a life of having to correct people on the pronunciation or spelling (Andrew, Edward, Jeffrey, James, Daniel, etc.). I don't want to choose a super popular name, but I'm not AS concerned about him having to go by Jacob R (our last name is Russell) because there are so many Jacobs in his class someday, as I am with the idea of him having to tell people, "No, it's spelled J-A-K-O-B" for his whole life (and I know this seems crazy, but spelling a name differently to make it unique entirely changes my feelings about the name. A baby named Jacob evokes cuddly maternal feelings from me. A baby named Jakob does NOT. It actually makes me feel kind of stabby, and I really don't want to feel stabby towards my baby!)

My husband's primary concern with baby names is that it not be common (and he's an engineer, so he's going onto websites and finding data to support what percent of the population already has a certain name. All of the above mentioned names were ruled out for being too common). It also can't be a Biblical name, and it can't be the name of anyone he knows (that last part doesn't help you out very much, but I thought you should know what I'm working with, here!) He hasn't brought very many options to the table yet, so it's important to me that I don't quash all of his ideas without being constructive. However, I'm just not fans of Kelvin (the temperature scale! And everyone will think his name is Calvin, he'll spend his whole life correcting people! And the only nickname is Kel, which is like Keenen & Kel, and I don't want to reference ancient Nickelodean shows with my baby!) or Ajax (ah, it's a cleanser, like Comet! Which makes you vomit! I don't want my baby associated with gritty sink cleansers!) I was hopeful about the name Jackson, until my husband decided that he only likes it if it is spelled Jaxon (see previous comments on stabby feelings towards unique spellings and having to constantly tell people how to spell something that sounds simple). I've tried finding out if there is something about those particular names that he is drawn to, in an effort to find similar names that I don't feel as strongly opposed to (I don't mind the idea of naming our baby after some famous scientist or a strong Greek warrior, if they were names that also seemed easy to spell and pronounce and not terribly likely to evoke beatings from kids on the playground) but I think what he likes most about them is that they are unusual.

I'm hoping that you can help me with the seemingly impossible: do you have suggestions for traditional/non-Biblical/uncommon names? :) I've tried looking at baby name books and websites, but (shockingly!) they don't usually have a column for that ;) And for the sake of my mental health, I need ideas! :)

Thanks so much!

You are among friends: many of us here won't think it's remotely crazy to feel that a name is changed by spelling it differently---whether it's a legitimate alternate spelling or one done in an attempt to make a name less common. I certainly feel differently about Jakob versus Jacob, or Madison versus Maddisyn, or Katherine versus Catherine, or Sophia versus Sofia, or Jeffrey versus Geoffrey.

The Baby Name Wizard (try to find a copy with the hot-pink "fully revised and updated" circle on the cover---Amazon claims to have that version only for the Kindle, which I suspect is losing them some cash) has a section that might be what you need: it's called Exotic Traditionals. Listen to this introduction: "You want a name that stands out from the pack ... Yet you roll your eyes at new inventions with wild spellings---you want a name with roots and resonance."

My total favorite from this section is Milo. For me, this is the one I could see as My Baby, and it was our runner-up to the name Henry for our youngest. I still love it. It's unusual, but easy to say and easy to spell. I think Milo Russell sounds wonderful: dignified and friendly at the same time. He sounds like a Great Guy with a Happy Life.

Another name I like from this section is Aidric. I've never met or heard of a single person with that name, but it nevertheless seems familiar and easy---I think because it's like a combination of Aidan and Eric. I think it has a cool look and sound, and it's great with your surname: Aidric Russell. (In fact, I am starting to envy you your surname.) Maybe Aidric Kelvin Russell.

Another name we considered ourselves from this section is Felix. Yes, yes, there's a Felix the cat, which I think I've seen only in clip shows about the history of cartoons, and which I'll bet none of our children will see; ditto for The Odd Couple, which I watched in afternoon reruns when I was a child home sick from school but haven't seen since. The name means happy and lucky, which is pleasant, and again it's great with your surname: Felix Russell. Your husband might appreciate the X, and yet the name is easy to spell and pronounce.

