Caroline writes:

We are pregnant with our first baby girl, and due on or about November 21st, 2009. The one thing that we know for sure is that her middle name will be “Rose.” This is due to the fact that my maiden name was a very complicated Polish surname that had something close to “Rose” in the pronounciation. It would be too cruel to give this baby the actual surname as a middle name, so we’ve decided to use “Rose” instead, as a shout out to my side of the family. Therefore, the baby’s first name must go with “Rose” as a middle name. We have a very common last name, “Thompson.”

Our favorites so far are:

Maggie Rose Thompson
Winifred “Winnie” Rose Thompson
Gwendolyn Rose Thompson (I love this, but don’t like the nickname “Gwen,” can I get “Winnie” as a nickname out of it?)

I guess we like uncommon names, and apparently old fashioned names. If it’s a BIG name (like Winifred) we like the possibilty of a cute nickname coming out of it. I LOVE “Winnie.” Any other suggestions?

Maybe “Lynnie” as a nickname for Gwendolyn? Adorable. (Though an older Lynnie/Winnie might still choose to go by Gwen.) Some more uncommon, old-fashioned names with cute nicknames:

Eleanor Rose Thompson (Ellie, Lenni)
Elsa Rose Thompson
Lydia Rose Thompson (Liddy)
Meredith Rose Thompson (Merrie)
Millicent Rose Thompson (Milly)
Virginia Rose Thompson (Ginny)
Willa Rose Thompson

From my list, my favorite is Willa, a name that is complete in itself while still having the cute-nickname appeal of Winnie.

From your list, my favorite is Winifred.

Let’s have a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (197 votes total):
Maggie: 30 votes, roughly 15%
Winifred: 23 votes, roughly 12%
Gwendolyn: 35 votes, roughly 18%
Eleanor: 16 votes, roughly 8%
Elsa: 10 votes, roughly 5%
Lydia: 16 votes, roughly 8%
Meredith: 11 votes, roughly 6%
Millicent: 8 votes, roughly 4%
Virginia: 13 votes, roughly 7%
Willa: 35 votes, roughly 18%

Melanie writes:

so far we have

zoe madeline jane myatt (jane is a family name)
tessa lousie myatt (louise is a family name)
samuel “tate” myatt (samuel is a family name)

i am the one who chooses names like zoe, tessa and tate, and i am looking for something else along these lines for a girl or boy (i’m not sure yet if we will find out what we are having).

my husband loves, loves, loves using family names. some that are left: lucky, carter, james, dirk, lily and anne.

what i’m looking for is something that will sound good with the three names we have already AND a family name. i have an affinity for the southern two-name thing (my friend has “anna riley” and “india grace” and i love those but obviously, they are taken!).

i am happy to take any and all suggestions!

For a girl:

Ellery Anne
Iris Anne
Lily Anne
Lily Noelle
Kimball Anne
Macy Anne
Sadie Anne
Shelby Anne
Willa Anne

For a boy:

Carter Finn
Carter James
Carter Zane
James Hart
James Keane
James Wade
Wade Carter

Danielle writes:

I love your blog and am hoping for help in naming our second son due to arrive November 10th.
My name is Danielle and my husband’s name is Caleb. Our last name begins with a B and ends with O.
We have an 18 month old son, Brody. His middle name is Timothy after my father.
I was hesitant to name him Brody because of our last name beginning with a B,
but my husband loved it and now I can’t imagine him being anything but Brody.
We love names that are unique without sounding too crazy. The main problem we are having is that we have a handful of names we like but nothing we love…yet.

Here is the very short list of names we both like:

• Foster (I would say this is our number one name right now…how do you feel about it?)
• Grayson (We both love it but I am hesitant to use it as I know it is now being used for girls as well)
• Levi (I love it, hubby doesn’t at all)

To get a better feel for names we like here are some names that we liked but for various reasons are not going to be in the running….. Asher, Abram, Trey, Gage and Roman.

As for a middle name…We would like to use David (my father in laws name), Caleb, or Anderson.
What do you think the best combination is? And what other first name suggestions do you or any other readers have that you think we would like? I am ready to hear a new name to fall in love with!

I like Foster, and particularly I like Foster Anderson. But the initials are FAB. And Foster Caleb and Foster David both sound choppy to me, as if Foster is a title along the lines of Mister or Brother.

I also like Grayson. I’ve heard, too, that it’s being used for girls. I don’t know if this is a Worrying Trend, like when the name Mackenzie went full-on Girl Name, or a Clear Minority thing where the name will occasionally used for girls but will still be considered a Boy Name. I don’t have a favorite middle name of the three options. Grayson Anderson is double -son and also spells GAB, and, again, Grayson Caleb and Grayson David both sound choppy to me, though fine.

I think the trouble with the middle name options is that Caleb and David are both strongly first-nameish (two syllables, emphasis on the first syllable) and sound odd in the middle name slot. The problem is accentuated by the very different style of first names: Andrew David would sound okay to me, but Foster David sounds odd. Anderson fits much better with the style of first names, but it spells a word with many first-name consonant choices (CAB, DAB, FAB, GAB, JAB, etc.). I kept thinking of first name possibilities such as Turner, and then getting stuck: it spells TAB with the name that sounds good with it, and it clunks with both David and Caleb.

