Dear Swistle,

My husband (Brandon) and I (Julianne) are excited to be expecting our second child this March, and we’d love your and your readers’ input! I have always had a deep love of names – I have notebooks filled with name lists and imaginary families I created just so I could put names together! I thought I had a great list for naming my future children, and then I married an amazing man who was just a little more opinionated on baby names than I expected. :)

Our toddler son is Beckett (nn Beck) James, and our last name is extremely Finnish with lots of double letters and is pronounced “Rah-tick-ah.” I would describe our naming style as fairly traditional/classic with a unique twist. It would take a lot to get us to select a top-20 name, although it’s not out of the question. We love how with our son’s name, people often comment that they haven’t heard it before, but it’s not too strange that they struggle to remember or pronounce it. I felt like I had a similar experience growing up with the name Julianne.

My biggest challenge is that while I like the names on our current list, I don’t feel like I love any of them.

This baby is a girl, and had she been a boy (or if she turns out to be one!) our top name was Charleston (nn Charlie) Luke. Other boy names we loved included Jonas, Rhys, and Lincoln. We are hoping to welcome more children into our family in the future.

Here are some of our frontrunners:

Josie – my husband’s favorite
Bryn/Brynn
Leighton
Cambridge (nn Cambrie) – this is what our son would have been named if he had been a girl
Hannah (although is the “ah” ending too rhymy with our last name?)
Landry
Shiloh
Violet
Charlotte (my #1 but it’s getting way too popular)
Kensington
Evelyn
Vivienne
Isabel

Names vetoed by one spouse or the other: Adalyn, Jacqueline, Annaliese, Lucia (love – but again with the rhyming last name), Jordyn, Mackenzie

Current middle name options (all honor names, but we are open to other options): Lauren, Kate, Esther, Elisabeth

We look forward to hearing your suggestions and promise to update!

Brandon and Julianne

If popularity is a concern, here are the names I would take out of the running:

Isabel: Isabel itself is safely out of the Top 20, but Isabella has been Top 20 for 15 years in a row so far.

Hannah: Gradually falling and is now out of the Top 20, but it was in the Top 20 from 1994 through 2008.

Charlotte: Entered the Top 20 in 2012 and the Top 10 two years after that; it’s still there, and rising (#7 in 2016).

Evelyn: In the Top 20 since 2013 and has risen each year since then (#12 in 2016).

You have a mix of traditional/classic (Charlotte, Hannah) and modern surname names (Leighton, Landry). Do you find yourselves agreeing which way to lean? If you like sibling names to coordinate, and you’re planning to have more children, this is a good time to see if you can narrow down your style. Which seems more like Your Family: breaking up a fight between Cambridge and Kensington, or between Josie and Violet?

Vivienne is a great alternative to Evelyn: similar sounds, but less common. The spelling Vivienne was #245 in 2016; the spelling Vivian was #95.

I like Josie, but as a nickname for Josephine, especially if sons will have longer-form names with nicknames.

Would “Beck and Brynn” make you feel stuck finding another snappy B-name for possible future siblings?

Let’s see if we can find more options to consider.

Along the lines of Charlotte/Hannah/Josie/Evelyn/Isabel:

Alice
Bridget
Cecily
Celeste
Constance
Eloise
Emeline
Florence
Genevieve
Imogen
Iris
Ivy
Margaret (not sure about this with the surname)
Meredith
Miriam (not sure about this with the surname)
Molly
Polly
Sadie
Simone
Sylvie
Winifred

Along the lines of Cambridge/Landry/Kensington/Leighton:

Brinley
Callister (Callie)
Campbell (Cammie, Bella)
Darby
Delancey
Delaney
Emberley
Everly
Flannery
Holland (Holly)
Keaton (not sure about this with the surname)
Lane
Linley
Locklyn
Miller (Millie)
Padgett
Sloane
Waverly
Winslow (Winnie)
Yeardley

Name update:

Dear Swistle,

Thank you for your help! Your advice and your readers’ comments helped direct and steer our baby name choice for our dear daughter who arrived a few days early! In the end we decided that we wanted to go with more of a traditional, clearly feminine feel. Your readers gave us the courage to rethink Lucia as a first name and also brought Esther to the front of our minds (as a first name rather than middle). In the end we were down to Lucia, Isabel, or Esther. When she arrived, there was no doubt in our minds, and we added Lucia (Loo-see-a) Kate to the family. Her brother has already lovingly dubbed her “Lucy.”

With thanks,

Julianne, Brandon, Beckett, and Lucia

Hi Swistle!

I was planning to write to you a little later in my pregnancy, but since you wrote your post about being uninspired, I thought this exercise might be fun to do now.

I have a four-year-old son named after a semi-famous scientist. My husband works in the science field, and I am generally interested in sciency things so it worked out. I also liked that the name was used in a children’s book that I had read 20 years ago, and still remembered that particular character name. If you’re wondering, the name is Tych0.

The issue I need help with is this: We haven’t found out the sex of the second (and final) child, but we have generally discussed names, and for a girl, my husband’s favorites are Anastasia and Aurora. I think both are beautiful names, but something was bothering me about them. And then I realized—my main association with both those names are Disney princesses! It bothers me to have my son named after a scientist and then name my daughter after a princess. Just….No.

