Beth writes:

My brother and SIL are expecting their second girl in October. Their current daughter is named Payton Marie. Girl #2 is going to be Something Elizabeth. (How sweet, yes, to give her my name?) My brother keeps saying to my SIL “Hey, what about Morgan? I really like Morgan. Why aren’t we considering Morgan?” And my SIL keeps replying, “Because, numbnuts, Morgan is your niece’s middle name.” (Tis true, of course, Amelia Morgan.) Now, Chris and I have told them we don’t mind, and Mia would be over the moon with bliss if they named the baby Morgan. What do you think about two first cousins, out of a grand total of four, sharing a first/middle name?

I think it’s (1) totally fine, (2) totally non-confusing, and (3) adorable.

What does everyone else think? Okay to have a Morgan Elizabeth and an Amelia Morgan as cousins? Let’s have a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (217 votes total):
Yes: 210 votes, roughly 97%
No: 7 votes, roughly 3%

Sara writes:

I’m due August 8th with twins ! The doctors only know the exact gender of Baby A or Big Mac as we call him. Baby B or ‘ Small Fry ‘ is very modest and they can’t tell us a definite gender, we will have to wait till Small Fry is born before we actually get it see ! We are having the hardest time coming up with names. Everytime I think we have the names down, one of us changes our minds.

We already have three boys. Jacob Caspian aka. Jake Casper, Cameron Cade and Levi Cooper. Right now we have the ‘ C ‘ middle name theme with our boys but I’m not sure if we want to keep that going, I think this is a good chance to break the theme with twins so no one feels left out. Jake and Cam have very popular names and before that didn’t matter to use but now I am always hearing there names so we tried to get more unique with Levi but that seems to also be gaining popularity too. All of the boys’ middle names have meaning to my husbands side of the family as we used my last name.

We have a few rules for the twins’ names. We don’t want anything to popular or matchy with one another. None of the names can end with – SON as the last name will be Jamieson. The last rule we have we don’t want any names starting is J,C or L .

This is our top names for each gender :
Boys :
Beckett Cormac – So we can still call him Big Mac, Cormac is a family name
Everett Charles – both family names, I love Everett
Max Everett
Max Calloway – Calloway being a family name
Crew Oliver – I love Crew but then we would have 2 C names. Do you think the other kids would feel left out because of this ? Is Crew to out there ?
Oliver Caven – both family names.
Thatcher Holden – my husband’s middle name is Holden
Breckin and Cable ‘ Cabe ‘ – We love these but can’t think of middle names for them. I love Cabe as a nickname but I don’t like Gabriel ‘ Gabe ‘.

Girls :
Mia Catherine Carys – It means My Pure Love, Catherine and Mia would honor people in our family.
Nova Madelyn – Nova is a family name and we just love it
Everly Noelle / Auden Noelle – Neolla is a family name so Noelle is a variant for us to use it.
Gemma Carys – Gemma is a family name , I love the name Carys
Cecily Vivienne – After my husbands grandma Celia Victoria
Emery Scout / Elise Haven – We just love it
Sophie Calloway – I like how this name flows but is Calloway to masculine for a girl ? Will Sophie age well ?
Rowan Ottilie – This is my husbands favorite name for a girl. What do you think of it ? Is it to hard to pronounce ? Is Rowan to masculine ?

Our list is still pretty long.
Our top names are Max Everett and Mia Catherine Carys right now for B/G twins. Are they to similar or matchy for twins, I want them to be individuals. We didn’t plan it but Max and Mia just happened to be our top names for each gender. Do you think they still work as twins ? What about how they sound with Jake, Cam and Levi’s names ? If we had B/B twins I think we would chose Beckett Cormac and Oliver Caven/Calloway now but it changes everytime you would ask me.

Do you think any of these names will become overly popular ? Will they age well ? What do you think of them ?

Please, please help us narrow down our list. We are so close but are so far away from naming these twins ! I think we might actuall end up naming them Big Mac and Small Fry !

I remember it was overwhelming naming my own twins. So many possibilities! What we finally did was pretend they were born separately, and chose the names as if for our third and fourth singletons, rather than for twins. I’d hoped too for a subtle twinniness, such as starting with the same letter or having the same number of syllables or SOMETHING. So I’m very drawn to your Max and Mia option: the names are different enough to be used for singleton siblings, and they’re your top two names even without the twin factor, but they have a pleasing twinniness. Jacob, Cameron, Levi, Max, and Mia. Nice.

I also like Everett and Elise. And I like Oliver and Victoria, but Victoria isn’t on your first name list and you’re asking for help REDUCING the list, not adding to it!

For two boys, I like Everett and Oliver. Jacob, Cameron, Levi, Everett, and Oliver. I like how everyone has a different initial.

Everyone who wants to, pair up your own sets of favorites! I’m going to leave the other questions (like about whether a name is too common or whether a name will age well) for anyone who wants to answer them in the comments section, so we can get a good overview of people’s different opinions.

