[I posted both the longer version and the shorter version of this question because (1) I think the longer version includes some important considerations and (2) I love the long version so much. But if you want to scroll down until you see “and” at the left side of the column, you’ll still have enough info to vote.]
Sara writes:
Ok, I totally left this until too late and then I see your post about being overwhelmed with letters and I’m terrified you won’t answer mine. I’ve actually written this letter four times, once before we knew the sex, once after, and again after I got a copy of The Baby Name Wizard. And now I’m scrapping all of those and starting over because they keep getting ridiculously long. Our last name is long and Italian and kind of sounds like Provolone (the cheese) but starts with an M.
Older daughter is Juliette Elizabeth. Juliette came out of nowhere with about 15 weeks to go last time. We love that it is familiar and yet uncommon (so far). Elizabeth is after my husband’s mother, who passed away when he was a teenager, but it is also my middle name after an aunt and my grandmother. She gets also gets called Julie, Jules, Jemma (her initials) and Etta by various family members. None of that bothers us. Also, I love her name, but you know how some people write in updates and say that the name they picked it “totally my baby”? I don’t feel that way. I don’t have any name regret, but I could easily picture Jules being a Piper or Paisley or Lucy or whatever. (I also never found THE wedding dress, but liked my dress just fine, so perhaps I am not the sort of person finds THE name/dress/perfect piece of art for the wall?)
Husband is not a classic veto-er (yay!) and will suggest names. He is kind of stuck on Cecelia right now though and the thought of having a Simon & Garfunkel song stuck in my head for the next 40 or 50 years is making me want to shoot something. Also, he doesn’t think the kids names need to “match” or sound good together at all. He says they are all individual people and it doesn’t matter in the long run. I am more of the view that these children are our lives’ work and I want their names to coordinate.
A few notes before I get into a list. I really want to honor my mom with this little girl’s middle name. Mom’s name is Rosalie and she has no middle name, which doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room. People have suggested using just Rose, but mom doesn’t go by Rose so it doesn’t seem very honorific. Her mom’s name was Giustina and I *think* that if we used that instead my mom would get that we were honoring her that way, but also she has six older sisters and one of their names is Giustina (although she goes by Judy). I happen to be close to that aunt and I am close to my Aunt Elizabeth that Juliette (inadvertently) has the name of, so I don’t want to unintentionally offend or leave out my mom. Plus we are very close and I can’t imagine honoring someone “over” her. My other aunts (both sides) are Josephine, Anna, Micheline, Antonette, Nancy, Claire, Mona and Janet. Husband’s grandmothers are Mahala and Victoria. My husband isn’t crazy about Rosalie or Giustina, but he is fine with using either. Second note, this is kind of random. I’m pretty sure we aren’t done yet, and if we have a third girl her name would probably be Molly Victoria or Molly Vita. Molly was our pick for the “what-would-we-name-kids” game before we were married. If the third is a girl I think it would be sweet if she had my husband’s initials because we will probably be done. This second one would be Molly, but Molly Rosalie doesn’t sound good (too much LEE sound) and we always imagined Molly as our youngest. Our boy name for both pregnancies has been Noah James. Could change, but so far we still love it.
Off-limit names because of nieces/friends/dibs/my darn sMIL keeps using human names on her pets are: Hannah, Bailey, Nora, Riley, Caroline, Madison, Savannah, Fiona, Madeleine, Zoe, Genevieve, Lily, Bella, Olivia, Gretchen.
So I guess my question is what in the heck do you pair with Juliette? This is something we didn’t consider when we named her (and darn it, I found you like a month later, or I would have known better!). Or better yet, how do I bridge Juliette with Molly or Noah? All the usual caveats, not too popular (Juliette was 450 when we picked it), although we know Molly and Noah are significantly more popular, no random spellings, husband wants nickname(s). When we think of Juliette, we seem to drift towards the Why Not?, then Timeless list of the BNW instead of the Shakespeare list. Plus Rosalie is already close to Rosaline, Romeo’s first love, so since we are not actually Shakespeare freaks I don’t want to get too far into that territory. I should also tell you that I have the 2005 version of BNW because I am too cheap to buy a new one and my library’s copy is apparently outdated. We have eliminated almost every name on our “list,” for various reasons, but I’ll put some here, just in case:
Names that have caught our eye(s?):
Gabrielle (Gabriella depending on middle name?). For a long time I thought this was the name just because of the way it feels with Juliette’s name. I like the name, but don’t love it and my husband doesn’t like the Guh sound at the beginning. I don’t like chopping the “Ga” off and going with Brielle – reminds me of Rielle Hunter and because of that feels trashy to me. It seems to be in the 30s which is significantly more popular than Juliette. We are ok with Brie or Elle/a as nicknames, but aren’t crazy about Gabby. My problem here is I like the name, but it doesn’t pass your “it feels like MY baby” test. It’s like I want my favorite niece to be named Gabrielle.
