Erin writes:

I am currently 22 weeks pregnant with fraternal twin girls and I am due January 29, 2012. I really have a hard time coming up with girl names but think I have one for Baby A. My problem is that I am having a really hard time coming up with a first name for Baby ‘B.’ Our last name is 3 syllables, starts with L and rhymes with “Lavender.”

My name is Erin, my husband is Daryl and our 18 month old son is Cohen Fox “Lavender.” I love boy names and have no problem coming up with them. If one of these babies was a boy they would have likely been Emmett Hawk (Hawk, because I love animal middle names for boys). I like double consonants and also liked boy names Beckett and Wyatt.

I don’t know if a description of my son might help with names, but he’s a quick idea. My son is blond haired with beautiful, coarse waves and he is blue eyed (born with a full head of black hair though that changed when he was 4 months old). I’m assuming my girls might also follow this trend. My husband and I are both dark haired but he has blue eyes and I have brown. My son is stocky and sturdy. He’s 35 lbs at 18 months old, but he’s also off the charts for height. He has big blue eyes, a cute broad but button nose and full lips with apple cheeks.

I am a maternity nurse and hear names all the time and I think because of that I really don’t like most of the top 1000 girl names on most charts.

As far as naming the twins, we have actually decided on Avalon Juno “Lavender” (Avalon actually came to me in a dream and I loved it) for Baby A and we know that we want Quinn as a middle name for Baby B.

I had originally picked Tabitha as a first name for Baby B but my whole family pretty much hates it (mainly because of the shortening to “Tabby”…I like the idea of Beth as a nn though), so I’m back to the drawing board. I recently took a liking to Everly and Ember but again I’m getting snubbed noses. I think Everly might be a bit to close to Avalon because of the soft vowel and then v sound (and you might get Avy and Evie for nicknames which are really close).

I prefer 2 to 3 syllable first names as well. I like names from fantasy/fairy inspired, or that are just off the beaten path but not too “out there.” Names already used by a couple of my cousins that I love are Briar and Brynn. I like nature type names as well. I really like Willow, but again…no family approval. So frustrating! I got a lot of flack about Juno, but my husband loves it and it’s a middle name so we are keeping it as is. I think it would be cute to have the name start with B (then we would have first initials of A, B, C, D, & E in our family), and thought Braeleigh was cute, but my husband didn’t like it because it’s a bit of a mouthful with our last name. I’m also not a fan of alliteration with our last name though so I’ve been avoiding “L” names.

Anything you could suggest at this point would be so helpful.

and

I thought I’d send an update on our naming process. We could still use a bit of help! I am almost 28 weeks pregnant now with fraternal twin girls. Baby A is still Avalon Juno “Lavender” at this point and we have decided on Baby B’s first name to be Brooke. We definitely want to use the middle name Quinn but I’m having a hard time with the flow of Brooke Quinn with the hard K sounds so close together. I thought of switching the middle names, but my husband doesn’t want the initials “BJ” in there. My sister has a friend with those initials as well and has had nothing but teasing for ages. The name Quinn is important for us to keep because it is a name my sister loves and she wants us to use it. Considering she was our egg donor for our IVF pregnancy, I really want to use it too. I’m sure we could compromise on the middle names and remove Juno (although we’ve liked that name since I was pregnant with my son), and have Avalon Quinn and Brooke ____ . So stumped!

Any help would be great!

Thanks

 
I wonder if any of the names your family doesn’t like (or any of the names you liked except that they didn’t work as sister names for Avalon) would work as middle names for Brooke.

Brooke Ember
Brooke Everly
Brooke Tabitha
Brooke Willow

My favorite from that group is Tabitha: Avalon Quinn and Brooke Tabitha. I like the way they’d each have a 1-syllable name and a 3-syllable name.

