Alison writes:
Hi there! Came across your blog in search of a non-lame baby naming source, and I am already swooning over you and your worker bees.
Here’s our situation.
Background: Husband in a musician, I’m an corp junkie and a yoga/dance teacher during my off hours.
Requirements: Want a non-lame name, that works for a rockstar, a poet or a school teacher. As versatile as possible. We have no middle name requirements, As long at it sounds great, we are happy.
We are unsure of the sex of the baby although we will be hoping to find out prior to the birth. Although our first pregnancy, my husband comes from a massive family so many traditional/biblical names are spoken for. Not that I’m religious (as we are not) but just a heads up. Also, our pets names are Seamus, Pickles and Bonham. Just in case you were thinking Pickles :)
For a boy, we love the name Rhys. Our last name is Kelly, so we want to find a middle name that completes what we deem is a rockin’ name.
For a girl, we have yet to find any names that we love. Names that we like but not love are Juliet, Violet and Sloan.
Thanks in advance for your help and your tremendous blog.
and
So we discovered we love Olive as a girls name, but again stuck on a middle name.
If you don’t have specific plans for the middle name, it’s a good place for an honor name: a family member, a family surname, your maiden name, a musician or author you admire, a place of significance.
Other possibilities:
Rhys Darwin Kelly
Rhys Desmond Kelly
Rhys Edmund Kelly
Rhys Everett Kelly
Rhys Ezra Kelly
Rhys Frederick Kelly
Rhys Gabriel Kelly
Rhys Hugo Kelly
Rhys Liam Kelly
Rhys Merrit Kelly
Rhys Milo Kelly
Rhys Matthias Kelly
Rhys Turner Kelly
Rhys Walker Kelly
Rhys Warren Kelly
Rhys Wilson Kelly
Olive Bianca Kelly
Olive Cordelia Kelly
Olive Francesca Kelly
Olive Geneva Kelly
Olive Harlow Kelly
Olive Jane Kelly
Olive Josephine Kelly
Olive Leticia Kelly
Olive Linnea Kelly
Olive Louisa Kelly
Olive Margot Kelly
Olive Mattea Kelly
Olive Melina Kelly
Olive Minerva Kelly
Olive Noelle Kelly
Olive Padgett Kelly
Olive Sabrina Kelly
Olive Silvia Kelly
Olive Simone Kelly
Olive Sterling Kelly
Olive Winifred Kelly
Olive Winslow Kelly
Name update! Alison writes:
Hi!
Wanted to send you an update on our name choice. We ended up having a boy, and named him Rhys Gibson Kelly. Gibson seemed to be the winning name amongst our choices, regardless of the musical tie. We love the fact that after we named him Rhys Gibson, his name can be known to mean “Enthusiastic, Laughing” which makes me all warm inside. And so far, Rhys Gibson lives up to his name in every way.
Thanks for your help!
I recently suggested Olive Jordan to a friend of mine. I think it sounds great even though the initials are OJ. Her husband’s name is Jordan and I loved naming a little girl after her father, but I also like it in general. Olive Jordan!
I happen to love Olive for a girl too, so if I have one in the future I’ll probably name her Olive Kate.
I love Rhys too. Rhys Owen Kelly. Rhys Corbin Kelly. Or what about a musician your husband loves? Hendrix or Lennon? Rhys Hendrix Kelly.
Looking at your girl name runners up, I think Olive Juliet Kelly is a great name, unless you think you’d like to save Juliet for a future sister.
I also like
Olive Annabelle Kelly
Olive Claire Kelly
Olive Lillian Kelly
I think I want to carry the L sound all through the name. I like the way it ties the name together. But if that’s too much alliteration for you, I also like Olive Ruth Kelly.
I have fewer ideas for a boy, but Rhys Trevor Kelly is sticking in my mind.
I love Rhys Desmond Kelly and Rhys Edmund Kelly. It must be something about the “d” sound.
I really like the name Olive, but have you considered that Olive and Kelly are both shades of green? Not necessarily a deal-breaker but something to be aware of. I like your suggestion of Sloane, and Minerva would be a cool middle name. Sloane Minerva Kelly. Or Sloane Olive Kelly.
I think Rhys Desmond Kelly is a rockin’ name. I really love it! As for Olive, I’m thinking Olive Claire sounds good. They’re both strong and awesome names. I’m a fan.
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I like Rhys Desmond. Or how about Rhys Everett?