Penelope – another front runner for a while, also doesn’t pass the MY baby test (I want my best friend to name her baby Penelope :). Cannot stand Penny as a nickname. Husband puts this on the list then takes it off again…would be a little out there for our families. But I can’t get Penelope Jane out of my head for some reason (Jane?!? Where the heck did that come from?).
Beatrice/Beatrix and Camilla – I kind of think these go with daughter’s name, but husband hasn’t come around to this one yet, and doesn’t like Bea or Trix/ie or Milly/Milla. Also, don’t like BM initials. Plus my British grandmother would kill me if I named the baby after Prince Charles’s paramour.
Annabel/Mirabel – I thought one of these was it for awhile, but hubby thinks they sound like cows.
Mira/Mia – This was our “decoy” name with Juliet and we got a lot of negative feedback on it. I, however, am a fan of the double initial. Which leads me to Madeleine – super popular and dibbed on by one of our friends, but again I think if we had a “but this is the ONE” conversation she would be ok with it (no kids on the horizon for her). But then we might have two babies with M initials. I think I’m ok with that, but haven’t really thought it out.
Aurelia – husband’s childhood friend’s name who committed suicide, this one is a no-no.
I’m not a fan of Luciana/Lucia or Madalena/Magdalena that often get suggested. I have Carina, Francesca, Mariela, Valentina on my list pulled from some of your previous posts and comments on Italian-ish names, but none of them really jump at me.
Husband put Daphne, Willow and Marion on the list last week. Don’t like any of those. Also, he loves just plain Mary. I know you’ve said it’s fresh on the little girls you’ve heard it on, but I’m not there yet. He wouldn’t consider any name like Mariela with a nn of Mary to be the same thing. My little secret plain name is Annie. He doesn’t like it either.
My mom likes Adrianna and my dad is pushing for Jacqueline (he thinks Julie and Jackie would be cute), but neither of them get a say :).
Great jeebus that was still long. Sorry, I guess I felt I had to tell you every thought in my crazy pregnant brain. I know, I am imposing too many rules, so please help me distill all this. Any thoughts from you and your readers on these names or please, tell me you’ve thought of the perfect name I haven’t found yet! Our due date is coming up way fast and we are going around in circles! Thank you!
and
I wrote you a ridiculously too long email a few weeks ago right when you started posting the “too many emails” messages (Baby Girl “Provolone”. I am delivering on Monday, but we’ve narrowed down our choices to three, so I thought I would send this just in case you could throw it up over the weekend for your readers to work on or do a quick poll.
Big sister is Juliette Elizabeth. Juliette because we like it (and now really, really love it), Elizabeth after my husband’s late mother. Goes by Juliette, Jules or Julie.
Four syllable Italian last name that starts with M. Possibly one or two more kids on the table.
Our choices as of now:* Gabrielle Rosalia – Gabrielle because we think it sounds good with Juliette, Rosalia after my mom. We are just ok with Gabby nickname, like Brie or Ella. Do not like GRM initials, but could deal with it.
* Penelope Jane – Love Penelope, all of our friends our age love Penelope, everyone in our parents generation hates it. Jane because it sounds so darn cute with Penelope, but really having hard time with non-family middle name. HATE HATE HATE nickname Penny. If nicknamed would probably call her Poppy or Nella or PJ.
* Molly Victoria – Both have loved the name Molly since our dating years. If third is girl will definitely go with this. MVM would give her dad’s initials, which I like in case she is our last, Victoria is his maternal grandmother’s name. I know some people hate the double initial, but we love it. Why haven’t we used it yet? Molly always “felt” like our youngest, plus wanted to honor our mom’s with middle names – Molly Elizabeth seemed boring, Molly Rosalie is too rhyme-y.
