Hi Swistle,

I’m due in 2 weeks with baby #3, a girl, and our last baby. I have a girl named Jane (always goes by Janie) and a Maxwell (nearly always Max). I swore if I ever had another girl, I’d name her Audrey. I’ve loved the name forever.

Somewhere in this pregnancy, though, I also fell in love with the name Nellie. We’d use it as a stand alone, mostly because we don’t love any of the more formal names for which it has been derived. I feel like it works alone as it was in the top 20 in the early 1900s for years. My kids love the name, my husband loves it and really I love it too. But I’m so worried that I’ll regret never using Audrey. I’d bump Audrey to the middle spot, but we’ve already selected a family name for the middle from my husband’s side (which has been largely neglected during the naming of all of our children). Do you or readers have thoughts or clever solutions?

Other considerations: I’m worried about my Janie feeling like her name is “boring”, so I’m resistant to using more flamboyant names (Penelope comes to mind). Our last name starts with M and we already have a Max so I’d like to avoid using other M names.

Thanks!

One possibility is that you love the name Audrey, you have always loved the name Audrey, you WILL always love the name Audrey, and you are just having a little fling with the name Nellie—but will come back to Audrey in the end (though we are running out of time for that to happen). Another possibility is that you love and have always loved and will always love the name Audrey, but now you have discovered the name Nellie and so all names have been re-ranked, and the challenger has defeated the champion.

I’m interested to know what the situation was with your first daughter’s name. Had you always loved the names Jane and Audrey, and it was a huge struggle to decide which name to use first, and you finally decided on Jane but with the comforting thought that you could use the name Audrey next time? Or was the name Jane the clear favorite over the name Audrey? Or was the name Audrey the favorite, but there was another motivating reason (honor name, etc.) to use the name Jane?

All of these things factor into the current decision, and I can’t tell from the letter which things are most likely to be the case. This is the kind of thing that would work best over coffee and doughnuts, while sitting in comfy chairs. We would pick through it piece by piece, and doughnut by doughnut.

It is not uncommon to decide on a name, and then get nearly to the point of using the name and decide against using it. Sometimes it’s that a name seems like a great idea until an actual baby is on the way / almost born, at which point things click into a new kind of reality and the name doesn’t seem right at all. Sometimes it’s that a name is the chosen name for so long, it gets a little…stale, or something. Sometimes a name that would have been EXACTLY RIGHT at one point in time is, for whatever reason, no longer exactly right at a different point in time. Sometimes a better name comes along. It can then feel weird to change one’s mind—and, for some of us, it can feel worryingly RIPE FOR REGRET. What if we wish we’d stuck to our original decision??

And our fears are not totally baseless, because it’s also not uncommon to decide on a name, and then get a crush on another name and go spinning out on that idea for a bit, but then come back with relief to the original decision. I am susceptible to that myself: Paul and I agree on a list of names, we decide on one name from that list—and then I hear a name on TV and OH MY GOSH I LOVE THAT NAME, WHAT IF THAT IS THE NAME?? But soon the name-crush fades and I’m back to our previous choice and glad the baby wasn’t born during that brief interlude when I was entertaining another name.

But sometimes a name turns out to be not a crush but a dark horse. When Paul and I were naming Henry, we were down to two finalists, one of which was the near-certain front-runner but I didn’t want to give up discussing the other option yet, when abruptly a new name came out of nowhere: we had never considered it for any of our babies before. I thought it might just be a name crush, but after awhile it seemed more as if the reason we couldn’t commit to either of the two finalists was that neither of them was Right, and this new name was Right, and we did use it, and I’m glad. (I do think our previous finalist would have been a really good choice too, though, and I don’t think I’d have been sorry if we’d used it.)

I think it can help to differentiate between a DECISION and an INTENTION. You can decide at age 12 to name a future daughter Emily because it is the most beautiful and perfect name in the world—but a couple of decades and an acquired co-parent and several actual pregnancies and a decade of Top-Ten Emilys later, that decision turns out to have been an INTENTION: the elements of the decision were not yet in place at age 12, so no decision was actually made. You weren’t 12 in your situation, but I would still say you intended to name your second daughter Audrey, but now that all the elements of the decision are actually in place, this is when you get to make the actual decision. I don’t think you should feel bound by your earlier intention (if you ARE feeling at all bound by it).

