Author Archives: Swistle

Baby Boy Luh-MAY, Brother to Matilda and Wilder

86 Replies

We’re expecting our third child, a boy, in early September. Big siblings are Matilda and Wilder, and the surname is French and sounds like luh-MAY. We live in a hipster area of a big city, where it’s normal to hear parents call out: “Otto! Laszlo! Dashiell! Jasper!” Perhaps due to this, I’m really struggling to find anything I like. It’s the common problem of wanting something that feels fresh and different without being too unusual, except those names have all already been taken by my kids’ friends and schoolmates. Add in the fact that I’ve worked at a preschool for the past 5 years, and suddenly all my old favorites feel overused and tired.

My husband doesn’t seem to be afflicted by this problem. Some of the names he likes best are: Atticus, Alden, Barnaby, Emerson, Hawthorn, Nero, and Orion. I would consider Atticus, but don’t love it, am so-so on Hawthorn, and dislike the others.

Names I like (but don’t love) that my husband would be willing to consider:
Cassian (a bit frilly feelng)
Cormac (pronunciation discrepancies, not great flow with surname)
Cyrus, Everett, Theo, Tristan (so popular here)
Leander (same ending as Wilder)

Names I like (but don’t love) that my husband has rejected: Anders, Atlas, Boaz, Bram, Caspian, Dario, Emrys, Etienne, Ivo, Jonas, Lucian, Lysander, Orlando, Roman, Roscoe

The one name we both like but would never use due to spelling: Tadhg

Names we would have considered had this baby been a girl: Adeline, Beatrix, Coraline, Cordelia, Elodie, Lucia, Lyra, Rose, Thisbe, Zora.

Ideally the name would flow well with the surname, not end in -er, and sound distinct from yet compatible with Matilda and Wilder. This will most likely be our last baby, so I’m hopeful there’s something out there we’ll (re)discover and both love, rather than something we can merely compromise on.

I would be very grateful for any suggestions you might have. Many thanks!

-A

 

Just for fun, I started by seeing what the possibilities were for a third name containing “ild”:

Gildardo
Hilder
Tilden

So, hm. How about only the “ld”:

Alden (also seen on your husband’s list)
Aldo
Aldous
Aldric
Aldrich
Colden
Elden
Eldric
Fielding
Fitzgerald
Kelden
Leopold
Maxfield
Oswald
Reginald
Sheldon
Walden (probably too many sounds in common with Wilder)
Whitfield

I particularly like Fielding. Fielding Luhmay; Matilda, Wilder, and Fielding.

Because it’s common for parents to have different naming styles for boys and for girls, I’d lean more toward matching the brother names here. Wilder is a surname name; for some it will have a pleasing connection to the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. It’s also a word name, with connotations of wildness and wilderness—a little bit of a cowboy/ranger feel. In spite of those two old-fashioned/throwback associations, it’s also a cool and modern name: I wouldn’t want to pair it with Harold, for example, even though Harold has an “ld” in it. And although sometimes the way to surprise a hip area is to bring back names such as Douglas and Roger, I don’t think I’d combine those with Wilder either. I think surname names and nature names would go particularly well, but also hip biblical and other names with that old-fashioned/modern mix:

Aidric
August
Clark
Crosby
Everest
Ezekiel
Felix
Flynn
Forrest/Forest
Grant
Heath
Jacoby
Jude
Lawson
Lincoln
Phineas
Quill (we just re-watched Guardians of the Galaxy)
Redford
Reeve
Reuben
Shepard
Sterling
Sullivan
Teague
Tobias

Baby Boy Mavis-with-a-D, Brother to Edward, Fiona, and Harriet

62 Replies

Hi Swistle!!

Well our beautiful baby boy was born last week and we have yet to find a name for him. I never understand people who could leave the hospital without naming their baby, but alas, that is us. Our last name is Mavis with a D.

Our three eldest children were fairly easy to name: Edward Joseph (grandfathers name), Fiona Potter (Potter is a family surname), Harriet Pauline (Pauline is my grandmothers name).

For this little guy, we just haven’t had one “click” yet.

