Hi Swistle,

Long time reader, first time writer here.

I’m due with my second in September. We don’t know the sex. We have a daughter, who has the same name as the main character in My Fair Lady.

We chose names really easily and early this time, which is perhaps why I’m having second thoughts! The baby will have my husband’s last name – European name that starts with a Van and my last name as a second middle name. Middle name will be Belle or Mary if a girl and either Willard or Cyriel if a boy.

For a girl we were settled on one of Mazie/Maisie/Maizie/Maisy, but now I can’t decide how to spell it. I’m also concerned that I’m going to endlessly be having to spell out her name regardless of how I choose. I think I’d like to minimize this, but maybe I don’t care!

When I look it up on baby name wizard I can see that Mazie is the only one that’s been in the top 1000, so I think that makes it the traditional spelling. However, I suspect that Maisy or Maisie were commonly used as nicknames for Margaret, which complicates things.

I like that Mazie has 5 letters and includes a ‘z’, like my daughter’s name.

So I guess I’m looking for some alternate opinions on which spelling may be misspelt the least, or perhaps some reassurance that it doesn’t really matter. Or maybe I should just start over!

I also really love the name Frankie for a little girl, but hubby is lukewarm about it. We don’t agree on many girl’s names.

The name we have chosen for a boy is Frederick, but I tend to think of names in my head phonetically and now I’m wondering if I’d be better off spelling it Fredrik, which is how I would like to pronounce it. I like nicknames and will probably call him Freddie, if it’s a boy that is.

I’m hoping you and your readers can help me make a decision!

Thanks,

Alyssa

For me personally (this will of course vary from person to person because of our varied experiences), the spellings I am most familiar with are Maisy (from the cartoon mouse books/show) and Maisie (from I don’t know where, but my feeling is old-timey novels).

I am separately familiar with the grain-word “maize.” I find that the z-spellings of the name bring that word to mind.

Maisy is my own favorite spelling, undoubtedly because of the nice little mouse, and also because it looks like Daisy and so is easy for me to remember how to spell it. If easy spelling is a priority, this is the one I’d pick, because I could say, “Maisy: like Daisy, but with an M.”

The Oxford Dictionary of First Names lists only Maisie as its own entry, with Maisy listed as a variant spelling.

Current U.S. usage looks like this according to the Social Security Administration (2017 data; including spellings used for at least 25 babies):

Maisie 594
Maisy 178
Mazie 124
Maizie 90
Maizy 60
Mayzie 55
Maisey 44
Maizey 34
Maizee 32

I do think you will have to spell it constantly, but I have to spell my name (Kristen) constantly: some names are just like that. Picking one of the most common spellings will help, but people still sometimes guess mine as Cristin or whatever, and it’s fine: I know there are a lot of ways to spell my name. However, if you are someone who thinks of names phonetically, I wonder if you’d be happier with a name with a spelling that comes immediately to your mind, or with a name that has only one familiar spelling—and ideally, a name where those two things unite, as with your daughter’s name.

This seems like a good moment for a poll. The poll thing on my blog no longer works, so we are now giving Twitter polls a try: https://twitter.com/Swistle/status/1022828579216863240. It will only let me do four options, so I will do the four you mention—which, happily, are also the four most commonly used in the U.S. as of 2017. People who want to choose another option will have to say so in the comments; it is not a perfect system, but it is what we’ve got. [Poll closed; see results below:]

As for Frederick/Fredrik, I have in general such a preference for traditional/familiar spellings (and especially when the first child has a traditionally-spelled name), it’s hard for me to even turn my mind to it. Here is the 2017 U.S. usage:

Frederick 580
Fredrick 149
Frederic 47
Fredrik 20
Fredric 13
Frederik 10

If Fredrik is the dominant spelling in another country, you could use that as your reasoning; bonus points if it’s a country of ancestry for either of you. Or the spelling Fredrick would let you say “It’s like Fred plus Rick.” Otherwise, again, I wonder if you would be happier in the long run finding a name where the spelling in your head is the same as the usual spelling.