If your husband wasn't opposed to biblical names, I'd suggest Gideon. Why is this name so underused? And Gideon Russell is wonderful.

A name not in this section is Darwin. Easy to spell, easy to pronounce, but quite unusual and with excellent Lab Cred. Darwin Russell. I hesitate only because it seems like people might sometimes think the name was Russell Darwin.

Perhaps your husband would be willing to make a little DEAL: you get to sway the first name toward the realm of The Usual, and he gets to sway the middle name toward the realm of The Gritty Sink Cleanser Unusual. Not only might this help resolve the naming situation, I would think it would be kind of fun to have a Cool Middle Name. It could be whipped out to impress, or kept hidden---depending on the personality type and current circumstances of its owner. Milo Jaxon Russell is an indisputably cool name (BE QUIET, I SAID INDISPUTABLE), and it seems like moving your husband's preferences the uncommon name to the middle slot might make it less stabby for you. Milo Kelvin Russell works wonderfully, too, and then there's no problem with the nickname Kel. I would choose Kelvin over Jaxon, because I find it easier to roll my eyes affectionately at science geekery than at respellings, and it would earn a certain Lab Cred among my husband's co-workers.

A middle name suggestion that might please your husband: Tycho (pronounced TEE-ko). A science guy who was so tough he lost his nose in a duel! Gross!

More middle name possibilities: Faraday, Hawking, Feynman, Edison.

I love Milo Feynman Russell, or Felix Hawking Russell, or Aidric Faraday Russell.

If you like Edward, maybe Edmund? WAY less common, yet familiar. Edmund Hawking Russell.


Name update! Carolyn writes:

Our little man arrived early via C-section on February 18, and it took the full time I was in the hospital for us to finish choosing a name :) (The sleep deprivation actually made us be a bit more direct in our thinking and quit dilly-dallying around!) I loved everyone's suggestions and will hold onto them for the future, but we ended up agreeing on Nathan Isaac for our first little boy (and no, I don't know what about it ended up appealing to my husband. But I know for sure that the next time I get pregnant, we'll start discussing names ASAP so we don't end up in a bind, again!)

Thank you!!!

Baby Boy or Girl Hill, Sibling to Brody

Chelsea writes:

Our baby will be here in 4 weeks or less and we have a short list of boy and girl names. DH won't commit to anything. Everything on our list we both agree on but nothing is sticking out to us as "the one"

Our son's name is Brody. My DH picked this name from our final short list: Levi, Eli, Sam and Brody. His full name is Brody Charles. MN after my DH and his great grandpa. He was named a few days after his birth.

We don't want to have a theme and I feel we like many names anyway. We do not want a name that is a word because it sounds like a location with our last name "Hill" eg/ Violet Hill, Hunter Hill, Olive Hill.....

I want the baby's mn to have a family connection. If it's a boy I like the idea to use Arlo or Joseph as a mn. Arlo is the italian version of Charles (we are not italian) and Joseph is the other great grandpa's name. Michael is another option.

If it's a girl the mn will be Elizabeth or a form of it. I also like Josephine b/c it is a fem. version of Joseph. Olivia May, Isabel or Maisie are all family names we could use too.

I am open to any ideas that's why I am emailing you. But I mostly just value your advice.


Here is the list in no particular order.

Our little Hero:
Eli
Leo
Arlo
Luca
Levi
Hendricks (DH loves. I'm ok w/ Arlo Hendricks or Luca Hendricks only!)

Our little Honey:
Eva
Matilda
Isla (was my number 1 but I have met 2 while I've been preggers)
Lola (cute for a child) Longer name option w/ the nn Lola?
Audrey (I find this difficult to say w/ Brody)
Maisie
Ivy
Freya
Molly

Names we are fond of but can't use: Louie, Sophia, Ruby, Jack, Finlay, Ellie, Owen, Toby, Henry, Hayden, Ella, Rhys


Thanks for your help!