My husband is fully against my favorite which is George, so that is out. He likes the name but just can’t get over how I have a living uncle George.

His favorite is Ashford, claiming he loves it because of the different nicknames available to him – Ash and Ford, as well as how it is somewhat gender neutral. We would name him Ashford Lee, so he would have the same initials and same middle name as me (though mine is spelled with the “igh”). My husband loves that idea and how with him being our last baby, and how he was a successful much desired VBA2C, as a tribute to me. I think it’s sweet.

The other 2 names that we are still considering are Felix (my grandfathers middle name) and Crosby which is my maiden name.

I look at this baby and keep seeing Felix, but wonder if having a Fiona and a Felix is too much “Fi”/”Fe” sound? We call our daughter Fi or Fifi, and are unlikely to call our son those nicknames, so I’m just not sure if it’s a concern.

Crosby is probably in 3rd place now, but still a contender. We love how unique it is and yet it’s still a family name.

What do you and your readers think? We could really use some insight from people who haven’t been thinking of these names over and over for so long.

Thank you!!!

Amie

 

 

 

Name update:

Hi Swistle!

I am so happy to announce that we came to an agreement on baby’s name! Everyone’s comments were so very helpful in our conversations at home as we got to know our little man. When it came down to it, my dear husband told me that he liked the name George (his only issue with the name was that I have a living Uncle George) and that since he had named Edward, I could name our last baby. I broke down in tears with relief and asked him to pick his middle name. I’ve attached a photo of our fourth and last child, George Crosby! We couldn’t be happier and am so glad that we took our time in making the decision. Thank you so much for all of your help!!

Amie

Baby Boy Fox, Sibling to Atlas and Gwendolyn

62 Replies

Dear Swistle,
I need serious help on finding a name for baby #3, a boy due in April. Boy names are especially difficult to decide on for us and we aren’t in love with any of our options. Our first child is named Atlas which is an old (old) family name that my husband was adamant on using. Our second child is a little girl named Gwendolyn which was my great-grandmother’s name that I had always loved. But now with with baby #3 coming just around the corner I feel like we’ve used the names we felt the most strongly about and have no clue on what to name this new little boy! One of the hardest things is what goes with Atlas??? Admittedly I was very hesitant to name him Atlas in the beginning and wanted him to go by Gregory, his middle name. But now the name has grown on me and I can’t call him anything else.
For this new baby we would like a strong name that’s not very popular and I’d prefer something a little longer because our last name is Fox. Here are some names we’ve considered:

Edison: both of us feel ok about this but not great. Eddie is a cute nickname but I dislike Ed.

Frederick: a strong contender for me, but is the alliteration too much especially with the nickname Freddie? Freddie Fox? Would he hate me forever?

Declan: I really like Declan but my husband thinks it is too trendy and harsh sounding

Henry: I really like Henry, but my husband likes Henrick better. I am also worried on how popular Henry is.

Theodore: a strong contender and I like Theo a lot, but we have a niece named Thea and feel like it’s too close.

Please help!

Thank you so much,
K

 

I am very keen on the name Frederick anyway, but I particularly like it in this case. None of the names on your list are as distinctive as Atlas, but the alliteration of Frederick Fox brings up the distinctiveness considerably.

My other top choice from your list is Edison: I think it’s the closest to the style of Atlas. I hesitate a little because you dislike the nickname Ed; that’s my only reason for putting it second. Well, and also that I am charmed by the idea of Frederick Fox.

Because Atlas is a family name, I don’t think you have to try as hard to match the style of it: “It’s a family name” goes a long way to explain. Yet I feel reluctant to add a Henry or a Theodore here: in another sibling group it would be different, but after an Atlas and a Gwendolyn they seem like they lack a certain SNAP. I am turning to the Exotic Traditionals section of The Baby Name Wizard to find some snap:

Aidric Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Aidric
Alistair Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Alistair
Augustus Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Augustus
Barnaby Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Barnaby
Dashiell Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Dashiell
Jasper Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Jasper
Justice Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Justice
Malachi Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Malachi
Phineas Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Phineas

I’m not sure about Augustus: it repeats the first and last letters of Atlas. Alistair, too, involves some repetition of sounds. But I still liked them both, so I left them on. More suggestions:

Broderick Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Broderick
Desmond Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Desmond
Hugo Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Hugo
Judah Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Judah
Lachlan Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Lachlan
Merritt Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Merritt
Sebastian Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Sebastian
Solomon Fox; Atlas, Gwendolyn, and Solomon

Or I wonder if you might find something else way back in the family tree? It would be fun if all the names were family names.