Name update:

Thank you Swistle for posting our question, you and your readers gave us a lot to consider!

Our baby girl, Maisie Belle, arrived September 28th. We are so in love and she fits her name perfectly!

Thanks so much for your help!

Hello,

I’m due in late fall with my second daughter and my husband and I can’t seem to agree on a name for her. I think part of the problem is the fact that our first daughter’s name was decided upon so easily and has a strong significance for us and this time it feels more difficult and less special. Ann “Annie” was named after someone who supported us through infertility treatment and my middle name is also Ann, so it seemed perfect. Annie’s middle name is my mother’s first, baby #2’s middle name will be my MIL’s first name so we don’t need to do an honor first name. If baby number two would have been a boy, his first name would have been Paul.

Our last name complicates things, for me at least. It sounds like Fight-Iss with a W instead of F. I find that the strong two syllables of the last name don’t flow well with a two syllable first. Names that end in ‘s’ also don’t flow well. This has eliminated some that we’ve liked, including Iris, Lois and Edith.

We have a few names that we do agree on but can’t use for one reason or another based on family strife or people close to us using the name recently:
Ruth (this would be THE name, but we absolutely can not use it)
Mary
June
Opal
Jane (too similar to Ann for me)
Margaret
Julie
Eve (we are worried it is too close to other popular names like Ava and Evelyn)

Names my husband likes that I don’t:
Vera
Sylvia
Mae

Names I like that my husband doesn’t:
Rose (I love this but he thinks it is too frilly, while I find it simple yet elegant. However, it does seem to be quickly gaining popularity where we live)
Sara
Miriam
Hope

Names we both like but aren’t convinced on yet:
Helen (we both like that it sounds strong but for some reason I think it sounds similar to Ann. My family also does not care for it)
Joan “Jo” (we both like the nickname Jo but do not care for longer versions like Josephine or Jolene)
Liza (I’m worried it is too similar to Eliza, which seems popular where we live)

I’d like to find a name that is not in the top 100 and that goes well with our daughter’s. Annie’s name seems so special to me and I never want our future daughter to feel like we settled on her name. We likely won’t have more children so we don’t need to worry about finding additional complimentary names moving forward.

I appreciate any help you can offer!

Oh, I just love Joan. That’s the one that leapt out at me. Ann and Joan, Annie and Jo.

It is not at all uncommon for parents to have trouble finding a name for a second child that seems as special as the name of the first child. Part of this is the obvious explanation that parents would of course tend to use the best, favorite, most-special name first, and so, unavoidably, any subsequent names will be less best, less favorite, less-special. Another part is that by the time parents are naming a second child, the first child’s name has WELDED to the first child: it is no longer a name, it is THE CHILD. No mere name can possibly hope to measure up to that, not until the second child is born and their name has welded similarly to them.

In your particular case, you used a special significant honor first name for your first child, and you’re not planning to use an honor first name this time, so it’s natural that the name would feel less special. I like to think about families who have a naming tradition for the firstborn but not for subsequent children: clearly things aren’t balanced, and yet I don’t hear much from siblings who are peeved their older brother/sister got the special honor name. I’m sure they exist, because if there is a thing to be peeved about, you can be sure someone somewhere is peeved about it; but it’s not a common, regular thing where we all know a grown adult who is angry that their older sibling got a tradition/honor name and they didn’t. We’re familiar with the idea that sometimes there is only one naming tradition in the family, or only one honor name the parents wanted to use.

An obvious fix here would be to find another special significant honor first name, but my guess is that this is an idea you have considered and rejected already. It may be an idea to go back to, if you continue to find yourself unhappy with the difference. I don’t think you need to worry that the child will feel less special over this, especially if you tell the naming stories with equal love and enthusiasm (“We used your name because we just LOVED it, it was our FAVORITE, we just thought it was SO cool/beautiful/classic/etc.!” is a great naming story too). But if it bothers YOU, that is a good reason to see what can be done. The nice thing about the name Ann is that it is ancient and traditional and likely to go beautifully with many, many names from the family tree or from history.