But looking at the logic puzzle presented in the letters, it seems like the easier part to change is the first name Brooke. That’s the name that’s currently preventing you from using Juno, which was unshakeable in the first letter and which you say in the second letter you’ve liked since you were pregnant with your son. It looks like it’s a matter of choosing which name you’d prefer to use, Brooke or Juno—and Brooke is a more recent choice, and one that doesn’t fit your first-name preferences as well as Avalon does.

The Baby Name Wizard mentions both Meredith and Bethany as names similar to Tabitha. I’d add Meribeth, a name we encountered on a child at the pool this summer and really liked. Avalon Juno and Meribeth Quinn.

Or Matilda. Avalon Juno and Matilda Quinn.

Or Minerva. Avalon Juno and Minerva Quinn. I like all the V sounds with your surname.

I wish Lorelei would work with your surname, because that would be so perfect with Avalon.

Ember reminds me of Cambria. Avalon Juno and Cambria Quinn.

Everly reminds me of Waverly. Avalon Juno and Waverly Quinn. V sounds again.

Willow and Briar remind me of Juniper. Avalon Juno and Juniper Quinn. I don’t know if the repeating June-sound would bother me or not; I might even kind of like it.

For a B name, one that comes to mind is Bronwyn. My impulse is to switch the middle names, but that lands you right back with the BJ problem, so it’s a little rhymey with Quinn. Avalon Juno and Bronwyn Quinn.

Another is Briony, which can be pronounced BRY-oh-nee as a botanical reference, or BREE-ah-nee as a modern sound-combination name. Avalon Juno and Briony Quinn.

Another is Beatrix, one of my own favorites. Avalon Juno and Beatrix Quinn.

Another is Bridget. Avalon Juno and Bridget Quinn. I like the repeating short-I sound in Bridget Quinn: it sounds happy and energetic to me.

If Brooke is set, I’d add Waverly to the middle name candidates. Avalon Quinn and Brooke Waverly.

Name update! Erin writes:

I just thought I’d drop a line to let you know that our baby girls have arrived! They made their debut 5 weeks premature at 35 weeks and 2 days. We wanted to thank you for your naming advice and for all the feedback it received. We decided to name Twin ‘A’ – Avalon Juno and Twin ‘B’ – Bellamy Quinn. I love their names!! The twins are fraternal and completely different. Avalon was the bigger and fairer of the two at 5 lbs 7 oz and Bellamy was 4 lbs 8.5 oz and has a head of dark hair. We are using the nicknames “Avy” and “Bella” for short. I do have a quick follow up question though…How would you spell “Avy” without giving it a hard A sound? Avy, Avi, Avie, Avee, Avey? No matter how I look at it, it seems to sound like Navy without the ‘N.’ For a 22 month old, Cohen is a great big brother too! Now we have our A,B,C,D,E family ;)

I have also attached a picture of the girls at 3 weeks old. Avalon is in the front, and Bellamy has her hand on her sister’s shoulder.

Thanks again!!

I would use Abbie/Abby as the model and spell it Avvie or Avvy.

Karla writes:

You’ve helped me before: http://swistlebabynames.blogspot.com/2008/06/baby-girl-or-boy-voisey.html.
We ended up having a boy, and we named him soren micah.

NOW, we are adopting a girl, and based on your help (and suggestions) from last time, I would choose Iris Mabel in a heart-beat. And am still very open to that…
BUT, our daughter is going to be close to 5 1/2 when we adopt her, and her name right now is Yan Rui (pronounced Yonna Roo-ay, with Rui prounouced as one syllable).
While we believe giving her a name that we have chosen is an important means of communicating her place in our family (I know there are different thoughts about this, but that’s where we stand right now), we wonder if it is best to keep it as similar to her name now as possible…..OR if not that, to at least choose a name that is similar in meaning.
If we go by meaning, her name means “happy” and “lucky”. Names that we have found that mean similar things are Felicity, Felice, Aida…I don’t mind any of these, except Felicity Voisy sounds weird. And Aida is too close to Adeline, our deceased daughter, and we’re not comfortable (nor do we feel its appropriate) to make our newest daughter any type of namesake (also based on Swistle fan commments from last time).
If we go with names that sound similar, we have only come up with Anna (pronounced Onna) Rae. What do you think?