It has helped me, with time, to find that I maintain tender feelings for names we almost used, but in not a single case so far do I wish we’d used the Almost name instead. I think you can pick Nellie/Audrey (whichever you end up preferring) as the given name, and end up just feeling ever-tender toward the name Audrey/Nellie. I have several Almosts on my naming list, and I mention them pretty often on this blog in the hopes that others will use them, and I use a couple of them as pseudonyms for the kids, and I have secret hopes of seeing any of them used for grandchildren—but I don’t have any serious regrets about not using them. More like a fun “That was the name we Almost Used for you!”—but the name we Actually Used seems better.

I think one option is to name her Audrey and nickname her Nellie. I can be on the conservative end of the spectrum about nicknames, and so you might expect me to be opposed to such an idea—but in this particular case it seems like it has the potential to solve the whole thing nicely. Anyone wondering about the connection can be told a cheery “She just SEEMED like a Nellie!”: even I, so conservative about nicknames, would think “Oh! Okay! That makes sense! Sometimes things happen that way!” And the name Audrey doesn’t have other any natural nicknames to fight for the role. And I like the parallel set-up of Jane/Maxwell/Audrey and Janie/Max/Nellie (instead of Nellie being the only one who has just one version of her name), and I like the idea of her ending up with a more formal name if she wants one later on, without you feeling forced to choose a traditional long-form you don’t like much. And the combination Audrey/Nellie sounds right to me in a way that makes me wonder if I once read a book with an Audrey called Nellie. And also I just for whatever reason want you to have BOTH. I am perhaps getting soft in my later years.

Oh wait! I have had another idea, and it is my top favorite: name her Nell. (Unless you already considered that option among other more-formal names for Nellie, but I am imagining you were thinking more along the lines of Eleanor and Penelope, because of the reference to not wanting to get fancier than Jane.) It’s less diminutive than Nellie as a given name, while still letting you use the diminutive as you do with the name Jane/Janie, and it gives her a name/nickname just like her siblings. Jane, Maxwell, and Nell; Janie, Max, and Nellie. My one concern is that this option highlights the similarity between the -ell of Maxwell and the -ell- in Nellie.

And I think it’s worth reconsidering the middle name situation to decide which option the two of you like better / feel better about: using the honor name, or having a way to salvage/save the name Audrey. Sometimes honor names just don’t come out even, and that’s okay, especially if this is a situation where your husband’s family has been honored in everyone’s surname.

Name update:

Hi Swistle,

I wrote you a few weeks ago on my naming dilemma (a sister for Janie and Max). My husband and I poured over the comments for the last few weeks, rereading them in the hospital in the hours following the birth of our little girl. We even briefly considered naming her Anneliese (nn Nell/Nellie).

We finally settled on Nell Audrey Mae Mxxxx. So far, we mostly call her Nellie Mae or Nellie girl. We love the simplicity/dignity of Nell and the sweetness of Nellie. We weren’t sure about having two middle names, but Audrey and Mae are family names from opposite sides, and the longer length of the double middle seems to balance the shortness of Nell. Thank you so much to you and your readers for all the help and input!

Hi Swistle,

I wrote to you over 6 years ago and you and your readers were instrumental in helping us choose a name for baby #3. After 6 years of begging my husband, baby #4 (due in March) is a dream come true. My twelve year old daughter is Violet Noelle, nine year old son is Scott Brian, and our six year old is Simon Cooper. Again our last name is Wylie.

I know I’m struggling because I’m worrying too much about choosing the perfect name for our last baby, who is a GIRL!! Also, when I started naming babies 12 years ago my list felt fresh and now it feels dated.

Names my husband has vetoed:
Wren
Lane
Fiona
Olive

Names that I like that are too popular where I live:
Hazel
Lucy
Ruby

 

The names we’re considering now:

Vivian- I like Vivian but worry it’s too matchy with Violet.

Lila Jane- Lila is my husband’s favorite but he acknowledges that names are more important to me than him :) Sometimes I think I should just let him have this name but I can’t get past that it blends in with all the Layla’s, Lily’s, Leah’s, etc. Plus I don’t love that I would have a Vi, Si, and a Li. That would leave my Scott a little left out.

Calla- This feels like a modern choice but with a soft sound. My concern is that it’s less established than my other kids’ names.

Hannah- I know this one is pretty popular but there aren’t many where I live. It also has a soft sound and is biblical in the same way Simon is.

PLEASE HELP. Am I missing something? For middles, I like Rose or Bea. I’ve also been trying to brainstorm a middle name that is Springy since sister Violet has a middle name that’s very winter when she was born. I think a middle name that perhaps ties her to her sister Violet would be nice.