From your can’t-use list, I particularly like Ruth, June, and Jane. From your husband’s list, my favorite is Mae, but I prefer the spelling May with Ann. From your list, my favorite is Rose. From your joint list, my favorite is Joan—and that’s my favorite from all the lists. I would add:

Elaine
Ellen
Irene
Jean
Jill
Joy
Kay
Laura
Leah
Leigh
Lynn
Maeve
Marie
Polly
Sally

I know you said two-syllable names don’t flow well for you, but I left those in anyway in case they’d be of use to someone else, or in case I can persuade you.

I particularly like Sally. Annie and Sally. Darling. Polly is just as darling, and is similar to your boy-name choice Paul.

I also love Leigh and Lynn. I find they have the same unexpected feeling of names such as Ann and John: they’re familiar names the eye can skip across in the naming book, but there’s a fresh surprise when we encounter them on a child. Annie and Leigh, Annie and Lynn.

And I would love to encounter a baby Jill or Kay.

Jane doesn’t seem to similar to Ann to me, but I think June or Jean reduces the similarity. Joan is still my favorite from that group.

Name update:

I wanted to update now that our little girl has arrived. After much thought, we decided to go with Ruth “Ruthie” Christine. My MIL had pushed back due to a family issue but ended up being touched by the name, saying she hoped it appeased any family drama. We also love that Ruth shares a name with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a strong woman we both admire. Thanks for all the help and input of your readers!

Hi Swistle!

I have been reading your blog for years, from the time I was unmarried and definitely not considering naming a child to present, where I am 19 weeks pregnant and undecided on a name! My husband and I are expecting a baby boy in November, and we are thrilled! However, we’re stuck on names and I’d love your input. My husband’s surname is Whit (with an e at the end, like the color) and the baby will take his name. Another thing is that the baby will definitely have 2 middle names; my husband does and his father does, too (their middle names are the first names of both of their grandfathers, which I love).

We have a similar naming style: classic, easily recognizable, not overly popular (not top 10), and we particularly like names that lend themselves well to nicknames.

Our top pick had always been Finley (we’ve talked about names for our kids for years). There are two “problems”: 1) it’s his grandfather’s name, so we have agreed that the 2 middle names would come from my side, since first and last would be his… this is fine but breaks the cool pattern of grandfather middle names, and 2) we have a friend who named his son Griffin, and the parents call him “Fin” for short. Obviously, a Finley would also have Fin as a nickname… The full name would be Finley David (my dad) Ru$$ (my mom’s maiden name) Whit (with an e at the end).

Because of those two things, and because I overthink everything and want to make sure I’ve left no name unturned, we have not yet settled on that name.

Here’s the rest of our shortlist.
Lincoln
Harrison
Jameson
Emerson
Quinn
Ulysses (*husband loves this, obviously a bit out there compared to the rest of the naming style; nn Lee)
Russell
Henry
Malcolm
Ian

(middles names for any of these would be David Dinsm00r)

I am wondering if my qualms with Finley are overstated, and whether there are any names that we are not thinking of that go with this list/naming style. I bought the baby name wizard and we have poured over it quite a bit, most of these names came from there.

Would love your input and that of your commenters!!

Thank you!

I wanted to make sure I understood the grandfather/middle-name issue, so I got more information from the letter-writer:

Finley was my husband’s grandfather, so I guess I felt a bit like it would be fair to give “my” side two names if we did his grandfather’s as the first and then his surname. Dinsm00r is my husband’s father, so if we came up with a different first name the two middle names would be David and Dinsm00r. Since writing, we have continued to think a lot about Finley David Ru$$ White, where David is my dad and Ru$$ is my mom’s maiden name. That makes the entire name an honor name which gives me some pause as we probably wouldn’t have so many honor names for a future child – boy or girl.

I agree: if the first name ends up being a name from your husband’s side, it definitely makes sense to use two names from your side as middles, and I like your solution. Another option would be to use your father’s name and one of your grandfathers’ names, or both of your grandfathers’ names, but I greatly prefer your idea of bringing your mother’s name into it.