Any help at all would be appreciated, I am a ball of anxiety and nerves getting through the holiday weekend until we are scheduled. Thanks!
Let’s have a poll, over to the right! I’m voting for Penelope because (1) it sounds like you love it best (and that it’s not time yet to use Molly), and (2) because I think in about five minutes all your previous generation relatives will not be able to believe they didn’t like it, and in fact will be correcting your memory that they didn’t. The previous generation CLASSICALLY doesn’t like the current generation’s baby name choices (see also: Henry, Oliver), but they always come around—or else they use it to bond with their like-minded friends.
It is too bad we can’t get Rose from your mom’s name, because wouldn’t Penelope Rose be THE SWEETEST?? I do like Penelope Giustina. And Penelope Rosalie has a little rhyminess, but it sounds like it’s more important to you to honor your mother and to be sure you have a chance to do it; I think if I were you I would go with that. The more I say it, the more I think I LIKE the rhyminess. It’s fun to say: Penelope Rosalie. And it LOOKS pretty, with the matching Os and Es and Ls. And I know this is a minor point, but I like the way the length of Penelope Rosalie goes with the length of Juliette Elizabeth.
Okay, I’m going to make the poll first names only so we can still discuss the middle name. [Poll closed; see results below.] I vote for Penelope Rosalie, because I have totally talked myself into it while writing the previous paragraph and now I love it and want to PUSH you to use it. Penelope Jane is ADORBS but I think of Jane as the natural middle name for Penelope (it has a coordinating English sass/charm)—i.e., I suspect quite a few girls named Penelope will have that as their middle name. (See? Now I am inventing facts to talk you into it. I will stop this now.) (PENELOPE ROSALIE.)
Name update! Sara writes:
Ok, you just posted a billion name updates and I get eaten up with guilt everytime I see one. I have at least four drafts of this email in my Drafts folder, wanting to tell you every little thought about our daughter’s name. So I am hurling this off of my list of things to do and will try not to regret the things I forget to tell you. Congratulations, you moved ahead of “complete any sort of baby book” :). Anyway, flip your calendar waaaaaaaaaaay back to this time of year two years ago. We did indeed name our baby Penelope Rosalie. Honestly, I didn’t even think of this as a viable combo until you and your readers supported it. Definitely a Swistle-named baby success! I’ll try not to waste ink on the billion thoughts I wanted to share with your readers and instead put it in short list form. 1. So glad we didn’t go with Gabrielle. Totally not her name. 2. Still not sure if the name Penelope is perfect, but we do love it (and of course we love her!). 3. We’ve tried dozens of different options, but no nicknames have stuck (I do call her Pen or Pips in print though for typing purposes). Her sister has moved through E-O-P to Nellopie to Penny to Pen to Penelope over the course of two years. EVERYONE insists on trying to nickname her and everyone always circles back to Penelope. 4. I was so disappointed that my mother found out Pen’s middle name after overhearing us tell the hearing test person at the hospital. She was so touched, but the moment was a bit anticlimactic. 5. I’m glad we used my mom’s actual name, but we do call her Penelope Rose a lot. 6. There are some in our families that don’t like it, one even persists in “accidentally” calling her Pinocchio sometimes (grrrr) and my grandma has asked permission to call her Penny. I don’t really care about any of that. 7. So, so, so mad at Kourtney Kardashian. But at least we have Tina Fey. 8. We get a lot of positive responses from Random People in public about her name. As a small apology for my extreme tardiness I included not one, but two crappy cell phone pics (hey, she is a second child. At least pictures are being taken somehow). One is of her at a few weeks and the other is Penelope as toddler. She is definitely feisty and in charge at our house. Hmm, you got a novel anyway. Just can’t help myself. So thank you and your readers for your assistance and all of the enjoyable reading!
My baby’s name is Penelope Anne. It’s funny that you say you hate the nn Penny, because I felt similarly when I was pregnant with her. However, the tide was against me, in that my husband and 3 older children were determined to call her Penny, even though Poppy/Polly/Nell/Pippa were all perfectly adorable and acceptable nn in my eyes. So, we have a baby Penny, who will be a year old next month, and I am so happy with it.