 

 

 

Name update:

Hi Swistle,
We had our baby boy Fox on March 29th! It’s taken a while reply because of a little ppd and a lot of travel with 3 small children (not recommended). But we named him Malcolm Henry and he weighted in at 7 lbs 5 oz – exactly the same weight as both his brother and sister. I really liked the suggestions everyone gave and decided to dig deeper into our family tree and found a Malcolm on both sides. We call him Mack for short, or Mackie as our two year old loves to say.

Thank you for all your help!

K

Baby Naming Issue: Are Madilyn and Madisyn Too Similar to Use as Sister Names for Madalee?

32 Replies

Dear Swistle,
We just found out a few months ago that we are expecting another baby. We already have a boy name picked out from the first pregnancy that we decided to use in the instance that baby number 2 is a boy. We named our first born “Madalee” but are now having trouble picking another girl name for our possible future daughter. We LOVE the names “Madilyn” and “Madisyn” but I fear that it may be too close “Madalee”.

We call our first born “Maddie” so I figured if we call baby number 2 by their whole name it wouldn’t be too big of a mix up. I’ve searched for other names but I can’t bring myself to commit to another name because I love Madilyn and Madisyn so much. What is your opinion?

Sincerely,
Ashley

 

My opinion is that yes, Madilyn and Madisyn are too close to Madalee. I also think there could be disputes over the nickname Maddie, even if you decide to assign the nickname to only one of them.

This would still be too similar for me, but one option is to use Adelyn or Addisyn: even dropping the M helps, and then they’d both have the option of using their nicknames. The nicknames would rhyme, but they wouldn’t be the same. But again: still too similar for me, and I think I’d get mixed up and say Madisyn and Adalee by mistake.

If I were you I would look further afield. It’s common for parents to love groups of very similar names: it makes sense that if parents love the name Ellery they might also love Ellison and Ella and Everly. But I think in general that using one name from a group of very similar names rules out the others in that group: parents who use the name Evan have probably ruled out the names Ivan, Evanie, and Devan from future consideration.

Here are some names that strike me as similar to Madalee/Madilyn/Madisyn while allowing for more distinctive sounds:

Avelyn; Madalee and Avelyn
Averie; Madalee and Averie
Braelyn; Madalee and Braelyn
Briella; Madalee and Briella
Brinley; Madalee and Brinley (not sure about the repeated endings)
Ellery; Madalee and Ellery (tongue gets a little tangled)
Ellisyn; Madalee and Ellisyn
Emelyn; Madalee and Emelyn
Emersyn; Madalee and Emersyn
Gracyn; Madalee and Gracyn
Harlowe; Madalee and Harlowe
Keelyn; Madalee and Keelyn
Kinsley; Madalee and Kinsley (not sure about the repeated endings)
Shelby; Madalee and Shelby

I went back and forth on rhyming and semi-rhyming endings. Some seemed to work, especially if the names had a different number of syllables and if the rhyming included only the -ie/-ee/-y sound and not the full -ley/-lee sound. Others seemed too sing-song.

Boy/Girl Twin Babies Kim-with-an-L

16 Replies

Dear Swistle,
I need your help in naming our first two children. My name is Sarah and my husband’s is Timothy. We are from Singapore ( i havent seen anyone who has written to you from Singapore yet!! ) and we’ve recently found out the babies are boy girl twins but need some help in finding the perfect names for these two babies! Our last name is Kim with an L. The babies’ estimated due date is in mid May. We particularly need help in finding a girl’s name!!

We love traditional, classic, biblical, and timeless names with a positive meaning and connection to it. We really dont favour made-up, modern, unusual names that sound made up. In Singapore, most parents dont take into consideration ‘ popular / over used ‘ names ( in the charts from the US, UK, Western countries, etc ) because the top names from the Western countries are quite different from the top names in Singapore.