Name update! Chelsea writes:

Just wanted to thank Swistle's readers for their suggestions and help. Swistle I was so disappointed you lacked input.

Our little girl Freya Elizabeth Hill was born Feb. 25, 2011 @ 0620.
She is very sweet and adored by her big brother Brody.

Baby Boy Queen, Brother to Ryan Aubrey

Stephanie writes:

We're having our second baby, a son, who is due February 1st and we are completely stuck for a name! We gave our daughter a name that feels special to us, and now are having a hard time finding something to fit the new baby. I thought I'd email since we're running out of time...

Our daughter is a year and a half, and her name is Ryan Aubrey. We settled on 'Ryan' pretty early on - although we did keep it a secret until she was born. We didn't decide on her middle name until we were at the hospital. The name, 'Aubrey' didn't have any special significance for us, we just thought it was pretty, and were looking for something feminine for balance.

But now that we're having a son, we can't think of anything we love. We agree that we want something distinctly masculine, but not common. We have an evolving list, but are not sure that any of these names are the one. I'm hoping someone could suggest something great we may not have thought of yet! Here are a few we haven't vetoed yet:

Brady
Carver
Cole
Colton
Conrad
Dalton
Donovan
Garrett
Grayson
Holden
Kellen
Landon
West

Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thanks so much!

Name update! Stephanie writes:

Thanks for posting our question, and we appreciate all the great comments ;)

Our son, Garrett Conrad Queen was born on Thursday morning, and we're all doing great!

Thanks again

Baby Girl Jen_____, Sister to Eliot

Faith writes:

I'd love to get some help with baby girl names. We have a son, Eliot Lee, and our baby girl will be born on the 27th (as in NEXT THURSDAY!) We had settled on two possibilities if the baby was a boy (Graham or Tobin) but are somewhat at a loss now that we know she's a girl. Our last name is two syllables and starts with Jen--.

When we were first married my husband and I agreed that we both liked the nickname Winnie. My husband really liked the name Winsome but it seems to fanciful to me. We though Winifred was a better option to keep Winnie but now I find myself unsure if it's too stuffy. It would solve a lot of problems if I was 100% sure of Winifred but I'm not. The problem is that I'm not 100% on any other name either and we have less than a week (eep!)

I find myself being drawn to 3-syllable names but it's not a deal-breaker. In general I like classic but not super popular names that have the option of cute nicknames. My husband suggested naming her after me (Faith Margaret) which I think is sweet but don't really want to do but I think Faith for a middle name might be nice.

The two names at the top of my list were Vivian and Naomi. My husband's name starts with N and I kind of think it might be nice for her to have her own initial. But if we went with Naomi I'd like to find a middle name that starts with R so the two of them have the exact same initials as a way of honoring him.

Some other names we've discussed include:

Rosalie (husband thinks it's too frou-frou)
Louisa (husband thinks it's too frou-frou)
Evangeline (Too long and too matchy-matchy with Eliot)
Eliza (LOVE it but it feels too matchy-matchy with Eliot)
Alice
Pauline
Ada
Adeline
Matilda
Imogen (the alliteration with our last name seems too cute. Also, it seems like a lot of people here in the States would mispronounce it)
Mae

More possibilities for Winnie are Gwendolyn and Gwyneth and Guinevere. They do tend to produce something more like Gwinnie/Gwennie, but I think you could make it Winnie---or maybe you'd also like Gwinnie?

Or there's Winter, which is not as fanciful as Winsome and not as formal as Winifred. Or my favorite might be Wynn/Wynne: it's a good grown-up name that passes the "Would it work on a doctor or a lawyer?" test, but also goes easily to Wynnie. ...No, my favorite is still Winifred, but my SECOND favorite is Wynne.