Thanks again

I see what you mean. I feel the same way about names: that giving a name, because it’s one of the official acts of parenthood, can be an important symbolic relationship-establishing act—but that when the child in question is five, it’s more important to let her keep her own name. I’m imagining my six-year-old daughter and how she’d feel about changing her name to something else (even if it was something that meant the same as her name), and it’s giving me a wrenched feeling.

I wonder if it would work to use Yonna or Yana? It would be translating her name from one language to another, which is a common thing to do with names (especially if the name was originally in another alphabet), and as I say it and think about it, I think it’s a very pretty name. It’d distinctive and a little exotic, but easy to pronounce, and familiar because of names like Donna and Brionna. For unusual names, I love if there’s an easy thing to say to help someone understand the name, and Yonna has a perfect one: “It’s like Donna, but with a Y instead of a D.” Or “It’s like Brionna, but without the Bri.” I also think it goes well with the other sibling names, and especially with the sister name: Ezekiel, Basil, September, Soren, and Yonna is a nice mix. And I like it with your surname: Yonna Voisey.

Yes, I think that would be my first choice. I think I would translate her name to U.S. English and spell it Yonna or Yana; I’d leave her middle name spelled Rui because pronunciation issues are no big deal and even kind of fun when it’s a middle name; and then I would give her a second middle name of your choice, anything you like (though a name like Felice would very pleasing symbolically), and I’d make a big deal about how that is the name you are giving her now that she is your child and a part of your family.

What does everyone else think the Voiseys should do?

Edited to add: Karla writes:

I am sorry for the confusion….seriously, this is my LAST time writing you, because this is our last kid. :)  but apparently, there are various ways to say our soon-to-be adoptive daughter’s name, depending on tone (or something?)  While one Chinese friend told me one way, we finally got in touch with someone who is in contact with the orphanage, and our particular child’s name is not pronounced Yanna.  It is pronounced Ian (Ee-yen).  

While lots and lots of people suggested we not change her name, does that advice still hold when her name is an American boy’s name?  My opinion is that we should keep her name.  She is five.  We have already named our kids pretty unique names (Basil, September, Zeke, and Soren), so it’s not like she’d be in a family with a bunch of kids with really popular, normal names.  So if her name doesn’t follow trends, that might be okay.  Secondly, while we thought we were giving our boys names that were old-fashioned, but obviously male names, (Basil, Ezekiel, Soren), many, many people have assumed Basil is a girl if they haven’t met him yet.  And people aren’t sure about September’s gender either.  So….while there are not many female Ians that I know of (except the model Eyen), I wonder if people will just get used to it when they meet our daughter…Besides, are there enough gender-neutral names (Dillon, Reagen, Madison….) that are similar enough that Ian will just fit in?  Finally, if you agree with me on not changing it (even with this new information), I am curious how you would suggest spelling it.  I really don’t want to spell it Ian, like the boy name….I would like a different spelling….something more female….kind of like Leigh looks like a girl name while Lee would lean towards boyish.  I looked into different spellings and thought the British spelling, Iain, seems the most girly.  I KNOW she would need to tell everyone how to say her name, but at least not every teacher would look at it and think “boy”.  What do you think? 

Thank you AGAIN…..

Name update! Karla writes:

I know I emailed you again, for advice on our soon-to-be adopted daughter’s name, but we had to make a decision for the paperwork, so we did. 
While most of your reader’s suggested keeping her name when we all thought it was pronounced “Yanna”, which is what I was originally told, I wondered if their advice would be the same if they knew it was pronounced Ian, which is how it is actually pronounced (as we found out recently), since there is such an association with a boy’s name in America.  Well, we discussed it, and decided there were enough Dillons and Morgans and Reagans that were girls, so Ian would have to fit in! :) Especially since that is already her name!  So, we kept her name as suggested, but changed the spelling to Eyann, to make it look a little more feminine.  Thanks for everyone’s feedback.