I think Vivian is great. It’s visually similar to Violet, but when said aloud it shares only the initial sound. It pleases me that this situation is parallel to the boys’ names: Scott and Simon (five letters starting with S, but different number of syllables and very different sounds), Violet and Vivian (six letters starting with V, but different number of syllables depending on how you say them, and very different sounds).

Lila sounds much more similar to Violet to me, despite the different first initials: those repeating L and long-I sounds in Violet and Lila really catch my ear. And I don’t like it at all with the surname: if she were called Lila Jane without exception, that sounds okay—but without the Jane, Lila Wylie is right on the edge of being comical. Since Lila is your husband’s favorite, I might try to make it work as a middle name.

Calla Wylie is a little hard for me to say with the surname, but not at a deal-breaking level. I like the flower theme with her sister’s name. I think it goes well with the other names, and I think there’s room to spread out a little when it’s a fourth child after a six-year gap: style coordination feels less important, even for someone like me who enjoys some good sibling-name coordination. It’s just so understandable that the parents’ naming style could have shifted, in addition to the change in naming trends in general.

I wonder if you’d like Lillian. It’s somewhat similar to both Lila and Vivian. Lillian Wylie. Violet, Scott, Simon, and Lillian.

Or Lydia: a little bit like Lila, plus biblical like Simon. Lydia Wylie; Violet, Scott, Simon, and Lydia.

Or Claudia. Claudia Wylie; Vivian, Scott, Simon, and Claudia. I love this name and it would have been fairly high on my own list if it hadn’t also been the name of Paul’s high school girlfriend.

Something from the Cora/Clara/Nora category? I like all of those with Violet.

Or Josephine. Josephine Wylie; Violet, Scott, Simon, Josephine.

Or Beatrix. Beatrix Wylie; Violet, Scott, Simon, and Beatrix. But perhaps “Bea Wylie” sounds like an instruction.

Or Minerva. Minerva Wylie; Violet, Scott, Simon, and Minerva.

Or Celeste. Celeste Wylie; Violet, Scott, Simon, and Celeste.

Or Louise. Louise Wylie; Violet, Scott, Simon, and Louise.

Oh! Maybe Margaret? Margaret Wylie; Violet, Scott, Simon, and Margaret. It gives you three names ending in T, but that’s fairly subtle.

I wonder if you’d like Anna instead of Hannah? It has a trim refreshing feel/sound to me recently. Anna Wylie; Violet, Scott, Simon, and Anna.

Rose has extra freshness as a first name, especially with Violet, and I love it with the surname; and having just one syllable ties it nicely with the name Scott. In fact, look at all the ties: Violet and Rose are both flower names; Scott and Rose are both one-syllable names; Violet and Simon both have the long-I sound; Violet and Scott both end in T; and all four names have the letter O. Rose Wylie; Violet, Scott, Simon, and Rose.

For springy middle names, I wonder if Wren could be saved from the veto list: sometimes a No for a first name can still work as a middle. Or the name Spring is pretty. Or what about Robin? Sweet and associated with spring. Or lots of flower names feel spring-like: Tulip, Hyacinth, Daffodil, Pansy, Bluebell, Primrose, Iris, Lily, Dahlia, Calla, Azalea, Lilac (similar to Lila), Daisy.

Name update:

Hi Swistle and Readers,

Thank you so much for your thoughts and opinions in naming baby #4. She was born on March 28th. We decided to name her Vivian Joy Wylie. We love her name and we love her even more!

Dear Swistle,

I’ve been an avid reader of your blog since I was pregnant with our first, and I’m coming to you for some naming advice for our third and last child… a third boy.

Older children are Benjamin Wesley (Benji / Ben) and Zachary Owen (Zachi / Zack). My husband’s name is Bradley (Brad) and I’m Jacquelyn (Jacqui). Our last name is a two-syllable Dutch name that starts with “van” and the ending rhymes with “ant”.

Sadly, boy names are really hard for us and we have an intentional naming pattern going with our two older boys: 3-syllable first name with a Biblical connection and a 2-syllable middle with a “w” in there somewhere.

We like the name Matthew for a middle, and it fits the naming pattern perfectly. But we’re struggling with the first name.

After a long search, we finally decided that Jeremy (nn Remy) is our favorite and the top contender of an extremely short list. My only concern is that it has a similar ending sound as Zachary: Benjamin, Zachary, and Jeremy. Would people assume the younger two are twins with “matchy” names?