I LOVE her name. LOVE IT. It is a big name for a newborn, but now that she’s a walking, babbling, curly-haired little toddler, it’s just so adorable. I love that it has cutesy nickname possibilities while she’s a child, and a longer, (dare I say it–regal) name for adulthood.
Also, if this is something that factors into your decisions at all, Penelope is not very high on the governments SSA lists. She probably won’t be “Penelope M” at school, whereas I never answered to my name unless my lastname initial was after it. :)
Go for Penelope! I like the middle name Rosalie with it, too. Our last name ends in the “eee” sound, which worried me at first, but it’s just not that big of a deal. It’s a beautiful combination, if you ask me. Which you didn’t, but here I am, writing novels about it anyway!
What about Phillippa Rosalie, nn Pippa or Poppy? Very melodic like Penelope, but avoids the nn Penny.
I DEFINITELY vote for Molly Victoria! What happens if don’t have anymore girls? No Molly Victoria for you then!
I may be biased because I have an Aunty Gabrielle “Gabby” (which means I wouldn’t consider Gabrielle for my child) who has a daughter (yes, my cousin), Molly. Molly is just soooo gorgeous and her name suits her so much! Funny enough her name is Molly Gabrielle…maybe you like that?
Also I despise the name Penelope, not sure why, but I can’t stand it *no offence to anyone!!!*
Juliette and Molly are soooo sweet for sisters :-)
I just thought of another name in addition to Phillipa…
What about Josephine Rosalie? You’d have Julie and Josie – how adorable is that!
Patti J
I’m a Previous Generation Person, and I admit the first time I heard of someone naming a baby Penelope, I thought “Wha –?” For about 5 seconds. Until I realized I couldn’t get the name out of my head I loved it so much. It seems like the best name ever — as perky as Piper or Poppy but somehow still sounding wonderful for a queen.
Like you, I continued to dislike the nn Penny, but after reading RaisinCookie’s comment, I suddenly realize that it just takes an actual baby — well, just hearing about one — to wipe out all the “dumpy old lady” associations forever. Suddenly Penny sounds like an adorable little curly-topped toddler to me.
Besides, unless you have close relatives determined to use that nn, I think you’re good to go forever with Penelope — it’s just so dog-gone fun to say. And don’t you LOVE the 5 other nns Penelope could have?
It doesn’t even need to be so wonderful with Juliette to be the winning name, but there it is: It’s WONDERFUL with Juliette. While it’s hard — very hard — to let go of “Penelope Jane,” it might be a mercy (at least if it were my daughter) since I would SURELY call her “Penelope Jane” every livelong day, and that would be the end of any of the cool nicknames!
And it sounds GOOD with Rosalie. And, as Swistle points out, the full name is then perfect with Juliette Elizabeth. Love it.
I voted for Penelope but Gabrielle was a close second for me. I like Penelope with Jane, Rosalie or Rose. And I do think Rose would sound like a namesake.
Another thought in case you go with Molly. Could you use it as a nn for Mary? Would that satisfy everyone? Mary Rosalie or Mary Rose or, wait, Rosemary could work, too, and that’s such a pretty, underused name.
I am not narrowing things down at all for you, am I? Okay, name her Penelope Rose or Rosalie. That’s my final answer.
Go with Molly Victoria! You can’t know if you’ll have another girl, and you might miss out on the amazing name. Plus, at least until your next pregnancy, she WILL be the youngest.
Or Mary Victoria is another possibility.
Molly Victoria is super cute, and I’m sure you’re aware that not going with it is a gamble.
I voted for Gabrielle, just because I prefer Gabrielle over Penelope.
I LOVE Gabrielle Rosalie (or Gabrielle Rosalia, or Gabriella Rosalie). Juliette and Gabrielle; Jules and Elle. Swoon. I even like Gabby (Julie and Gabby; aawww!) but, like you, I’m not a big fan of Brielle.
Good luck!
I’m in the Penelope Rosalie camp. Don’t miss the chance to honor your Mom.
And isn’t Poppy Rose just the sweetest nickname?
(End of bossiness. ;))
I like Briele/Brielle Rosalie. I know it’s Briele really isn’t a contender BUT I know someone IRL whose daughter has that name and the name sounds beautiful to me.