Amy writes:

I am due with my second child on TUESDAY and I need HELP with a name. To make matters worse, the baby was not cooperative during the ultrasound and we have no medical reason to have another so we need to pick names for boys and girls. I love talking baby names and reading naming books & blogs, but my husband doesn’t like to talk about them at all which is not helping.

My first son is Owen Albert and our last name starts with B and ends with ss. My husband and I are Bryan and Amy – VERY popular names for our generation – I was one of 3 Amy’s in my first grade class and my husband was one of 4 Bryan Bs in his grade. We picked Owen just because we both liked it – its a little bit more popular than I’d hoped but so far we haven’t met any others his age in our small town. Albert is after my grandfather, who died just before Owen was born.

My main concern for our boys names are honor names and sibling rivalry. For a boy, one name that was on our short list for our first son but just didn’t seem to suit him was James Everett, after our 2 fathers. My issue now is that I’m not sure how I feel about naming my first son after a great-grandfather he never met (and only in the middle name) and then giving the second son a name after 2 grandfathers that he sees all the time – we all live in the same small town so we see my father and my husbands father very regularly, 2 or more times a week each. Does this seem like a reason for sibling rivalry to you? The other issue is that this “uses up” the only family names we like for boys, AND it means I’ve “used up” all the names from my side of the family leaving none for my sister (the only male options left on that side are Matthew which is always used for the oldest son of the oldest son and has been used already this generation and Elmer and Dudley – not appealing to either of us). On the other hand, I’m not sure how I feel about using one grandfather’s name without the other – is it insulting to use one and not the other when they both know James Everett was on the table at one point? And all the other boys names that were on the shortlist for Owen are either too similar to Owen (Evan, Ethan, Gavin) or have been recently used by close family or friends (Caleb, Colin). Other names I’ve suggested that my husband vetoed: Miles, Elliot, Neil, Liam. We have 2 requirements for our names – not a biblical name, boys names without a -y nickname (Robert to Robby, John to Johnny) because in my family the little boy nicknames stick for life and I’m not fond of them (and yes, I know, James violates both rules – my father is called Jim and is still called Jimmy by his brothers, but I’m willing to break the rules for a family name).

For a girl, my shortlist names are Claire, Maggie (short for Margaret or Marjorie) and Paige, but we don’t have a middle name yet. Claire is a family name, the others are just ones I like. My mother, grandmother & I all have “R” middle names, so that would be a fun tradition to continue but its not a 100% must.

So the overall question is: do you think its a problem to “use up” family names on the second child when you think you want 3-4 and leave none for my sister? And what about the sibling dynamics with a second boy named after such close relatives? Should I go with my gut and say that if I have to ask it, then its probably a problem? And if this is too much of a problem, what in the world should I name this kid?

Feel free to edit this down to a more managable post, the overall question above is what I most care about.

Thank you!

Name update! Amy writes:

Thanks to all your help Swistle & commenters! Although I still really liked James Everett, it just didn’t seem right for this baby either, and although I liked the suggestion of Everett James I didn’t like the idea of always saying “which Everett? Grandpa Everett or Baby Everett?”. In the last few days before he was born, one name came forward as a top contender, which had been our “joke” name for our first son – Porter. It was an inside joke to us, since we brew our own beer. But with the rise of occupation names and -r ending names like Connor and Asher, Porter grew on us more & more. I also found out that Everett was a family name – it was also middle name for my husband’s grandfather and at least one generation back as well. So on 11-11-11 after much deliberation we welcomed Porter Everett and are very happy with his name. Thanks again!

Melissa writes:

I am kicking myself!