I see what you mean about using so many honor names for one child. Would that make you feel pressured to do something similar for future children? It’s not uncommon for the firstborn to have a different name situation than the other children, but it’s good to consider ahead of time if you want that or not. You could decide that the firstborn boy has his grandfathers’ names, the firstborn girl has her grandmothers’ names, and the rest of the children have a different system. Or you could give all the boys the same two middle names and all the girls the same two middle names—perhaps with the order swapped back and forth, so for example the second boy would be ______ Dinsm00r David Whit.

Would you want to consider saving Finley for a future child? It risks losing a chance to use the name, but it could solve all your issues in one swoop if you’re not planning to do the same middle name tradition for subsequent children. The firstborn could then follow the naming tradition and have both his grandfathers’ names, the secondborn could have the honor name Finley and not run into problems with middle names, and it would put more distance between your friend’s Fin and yours.

Another option, though it also involves risk, is to go ahead and use Finley David Dinsm00r for this child, but use three honor names from your side for the second child. This lets you have your favorite first name and also follow the naming tradition you like. I prefer to mix honor names from both sides for each child, but sometimes other preferences take precedence over that one.

Whether the friend/Griffin issue matters or not depends on the particular friend. Is it a close friend? Will you see them often? Does this friend seem from other name discussions to be prickly/possessive about names? I do think it helps tremendously that it’s just the nickname that is the same (and not even from the same part of the name, as it would be with, say, William and Wilson), and also I think Finley being a family name gives you full license to go ahead and use it anyway. You could soothe things further by referring to your son as Finley when you’re with the friend’s family.

I love a lot of the other names on your list. My favorites from there are Lincoln, Harrison, Russell, Henry, and Ian; of those, I am particularly swoony over Ian, Henry, and Russell. I love Malcolm, too, but with the surname it feels a little odd. Ulysses feels hard to wear, and the nickname Lee is not intuitive. I would normally suggest using it as a particularly fun middle name, but we are already full-up on middle names!

More names to consider:

Anderson
Callum
Calvin
Davis
Elliot
Ellis
Emmett
Everett
Flynn
George
Harris
Harvey
Keegan
Lawson
Louis
Oliver
Simon
Sullivan
Thompson
Wilson (alliterative with surname)

Name update:

Swistle,

Name update! Baby boy, Finley David Russ Whit(with an -e), was born 11/24 at 11:03. His name was solidified by your commentary and the comments of your readers who helped me feel that using two names from my family was fair and equitable. He’s a doll and we are in love!

Thanks for everything! Happy holidays to you and yours!

Brittany

Hi Swistle,

I’m hoping I can get some help with naming our third baby boy, due in October. My husband and I are struggling so much with this, it’s almost unbelievable. I wrote you a novel, and I’m excessive with parentheses, so feel free to edit as you like.

Our first son is Zane David – my husband’s family is from an area around Zanesville, OH and long before we had kids we visited the Zane Grey museum there. Both of us said “huh, that’s a cool name” and didn’t think much more about it, until we started trying to find names for the baby. Part of the problem with naming our babies is that my husband has wildly different tastes than I do, and it makes everything difficult. We finally settled on Zane, and David is my father’s name. We really like his name, and it suits him VERY well.

When our second son came along, we struggled again. I really liked the name Julian and put it out there as a strong contender. My husband didn’t like it AT ALL, and I heard no more about it for a number of weeks. He’d occasionally float other names, and I’d make a Marge Simpson noise, and we’d move on. Then, suddenly, he decided he liked Julian after all, and actually even started telling people that was what we were calling him. I was surprised, but since it was the name I wanted anyway I was cool with it. His middle name is Stephen, after my father-in-law. The middle name was decided after my FIL was diagnosed with cancer (sadly he passed on last month, three years after his initial diagnosis). We mostly call him Jules, if it matters.

Now we have the third boy, and are struggling again, this time with both first AND middle names. If we had a girl, she would be Edith Grace or Edith Caroline – but he is very definitely a boy, so we’re stuck! At one point my husband was telling people he was going to convince me to name this one “Trace” because it sounds like tres and he’s the third – I shut that down immediately! Trace would be an excellent name for the Palin family to use, but it definitely doesn’t fit with our names.