I also like Olive Haven.
I like the above suggestion of a musician middle name which is why I’m prob drawn to Rhys Ezra (big better than Ezra fan here). Also like Rhys Eric (initials REK—gives him an excuse to be a crazy wreck as a kid; ok, I’ll stop). Zane seems to fit your naming style although maybe not for a teacher. There is also Rhett.
For a girl, Olive Lane or Olive Rae.
With Rhys and Olive and your last name, you have the perfect opportunity to utilize long and imaginative middle names! Olive is just quirky enough to benefit from more a traditional middle name to ground it, but Rhys lends itself to just about anything you want to dream up. You don’t mention what kind of music your husband plays, but musicians from all eras that you both admire could be perfect mn’s for Rhys. I have to confess that I have no idea what a corp junkie is, but I did come up with two honoring yoga names. Starting with Olive, here are some ideas:
Olive Holiday (after Billie)
Olive Simone (after Nina)
Olive Joplin (after Janis)
Olive Sarasvati (Hindu goddess)
Olive Valentina (love the repeating v’s)
Olive Antonia
Olive Lisandra
Olive Katarina
Olive Seraphine
Olive Coraline
Olive Matilda
Olive Minerva (LOVE this from Swistle!)
(I really think any long traditional girl’s name that ends in “a” could work beautifully for you–I just chose some more unusual ones).
Rhys Donovan (for folk/rock)
Rhys Thelonious (for Monk)
Rhys Haydn (for Joseph)
Rhys Amadeus (for Mozart)
Rhys Iyengar (for yoga)
Rhys Patanjali (ditto)
Rhys Bartholomew
Rhys Nathaniel
Rhys Emmanuel
Rhys Abraham
Rhys Llewellyn
The last Rhys combos are just ideas using longer traditional names that you might hesitate to use in the first name spot. But I’m sure you can take off from here and add more of your own if you like the idea.
Good luck and have fun! You have so many possibilities and are so open, I’m excited for you.
Rhys Ezra is just – wow. I love it.
Some ideas:
Rhys Axel
Rhys Curtis
Rhys Travis
Rhys Dylan
Rhys Finnian
Rhys James
Rhys Memphis
Rhys Viggo
Rhys Johnny
Rhys Aurelius
Olive Delilah
Olive Anais
Olive Harper
Olive Adelaide
Olive Angie
Olive Jean/Joan
Olive Lou(ella)
Olive Cassidy
Olive Saffron
I just had to throw it out there – Olive and Kelly are both color names for green… What about continuing the theme?
Olive Jade Kelly
Olive Sage Kelly
Olive Ivy Kelly
Olive Verna Kelly
Olive Peridot Kelly
P.S. My adorable little calico kitten is named Olive, and I have such a sweet response to the name… I say go for it!
Oh! How’sabout Olive Calico Kelly? ;)
If you decide not to go with Olive, I wonder if you’d like any of these names:
Isla (Isla and Rhys would make awesome siblings I think)
Ione
Wren
Willow
Maisy
Piper
Aria*
Jacinta
Bryony
Or for Olive,
Olive Sorrel
Olive Sutton
Olive Roscoe
Olive Minuet
Olive Adeline
Olive Delphine
As for Rhys, I wonder if you’d like Tinder as a middle name – Rhys Tinder Kelly. o, or Rhys Mingus!
Rhys Sullivan or Sebastian would also be cool. Rhys Jasper also has a ring to it.
Olive Mae. Love.
And I like the sound of Rhys John.
Oh Anonymous, you made my day. I have an Isla and a Rhys. Rhys James (after my father) and Isla Catherine. Their older sister is Eleni.
I LOVE the sound of Rhys Kelly. What a great name. I don’t think you can go wrong whichever middle name you choose.
If you’re stuck on middle names, maybe it’d help to choose an initial and go from there.
For example: ROK could make pretty cool initials. However R O Kelly makes it sound like the surname is O’Kelly. Rhys C Kelly, Rhys L Kelly, Rhys S Kelly are all a bit difficult to say so I’d cross them off the list too. (and R U Kelly sounds like a question!)
I think my favourite middle initial is Rhys P Kelly, and some suggestions are:
Patrick
Parker
Porter
For a girl I really like the flow of names like :
Olive Alexa
Olive Alicia
Olive Amelia
Olive Alina
and they all give the pleasant initials of OAK.
Congratulations and good luck.
I really like Olive Noelle.