Michal writes:

My dilemma is on the naming of my second child. I am due with a baby girl on Sept 20th. Our first daughter is Kendal Essa. Her middle name is after my grandmother and great grandmother – it is a version of Essie. We named her Kendal because it is not very common and had the ‘al’ similar to my name Michal. And we felt the first and middle went really well together.

For our second child, I am kind of at a loss. I loved the name Maria Angeline but my husband hates it. We liked Ella Marie but then our neighbor named their dog Ella and then a new neighbor has a daughter Ella.

Our top two right now are Aprilia Ryan and Siena Ryan. Her middle name is after her father – Jonryan. Our criteria is to have a somewhat unique first name and then a middle name is reserved for naming after a family member. My husband loves Aprilia and I like it, but not really sold on her being called April for short. My husband isn’t sold on Siena.

Any other thoughts/suggestions?

I wonder if you’d like Averil? It’s unusual but familiar, like Kendal, and it has a similar level of no-frill. Kendal and Averil. That’s my top choice; here’s my whole list (since I saw Marie and Angeline above, I’m assuming the middle name Ryan isn’t a sure thing):

Arden
Averil
Brycelyn
Darby
Finley
Hollis (Holly)
Larkin
Linden (Lindy)
Madigan
Meredith
Rory
Rowan
Shelby
Sheridan
Skyler
Sloane
Teagan
Tierney

Name update 11-02-2009! Michal writes:

Thank you everyone for your comments! We ended up naming our little girl Natalie Ryan. I love her name and she is a wonderful little girl. :)

Shelby writes:

Here is our issue:
I am a proud mama to 2 little girls, Poppy (Penelope) Isabella and Paisley Savannah. Our last name is Powers. Well, we are now expecting baby number 3 in September and I cannot decide whether to go with another P name or not if this is a girl. I don’t want their names to sound cheesy, and I definitely gravitate toward P names because I love the double P sound in the first and last names, particularly for female names. Do you think a 3rd daughter will feel “left out” if we don’t use a p name? This is most definitely our last child.
So far, names in the running for a girl are:
1. Piper (my husband loves this name)
2. Posey
3. Mariposa and call her Posey
4. Phoebe
Do you have any non-P name suggestions that go well with Poppy and Paisley?
If the baby is a boy, his name will probably be Theo Caspian Powers, which I love.

I think if I were you I’d stick with a P name for a third girl. I like Piper best of your options because I think it’s the best in the line-up: Posey is so similar in sound to Paisley when said out loud (I found myself swapping the sounds: Paisy and Posely), and Phoebe suddenly feels like it SHOULD be pronounced with a P sound instead of an F sound. Other P names to consider:

Padget Powers. Poppy, Paisley, and Padget.

Patience Powers. Poppy, Paisley, and Patience.

Persia Powers. Poppy, Paisley, and Persia.

Philippa Powers. Poppy, Paisley, and Pippa.

Peyton Powers. Poppy, Paisley, and Peyton.

Polly Powers. Poppy, Paisley, and Polly. (This might be too close to Poppy—but it helps that Poppy is actually Penelope: Penelope, Paisley, and Polly.)

My two favorites are Padget and Philippa: Padget because I only recently heard of that name and I think it’s adorbs, and Philippa because I like the way she can draw attention to the P sound with Pippa, or downplay it with the F sound of Philippa.

Name update 09-17-2009! Shelby writes:

We have an update — our little boy, Theo Caspian, was born on September 14th!! He’s a healthy, beautiful little boy and everyone is doing great. Thank you all for the great suggestions!

Jill writes:

My husband and I are expecting baby #2 (a girl!) who is due September 10. He and I, along with our first daughter, Jenna Elizabeth, share the same initials including middle initials. We can’t decide if we want to continue with this or not. I’m leaning toward not using another J name because I don’t want people to confuse our kids. We like names that are “normal,” somewhat traditional, but under-used. We’re not fans of super trendy names like Grace, Claire, Ellie, Isabel, etc.

Our top picks for J names are:
Joni Ellis (Joni for my husband’s grandmother, Joan)
Jane
Jocelyn

Or top picks for non-J names are:
Callie Sue (Sue for my husband’s mother)
Lyndie Sue

And…. that’s about all we’ve got! We’re definitely coming up short this time around. Can you help??

P.S. Our last name rhymes with Yarns.

If you DO continue with J names, here are some possibilities:

Joely Elena
Jorie Emeline
Josie Ellis
Joy Emerson
June Ellery

If you DON’T continue with J names, here are some possibilities:

April Sue
Cara Sue
Claudia Sue
Ellis Joan
Holly Sue
Laurel Sue
Libby Sue
Marissa Joan
Molly Sue
Robin Sue
Romy Sue
Sukie Joan

And what I want most to know is whether everyone thinks they should stick with J names or not, so let’s have a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (190 votes total):
Stick with J names: 125 votes, roughly 66%
Switch to another letter: 65 votes, roughly 34%

Name update 10-02-2009! Jill writes:

Just a quick update on our JEB dilemma….

We decided not to go with another J name and named our daughter Callie Sue. She was born 09-08-09!

Thanks for the help,

Jill

Diane writes:

Hoping you can help us out. I am pregnant with a boy. Definitely a boy. And we have no ideas about what to name him. I tend to like classic, Old Testament sorts of names and have suggested Jacob, Samuel, Ezra and Lucas (which isn’t really Old Testament, but has the same feeling.) I also like Hunter and Thaddeus.

Hunter is a variation on an old family name.
My husband has pretty much vetoed all my choices outright, except for Lucas and Hunter (both of which he said “weren’t terrible”)

Other things to note:
Our daughter is Claire Barbara – her first name is one we both liked and Barbara was an aunt of my husband’s who passed away.
I was thinking I might like to honor my cousin Nan, who passed away just shy of three years ago.
Our last name is Germanic and rhymes with Stanline.