Granted, all three of our boys are/will be very close in age (17 months apart and 16 months), so maybe the twin thing is a moot point. We will be fielding those questions because of their ages anyway. We are already getting questions on whether our two older boys are twins because they are almost the same height now. So maybe I am over-thinking the matchiness of the names… and we should go with the name we both love.

Thanks for your advice.
~Jacquelyn

I think these are all non-issues. No, I don’t think the names Zachary and Jeremy are so matchy that people will wonder based on names alone if they are twins. No, I don’t that would be a negative thing even if someone did manage to wonder that. No, I don’t think you have to repeat a naming pattern you’ve done only twice, especially when it includes specifications such as “two-syllable middle name containing a W,” which is one of the most arbitrary naming patterns I have ever heard of. Since you HAVE found a two-syllable middle name containing a W and ALSO you’ve found a three-syllable first name with a biblical connection, AND those names are your top choices and you agree on them, there is no problem here for us to solve. Yes, you are over-thinking the matchiness of the names, and you should go with the name you both love. It’s a great name.

If you were less happy with your choice, I would be leaning hard on you to get rid of some of these requirements. If, for example, these are your top names from names that meet those specifications, but they’d be very low on your list if all names were considered, then I think it would be worth starting over. When parents are struggling with names, that is not the appropriate time to add a bunch of hard and unnecessary and completely voluntary filters that dramatically reduce the number of choices. There I was, reading the letter: “Sadly, boy names are really hard for us” and I was nodding along—and then I read “3-syllable first name with a Biblical connection and a 2-syllable middle with a ‘w’ in there somewhere” and I said, out loud, “COME ON.” Why would you do that to yourselves? You are having three boys in under three years and boy names are hard for you; are you trying to make this into some sort of Iron Man Reality TV Ultra Challenge Naming Event?

Do you know how many people over the years will say, “Ah, I see what you did there: 3-syllable first name with a Biblical connection and a 2-syllable middle with a ‘w’ in there somewhere!” Nor do I, but I can tell you the number will be very, very low. Even Swistle, with her rabid and unceasing interest in names and naming stories, would not have picked up on all the elements of that theme. And here you are, wringing your hands over this while pregnant and dealing with two babies already! This doesn’t have to be this hard.

If you are happy with the name Jeremy Matthew, then you are DONE! You have done it: you have found a third name that fits the same specifications as the first two names, and you can rest easy—or rather you can continue to be busy and exhausted, because there is not much resting in the toddler-and-a-baby-and-pregnant stage. If on the other hand you have chosen these names only to meet voluntary/unnecessary preferences, and you don’t actually like the names very much, then ditch the preferences and start over fresh with an EASIER task: finding a nice solid name you both like, without worrying about syllables and W’s.

Name update:

Hi Swistle and Readers! First, I would like to thank everyone for your thoughts and suggestions on our naming dilemma. We thought everything through again, tried a few alternatives, and kept coming back to the same name. Jeremy Matthew, nn Remy, arrived two weeks early on June 10th, and the name fits him quite well.

Hello Swistle!

I am due on March 26th with our first child, a boy, and my husband and I are paralyzed by naming indecision! I recently discovered your blog and it feels like a god send!

Our last name is Marnik and we’ve decided to use the middle name George because it has rich family significance for both sides of our family.

Names we both like but are currently unsure about with the other names are:

1. Owen
2. Levi
3. Caleb
4. Liam
5. Carter
6. Ethan
7. Wyatt
8. Jeremiah
9. Louis

I also love the name Lincoln but my husband doesn’t like it, especially since the whole double president connection with both first and middle names. I also love Asher, but my husband hates it too. He likes names that are not super unique, while I would be willing to go a bit more “out there”.

We both like Liam, but are hesitant to choose that one because its in the top 5 names right now. We also love Noah, but can’t use that name due to my sister choosing that for her son.

We plan to have at least 2 or 3 more children. If this one had been a girl we were going to name her Adelaide or Amelia (with the middle name Lois for my grandmother who recently passed away).

Thanks so much for any advice or new suggestions you can give us! This naming this is so much harder than I thought it would be!

The name Caleb caught my attention because I really like that name, but then I said it with the surname and found it difficult to say: the -b of Caleb disappears into the M- of Marnik and I get something that sounds more like Kayla Marnik. Liam Marnik turns into Leah Marnik.