So I thought it would be fun to crowd-source and see what woman scientist names people could come up with. It’s surprisingly hard especially compared to male scientists. I know I could just Google, but I’m looking for names that are not totally and completely obscure, names that people might have heard of before and just don’t remember. That’s what I like about Tych0’s name. Some people have never heard of him, but sciency folks get a little twinkle in their eye when they hear it. My current list is:

Marie (Curie)

Jane (Goodall)

Kathryn (Johnson, from Hidden Figures)

Ada (Lovelace)

Mae (Jemison)

Sally (Ride)

…and that’s all I can come up with off the top of my head, sadly. I’d be excited to read what other names you and your readers could think of that fit this category.

Thanks!

Faye

There’s a book on my Christmas wish list that I wish I had now so I could consult it:

(image from Amazon.com)

Women in Science, by Rachel Ignotofsky

Ada Lovelace is the scientist who came immediately to my mind; and because her name is unusual, the scientist comes to my mind whenever I hear it. That’s my favorite from your list.

I can add Elizabeth Blackwell and Grace Hopper. But the names Elizabeth and Grace don’t bring the doctor or the mathematician/programmer to my mind.

I know we’re seeing what we can think of off the tops of our heads, but here’s a link to Wikipedia’s Women in Science page, in case anyone would like to jog their memories: Wikipedia: Women in Science.

Name update:

Hi Swistle,

This is an update for my post, Science-Related Names for Girls, that you published about a year ago. I can’t believe its been that long!

We did not find out the sex of our baby before birth, but I had a strong feeling that it was a girl. So much so, that I couldn’t focus on figuring out boy names at all. (Does that happen to other people?) Our top names for girls were Ada, Octavia, Luna, and Z0ra. I thought I would end up with an Ada because it seemed to fit so perfectly with the theme. We did have a girl, and her name is Z0ra Valentin@.

We originally found her name on our family tree; she was my husband’s great-grandmother. I’m a big reader, so I also liked the association with the author. Just a little while after deciding on her name, I saw your twitter poll on people’s impressions of Z0ra, and it cemented that it was perfect for us. Vintage + space princess is exactly what we wanted. We chose Valentin@ because I wanted something that worked for the Italian-speaking side of my family, and also for the first female astronaut.

So my son’s first name is space/astronomy-related, and his middle is from our family tree, and my daughter’s is vice-versa. We love her name, and we also loved all of the comments and suggestions on the original post. Thank you!

Faye

Hi Swistle,

I am due on Oct 23, and we don’t know the gender of the baby. We are dead set on a girl name, but nothing feels quite right for a boy! Our last name is @lexander, and we have a daughter- Echo Marie.

If we have another little girl she will be Lorelai Catherine. Lorelai seems unique, feminine, and tied to Echo in maybe a mythylogical sense (that theme isn’t important) and Catherine is a very special family name (like Marie).

For a boy, originally our choices were Harrison or Henry, but now these choices seem way way to popular and basic? I didn’t name my daughter Echo to be weird, I just liked the name! But I’d like to stay out of the top 100. I also want to avoid my children sounding like a group of military call signs! Echo Foxtrot Alpha! We heavily considered Adler which feels like a good fit, but I keep thinking Adler @lexander sounds like a total tongue twister. Another boy name we really liked but now seems too out there is Indiana. I would also like to use the middle name Manning (my maiden name), with Bayer as a secondary option.

Please help!

You may already know about my extreme soft spot for maiden names used as children’s names, and so perhaps you anticipate my immediate, eager question: Would you consider using Manning as the first name? Manning @lexander. Echo and Manning. Well, if not, I love it as the middle.

Henry feels common to me with Echo, but I think Harrison is great. I don’t know a single kid named Harrison—though of course that will vary tremendously by area of the country. It’s a more common name than Echo, but it isn’t so common as to be a surprise. I like it, and I think Harrison @lexander sounds very nice.

Harris is even less common—more along the lines of Echo’s popularity. Harris @lexander; Echo and Harris.

Or Davis. Davis @lexander; Echo and Davis.

Or Rufus. Rufus @lexander; Echo and Rufus.

Or Gus. Gus @lexander; Echo and Gus.

I agree about Adler @lexander. I wonder if you’d like the name Aidric? Aidric @lexander; Echo and Aidric.

One of my favorites of the -son names is Lawson, certainly not influenced by a cute lanky funny boy in high school. Lawson @lexander; Echo and Lawson.

Every so often, usually when Paul is re-reading the Narnia books to the littler kids, I wonder if the name Caspian will ever come into common usage. I see it was given to 158 new baby boys in 2016, so it’s in the range of the usage of the name Echo. Caspian @lexander; Echo and Caspian.

Poking around in the Social Security database in that same area, I see Boaz. This is a name I’m surprised hasn’t joined the popularity of Noah and Isaiah and Ezra and Elijah. Boaz @lexander; Echo and Boaz. Bo for short.

And Smith! That’s a fun one. Smith @lexander; Echo and Smith.

And Murphy! I would love to see a Murphy on a class list. Murphy @lexander; Echo and Murphy.

And Garrison! Similar to Harrison, but definitely less common. Garrison @lexander; Echo and Garrison.

Name update:

Hi Swistle! Our beautiful baby girl was born Oct 30. Lorelai Catherine is so sweet and fits her name, and her nickname- Cubby – perfectly.

We got so many awesome suggestions for boy names from your readers and in your post, looks like we will have to try for a boy in a few years :).