I agree that Penelope Jane sounds a little too expected. Maybe that’s because I know a Penelope Jane already, but I really do think Penelope is much cuter and fresher with something else—like Rosalie! :)
How about taking the G off of Gabriella and going with Abriella? NN could be Abby. Abriella Rosalie M…
I voted for Molly. What if your third baby is a boy?
Oh Swistle I almost cried with happiness when I saw you posted this. Everyone is headed off to the beach or lake or fun long-weekend vacay and I’m OMG-ing I’m having a baby in two days-ing. Which is fun, but not quite in the same way. It is SO helpful to read your thoughts and everyone else’s too!
It is so nice to think that everyone will get over Penelope fast and I appreciate hearing from the people who don’t like it too – the other perspective helps. And I don’t even know if we considered Penelope with Rosalie, so that is an exciting development for us to talk about. RaisinCookie, its so nice to hear there is another Penelope and Penny isn’t that big of a deal to you now. I think that was my biggest hang up on Penelope.
Swistle, all of your points are right on, it is important to honor my mom and I do like the echos of the letters and the length of Juliette’s name.
Please keep your thoughts coming so I have fun internet things to occupy my mind! And you’ll hopefully get an update really, really fast :)
Thank you!
Love Penelope and especially Penelope Rosalie. I think that another poster & Swistle had a good point – don’t miss the chance to honor your mom. Plus it is beautiful! Gosh, the more I think about Penelope Rosalie the prettier it sounds! (And I bet that it will grow on the family, too)
I like ‘Penelope’. I like it a lot.
I, too, fear that ‘Penelope Jane’ is the new ‘Emily Rose’. (No offense to all those with a daughter named ‘Emily Rose’).
Your letter(s) were so wonderful to read; you perfectly expressed the real struggle of finding ‘THE name’. My heart goes out to you!
I’m in the ‘Penelope Rosalia’ or ‘Gabrielle Rosalia’ camp.
The suggestions of ‘Philippa’ and ‘Abrielle’ are excellent, too. Do you like ‘Phoebe’ or ‘Philomena’? ‘Abriana’ or ‘Antonia’? ‘Cloelia’ or ‘Florence’? ‘Ilaria’ or ‘Sylvia’? Or… for the MVM possibility, ‘Marcella’ (nn of ‘Molly’).
Whatever you pick, all the best wishes to you and your growing family. Such exciting times ahead for you!
I vote for Penelope Rose, but that’s because Rose sounds like a nod to Rosalie to me. I am going to go ahead and vote for Penelope Rosalie, though, because I think that works almost as well as Penelope Rose.
I may be biased, though. Our daughter is Penelope Marie [2-syllable Scottish surname].
Penelope does seem be gaining in popularity. During my post-delivery hospital stay (a year ago), the nurse remarked that she hadn’t had a Penelope in 10 years; later that day the lactation consultant remarked that ours was her second Penelope of the day.
It’s so much fun telling people our daughter is named Penelope. It’s just uncommon enough while not being obscure, and it really does roll nicely off the tongue.
We chose Marie to honor grandmothers on both sides of the family (one named “Mary” and the other “Mary [second first name]”).
As for nicknames, I actually landed on the name “Ellie” and worked backwards to Penelope(Amelia was another possibility but then I wanted it to be Amelia Grace, but we really wanted to honor the grandmothers). We did have a lot of people calling her Penny early on. I think this mostly happens with people who see her name (on a doctor’s chart, etc.) and then take it upon themselves to shorten her name. I suspect she’ll end up getting called Penny when she hits school and I’ve made peace with it.
I love your letter and even more than that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Penelope Rosalie. It is PERFECT. Stop right there and name her Penelope Rosalie. Poppy Rose! Juliettte and Penelope! Jules and Poppy! OMG I am SWOONING with the awesomeness of this combo. Seriously. Juliette Elizabeth is very pretty, and it matches PERFECTLY with Penelope Rosalie in style, length and everything else. I love it. Good luck Monday!
I voted for Penelope, and I love it. But if you don’t get to use Molly will you regret it? Could you use Margaret or something similar and nickname Molly? I love Rosalie or Rose as the middle, and think it important that you get to honor your mother. Can’t wait to hear!
I also like Penelope Rosalie. I even like Rosalie as a first name.