If you go with Naomi, I like the repeating O-sound of Rose: Eliot Lee and Naomi Rose. Naomi Rachel would be pretty, too, or Naomi Rae, or Naomi Rain, or Naomi Reese, or Naomi Robin. Or Rosalie might be too frilly for your husband as the first name, but maybe he'd like it better as a middle name: Naomi Rosalie. Or perhaps Naomi Faith to honor both father and mother?


Name update! Faith writes:

I wanted to drop you a line and update you on our baby girl!

We decided to name her Naomi Catherine with Catherine being in honor of my MIL. Objectively speaking I might not have picked the name Catherine since it seems a little long to follow Naomi but I have a wonderful MIL and love that our daughter shares this connection with her. We actually find that we call the baby Nomi most often which is what my three year-old christened her. :)

Thank you again for all of your input and for the input of your readers. I loved reading your feedback and all the comments!

Baby Girl or Boy Schmidt, Sibling to Regan and Reece

Caroline writes:

My husband and I couldn't be more opposite when it comes to baby naming... well, in lots of things actually but identifying our child is simply the most crucial issue at this moment. He offers names based on who he knows or what famous person shares the name (i.e. our in utero nickname for this child is "Pancho" named after a 1980's race car driver!) regardless of the ridiculousness of the name. In fact, I think he likes the idea of naming the child after someone else and I tend to avoid that entirely. I want someone to say "what a great name" when they hear of our child's arrival but not wince or scratch their heads wondering where in the heck it came from. And I do not want a name that has been used by someone we know (even if only an acquaintance) - it's no fun.

Our different personalities and naming preferences aren't the only consideration. This little one is due Feb. 28th and will be little sister or brother to my daughters Regan Olivia & Reece Elizabeth. The girls are from my prior marriage - and both names were/are perfect. Although more Regan's have popped up, both names are relatively unique in our area and I loved them paired with a older, more traditional middle name.

So, the first issue is how to come up with a name we can both LOVE. Second issue is whether we stick with the R's - which seems a bit weird to me because they won't share last names, former marriage, etc. On the other hand maybe we should go with the theme so none of them associate themselves as being from a different family. Ugh - husband says I'm way overthinking it! It's his first child so I want it to be something we share, not an R name he is forced into by default!

We do have a girl name and a boy name we both like... he seems sold, but I've not had my Ah-ha moment with the girl name. Our last name is Schmidt.

Weston Zachary - my idea, he came around to it and he is pretty set on it now. Middle name is a must as this is after my brother who passed away.

Carson/Carsyn Rose - pretty sure I threw it out there and he instantly liked. Rose is after his mother and we both agree this shall be the middle name of a girl. I've read your suggestions of using Rose for a first name, but I'm not keen on that mostly because I don't want "Rosie" and the confusion will be too difficult as his mom is living and we see them often!

Names that have been eliminated for various reasons just to give you an idea of our tastes... Sheldon (yes, he seriously loves this despite the "sh, sh - iness" with our last name); Raylin (too close to Regan, but was always his favorite girl name). I like Charlotte (but again the sh-sh sound), Kendall (but know a family with a baby Kendall), Cameryn (for a girl, but this is my niece), Mason (simply too popular).

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!

And:

About a month ago I emailed you about Baby Girl or Boy Schmidt and the drastically different ideas my husband and I have about baby naming...

Since then we've made progress, but I need some opinions.

First, we love the name Weston for a boy. BUT, I'm struggling with the middle name. I lost a younger brother 10 years ago and always knew if/when I had a boy his middle name would be Zachary after my brother. Husband is of course on board with this, but I also know that he always anticipated a baby boy with his middle name (which is his father's name... wait for it... Ivo - it's a name that appears to be native to his hometown!!). I think we should use TWO middle names, he thinks I'm ridiculous and says he's totally agreeable to Zachary. But, I just can't shake the feeling that this is his only child and he might regret not having a "namesake" (even if it's shared). So, is giving a poor child 4 names to spit out unreasonable, unfair or inhumane?