Mother W. writes:

We are having our third child, second daughter via cesarean on July 28th and are having such a hard time choosing a name.

Here’s our dilemna: Our last name is Wylykanowitz.

I decided long ago that with such a consonant heavy name that first names should be no more than two syllables and should contain long vowels. We also really like using family names. Our son is Jacob and our daughter is Mena (for grandmother Philomena).

We had already decided to name this daughter after my grandmother even before she died in March. Her name is Miriam Ruth Ellis. I like Miriam, but my husband doesn’t. There are several granddaughters and great-grandaughters by the name of Ruth (that’s what she went by) and so my father has asked to think strongly before using it also. And we all like Ellis but the soft vowel doesn’t seem to fit with our other children.

Names that we’ve come up with so far:
Grace Ellis
Ellis Marie (both family names)
Josephine Ruth (both family names)

I feel that the naming of a child is very important since it’s their first communication of who they are in the world. But I’m just stumped. I like many names but it’s fitting them with our last name that always ends up getting in our way.

The name that comes to mind is Mira (MEER-ah). It’s good with your last name, it fits with your naming preferences, and it’s similar to Miriam. I’d use Mira Ruth, I think, to evoke your grandmother even more strongly. The main problem: Mira is probably too similar to Mena.

In that case, I think you should go with Ellis. You all like it, it’s an excellent tribute name, and I think it’s good with the names of your other children: Jacob, Mena, and Ellis. The S ending doesn’t sound ideal to me with the ending of your surname, but to me it’s worth it to get the good first name. I like Ellis Ruth.

Let’s put your first-name finalists in a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (212 votes total):
Grace: 55 votes, roughly 26%
Ellis: 125 votes, roughly 59%
Josephine: 32 votes, roughly 15%

Kristin writes:

I really hope that you and your awesome readers can help me. My husband and I are expecting our second child, a girl, on July 26th. We have a two and a half year old son named William (Will), which is a family name on my side. We are just at a loss for naming her. Of course this is how it happens, right? When I was pregnant with Will, all I could think of were girl names. His middle name is my husband’s name (extremely unusual, and starts with an N.).

Our main problem is that we both actually loved and agreed on a name…and then found out that it was one of the most common names in the U.S. last year. Yes that’s right, Emma. I have always loved that name (you know when you are in middle school and you name all of your potential children? I have a notebook from 1986 that lists Emma as my top name.) and my husband loves it because it was his mother’s middle name (she passed away). So it has a lot of sentimental value for both of us. I also think it goes nicely with Will, and works well with our last name. We didn’t realize that it was so common because we live in a community where it is much more likely to give your kid a unique name. We go to the park and have playdates with kids named Finn, Harper, Lucienne, Penelope, Liam, Huck, Evelin and Moritz. Not an Emma in the bunch.

So if we live here forever I won’t worry about her being one of five Emmas in her class. However, if we move anywhere else, I fear that I’ll be naming her the equivalent of the Jennifer, Heather or Stacy of my school years, and I don’t want to do that (no offence meant if that is your name).

We are having a hard time agreeing on other names. All that my helpful husband can come up with is Gabriela. I think that name is ok, but I hate the nickname Gaby. My list is a little more extensive and I really like all of them, but neither of us feel an instant love for any of them.

Corinna
Lucia (Lucy)
Natalie
Lily
Ella / Ellie

I also LOVE the name Beatrice but my husband said over his dead body…so maybe a middle name. In addition, our last name starts with S and I’ve eliminated pretty much all of the S names because I don’t like the alliteration.

Names that we liked but have rejected due to close family members or friends having the name (or sounds weird with our last name) include:

Katherine
Grace
Anne
Joanna
Ruth

I guess I am looking for your help in two areas:

1. Is Emma too common? Are we condemning her to a life of being known as Emma S.? Should I really care if we both love the name?

2. Can you think of any other names that we might like? We both seem to like more of the classic, timeless names. We’re not into strange spellings or naming your kid something so unusual that she’s the only one ever with that name, and we’re also not into the super trendy (although Emma apparently fits into that category now).

Help! We didn’t name Will until 3 days after he was born, and I don’t want to do that again!

I think it’s too hard to predict future classrooms, and that the best name for your daughter is the name you both love. I’ve written about this before, and I stand by it: the Top 10 is not the kiss of death. Only 9/10ths of 1% of female babies were named Emma in 2008 (source: Social Security Administration); that’s not even 1 Emma per 100 girls, and a classroom has in the range of 10-15 girls. Compare that to the 1974 Jennifers: over 4 Jennifers per 100 girls. Still, if popularity will bug you, the name Emma is about twice as common now as the name Stacy was in the 1970s.

Here are a few names that are similar to Emma:

Amelia/Emelia
Anna
Emlyn
Emmaline/Emeline
Gemma/Jemma

Let’s have a poll over to the right, for Emma and the Emma alternatives. [Poll closed; see results below.] Other name suggestions can go in the comments section.