I am due in one week with our third boy. We have known for months and months that we were having a boy, and we worked very hard at getting pregnant. We had a tough pregnancy that we thought we’d lost several times, and then about midway through, we learned he was quite small and had to watch him closely with near weekly scans and measurements and an amnio we weren’t planning on having just to prepare us for anything that might come.

Well, the results were relieving, and he’s finally doing great and growing, and I’ve been really relaxed and happy for the first time in this pregnancy – for the last month of it!

I think I am in denial, however, as we still don’t know how we are going to NAME HIM!

With our other two, we were clear, certain and excited by our selections. Our first son is named Tate Fletcher. Our second son is Nicholson Scott, but we call him Cole. So we have Tate and Cole. Our last name sounds like Secret.

At first, I thought I really loved the name Leo for our new little guy, given how small and what a fighter he is. He’ll be our lion cub. But I wasn’t sure my husband was all in as he was a bit ‘Meh’ about it. So I came up with a few other names, floated them and then we sort of left it.
We just knew we’d know when the time came. Well, we don’t, and the time is nearly here… Aaaaargh!

Our short list (I think) is:

Jude
Leo
Luke
Corbin
Rafferty (with nn Rafe)

And our middle names are:

Henry (after Mark’s Grandfather)
Lloyd (my dad, who is loved by all)
Christopher (my brother I adore and who is the best uncle ever – no kids)
William (a family name)

I am not against Luke per se, but feel it is awfully popular. Mark likes it but could go with Jude. I like Jude, but worry it may be trending toward the girls (grrrrrr…another great boy name that the girls snatch!) I also think it sounds like we’re sort of trying too hard with the 3 short, strong, one-syllable names. I love, love, love Rafferty, but my best friend does NOT like it. It makes me nervous. If I had to pick right at this second, I’d probably go with Leo Christopher, but I’m worried I’m settling with the easiest and that I’ll regret it.

I’m really struggling here, and Mark has no clue either. I’ve been reading your blog for months, LOVING it, and never thought I’d come close to needing you!

Help?

Name update! Melissa writes:

About 4 months ago, you posted a panicked plea from me on your blog about the naming of our third son. I’m writing with an update!

Our beautiful boy was born on 11/10/11. Though I was a touch disappointed with the date, as I’d SO hoped for my due date of 11/11/11, we soon realized it was actually fortuitous :)

Why was the 10th fortuitous? Because the 10th of November is the feast of Pope St. Leo the 1st. A loving and benevolent man by all accounts.

Our son is Leo Henry. Our little lion cub. He is perfect, as is his name.

Thank you for your help and to all who wrote in!

Taylor writes:

Hi! I’m a longtime reader of your blogs and am expecting my second baby, gender to surprise us, in early April. Our last name is very common and rhymes with Bones. We have a three year-old boy named Silas D@vid, a name which I was unsure about at first but which I LOVE LOVE LOVE now. Both of Silas’s names are family names, although Silas itself is from so many generations back (i.e., the Revolutionary War) that it didn’t hold any sentimental meaning. My husband and I are both in our thirties. My name is Taylor and my husband’s name is Matt. Given that Matthew was the most common boy’s first name the year we were born and our very common last name, my husband was/is adamant that our children have somewhat unusual names. I am similarly adamant that these names be actual people names and not random words or places. (He lobbied hard for Silas to be named after various Civil War battlefields–Appomattox “Bones” was his favorite. Clearly I vetoed.) I also have a preference for family names.

I have two questions for you:

1) We are pretty settled on a girl name. If the baby is a girl, we want to name her after my mother. Unfortunately, my mom’s name is somewhat problematic: Mary Gay–and she goes by Gay. Mary seems too vanilla, especially with our super common last name, and Gay is out because of obvious schoolyard taunting reasons. BUT, we both love the name May. Is it weird to name a child after someone without using that person’s actual name? What does everyone think about this phenomenon?