Issue number two... I told you that my daughters from my first marriage are "R's" and I was unsure of whether to continue this trend. Let's just say that if it's a boy I'm totally ok with Weston (or a non-R name), but my girls have said "Mommy, it has to be an R if its a girl, so she's just like us!" How can do anything else, right? Right. Except there is only 1 R name that I've come across that I like/love. Renna. Before you judge, the middle name will be Rose (regardless of first name) so you have to say it all to be sure it passes muster... Renna Rose. My fear? That I'm predisposing this sweet little angel to a future in pole dancing. My friends who have been quizzed say I'm overthinking it and that's not at all where their minds go... but once you say it...

And is it to rhymey with Regan & Reece? I really think the R will bond them and in families with stepchildren I think this is really important.

I'm due Feb. 28th and I saw you were at/near these due dates.... please help. This will be the 3rd and last for us and I had no idea how difficult it would be to name this sweet one!!

Thank you!

I can give personal-experience feedback on the two middle names issue, because my kids have two middle names and so do I. And this is my feedback: it's not as much hassle as I'd expected. On forms where it matters (applications and registrations, for example), I try to make it very clear: writing the middle names one on top of the other on the middle name line, or even making brackets with labels "middle names" and "surname." I chose ahead of time which name I wanted as the default (for me it's the second of my two middle names, but for the kids its the first) if a form only let me use one name/initial, so paperwork is consistent. The hassles have been things like occasionally needing to correct a form where the information has been entered as if the second middle name is the first of two last names, or where the first middle name has been entered as if it's a second first name, but I think that's happened maybe four times total in the twelve years since we named our first child. AND, it hardly ever comes up: middle names show up mostly on forms and never in introductions, so he'd be Weston Schmidt when he's saying it or writing it on his homework. It sounds to me like your reasons for using two middle names outweighs the small hassle, so I'm voting yea on that one.

About the R names. That IS pretty cute and compelling, to have the girls wanting her to have an R name. Do you think they'd settle for an R middle name? Renna Rose seems fine to me (I will probably suddenly realize what you're alluding to and then feel very silly!), but it's too bad Renna has the same number of letters as the other two, in addition to all three starting with Re-: I don't think they sound so much alike, but they look alike. Regan, Reese, Renna. Well, I wrote that out to illustrate the problem, but actually that's kind of cute. I don't know WHAT I think! Let's see what everyone ELSE thinks!


Name update! Caroline writes:

After all the concern about baby girl names, we needn't have worried... We welcomed Weston Zachary Ivo Schmidt to our family on Feb. 23, 2011. He is absolutely perfect and honoring both of our families with his two middle names worked out perfectly as well! Although my husband was concerned about having mouthful of names, as soon as he held Weston he proudly called him by all FOUR names without hesitation! I've attached a pic of our little guy... thanks for the advice!!

Baby Boy, Brother to Theodore

F. writes:

I can't believe that even though i am now 9 days overdue with our second son we still haven't quite hit upon the right name for him and so i am writing to you for some help. Our first son is called Theodore Magnus, both names we absolutely love and luckily we knew very early on that we would call him by those names. Infact we would actually love to name our second son Magnus but feel that we can't now given that we have already used it as Theodore's middle name.

We are looking for boys name that work in both Engand and Norway as i am British and my husband is Norwegian ( and currently live in Norway) Many names don't translate due to the different pronunciation of certain letters ( i.e. I becomes E in Norwegian and J becomes Y ) and the 3 different letters in the Norwegian language Å,Ø and Æ, sadly make names like Torbjørn unusable because in the Uk no one would know how to pronounce it, even though i love it.