Complicating factors:

1. My MIL and I have a . . . fraught relationship. Also, when husband and I were first married, we had found a name we really like (Edmund), and she proceeded to crap all over it loudly and at length (which ended any discussion of names with her EVER until after the name is absolutely decided upon and final. She did not like the name Julian.) She named her children with all A-names, claiming it was just a coincidence (Sure, Jan.). I refuse to consider any A-names as a consequence. If that were not the case, Alexander would probably be a strong contender. I also will not use any Z- or J-names, for the same reason. Jasper would be a good name, otherwise.

2. My father’s family has a tradition of using the name Bryson. It was my grandfather’s middle name, my dad’s middle name, and my brother’s first name. Neither of my brothers have chosen to use it, and both are finished having kids. This is the last grandchild (for both sides; we actually have the only grandchildren on my husband’s side), and my mother has been pressuring me to use it since I was about 20. As soon as we found out this baby is boy, she ramped up again on the pressure. I would actually not mind using it as a middle name, although I have some residual contrariness that makes me slightly reluctant. My husband is neither here nor there on using it as a middle name.

3. I really feel like I ‘mismatched’ my sons’ names; Zane is an older name, but sounds trendy/new, and Julian’s feels really traditional. Neither are regionally popular where I live. I’d like, ideally, to be able to balance out the sibling set.

I would say that my taste in names runs to 1920’s-ish sounding names. My current proposed names are:

Wesley (small issue: if my younger brother had had a son, he would have been Wesley Bryson, but they are one-and-done, and they had a girl)
Malcolm
Spencer
Felix (I really love this one)
William (family name on my husband’s side)
Isaac
Gavin

My husband’s:

Luke
Bennett
Calvin

My husband likes Felix okay. I like Calvin okayish. But neither of us are wild about the other’s choices, and he told me the other day that he “keeps hoping he’ll just come across a name and realize ‘that’s it!'” which tells me that he’s really not enthused about any of my choices. He has floated his own name (Aaron) as a middle name, which I really don’t care for, but haven’t said anything about yet.

Names I just generally really love but are probably not going to work for various reasons:

Simon
Jasper
Alexander
Graham

I’m starting to get very antsy. We had both of our boys named by the 6-month-ish mark the last two times, and there is no sign we’re going to get this figured out soon. I am sure hoping you can help!

Gurl I hear you on the fraught mother-in-law relationship. We don’t want to reconsider Edmund, do we? Such a great name. Too bad she doesn’t like it. Fake sad-face emoticon.

Here is what I think: use Jasper. If you had just one child and had used a J name for him, I would agree that you might want to avoid anything that looked as if you were following in your in-laws’ all-same-initial footsteps. But with a Z in there, I think you’re good. And I think Jasper may be the name you’re looking for to bridge the gap between Zane and Julian. But imagining my own mother-in-law, and the way she would have said smugly, “See, that’s how it happens!” about the matching initials of even just two of the kids, and would have said it frequently—well, if Jasper has to be out, it has to be out.

After Jasper, I think Felix is the frontrunner for me. Zane, Julian, Felix. I might actually like that better than Zane, Julian, Jasper. Yes, I think I do. Yes. That’s where I would put my efforts: seeing if your husband repeats the thing he did with the name Julian.

But I also really like Calvin in this sibling set. Zane, Julian, Calvin; Zane, Jules, Cal.

And I don’t think Zane and Julian are mismatched. They might not be the exact same style, but I think they’re adjacent/compatible styles.

I don’t know what you should do about the Bryson thing. Family name traditions can be fun, but, in my opinion, ONLY when they are purely opt-in and there is no pressure/pushing/nagging. The MINUTE there is hinting and pushing, I go into “YOU NAMED YOUR OWN BABIES AND I GET TO NAME MY OWN BABIES” mode and start to think naming traditions should be methodically squashed to avoid letting earlier generations think they get to make that kind of decision for later generations. I suggest the next time your mom brings it up, you say, in whatever way makes sense for your relationship and the way you talk to each other, something like “Mom, you know I have a contrary streak, and when you push for this it makes me want to not use the name just on principle.”