Carter Marnik has repeating -ar- and c/k sounds that bother my ear, but that’s a very subjective thing. I have a little trouble saying Wyatt Marnik, but I can’t put a finger on why.

My top favorites from your list are Owen and Louis. More possibilities:

Aaron
Benjamin
Charles (repeating -ar-)
Daniel
Elijah
Elliot
Evan
Ezra
Gabriel
Henry
Ian
Jonathan
Judah
Leo
Nathaniel
Nolan
Oliver
Wesley
Wilson

I would have suggested Joel and James and John, but I don’t like them with the middle name.

You wouldn’t want to use George as the first name, would you? I just love it, and particularly with the surname. George Marnik. So handsome! But I can see many reasons to keep honor names in the middle.

Name update:

Hi Swistle!

Thank you so much for your name help! Our little guy was born 9 days late on April 5th and after much back and forth my husband and I decided to name him Owen George Marnik. We think it fits him perfectly and a very happy to have Owen in our lives!

Thanks again for your help!

Swistle! I’ve been following your blog for so. many. years, through numerous fertility issues, through a breakup, though years of not even trying to conceive and through a miscarriage that I never thought I’d actually need anyone’s advice because during all this time, I was honing all my name nerdiness by reading your blog and and following name trends and data. But now that I am preparing to name an actual real life human I desperately need your help. This is serious business!

My partner and I are over the moon that we are expecting our first (and probably only), baby due in April, gender unknown. I would like to have a few solid names for each gender so we can say them out loud to this little one before making the final decision. We have finally decided on a last and middle name. This took months of discussion and thought, as we do not share a last name. We decided to use my last name for this baby’s last (sounds like O’Burn), and his mother’s maiden name as this baby’s middle (Row, spelled differently). I am so happy about this! So much woman power in this babe’s name!

For girls, our top contenders are:
Ramona
Marigold “Goldie”
Loretta

I love this every name on this list. There are a few issues with these names, however. His favorite is Ramona, but it was also the name of my lovely cat, who died 5 years ago. It just feels like my cat’s name.
I love Goldie, and would probably call her this exclusively with Marigold as a backup but the issue with this name is that all but 2 of our 7 nieces all have an -ie or a -y ending to their names and this bothers me a little because: 1. Goldie so rhyme-y with of their names and 2. All these names sound a bit diminutive. He is lukewarm on Loretta.

For boys, our top contenders are:
Remy
Hayes
Eero

I don’t love this list like the girl list. The issues with these seem like dealbreakers: I’m afraid that Remy (partner’s favorite) and Hayes are too trendy, and that while Remy/Remi/Remington is unisex, it’s leaning more heavily toward the girl’s side, especially with all the alternate spellings (is this a problem? I can’t decide). The -y ending doesn’t bother me on a boy for some reason.
Then there is Eero. I LOVE it so much, he’s unsure. I’ve love Arrow too, but prefer Eero (it’s not a weapon, doesn’t feel trendy, and the Saarinen reference is a pleasing one). The issues here are: 1. Spelling/ pronouncing issues, which I think won’t bother me so much (as there are more common names like Aaron, Madelyne, Louis where pronunciation and spelling can be up for interpretation/confusion), but I don’t want to saddle the babe with a lifetime of irritation over this. 2. Eero Row is repetitive. Initially this bothered me but my partner likes them together, however, he’s not in love like I am with Eero.
Are their other boy names that are just as cool and uncommon but with less issues? I know that the perfect name doesn’t exist, but can you and your readers help give your opinions on these issues/recommend other boy names?

Other names I like but can’t/ won’t use:
Cleo
Sunny
Vita
Zola
Clark
Frederick/Freddie
Soren
Teddy

Other names he likes:
Archer
Arlo
Hugh/Hugo
Jude
Oliver

Thank you so much for any advice and I promise to send an update (those are my favorite)!

Best,
Melissa and Niko

My first impulse was to push you to like Arlo: it’s a great name, and it has almost all the upsides of Eero without any of the downsides. My main hesitation is that I don’t like the -o ending with the O- surname; I don’t like it with Eero, either. Arlo O’Burn. Eero O’Burn. Combined with the -ro/Row issue of first and middle, Eero Row O’Burn would be completely out for me: my mouth and ear can’t make heads or tails of it. Arlo Row O’Burn has a similar set of difficult sound combinations. I don’t like to say them or hear them. I realize this sort of thing is highly subjective, however, and that someone else might love the repeating sounds.