I second the Phillippa suggestion. I’ve been loving this name recently.
Another name I’ve been testing out in my head is “Emmanuelle”. You might think it’s too French for your Italian last name, but I thought it was worth suggesting and sounded cute with Penelope.
Couldn’t you preempt “Penny” with a nickname you like better? Penelope is bound to be nicknamed by friends. My husband has a long name that he doesn’t like shortened but he has found that it is inevitable shortened to its common nickname. His parents also resisted others referring to him by nickname (fruitlessly – his aunts and uncles call him by his first name but none of his friends do). I wonder if they had given him a different nickname if they could have actually controlled the nickname?
Best of luck!
*I meant to say Emmanuelle sounds cute with Juliette.
The font of possible nicknames from Penelope is awesome: Penny, Nell, Nellie, Elle, Ellie, Pippa, Pip…PIP!
Oh my goodness, but honestly, the idea of three sisters named Julie, Penny and Molly nearly makes me swoon.
I think Penelope Rosalie is just lovely, and even if Penny never grows on you, you can call her so many other things.
Good luck!
Hrm, see if you really dislike “Penny” then you should not use Penelope. But, really why on earth would you not like Penny?! It never makes me think of an old lady…
My Penelope is so often called Penny that people are sometimes taken aback to learn her given name is Penelope. We do like the nickname Penny and planned to use it, but even if we hadn’t… well, you can’t stop it for long IMO.
Now, that said, I’m surprised to hear the Penelope Jane is the new Emily Rose. Blah. I hadn’t realized Penelope was rising in popularity. My daughter is 8, and is named Penelope Beatrice. We often call her “Penny B”. I thank my lucky stars our first child was a boy, because if he had been a girl, we’d have used Eleanor and called her Ella… and now you can’t walk a block without tripping over an Ella. I do still love Eleanor, but we didn’t use it for our girls.
For you I like Beatrice Rosalie :-)
Penelope Rosalie sounds gorgeous and honours your mom….beautiful! :)
Ooo, Phancy, I love the idea of Margaret Rosalie, nickname Molly!
Oooo, K, I also love Rosalie as a first name! I didn’t think of that!
Awesome to hear all the Penelope love! It’s been at the top of my list for awhile – a little disheartening to hear “Penelope Jane” is tired, though, since that’s my favorite.
I guess it’s good to be a young-ish name nerd with no immediate plans for kids because I won’t find out all this stuff after the fact. :-P
I do like Penelope for you, but to throw out another possibility for you and others, how about Persephone? Percy, Poppy and Seph are all great nicknames and it goes sort of fantastically well with a literary name like Juliette. I think I’ll add it to my list for possible siblings for my Juliana.
I voted for Penelope, I think its perfect. Have you considered Margaret n.n. Molly for the next one? I think sisters Juliette (Julie), Penelope (Poppy), and Margaret (Molly) is adorable! :)
Penelope Rosalie works (I really like it), but if your hung up on the repeated sound you could use: Penelope Rosamund, Penelope Rosalind or just Penelope Rosa.
Good Luck! :)
Just wanted to comment about the extended family not liking Penelope – don’t worry about it! My mom was not a fan of either of my daughters’ names when we told her (before they were born). I never cared if other people liked their names or not and now my mom thinks they are the perfect names for my girls.
Also, I hate the names of my nieces and it has no bearing on my feelings for them otherwise. (I do keep my feelings about their names to myself though.)
Jasmine- Not TIRED. NATURAL! A natural fit!
Penelope Rosalie is wonderful, beautiful & perfect! And Nell is the most divine nickname, Juliette and Penelope, swoon!
The first name that came to mind when reading your letter was Lucinda. Lucinda Rosalie… Pre-tty.
All the best with your new addition!!
Readers, thank you so much for making this last weekend tolerable! We love reading all the suggestions and have had so much to talk about. My husband keeps saying he is going to “check the Swistle.” So cute.
I think so far we have decided that Molly might just be our “love child” from our dating days and if we get a third girl, bonus! I don’t *think* we will feel like she is missing if we don’t use it right now. Your thoughts have also helped me let go of Jane, since honoring my mom was the most important part of my criteria, yet rethink Rose. Thanks for the new suggestions. I had been mulling over Philippa since the Royal Wedding and Beatrice has always been on my list, just keeps getting knocked off by the BM initials. Antonia and Emmanuelle have given us food for thought. So helpful you all are!