So far we have Tobias, Jonathan ( despite the different pronunciation in Norwegian being Yonathan), Ruben, Albert, Sebastian and Jacob on our list but we just can't seem to decide on any one of them. My son seems to think the new baby will be called Jonathan and i think Ruben goes well as a second name....but we would love any suggestions that you have to help us make a decision.

My husband has just suggested Sebastian Aurelius but i feel that it is a bit much especially as we have a double barreled surname! What do you think?

Name update! F. writes:

We finally decided to call our baby Sebastian Tobias...phew, thank you for all your help.

Baby Girl or Boy Luke-With-a-D

Melanie writes:

Help! My husband and I are expecting our first baby, gender unknown, at the end of February (Feb. 27). Our last name sounds like Luke but starts with a D instead of an L. We are set if this baby is a boy, but I just KNOW that it is a girl and in that area we are in trouble!

I really like classic, "pretty" girls' names that aren't TOO popular. Of course, the name I have loved since I was a child is Emily, which has been #1 or #2 on the SSA site for ten years! I still like that name, but it just feels so "used" to me that I am not sure I can use it. (And I don't think it really works as a middle name, but I would definitely consider it for that slot). Another name I love is Elizabeth, but my husband dislikes this name (he says he would consider it for a middle name, but not a first).

Some other names we have discussed:
Penelope - this name has been slightly soured for me by people's reactions. We aren't telling anyone our name choices, but someone mentioned this concidentally and called it a "weird" name. I like the nickname Penny but husband doesn't. Really loved this name before I was pregnant, but with the combo of the "weird" comment and husband's dislike of Penny, I'm less enthusiastic.
Elinor - Husband's grandmother's name. I LOVE this one too, he won't use it as a first name, but willing to use it as a middle.
Grace - Husband's grandmother's middle name. I know this is popular as a middle name, but is it used a lot as a first name? I love the nickname Gracie and I think Grace is so pretty. One problem - Husband's sister had a baby a year ago and her middle name is Grace. His cousin also had a girl a year ago, and ALSO has the middle name Grace. (All after the same grandmother). If it was just the cousin, I wouldn't mind, but my SIL and BIL seem to call their baby by the first and middle name fairly frequently. It's not like there would be confusion, necessarily, but I am worried about accusations of "copying" SIL.

It seems like we have thought of and thrown out a million other names. As you can see, we are going around in circles. At this point, none of these names really feel like the baby's name to me, and definitely not to my husband, who is a classic vetoer. I am hoping you can suggest some names that I haven't thought of. I am really feeling sad that I haven't hit upon "the" name yet - I love baby names and have been thinking about them forever (long before I was pregnant), so I can't believe that I am 8 weeks out with no idea what this baby will be named!!

Help!!

The Emily situation is both better and worse than you think. Worse because it was #1 for twelve years in a row, from 1996 until 2007. Better because in 2008 it was #3, and in 2009 it was #6. Also better because in terms of percentages of baby girls being given the name, there's been a very significant drop, from a high of 1.36% in 1999, to 0.76% in 2009---that's getting close to being cut in half. And also better because despite its long popularity it still doesn't feel used-up to me. Used, sure, but that's true of all the traditional names and even the ones people think of as unique. Used UP, no.

However, if it DOES feel used-up to you, there are lots of possibilities that are a little less common. Emeline, for example, is similar to Emily but is surprisingly unusual. Or there's Emilia, Emlyn, Emryn, Emery, or Emerson. My favorite is Emeline because I think it captures more of the style of Emily. There's also Adeline and Amelia.

Since you also like Elizabeth, I recommend Eliza.

Grace is a popular first name: it was the 17th most popular girl name in the U.S. in 2009. The Social Security baby name site is great for this: not only can you see a name's current popularity, you can see if it's falling or rising---and how rapidly. Grace, for example, looks like it has settled: after a rise, it's been floating in the space between #10 and #21 for a decade. This makes it look to me as if it's not going to get super-super-popular, but is instead going to stay nicely popular. However, if your husband's grandmother has already been honored twice via the use of her middle name, perhaps there are other family members who could be honored? It seems so unfair that the family members with currently-popular names get such a disproportionate amount of honoring-via-namesakes.

