Korrine writes:

Hello! I am hoping you and/or your readers can help my husband and I with our baby naming dilemma! This is our third baby, due in April, and our second daughter. We have a daughter named Claire Noelle and a son named Evan Andrew. My name is Korrine (Corinne, but spelled weird) and my husband is Andy. Our last name sounds like Hanley, but starts with an S.

With both of our other children, we were able to decide very quickly on names we both liked and that was it! This time, though, my husband has a few he likes that I have issues with or just don’t like and I have a number of names I really like that I think fit well with our other two as well as our last name but he hates them!

We (I) have a few requirements: 1) I don’t want it to end in an s sound because of our last name starting with s (which rules out Grace, one I really like) 2) for similar reasons, I don’t like anything that ends in -ley (so Molly and Carly are out, too) 3) I would like to use my mom’s middle name for this baby since I have my grandma’s middle name – it is Jean, making one syllable names awkward (I could be tempted to choose another middle name if the ‘right’ first name doesn’t go with Jean) 4) my name was/still is always mispronounced, so I prefer names that won’t be butchered too much, though I do like slightly less common names.

So here’s the list of the top picks so far:

Husband picks:
1) Ella – I don’t hate it, and it is a family name, but I feel like it’s too close to Evan
2) Emma – I actually love this name, but I think it’s too popular (I’m a teacher, so I always see the “popular” names from kids’ birth years in class when there are 3 or more of a certain name – Samuel and Taylor were very popular in 1999-2000!
3) Colette – I don’t dislike it, but I’m worried it will be too confusing with Claire and Korrine already in our family (bonus, it is French and I teach French, so I like that!)

My picks:
1) Jillianne
2) Aubrey
3) Harper
4) Lorelei
5) Paige
6) Alayna
7) Norah

As you can see, we are all over the place. If I could find something I like as much as Emma and Grace, but which met my other naming requirements, I would be so happy! I like those two because they feel like they fit with Claire and Evan and I think they are classic and pretty and would grow with the baby.

Am I being too picky? Should I just go with Emma since it meets all the requirements other than popularity and we both love it? Would it be too weird to name her Emmalyn/Emmaline and call her Emma? Is Emma too close to Evan? Would naming her Gracie to avoid the s sound running into our last name be too nicknamey? Any help you could provide would be MUCH appreciated!

I don’t think it would be weird to name her an Emma name such as Emeline and then call her Emma—but I don’t think it would help very much, either, if you plan to always call her Emma. I think Evan and Emma are similar, but not so similar that I think they can’t be in the same sibling group. I think it would be charming to call her Emma Jean: this would set her apart from the other Emmas a little, and also make her name less similar to Evan’s. Claire, Evan, and Emma Jean.

Gracie does seem nicknamey to me, and I don’t think it helps very much: Grace St____y has a little issue with merging S-sounds, but Gracie St____y has a little issue with repeating end-sounds.

My first additional suggestion was Celeste, but then I realized the -ste runs right into the St- of the surname.

My second thought was Stella. It’s like Ella, but less like Evan. But since Ella is a family name, I’d be reluctant to change it. I would still suggest Stella in its own right, though: not as a family name, but just as a good choice with Claire and Evan. It strongly alliterates with the surname (Stella St_____y), which would be a plus for some and a minus for others.

I wonder if you’d like Annabel? The sound of it is similar to both Emma and Ella. Claire, Evan, and Annabel.

From your list my favorites for this sibling group are Norah/Nora and Aubrey. I think I’d like Audrey even better than Aubrey, because it feels more classic/traditional like Claire; Aubrey feels more like it fits with the Bree-/-bree names. If Jillianne were Jillian, that would be another favorite. More possibilities:

Charlotte Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Charlotte
Eliza Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Eliza
Elizabeth Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Elizabeth
Hope St____ly (similar to Grace; not great with Jean); Claire, Evan, and Hope
Juliette Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Juliette
Laurel Jean St___ly; Claire, Evan, and Laurel
Leah Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Leah
Lydia Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Lydia
Marissa Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Marissa
Sabrina Jean St____ly; Claire, Evan, and Sabrina

Because you both love Emma and popularity is the only issue, I’m a little torn. On one hand, I think the Top 10 is completely usable, and that it’s a mistake to dismiss great names just because a lot of people agree they’re great. On the other hand, the name Emma has been in the Top 10 for eleven years now, and it isn’t falling at all yet. I’m worried that I’ll put my “No, you should USE it!” vote behind it, and then you’ll regret it as the Emmas start hitting your classroom in full force. Still, it’s hard for me to resist the Emma Jean idea.

A. writes:

We are expecting our second daughter end of this month (December). Our
first is Avery, with her middle name being a family name. We chose
Avery simply because we liked it without much thought to it being
popular and unisex. We’re struggling with our dd#2 name because we
don’t necessarily want to have to choose unisex to match but also
don’t want people to assume we have a boy and a girl.

Our top name is Charlotte nickname “Charlie”. My feeling is Charlotte
and Avery aren’t too opposite as both are French and have been used
through the ages. I also see them as cute southern names, then again
we live in the northeast so what do i know! If unisex is the way to go
we do like Reagan. Although our fear with Reagan is the liberties
people may take with spelling and pronunciation. Ree-gan vs Ray-gan
and I always had to spell my name for people and it gets old. My style
tends to be more classic/popular again names (ie Charlotte, Olivia,
Evelyn, Amelia) and my husband leans more towards the unisex names (ie
Taylor, Sam) but really likes Charlotte and was actually the one to
suggest it.