2) We are completely stumped when it comes to boy names, which is problematic given that at our most recent ultrasound, we saw what appear to be boy parts. The tech, by our request, did not say one way or the other, so maybe it was a poorly placed umbilical cord?

I like the name Jasper (my great-grandfather’s name), but my husband hates it. He likes the name Moses (an old family name), but I don’t know…. It might grow on me though. I like the name Asa (also an old family name)–he’s on the fence. Other potential family names: Henry (too common?), Lucius (problematic because of Harry Potter villain?), Sullivan, Boon, Homer (obvious Simpsons issue). Non-family names my husband likes include: Micah, Josiah, Ezekiel, Elijah, Ezra, Isaiah. Of those, I like Ezra best. We both like Abraham, nickname Bram, but friends of ours just used it.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 
Normally I am on the conservative end of the spectrum with namesakes: I think the very first change to a name causes a huge drop in honor. However, in this case I think you have a strong point against using Gay, and another strong point against using Mary.

Mary is a name like John: it’s considered an almost generic name for a girl, and yet encountering one in an actual classroom is a pleasantly startling surprise. And so I’d currently be trying to pressure you into reconsidering it—except that your mom doesn’t go by that name. My objection to changing a name is that it causes a drop in honor—but in this case using Mary might be the same drop.

Do you know how your mom feels about it? Does she identify with the name Mary but prefer Gay, or does she dislike the name Mary, or does she forget it’s her first name and not recognize it if someone calls her by it accidentally? And is there a story about why she goes by her middle name? If it’s because she dislikes the name Mary, I think that safely rules it out; but if it’s because it was the name of her dearly-loved grandmother, who then moved in with the family so they started calling your mom Gay to avoid confusion, then that’s another story. And does she realize the difficulties with passing down the name Gay, or does she think that’s silly? All these things weigh in.

Going just on the information we have (you’d like to name a girl after your mother, but neither her first nor her middle name are good candidates), it looks to me as if your solution of using the name May might be the best possible option. (One slight hesitation I have is that May Rhymes-With-Bones brings to mind May June, but I can’t tell how universal that reaction would be.) Would your mother’s maiden name (or some other name of significance to her, such as her mother’s name or her mother’s maiden name) work as a middle name? That would help increase the honor back up towards using-the-actual-name levels.

Another possibility is to name her Mary May Bones and call her May. This uses your mother’s real first name, and also parallels the first-middle combo AND the way your mom goes by her middle name.

Or May is a nickname for Mary, so you could name her Mary with a different middle name and call her May directly. Molly is another cute nickname for Mary, so you could see which nickname she grew into.

From the boy names neither of you is ruling out, I like Ezra and Isaiah best. The Harry Pottery reference of Lucius doesn’t bother me, but I don’t like the way Silas and Lucius sound together: so much L and S. (I have a similar but lesser issue with Moses.) Lucien would take out one of the S sounds and remove the Harry Potter issue—but it also removes the family-nameness. I think I would reserve Boon for the middle name slot: it’s hard to find good one-syllable middle name candidates that aren’t overused. Or I also like some of the other family names for the middle name: Ezra Sullivan Bones, Ezra Lucius Bones, Isaiah Sullivan Bones, Isaiah Lucius Bones, Isaiah Henry Bones.

My brother and sister-in-law had Silas on their list and also liked the name Calvin. Calvin Boon, Calvin Henry; Silas and Calvin.

Cal makes me think of Mal which makes me think of Malcolm. Malcolm Bones; Silas and Malcolm.

Would Abram be too close to your friends’ choice of Abraham/Bram?

I also like the early-American-settler sound of Abel “Bones.”

I think Gideon is underused, and goes wonderfully with your surname and with Silas.

Another name I consider underused is Rufus, but I’m worried it might be too rhymey with Silas.

I think I’ve seen Conrad on the same finalist lists with Silas before.