Penelope is a name that seems highly unusual and yet I don't think it will seem that way for much longer. Look at this:

(screen shot from the Social Security baby name site)
(click it to see it larger)

An underlined lowercase A means the name was not in the Top 1000 that year. I cut it off at 1994, but those underlined lowercase As go back to 1974. Penelope was nowhere in sight, and now look at it go: up almost 700 rank places in 9 years, and I'm eager to see where it will be when the 2010 statistics come out in May. It's good news for people like me, who prefer to use more common/familiar names: Penelope would have been out of the question for me back when my first child was born in 1999, but if I were to have another child now, I'd feel able to use it. (And in fact, when I was expecting in 2007, it was one of our frontrunners until we found out we were having a boy.) If your husband doesn't like like the nickname Penny, maybe he'd like Nellie or Pip.

It's even more unusual than Penelope, but I wonder if you'd like the name Felicity? It has the same rhythm as Penelope, but more of the early-American style of Emily. It's pretty and feminine and underused, and it would work with any of your possible middle names (though because I prefer not to spell anything with initials, I'd avoid FED---perhaps this is a good moment to go through your family tree looking for other women you love whose names would be good middle-name candidates).

More possibilities:

Annabel
Cecily
Clara
Clarissa
Cora
Eva
Fiona
Genevieve
Lia
Lillian
Liviana
Phoebe
Violet


Name update! Melanie writes:

Baby name update for you! Our baby GIRL was born March 2. We decided to name her Emily Elizabeth, thanks to your reassuring comments about the popularity, and all the commenters who said that Emily was a great, classic name. In particular, one commenter mentioned how special Emily would feel when I told her I had loved her name all my life, and when I read that I started crying. That's when I knew she had to be Emily!! Elizabeth, her middle name, is after my grandmother. Thanks for all your help!!!
Melanie

P.S. I attached a photo too! I love the photo updates myself, so I had to include one. :)

Baby Girl, Sister to Avery Caelyn

Jenna writes:

My husband and I are expecting our 2nd daughter February 2011. We can NOT agree on a name...or any names really. Our 2 year old daughter is named Avery Caelyn. We heard Avery on a baby show about half way through the pregnancy & agreed. Her middle name came in the hospital, 3 days after she was born. I literally opened a name book and pointed until he said "Yeah, that one."
Our naming strategy is pretty similar to everyone else's: I list them, he has veto power. And he remembers names he already said no to, I've tried it. I would love to use a family name- he said no. We tend to pick more modern girl names- boy/unisex names, surnames & places- but we are not opposed to girly names. I heard once that if you name a girl a unisex name, they will be more successful in life because people tend to give credit/praise/expectations/opportunities to male names- even with no other point of reference. If we were having a boy though, he was going to have a more traditional, masculine name- Jon, Cason, Elliot [the only family name I was able to keep on the list] or Alec, with the middle name Richard- there are 9 Richards in our family from our daughters to our grandparents- both sides big popular name. We are open to suggestions and yays or nays for our ((short)) list. We want it to work well with Avery without being matchy. I like same 1st initial, but it's not high priority. And I like same syllables, also not high priority. It cannot end in a T- or Tr- sound because of our last name. Also, our last name is one that you do not hear often...it has an 'x' in the middle of it- and some people say it sounds like pretzel. My name is Jenna & my husband's is Richard- soo her name cannot be similar to these.

Our list:
Jaycee/Jacy- "Ok" according to him
Kylee- My current favorite- though it changes daily.
Macy- Like Jacy
Graceson- Strong second to my favorite
Kaylee/ie/eigh- Almost too popular
Ashtyn- His absolute favorite- he calls her this now.
Morgan- I have cousin with this name, but i like it anyhow.