As per all of the usual good advice we kept Juliette’s name a deep secret during our pregnancy. We only shared with one good friend who lived far away about a week before she was born. It worked because we only got comments from the people who loved her name and everyone else kept their thoughts to themselves. Now of course she is a gorgeous toddler with flying pigtails and the people who can’t stand Juliette call her Julie and all is well. I don’t know what compelled us to share our ideas with people we actually know this time.
I’m dating myself, and this is totally silly, but my hang-up with Penny isn’t that it feels old lady, but comes from the movie Dirty Dancing. I’m sure that all the conventional wisdom is true and once I held MY little Penny that would be erased, but in my head Penny is someone who shhh,hassexbeforesheismarried and then shh,hastogetanabortion. I was about twelve the first time I saw that movie and I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what an abortion was before that. How silly is that?!
You all are really awesome, thanks for your thoughts!
I love love love Penelope Rosalie. I think it would be a perfect sibset with Juliette Elizabeth, and it has a contemporary yet classic feel too it… PLUS the obviously huge bonus of honoring your Mom, which is clearly very important to you. To me this is a clear winner. But I do love all your options and think you can’t go wrong. Can’t wait to hear what you decide!
I love your mom’s suggestion of Adrianna. Adrianna Rosalie is beautiful, and it goes wonderfully with Juliette. Juliette Elizabeth and Adrianna Rosalie. Juliette and Adrianna. Julie and Addie. Etta and Anna. SO cute!
Love the updates Sara! And I love the suggestion above of the name Lucinda, so i’ll mention it again. Also, we named our daughter a name that is prevalent as two pop culture icons, and was a doll of mine as a child, and was my mother-in-laws childhood dog. All of those names lost all of their meaning after we used the name for our kiddo. Hopefully, the same would happen for you.
Definitely use your mom’s name. Both my sister and I have our grandmothers’ names and we always love our middle names! Unfortunely the names are Lucille and Evelyn so they are getting popular!
Penelope Rosalie, yes! Gabrielle Rosalia does not flow at all to me, and I don’t understand the added -a since Gabrielle Rosalie seems like a much more natural fit, and Gabriella Rosalie is even better. If Gabriella Rosalie were on the table my vote would go to it, but Penelope Rosalie is a close second.
OH I think I am TOO LATE to weigh in, and I think the baby is already here! And, wow, I was never a Penelope person but just reading these, I love love love it!
But, I have to agree with the person who said to use Molly. What if you never have another girl?!?! If Molly was your dream baby girl name before you were even married, and you like the idea of a daughter sharing her dad’s initials, why hesitate? And as for the name feeling like it should belong to the youngest… well, should you be blessed with another daughter, she will be special in her OWN way, even if she’s not your Molly, because she’ll be your BABY. A middle child could use something special, like having your most cherished (historically speaking, that is) name!!
But I totally love Penelope Rosalie, even though I am usually anti-rhyming and anti-too-many-syllables, but gosh, it is SO darned cute, and it matches the rhythm of Juliette’s name, it has so many wonderful shorter nicknames available, just like Juliette, and there are SO many reasons to use it!
And yet I still think you should use Molly, because you may never have the chance again.
I’m probably too late to weigh in, but…I will anyway!
I guess I’m in the minority, but I don’t like the sound of Penelope Rosalie, with its double “ee” endings. I also think that Rose is a PERFECT and PERFECTLY OBVIOUS namesake name for your mother. Penelope Rose is adorable.
Or, if you don’t mind the length, wouldn’t Penelope Rosalina be absolutely lovely? I think I might even like that more than Penelope Rose. Either way, I think your mother would be honored by the namesake!
Any updates on this one? :)
Probably no one will ever see this buuuuuuuut:
This is maybe the best ‘write-in’/question/email-from-a-reader i’ve ever read ever. I laughed so hard (in the “I love-love this!!” way). I couldn’t agree with Swistle more about her note at the top.
PLEASE NEVER STOP writing novels! I’m looking forward to when you have your fourth child just for another query!! :)
Ahhh, thanks hystcklght3! I try to edit, but I’m just a rambler at heart I guess :)