Side note, any name that starts with “J” or “A” is off the list. Too
many “J”s in the family and we don’t want our girls to both start with
“A”. We are open to other names as well. Popularity doesn’t bother us
that much and the Middle name will be a family name again, most likely
Ann or Lynn. If it had been a boy we like classic names and probably
would have gone with Matthew. I should also mention that this will be
our last and so matching future names is not high on the priority
list.

Thank you!

I think of Avery as a modern unisex surname name, and Charlotte as a feminine vintage revival. Avery doesn’t feel French to me: Wikipedia and The Oxford Dictionary of First Names say it’s an English surname name that comes from the Norman French pronunciation of Alfred, so I don’t think the two names go together on that basis.

But I don’t think the two names are a clash, either, especially if you plan to call her Charlie. And as you say, you don’t necessarily want to be stuck with one parent’s style just because the first child was named in that style. I could see it causing an issue if there were going to be a third child later on (because it might feel as if two children coordinated and the third was left out), but if you’re stopping at two I like that each parent’s style is represented. Avery and Charlotte are both currently fashionable, which helps them feel more coordinated; it also helps that although Avery is unisex, it’s currently used more often for girls (in 2012, there were 8272 new baby girls and 1998 new baby boys named Avery).

Reagan seems like a great choice, too. I would expect most people to be clear on the spelling and pronunciation, but I’m hoping someone among us is/knows a Reagan and can weigh in on that point. But it sounds like you prefer Charlotte/Charlie, and would be choosing Reagan only for style-matching concerns; in this case, I’d side with Charlotte. Let’s have a poll to see what everyone else thinks:

[yop_poll id=”41″]

J. writes:

We need help deciding on a name for our baby boy expected to arrive in February. We have one daughter, Caroline Ellis and our last name is Keely.

We keep going in circles with names we like! I prefer traditional, strong names – but I also wouldn’t mind something that sounds fresh and a little unique. We want to use a family name for at least one of his names. Our daughters middle name is a family name. Family names we like are Lewis, John, William, Charles, Ross & George

Some of our favorite names so far are:

John David – and call him John David. I love this name, but my husband isn’t sold on calling him two names. My father in law and husband are both David, and my grandfather, father and brother are all John (my brother is the only one who goes by John)

Lewis Wells – and call him Wells. I really love Wells at the moment, so any other suggestions of combinations with Wells would be helpful. Lewis is one of our top family picks.

Harris – also really like this one, but not sure of the combination – maybe William Harris??

Charles Lewis – I have always loved Charlie, it is just so popular right now!!

Henry Lewis – Love this one too, but also so popular

George Lewis – Love but not sure if the new prince will increase this names popularity and my husband isn’t sold on this one

Please let us know your thoughts and also if you can think of any other names we should be considering?

Thanks for your help!!!

Have you considered Wells for the first name, especially if you’re going to call him Wells either way? One of my relatives babysits for a boy named Wells, and hearing her talk about him made me realize how well the name works. I think Caroline and Wells is charming. Then you could use a family middle name as you did with your first child. Wells Lewis Keely or Wells David Keely.

All the names on your list seem great, though—I can see why you’re stuck. I have Charles/Charlie on my own list, but I’m not sure about the repeated endings of Charlie Keely: I don’t mind Henry Keely as much because it’s just a repeating vowel sound, but Charlie Keely does the whole -lee. It matters less with a nickname, though, I think.

I notice you have a lot of name candidates ending in S, so I’d add:

Angus
Davis
Elias
James
Julius
Matthias
Miles
Nicholas
Thomas
Tobias

I also wonder if you’d like something like Wilson: similar to William and Wells. Wilson Keely; Caroline and Wilson.

Or you could name him William but nickname him Wills—very close to Wells.

I’d suggest Wesley, but it has that repeated -ley ending issue again.

Katie writes:

I have a name idea that I can’t quite decide on. I was thinking about the name Jolene today and I couldn’t figure out if it sounded dated (along the lines of Joanne) or if it was spunky and refreshing? Whenever I hear it, I think of the Dolly Parton song which I love. I’m wondering if other people have a similar association with the name. Does it sound too “country bumpkin”? Too dated? Is this one of those names that needs another generation or two to sound “refreshing” again?

My guess is that it needs a little more time. It doesn’t sound country bumpkin to me, but that -lene ending puts it in the category with Darlene, Charlene, Pauline, Arlene, Eileen, Kathleen, Colleen. The people I know with those names are about the age of my parents and grandparents (though I know one Colleen my age)—which should mean they could be right on the edge of coming back into fashion, or it could be another generation still. It seems like names come into fashion right around the time no one really knows anyone with that name anymore.

If I wanted to use Jolene as an honor name, though, I think it would work GREAT: both Jo and Lena are nicknames that sound good right now; Jolie (emphasis on second syllable) or Joley (emphasis on first syllable) might work, too. I’d use Jolene before I’d use some of the other -lene names, and I think I’d be pleasantly surprised to see a Jolene on the class list—which may mean it doesn’t need another generation after all (or may just mean I’m pleasantly surprised by retro names). I see there were 293 new baby girls named Jolene in 2012—and it’s been back in the Top 1000 for the past three years, after a 16-year disappearance.

What does everyone else think of the name Jolene?

[yop_poll id=”39″]