Oh, I wonder if Haskell would work? Silas and Haskell.

Or Hugo might be very handsome, and I like the repeating long-O sound. Silas and Hugo.

Or Milo or Leo, for the same reason. Silas and Milo; Silas and Leo.

Which makes me think of Lyle: Silas and Lyle. Too much long-I and L, maybe?

Or would you like Everett? Everett Bones; Silas and Everett.

Name update! Taylor writes:

Thanks so much for your awesome suggestions. My husband and I had decided on Abel for a boy, thanks to your input, but after a 30 hour labor that ended in a c-section, my husband suddenly decided he no longer had issues with my favorite name. Asa James “Bones” was born at 6:52pm on 4/4/12. Thanks again!

Ms. Bishop writes:

I’m having a naming dilemma and have approximately 6 weeks left before our baby boy arrives!!! I hope you and your readers can help.

Coming up with a name that both my husband and I liked was difficult enough. We finally came up with a list of about 5 names we both liked, ordered them favorite to least favorite independently, and were both happy to see we had the same name listed as our “most favorite”. The name is Roman. We LOVE the name Roman. So – what’s the dilemma you ask? It’s our last name. Which is Bishop.

Roman Bishop

Our family is fairly traditional, so I wasn’t surprised or bothered when the grandparents (on both sides) scrunched their noses up to the name Roman. They did the same thing with our naming choice of our daughter (sounds like Caden, but with a different spelling), but they’ve learned to love her name just as much as they love her. But – they have pointed out the very thing that is bothering me too – the combo issue. Are we giving our son a name he’ll have to “overcome”??? I don’t want people seeing/hearing his name when he’s older and think that we named him that to be “cute” or “silly”. I’m having such a hard time with this!! He already feels like a Roman to me, so I hate to give the name up. Even our second name choice doesn’t seem to fit as well anymore (our #2 name is Vince).

Ugh – why does this have to be so hard?!

I’m going against the advice of my husband in asking for opinions. He thinks I should stop worrying about what other people think. And, he keeps reminding me that our son will always have the option of going by his middle name (Michael) if he decides he doesn’t want to go by his first. That’s another thing – I personally don’t like the name Michael – but I’m okay with having that as his middle name as a compromise to my husband. So – it would kinda break my heart if our son decided to have that be his primary name. I wish he could talk and tell us his thoughts already on his name! J

Am I overthinking this way too much??

Thanks so much for the help!!

 
As with all such issues, opinions are going to be all over the spectrum. But my opinion is that Roman Bishop is not a workable name. As soon as I saw it, my eyes widened and then sparkled, and there was an audible laugh. Let’s have a poll over to the right to collect the rest of the spectrum. [Poll closed; see results below.]

“Not worrying about what other people think” is a concept more appropriate for moral situations, where we know we’re doing the right thing and so we shouldn’t worry if other people make fun of us for it; it doesn’t apply as well to a name we’re asking someone else to carry. I recommend The Baby Name Wizard‘s test: Would we want to have this name as our own? We all have names we’re unable to use because of our surnames, and I’m afraid this is one of yours. (Others include Deacon, Noble, Skip, Fisher, Phillip.)

I suggest Rowen/Rohen or Ronan. They’re similar to the name you love, and they may still cause a few people to crack jokes, but it’s no longer as blatant. Other possibilities:

Coleman (may be too close to Caden)
Damon (may be too rhymey with Caden)
Eamon (may be too rhymey with Caden)
Redford
Redmond
Reid
Rhys
Roan
Ruben
Ryan
Simon
Tillman
Truman

Name update! Ms. Bishop writes:

Again, thanks so much for posting my dilemma.

I’m writing you back to let you know that my husband and I decided to stick with Roman. It was just his name already. That, and my husband was DONE with the naming discussion….

And again – thank you. Although we’re going against the grain here, I still really appreciate you posting this and the feedback received.