Hayes feels contemporary to me, and it’s part of the surname-name trend, but I don’t know if I would call it trendy or not. It feels pleasingly old-fashioned, too—like, I would not be surprised at all to encounter an elderly gentleman named Hayes, whereas I would be surprised to encounter an elderly gentleman named Cayden. It does blend into the surname, but I think you’d just get used to putting a little pause there.

Let’s look at the current usage of Remy. This is from the Social Security Administration for babies born in 2017 (the 2018 data will be available in May):

Remy: 497 F, 678 M
Remi: 1262 F, 186 M
Remmy: 20 F, 60 M
Remmi: 50 F, 5 M
Remington: 754 F, 1497 M
Remmington: 27 F, 20 M

I don’t know what I’d advise. I was not expecting the numbers to look like that: I don’t know anyone named Remy/Remi, so I had very little to go on, but for some reason I was expecting to see it less unisex than that, with heavier usage for boys. Usage of Remy and Remington is rising for both boys and girls; this may be a name like Avery or Riley or Cameron, where we will expect it for either sex.

I’d love to find some names without so many overlaps in sound: Row O’Burn already has the repeating long-O and the repeating R; Remy adds a third R, Eero adds a third R and a third long-O.

Calvin
Davis
Dawson
Emmett
Felix
Gage
Lawson
Malcolm
Thompson
Wesley
Zane

An option that doesn’t avoid repeating sounds is Harvey. I love it so much. Harvey O’Burn. Harvey Row O’Burn.

Another pet favorite of mine that repeats a sound: Alfred. Alfred O’Burn. Alfred Row O’Burn.

Or I think Alistair is nice. Alistair O’Burn. Alistair Row O’Burn.

Or Merrit. Merrit O’Burn. Merrit Row O’Burn.

Here’s one that leans into the sound repetition but with some nice strong consonant sounds to give it structure: Gibson. Gibson O’Burn. Gibson Row O’Burn.

Or Franklin. Franklin O’Burn. Franklin Row O’Burn.

Turning to girl names. Ramona is again a lot of repeating sounds: Ramona Row O’Burn; three Rs, three long-Os. It is too much for me, but I’ll say again that I know such things are very subjective, and it would not surprise me to hear that the overlapping sounds were a delight to someone else’s ear. It does seem to me like much less of an issue than with Eero Row O’Burn, I think because the name Ramona is very familiar and also because it has some nice strong consonant sounds to help break up the Rs and Os.

My top favorite from your list is Marigold. Three Rs and three Os again, but the O sound is not obvious, and it helps that the R is not the first initial. Also, again we have some nice strong consonants to break things up. Goldie is adorable, and I don’t care two figs about the cousin names ending in -ie. The diminutive nature of the nickname is another story. I will say that Goldie does not have the lightweight/silly sound that draws my attention to a diminutive ending, and for me that makes a big difference. It also makes a big difference to me that it’s the nickname and not the given name.

The girl names on your list make me think of:

Agatha
Celeste
Cordelia/Delia
Esther
Florence/Flora
Frances/Frankie
Gloria
Harriet
Hazel (similar to Hayes)
Henrietta/Hennie/Etta
Imogen/Midge
Ivy
Louisa
Louise
Mabel
Magnolia/Nola
Margaret/Greta
Marilla
Matilda
Sabrina
Theodora
Winifred/Winnie/Freddie

Name update:

Thank you, Swistle, for posting my question, and thank you to all the commenters for all their thoughtful responses. I immediately added Swistle’s suggestion of Imogen/Midge (love!) to our girl list, and a reader’s suggestion of Desmond/Desi/Dez to our boy list. Then, a bit reluctantly, I let go of Eero, as the overwhelming response from your readers was that this name would not only cause confusion over pronunciation/spelling, but also it doesn’t sound pleasing with the last name. Thank you for talking me down from that ledge. Eero will always be a name I love but sadly will never use.

Well, our little boy was born on April 17th and it took us 5 days to decide on his name. To my surprise, none of the names we considered during these 5 days were the names I wrote to you about! We finally decided on Quincy Row O’Burn. I stumbled upon Quincy while researching Desmond (thank you to the reader who suggested this!), and I love love love it. It’s so fun to tell people his name — we’ve gotten such positive responses to it — some people even sing his name back to us. We love it. It’s perfect. Also, I really appreciate the ease with which people recognize and appreciate his name, which wouldn’t have happened with a name like Eero.

Thank you!
Melissa, Niko and Quincy