My husband was a veto-er, too. What I did was have HIM come up with a list. Then I laughed and laughed, because it was all names of Cool Kids From High School. Soon we were making progress. Not, uh, EASY progress, but progress.

That’s where I might start in this case, too: asking your husband for HIS list. That might give a better idea of the meeting place between what you like and what he likes. Failing that, we’ll start with your preference for Old Testamenty names, combined with the names on his Not Terrible list: Lucas and Hunter.

The Baby Name Wizard has a specific list for Old Testament names, which certainly gives us a good start. What I did was look at each name and think, “Does this seem like someone who thought Lucas and Hunter were Not Terrible would also think this name was Not Terrible?” My conclusion: “Hey, he chose the only two names on your list that didn’t sound Old Testamenty. He doesn’t like Old Testamenty names.” I changed my focus: Old Testament names that don’t sound quite so Old Testamenty.

Asher Stanline
Caleb Stanline
Ethan Stanline
Jared Stanline
Joel Stanline
Joshua Stanline
Nathan Stanline
Reuben Stanline
Simon Stanline
Zachary Stanline

None of these just CALL OUT to me as the solution to the situation, though. If he doesn’t like Jacob and Samuel, he probably won’t like Caleb and Joel. If you’re thinking Samuel and Ezra, I suspect Nathan and Ethan won’t satisfy.

Would anyone else like to try?

Name update 05-31-2010! Diane writes:

Hi Swistle – I don’t know if I ever updated you, or your readers about what we decided to name our baby, nearly nine months ago.

Benjamin Colin. It meshes nicely with his big sister’s name, Claire Barbara.

We were undecided about right up until the end. Then as I was lying there, in the throes of labor I started thinking about the names in my head. And talking to the unborn one (oversharing? Maybe. But whatevs.) I decided then and there, that his name was Ben. So I told my husband so.

Stephanie writes:

hi there! i’m due with baby #3. my due date is september 6/09. i already have 2 daughters and my ultrasound tech ‘thought’ it was another girl. not like we’re surprised, but anyhow, we are having many, many issues trying to find a good name this time. my two other daughters have the names Kaia Faith and Kaybrie Joy. we weren’t planning on the ‘k’ theme with the first two, just happened to like those names that started with ‘k’. i think we’d like to avoid the ‘k’ names this time around b/c i don’t think i want to have my daughter’s being the KKK (kwim?). i have always LOVED the name Brynn. it’s one of my absolute favorite names and i would love to use it, however, it doesn’t fit with our middle name of Grace. we want to use Grace as our middle name this time b/c it ‘goes with’ Faith and Joy that we used before for the girls. ack! so… here’s the conditions…
1. feel like i need at least a 2 syllable name to go with the middle name Grace.
2. avoiding names that start with ‘k’.
3. want something unique and different (not common but not totally crazy and out there — see my daughter’s names)
4. avoiding names that also start with ‘t’ and also avoiding names that end in ‘son’ b/c i don’t like the way they sound with our last name.

i have a huge list of names that i already like but just can’t seem to pick that ‘perfect’ name, if you know what i mean. here’s a few of my favs for you to deliberate over:
-Ayla
-Hadley (my husband really likes this one but i worry it’s too masculine compared to my daughters’ girly names)
-Payton (again, too masculine? maybe b/c the other spelling of it we’d use as a 2nd name for a boy)
-Juliet
-Ainsley
-Brynley or Brynnley or Brynly (i like the sound of this name especially b/c i can shorten it to Brynn when she’s older, which i love, but i just don’t like any of the spellings for it. help!)
-Paige (not 2 syllables but love the name)

i guess that’s it for now. i hope to get a few good suggestions and comments. i’m just starting to freak out b/c baby is due SO soon and both other times i was a week early.

thanks in advance,
stephanie

(incidentally if this baby turns out to surprise us and be a boy, we already have a name picked out and it was SO easy to choose — Drew Peyton. what’s up with that? not fair!!)

I wonder—are you flexible about the middle name? Because if you’d consider other virtue names that go with Faith and Joy, we might be able to find a multi-syllable one that goes with your first name favorite of Brynn. This sort of thing:

Brynn Charity
Brynn Honor
Brynn Mercy
Brynn Patience
Brynn Prudence
Brynn Verity

None of those sound as good to me as your Brynley Grace option, though. My favorite spelling is Brinley: Brinley Grace.

You could also use Brynna: Brynna Grace.

You mention liking the name Paige and wishing it were more than one syllable; I wonder if you would like the name Paisley? Paisley Grace.

I like Hadley and think of it as cutely tomboyish but still primarily feminine—probably because of the name Haley. Same with the name Payton/Peyton—probably because I’m watching One Tree Hill (with main female character Peyton Sawyer).

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

Poll results (211 votes total):
Ayla: 7 votes, roughly 3%
Hadley: 16 votes, roughly 8%
Payton: 2 votes, roughly 1%
Juliet: 21 votes, roughly 10%
Ainsley: 24 votes, roughly 11%
Brinley: 61 votes, roughly 29%
Brynna: 63 votes, roughly 30%
Paisley: 17 votes, roughly 8%

Name update 04-08-2010! Stephanie writes:

i was due sept 6th with a girl and i really wanted to use brynn as a name or a variation on it. you gave me so many options and for that, i thank you. in the end, i allowed my husband the honor of naming our baby and with much consideration… and 2 hours AFTER her birth, she was finally named Hadley Grace. she was 6 lbs 14 oz and was born september 8/09. two days after her due date. she is the perfect fit to our family, a sweet little sister for Kaia and Kaybrie. thanks again for all your help.