Name update:

Hi Swistle!

Name update: We had almost settled on Bennet (my husband was stubborn) when Stan Rogers came up on my playlist, singing “Barrett’s Privateers” and I asked my husband “what about Barrett? We could call him Rhett.” He looked at me and said, “We could call him Bear,” and we both started smiling like idiots at the thought.

Anyway! Barrett Bryson was born on October 10, and he is healthy and beautiful and both of his brothers are smitten with him. Thanks for your help!

Hi Swistle,

I’ve followed your site for ages – even before getting married – because I love your logical approach to naming, which can be such an emotional choice!

I’m finding this out first-hand while trying to name our first born son, due August 10. Using your suggestions from past posts, my husband and I have narrowed it down to the following three, but are open to other suggestions:

Avery Logan Kiner
Beckett Jay Kiner
Brooks Logan Kiner

Our (Jewish!) last name is pronounced KIGH-ner. I’m against a repetitive “er” sound in the first name, because it feels silly (ie Parker Kiner, Connor Kiner) and don’t care for K names either (Kody Kiner). Blegh.

The main trouble is, we can’t agree on a favorite name. Even close family and friends go in very different directions when we share these three options with them.

We thought Avery was the one for awhile, but the popularity of the girl name has me on edge. It remains my husband’s favorite. Beckett is my favorite, but the hubs doesn’t like “Beck” as a nickname and his grandma asked if it was like “bucket” which made him nervous that it was too unique. Brooks has come up in the past week or two as an attempt at a compromise, and its cute… but neither of us really love it yet.

Then, the middle name debacle. Again, my husband is Jewish so they don’t believe in honor names for living relatives. I’m a red-haired Christian, so all middle names in my family are honor names of some kind. (It’s worth noting that this baby could have red hair too, which might let him standout enough without a unique name!)

Logan is actually my husband’s favorite baby name but it’s so popular (top 10) that I said no to it as a first name. I do like it as a conservative middle name especially for a boy with a more unique first name like Avery. If he gets teased for having a girl name, Logan feels masculine enough to balance it out and give him an option. It also seems to flow well in between.

Jay is actually an nod to Ben’s father whose middle name is J (literally just the letter), which he OK’d and my sister’s soon to be husband, Jaysen. We love Jason/Jay/Jaysen as a name but it’s too common/used in our family for living relatives to feel appropriate. I also tried to fight for an honor to my passed grandfather, Frederick Hugh in the middle name – but hubs didn’t like either of those names at all.

Other names we’ve considered and deleted: Micah, Henry, Owen, Brody, Jordan, Jude, Brady, Colton… Jordy (was a big contender for awhile).

Our girl names came super easy to us! They were Nora and Ruby, which we still love and would like to potentially use as siblings to this baby one day. I also love our second two options as brother names – Beckett and Brooks.

Can you help steer us in one direction or another? Appreciate your help!!

Love,
Ben & Krista

It has been awhile since I’ve checked in with the U.S. usage of the name Avery, so I’m going to start by looking at that.

2010: 6673 F, 1697 M
2011: 7340 F, 1790 M
2012: 8314 F, 2012 M
2013: 9174 F, 2047 M
2014: 9563 F, 2281 M
2015: 9339 F, 2210 M
2016: 8759 F, 2111 M
2017: 8186 F, 2179 M

That is very interesting to me. The usage rises together and falls together in a way I would not expect. Here is what I expected to see: the usage rising for both, and then starting to drop for boys: when a name is in disputed usage, the boys almost always back down. Instead, breaking out my high school math, I can see this:

2010: 80% F, 20% M
2011: 80% F, 20% M
2012: 81% F, 19% M
2013: 82% F, 18% M
2014: 81% F, 19% M
2015: 81% F, 19% M
2016: 81% F, 19% M
2017: 79% F, 21% M

It is HOLDING STEADY for boys, despite being used four times more often for girls. I don’t dare to hope that this means we are finally entering an era where a name’s rising usage for girls doesn’t mean it falls off the list for parents of boys, as if being associated with girls was a kiss of death, but…well, actually, I do hope it a little. So many excellent gentle names for boys have been lost this way.