Poll results (224 votes total):
Emma: 110 votes, roughly 49%
Amelia/Emelia: 33 votes, roughly 15%
Anna: 10 votes, roughly 4%
Emlyn: 10 votes, roughly 4%
Emmaline/Emeline: 35 votes, roughly 16%
Gemma/Jemma: 26 votes, roughly 12%

The winner of the revised TBNW book giveaway is Erin of The Schwant Family! I’m emailing you right now to get your shipping info, Erin!

If you’ve been following the comments section on the Torment Ended! (Edited: Re-Begun) post, you know that many of us are experiencing intense frustration as we try to get our hands on a copy of the revised edition of The Baby Name Wizard. My copy from Amazon arrived and it was the original 2005 book; as far as I know, NO ONE has received the second edition we expected.

So last night after the littler kids went to bed, my eldest son and I went on A Mission to find a copy of the second edition ANYWHERE in our area. We went to Barnes & Noble, because I’d seen people commenting over at The Baby Name Wizard blog that they’d found copies there. But I looked at every single book in the baby name section, and they didn’t even have the first edition.

We were about to leave, but Rob had a question for the clerk about Wall-E books, so while we had her attention I asked about the second edition. She looked in her computer and it said it was in stock, but she couldn’t find it on the shelf either so she looked in the back—AND THERE IT WAS. With the dark pink dot on the cover!

When I regained the power of speech I asked, “…You don’t have TWO, do you?” and she said yes and went back and got me another. And so I HAVE ONE TO GIVE AWAY.

Let’s make this giveaway FAST, because if you don’t win you might want to go quest at bookstores this weekend. Leave a comment on this post by Saturday, July 18, at 8:00 a.m. U.S. Pacific time, and I’ll set a timer to remind me to draw a winner promptly. The contest is for U.S. or APO or FPO mailing addresses only.

Courtney writes:

What do you think is the likelihood of a baby named Joshua Jonathan being nicknamed “JJ” even if the parents discourage it?

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

Poll results (287 votes total):
It’s inevitable: 8 votes, roughly 3%
It’s likely: 40 votes, roughly 14%
It could go either way: 65 votes, roughly 23%
It’s unlikely: 100 votes, roughly 35%
I would never have thought of it: 74 votes, roughly 26%

Liz writes:

My husband and I are expecting our first child (boy) on July 20th! We cannot seem to agree on names at all!!! We would like a name that is easy to spell, not weird or too trendy, but something that is not common. We do know that his middle name is going to be Knight (a family last name) and our last name is Herron…so now we are just trying to find a first name to go with the other two. Our top pick at the moment is Obadiah, and we would call him Obie for short. My absolute favorite name is Finley, and my husband loves Finn, but hates Finley. AGH!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I like Finley, too. I suspect it’s headed for Girlnameville, if that is any comfort. Do you like Phineas? Phineas Knight Herron. I like Finian even better, but I wonder if it’s too much N with Herron.

Obadiah is biblical-sounding like current popular choices Noah and Isaac, but less common. Other possibilities of this type: Phineas, Isaiah, Judah, Malachi, Barnaby, Abraham, and Silas.

However, with a noun-like middle name and a noun-like surname, I think I might err on the side of commonness for the first name. James Knight Herron sounds distinguished, as does Charles Knight Herron and Jonathan Knight Herron.

Jenn writes:

My husband and I are expecting our first in the middle of July. We know we’re having a boy so that has solved half of our problem.

We’re pretty set on the first name Lachlan as we got married in Scotland and our only common heritage is Scottish. What we’re stuck on is the middle name. Options we’ve tossed around have all been family names:

Lachlan Alexander – Both DH and my grandfathers were Alec, and DH’s middle name is Alexander
Lachlan David – after DH’s godfather who is a dear friend to both of us
Lachlan Augustus – My Grandmother’s middle name was August, and my Grandpa was Gustav, so it kinda covers both.

I’m currently leaning toward Lachlan Augustus, but I’m wondering if it’s too stuffy? Too pretentious? Would he have to be quite a character to pull off a name like that?

Anything else that sounds fantastic with Lachlan that you can think of?

I love the idea of using the middle name slot for a family/significant name. Both Lachlan Alexander and Lachlan David sound really good to me. I particularly like David because of the sweet godfather connection: I can just SEE the godfather tearing up when he hears about it. But I love the sound of Lachlan Alexander.

If you’re considering having more than one child, I wonder if you might want to save the name Augustus for a possible second son? Lachlan and Augustus is such a good sibling pair, and Gus is a adorable nickname. In fact, why don’t I just go ahead and name your son and future son for you? Lachlan David MacLean and Augustus Alec MacLean, or Lachlan Alexander MacLean and Augustus David MacLean.

Oh….er, would anyone else like to add a suggestion before I fill in the birth certificate? And let’s have a poll over to the right for the current three middle name candidates. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (171 votes total):
Lachlan Alexander: 99 votes, roughly 58%
Lachlan David: 57 votes, roughly 33%
Lachlan Augustus: 15 votes, roughly 9%