R. writes:
Hi, there!I’m listening to “The Distant Hours” by Kate Morton as an audiobook, and it struck me that the daughter’s name is nested within the mother’s name:
Daughter: Edith
Mother: Meredith
I doubt it’s a coincidence, judging by how this book is going on, but it got me thinking: what other name combinations do this? Besides obvious nickname ones. My favorite of the few I could think of was Nathan/Jonathan.I think it would be a cool, inside-jokey way of connecting otherwise unrelated names. What do you think?
Ooo, I like it! Let’s see how many we can think of!
Hm, Anna from Hannah might or might not qualify, but Anna from Joanna wouldn’t. Beth from Elizabeth doesn’t, but Eliza might because the sounds are so different and it’s its own separate stand-alone name rather than a nickname—sort of like Jonathan and Nathan. Lia from Amelia might.
Amaya and May
Annabelle/Isabelle and Abel
Belinda/Melinda and Elin
Candace and Ace
Liana/Lillian/Jillian/Brianna/Brian and Ian
Shannon and Ann
Jeremy and Remy
Catherine and Erin
Elizabeth/Isabel/Annabel and Abe
Corinne and Orin
Felix and Eli
Julian and Lia
William and Lia
Some of these might not qualify; it’s a little hard to find the line.
I heard of a Michael naming his son Cael recently… I guess MAYBE that could count?
Steven and Eve
I think Emeril (the chef) named his daughter Merril.
My name is Erin and my daughter’s name is Katherine, and yes we really like that my name is nested in her name.
Frederich and Richard? It’s not quite the same, but takes the same idea.
David and Avi.
Felicity and elise? that could almost work.
Frederick and Derrick
Louis and Elouise
Damian and Mia
Skyler and Kyle
Tristan and Stan
Steven and Eve
That’s all for now but if I think of more I will post again!
My name is Brianne and my brother’s name is Ian. Story goes that he figured out that connection on his own when I was born. But since he was not quite two, I am not sure I completely buy it:) But it is a nice connection to have with my brother.
My father-in-law’s name is James and my husband’s middle name is Jameson. “James’ son.” :)
We are naming our daughter Abigail Jane. My father’s middle name is Gale & My mothers first name is Janet. I guess you could consider that nesting.
I know a family that had the name Napoleon passed down in their history. At some point, it was reduced to Leon. :)
Joseph and Josephine. I considered this for a daughter as hubs is Joseph but it’s getting a lot of attention lately, so I might use it as a middle if I use it at all.
Someone said something similar, but Lois and Eloise? All mine seem to be the older person name nested in the kid’s name :)
I had a student who was named JoNathan (capital letter n, pronounced like Johnathan) he was a twin to Nathan. They are about 18 years old now. I thought that was clever. We usually called the student “Joe-Nathan” as a nickname. He thought it was funny.
I know of a mother called Aline with a daughter named Madaline – a clever way to spell Madeleine to include nesting! I think it’s sweet.
My maiden name is “William” with an extra letter at the beginning and so my FAVORITE boy name is LIAM.
It’s not a nickname (although I think people are trying to make it one) and I love how it’s a subtle wink to the family name.
Camelia has a bunch of names within it: Amelia, Melia, Elia, Lia, Mel, Cam, Eli
My great grandmother in-law is Jeanette & grandmother in-law (Jeanette’s daughter) is Jean.
Aaron and Ron
Gerogiana and Gia
Margaret and Garet (ok.. stretch from Garret?)
Annabelle/Isabelle and Elle
Briony and Rion (alternate spelling for Ryan?)
Dorianne and Rian (again alt spelling for Ryan?)
Jordan and Dan
Rowena and Owen
Truman and Uma
Jeremiah and Mia
Lawrence and Wren
My dads middle name is Del, we were considering Adele as a girls middle name. Also, my husband is Ian and one of our front runners for a girl was Livian. However we’ve had all boys!
Not quite the same but similar my name is a mixture of my dad’s and grandma’s. Lonny and Donna = Lonna.
It’s not really nesting, but I always thought of naming a daughter Catalina. My name is Natalia, and Catalina has the same letters plus a “C”, kind of an anagram. I have always loved the name Catalina and finding that out made it special. I think Natalia and Catalina would also make a great pair of twin sisters.
My husband’s name is Lee and it is a really easy sound to put in names :) We call it the Easter Egg. All of our children have the sound in their name somewhere. There it is in Starling, Elia, and Leif. No one notices it, but we know it and like that it connects them all to their dad.
My husband’s mother died when he was 12 so we wanted to use her name, but he idn’t like the way I pronounce it! (I’m American, he’s British) Her name was Ann and we nested it in our daughter’s name, Alannah. It’s an irish name meaning beautiful child.
My favorite is Flannery and Anne, from “Pages for You” by Sylvia Brownrigg.
Well in the Heidi book Heidi’s mother’s name is Adelheid. I think that’s super cute!
My Name is Ash (It is not short for anything, like Ashley, as most people assume) and my husband really wants us to use the name Cash, for one of our future children, mostly as as a tribute to Johnny Cash. I am uncertain about accepting this plan, but I do liek the idea of having my name nestled in my child’s
*like not liek
One of my school friends had a mum named Lorraine, and I tried to persuade her to name her next baby Rain.
She considered this mad and irresponsible, so she called her next baby Brooke, and the following one Connor.
(What a Little Miss Interference I was).
There is an easy way to search for this. Go to the Name Finder link on the Baby Name Wizard website. Type the name you want to be nested into the field that says “Must contain this letter sequence.” I got 50+ returns for the name “Ava.”
– Donavan, Ava
– Tavares, Ava
– Savanna, Ava
Here are some more of my favorites:
– Sullivan, Ivan
– Mikenna, Ike
– Devereaux, Eve
– Bianca, Ian
– Joselin, Eli
– Emmeline, Mel
Sebastian–Ian
My name is Bethany, and I didn’t realize it until reading this post, but Ethan is in there :)