I am unsure how to proceed from here. If the polls would still work on this blog, I would do a poll; sadly the polls have been even glitchier than the comments section. We can do a sort of manual poll by having commenters write out their pick in the comments section, but we never get anywhere near as many comments as we get poll votes, and there is nothing quite like the vivid visual of a poll. Well. This earth is full of sorrow, and we will have to bear up under the poll-related elements of that. [Edited to add: at commenter Lilly’s excellent suggestion we are going to attempt to have the poll on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Swistle/status/1013764057550196736] [Poll closed; here are the results:]

Or perhaps it would be helpful to have more suggestions? Or perhaps not: sometimes when it’s down to three nice solid finalists, the last thing you want is a whole bunch of new names to consider. Maybe instead we should be looking at posts about narrowing down a list?

But sometimes when it’s down to three, and one name is #1 for one parent and another name is #1 for the other parent and the third name is a not a strong contender yet, sometimes finding some new candidates is the only thing that breaks the stalemate.

It does look to me like you have a nice consistent style for boy names: you mostly like surname names. The name I am eager to suggest is Wesley: a gentle surname name currently used almost exclusively for boys (in the U.S. in 2017, there were 60 new baby girls and 3547 new baby boys). Wesley Kiner. Long usage so even the great-grandparents can’t pretend not to know it’s a name. Nickname Wes, which in my own opinion is one of the best male nicknames of all. Nice with either middle name candidate: Wesley Logan Kiner, Wesley Jay Kiner. Wonderful with Ruby and/or Nora. Similar in sound to both Avery and Beckett. I am holding myself back from pushing very hard for this name.

Or Anderson. Anderson Logan Kiner, Anderson Jay Kiner. I like Anderson Logan less because of the repeated endings, but I don’t mind much if the middle name doesn’t go perfectly with the first name: it’s so rare to even use the middle name.

And possibly if we change the first names we’d want to reexamine middle names anyway. That’s a bargaining chip to keep in your pocket, by the way. Right now that’s what you’re doing with the middle name Logan: it’s a favorite of your husband’s that you don’t want as a first name, so you’re offering the middle name, which is an excellent use of the middle name position. But it bothers me a little that the name Avery Logan Kiner is your husband’s two favorite names and your husband’s surname: I suggest you getting more say on the middle name if the first name ends up being Avery or any other name that he likes more than you do. Perhaps it could be one of the names you like that he doesn’t want as a first name, or an honor name from your side. Okay, back to the first names:

Oo, how about Elliot? That’s a name Paul and I couldn’t use because neither of us would back down on our preferred spelling. Elliot Kiner. Elliot Logan Kiner, Elliot Jay Kiner. Nice with Ruby and/or Nora.

Or Wilson. Excellent nickname Will. Wilson Kiner. Wilson Logan Kiner, Wilson Jay Kiner. Nice.

Or Davis. Davis Kiner.

Or Ellis. Ellis Kiner.

With Beckett on your list you have probably already considered Bennett, but I offer it anyway. Bennett Kiner, with the very appealing nickname Ben.

Or Garrett. Garrett Kiner.

Oh! Louis! Louis Kiner.

Or Thompson, potential nicknames Tom/Tommy. I am noticing old-fashioned nicknames making a bit of a comeback in my area: things may be shifting away from “We want to name him James but we don’t want anyone calling him Jimmy.” We have one Tommy and one Johnny in our circle of acquaintances.

Name update:

Hi Swistle,

Wanted to send you a note and introduce you to Beckett Logan Kiner!

He was born on July 28 weighing 8 lbs., and 2 oz. We are absolutely in love! Your poll (and post!) helped us immensely and guided us in making the final decision. So far, we’ve received lots of compliments. :)

Thanks again,
Krista