Here are some more possibilities to consider:

Archer Anderson
Cason David
Carson David
Coleman David
Harris Anderson
Keegan Anderson
Lawson David
Lincoln Caleb
Miller Anderson
Wilson David

I think my favorite is Archer Anderson. I just really like the sound of it.

Holly writes:

My husband and I are expecting our second daughter on October 21, and we are having a really hard time with the name. After months and months of discussions (or arguments…whatever), we agree on Grace for a first name. Our last name is one syllable and ends with “lyn”. Our other daughter’s name is Abigail Marie, and we call her Abby.

Middle names we have rejected, even though we like them a lot:

Evelyn (too rhymey with our last name)
Amelia (don’t like the initials)

Since Grace and our last name are pretty short, I think the middle name should be at least two syllables.

What do you think? Any and all help appreciated!

I love the rhythm of Grace Amelia with a one-syllable surname. If you love it except for the initials problem, you could use Emelia. Some more combinations with a similar four-syllable rhythm:

Grace Cordelia
Grace Elizabeth
Grace Olivia
Grace Penelope
Grace Veronica
Grace Victoria

And here are a few 3-syllable options:

Grace Mikayla
Grace Samantha
Grace Savannah
Grace Sophia

More options, everyone!

(My mother-in-law is in town this week, but the babies don’t wait and the questions are coming in faster than I can answer them, so I’ll post some for anyone interested to work on.)

Elizabeth writes:

I am due on Oct. 18th and are have struggled with possible names this entire pregnancy – especially girl names! We have two little girls and don’t know if this baby is a boy or girl. Here’s what our family looks like right now:

Mom – Elizabeth
Dad – Russ
3.5 year old – Jane (goes by Jane/Janie)
2 year old – Ellen (goes by Ellen/Ellie)
Our last name rhymes with “Bottle”

If we have a boy, my husband would like to follow his family’s tradition of naming after grandpa’s. Going with this, we would name the baby boy William John. My husband is pretty set on this name but I have a couple of issues with it:

* His nickname would be Will and “Will Bottle” sounds funny to me. Something like an unfinished sentence??
* I don’t want to switch the names and have a John William b/c there are already 2 other John’s in the family.

Unfortunately, we have no other options for boy names so we are open to new ideas…

As for baby girl names, we have struggled trying to match the other girls without being too similar. Our top names have been Claire, Lillian (Lilly), Mary and Lucy but have reservations about all of them. We both like Claire and Lilly but are concerned they are becoming too popular. I like Mary more than my husband but am concerned that Jane, Ellen and Mary almost sounds boring?!? Lucy was a late addition and my 3 year old loves it but I’m once again concerned that it is growing in popularity and will be one of the next “It” names.

As you can tell, we like simple, traditional names that aren’t overly common. Please help with any suggestions!!!!

(My mother-in-law is in town this week, but the babies don’t wait and the questions are coming in faster than I can answer them, so I’ll post some for anyone interested to work on.)

Lyndy writes:

I’m having another bundle of Boy.
we are tossing around these names but nothin’ seems to fit.

Son #1 is Jonny Matix. {After my husband Jonathan, and a name of his own}
and we mostly call him Max.

Son #2 possibilities.

-Henry Dexter {named for husbands grandfather and my grandfather}
i love Hank. and Dex. Henry is definitely common. but its classic.

-Jasper Dee {a name of his own, and Husbands father}
I like that he’d share his Dads initials. and have a name all his own with a family name.
We originally got Jasper from a Western my husband and I both love. Now every time we mention Jasper, Twilight is brought up. Its kind of annoying but really we still love the name.

Those are the top two but we’ve also toyed with Dexter Dee, or Hendrix Edwin {his own name, and my dads name}
I know I still have sometime to find it…but its still tough. I’d love for some feedback.

I wanted to ask about baby name wizard. Is it just a book full of baby names? I have a few of those and havent found them helpful. Whats so great about name wizard.
anyways thanks for your help!!!

(My mother-in-law is in town this week, but the babies don’t wait and the questions are coming in faster than I can answer them, so I’ll post some for anyone interested to work on.)

T. writes:

My husband and I totally do not agree on names. Its making this baby naming situation not much fun. I always dreamed it would be really neat to name my daughter, now its just avoidance from my husband (ie, we have tons of time, from day one of the positive test) to annoyance, on my part! :)

My due date is October 13, 2009

We have no other children, but our puppies name is Piper. Very preppy.

-Emerson – I love love LOVE it. My husband hates it
-Quinn – We are both lukewarm on this one.
-Reese – We both love because of the meaning, but having problems coming up with a middle name. We also hope that it doesnt fall flat. Everyone loves the name because of Reese Witherspoon, but I think its more powerful because people say her first and last name. No one will use our daughters first and last name when referring to her. At least I hope not, it sounds very courtroom type trouble-ish!
-Hazell – I dont like it (sounds too old), but its my husband’s grandmothers name.

I like Reese (which means passionate for life, fiery) and would love a bibical name, like a name that means Christ or the Lord. Then she would be passionate for God, but I havent found anything out there that would work! Our last name starts with a B and is 4 sylables. So I would love to not torture my daughter with a super long name! :)