Vetoed names/ Names we cannot use (acquaintances, cousins)
Leah
Hannah
Emerson
Carly
Amaya
Londyn
Ellison/Elliot
Jensen
Taylor
Any flower/spice/herb names.
Any color names.
Any "outdoorsy" names.
Most nouns.
Any emotion or inspirational word (faith, hope, grace)

Our biggest challenge: I do not LOVE any names that we have heard. We love our daughter's name, Avery Caelyn. He picks one and can "go with it" I keep looking and reading. None of them have been it. And no, We have not even considered talking middle names yet.
Please help!!

And:

I need to amend my list.
We need to add Logan to it. I love it. I just can't seem to find a middle name.
He's said "It's one we agree on. Ok"

And:

Ok...I'm obsessed this is my third email to you. Sorry.
Our new list-
Logan
Gracen
Erin

My newest dilemma- Is Erin too different from Avery?

Thanks again!

And:

Ok Swistle. THIS is my last email...I have 8 weeks left..we'll see right?
I guess I'm just trying to get the best answers?opinions? from you and your readers.
Last time I added Erin to the list (we love it!) only, he wants to spell it Aaryn or Arynn. Erin is pronounced "EHrin" not "AIRin" he says. The A(s) will give us the pronouciation we want; AIRin.
I like it because it gives both girls A-names and makes it more masculine (like Avery).

Thoughts?

Also, her middle name will be Leigh (unless her name ends in an -ee sound). My husband's middle name is Lee and since this will be our last* and he didn't get his boy** I thought he should have a big part of her name.
*ask me again in 3 years.
**see *.

I'd say Erin is okay with Avery but not great. Erin was in the Top 100 for girls from 1971 until 2004 (source: Social Security Administration). Avery has been in the Top 100 for girls since 2003, and until the late 1990s was used more often for boys. So they're both boyish girl names, but Erin is now a common Mom Name, while Avery is next-generation (jumping into the Top 100 the year before Erin dropped out) and single-spelling androgynous (though getting more Girl every year).

This could be a regional thing, but where I live the name Erin is pronounced like AIR-rin, to rhyme with Karen. If you want AIR-rin you can spell it Erin: at worst, there are two ways to pronounce it. However, in your case I think your idea of using Arynn improves the fit: it makes the name more modern, and it gives you the two A-names you were hoping for. Furthermore, both names would have the same number of letters, and three of those letters would be the same. The Arynn spelling would give you some small hassle, but not as much, I think, as Aaryn, and not more than Gracen/Gracyn. And Arynn Leigh works very nicely. My only concern, and maybe this is nothing to worry about, is that both alternate spellings make me think of Aryan, a very unpleasant association but maybe not one that would come to most people's minds.

Gracen/Gracyn is also a very good match: like Avery, it's used for boys (usually spelled Grayson or Greyson) and it's a recently popular name (more recent than Avery, but it's "this generation" as opposed to "last generation"). And again, Gracyn Leigh is a nice fit.

To me, the name Logan still sounds utterly Boy---but I see it was used for about 700 girl babies last year along with over 14,000 boys. (It's falling for girls and rising for boys.) If you do use it, I suggest using a middle name that is used exclusively for girls: Logan Grace or Logan Rose or Logan Joy. Oops, all three of those are on the veto list (for being flowers/inspirational). Maybe Logan Louise or Logan Nicole or Logan Simone or Logan Leeanne (this also gives you Lee) or Logan Elise or Logan Celeste.


Name update! Jenna writes:

Our 2nd daughter came 5 days late! She didn't have a name for a few days and my entire list went out the window!! My husband stuck with Aerin, but I had a whole new list of names come to me when I met her! Wren was her name and I knew it within an hour of her birth but he said no...our compromise? I saw it on a list you did for one of your other readers- Emryn. Emryn Leigh was born on 2/20. Big sister Avery is ecstatic!Thanks for everyones help!!!! Still love reading your baby name blog Swistle!!!!