Carla writes:
I never in a million years thought I’d have trouble coming up with names for my children but here I am, wanting the perfect name for our second child and not feeling anywhere close. I am due February 19 and feeling the crunch. My husband is very opinionated and I’m to the point where I don’t even know what to suggest for fear of his veto.
Our first child is a girl we named Sierra Mary. The name Sierra we simply just loved, and the name Mary was after several grandmothers. Ens is our very short, harsh German last name and a difficult name to compliment in my opinion.I recognize the flow of her name isn’t great but people almost never use their middle name anyway.
Baby number two is of the unknown gender. Our boys option for Sierra was Caleb Henry but I was never in love with it and Caleb is growing too much in popularity for our taste. We have since come up with Sawyer Henry if this one is a boy. Henry is, again, a family name that my husband insists on.
We have some names for a girl and currently like ‘Faith’ for the middle name…what do you think and what would you add? We tend to like softer, slightly different names, definitely not traditional for the most part.
Hailey (very common)
Kaitlyn (very common)
Mikayla (quite common)
Jaylynn
Kianna
Aralynn
Makaya
Annika (I like it my husband, not really)
Acacia (my husband likes this one, to me it’s a little too different or something)Thanks!
Do you know, my favorite from your list is Acacia. I wouldn’t have thought of the name myself, but when I read it on your list I thought with pleasant surprise, “Hey! That’s a good name!” It’s very unusual but not hard to say, and the sounds are familiar. I think it’s a great sister name with Sierra, and I like the way the AY sound in it coordinates with the AY sound of Faith. Acacia Faith, very nice.
Because Acacia is a botanical name, it brings to mind another possibility: Juniper. Juniper Faith. Juniper Ens.
Which makes me think of Brierly, a very pretty name I think goes well with Sierra. Sierra and Brierly. Brierly Faith. Brierly Ens.
Or Willow. Willow Faith. Willow Ens.
Moving away from the botanical: Paisley. Paisley Faith. Paisley Ens. Adorable.
Braelyn. Braelyn Faith. Braelyn Ens. Sierra and Braelyn. Nice.
Keely. Keely Faith, Keely Ens, Sierra and Keely. Pretty.
Name update 02-26-2010! Carla writes:
Carla Ens here. I thought I’d let you know that I had a son February 23 and we named him Sawyer Henry as planned. I loved and appreciated everyone’s suggestions. Had Sawyer been a girl the name would be Kiana Faith. Although I really liked the ideas of Braelyn and Briarly my husband once again vetoed those! Thanks again.
Love your pick for a boy. Sawyer is a great name. Here are some girl picks for a sis for Sierra:
Colbie
Kylah
Mallory
Marina
Malia (I like it pronounced muh-lee-uh)
Sasha
Scarlett
Shaye
Skylar
Stella
Sydney
Talia- tall-yah like in the previous question or tal-yah
Vida
Good Luck! Can’t wait to hear your pick.
I taught a little girl years ago with the name Stacia. It sounds very much like Acacia, but feels more main stream. Yet, I’ve never met another person with that name. I don’t really like it with Faith, however. Hmmmm…
Thought I would suggest Bryony (br-EYE-uh-nee). Also botanical, and I think it has a nice lilt with Ens, as well as complementing Sierra.
This might be too traditional for you, but when Swistle started off on her nature riff it brought Rosemary to mind and I will suggest it because I love it and I think the flow of Rosemary Faith Ens is good.
Here are some more:
Clementine
Hazel
Violet
Or moving away from the nature theme:
Arden
Aurelia
Bailey
Charlotte
Fiona
Galya
Maya
Olivia
Sora
Juniper! I immediately thought of it only to scroll down and see swistle already had mentioned it.
Other ideas:
Lilah / Delilah
Laurel
Elodie
Calliope / Callie
I went to college with an Acacia. When I first met her my first reaction was “What a beautiful name!” No one teased her or ever found it weird. Some of her friends called her Casey for short. Out of Swistle’s ideas I like Brierly.
Juniper is my favorite of Swistle’s recs, but then again a Juniper and a Sierra may not work in California (not sure where the OP is from). Annika is also very cute, and goes super-well with Ens. I also don’t think Mikayla is any more common than Sierra, although I haven’t checked the lists lately.
I wonder if you might consider an additional middle name for Sawyer – only because Sawyer Henry had an immediate Huckleberry Finn connection to me. e.g. Sawyer Alan Henry Ens, or Sawyer Tate Henry Ens, or something like that.
I love your boy name. Sawyer Henry, really nice. Non-traditional names are not really my forte… here’s what I got, perhaps some will inspire you.
Eryn
Kamryn
Kayla
Lynea
Makeena
Rayona
Taliyah
Rayona Faith. Sawyer and Kayla. Lynea Faith Ens. They’re all lovely.
Good luck.
I second Bryony!!
Or how about Briar? I feel like Brierly is taking things a syllable too far…Briar is beautiful as is.
A friend of a friend named their baby girl Arcadia and call her Cady. SO CUTE.
Oh, and I TOTALLY love Juniper.
My first idea is similar to Giselle’s. Acacia reminded me of The Babysitter’s Club. If I remember correctly, Stacey’s full first name was Eustacia. However, after reading Swistle’s suggestions, Paisley and Brierly sound super cute.
Ooh, I love Braelyn for a girl!
Yeah, I like Acacia a lot. Or Brierly.
But, for the record, Stacey’s name in “The BSC” was Anastasia. And yes, I spent most of my childhood (and – cough – teen years) reading that series.
I thought of another one I like for you:
Vivien Faith Ens
Paisley! Paisley! Paisley! It’s such a great name!