We have a few rules :
– no names that carry negative meanings / history / connections
– no names ( for both boys and girls ) that start with B, P, Q, U, V, X and Z.
– no names that sound too kiddish / names that seem strange on a teenager, adult, grandmother / grandfather
– no names that are too long, preferably under 6, 7 letters
– ** no too modern names / names that sound too made up

So far, our top contenders for boys are ( in no particular order ) :
– Noah
– Evan ( love this name )
– Ewan ( like this name too, but worried of possible name calling because of first 2 letters, ew etc )
– Nathan
– Aden / Aaden ( we love these 2 spellings, cant decide on either yet but we dislike other spellings like ‘ aiden ‘ also, a very popular name for boys, in singapore )
– William
– Shane
– Matthew
– Liam ( love this name, a little worried about it though; in singapore, people tend to mispronounce such names when speaking singlish, because of this culture / local language, i forsee him being made fun of / being called ‘ Leeyyaam ‘ ( in one syllable ) which can sound pretty awful )

So far, the top contenders for girl names are :
– Laura ( really love love this name )
– Hannah ( quite a popular name for girls here )
– Anna ( * love it as anna, no annabelle, annalise etc )
– Emma ( same with anna, we really dislike emmaline etc )
– Lauren ( we dont like this name as much as the rest of the names on this list, but we dont dislike it either. We’d much prefer Laura to Lauren, mostly because Lauren is too modern and dosent sound as classic and timeless as Laura )
– Tessa ( we like this name, but it sounds a little too modern to us. We’ve considered Theresa, but it just sounds too old and outdated )
– Olivia ( really starting to love the name and can actually picture our daughter being named this )

Names not totally sold on but still in the running include :
– Leah ( has a bad meaning to it – ‘ weak ‘ but we really like the soft, gentle sound of it )
– Alexis ( does it sound too boy- like or violent? )
– Isaac ( dont love it as much as the rest of the boy names but like the strong and decisive sound to it )
– Oliver ( really like the classic and originality behind it but it dosent really fit for us so far )
– Laurent ( boy ) – does it sound too made up?
– Aven ( love the sound, pronounced ‘ ay-venn ‘ not totally sold on because it sounds made up )

Middle name contenders :
– Gabriel
– Gilen
– Faith
– Joshua
– Theo
– Ashton ( not sure about this one )
– Asher
– Ian / Iann
( as you might tell we are having trouble coming up with a suitable middle name for our daughter )

Names we that were in the list but veoted because of reasons :
– August
– Finn ( too rhym-y with surname )

I apologise for the super long post but Swistle we really need your help!! We are very open and more than happy to hear your suggestions and your reader’s suggestions too!
Just an important note, we dont have the same tradition in the western countries where you use family members’ / grandparents names as a way to honour them, but it is not like that, here in Singapore.
Thank you for your help, Swistle and Readers, we appreciate it and cant wait to hear your suggestions!!

Sincerely,
Sarah and Timothy

 

Here are some of the pairings I like:

Evan and Laura
Nathan and Laura
William and Hannah
William and Olivia
Matthew and Emma
Isaac and Hannah
Oliver and Emma
Laura and William
Hannah and Evan
Hannah and Matthew
Anna and Matthew
Anna and William

I have William in that list a lot, because it’s one of my own favorites and because I like it with a lot of your girl-name choices. I’m concerned, though, about how it sounds with the surname. I’m even more concerned about Liam with the surname; combined with your comments about pronunciation issues, I left Liam out of the running entirely.

For middle names, here are my favorite boy-name combinations:

Noah Gabriel (NGL)
Evan Gabriel (EGL)
Evan Joshua (EJL)
Nathan Gabriel (NGL)
Nathan Joshua (NJL)
Nathan Asher (NAL)
Aden Gabriel (ADL)
Aden Joshua (AJL)
William Joshua (WJL)
Matthew Gabriel (MGL)

The only middle name option so far for girls is Faith, which I think sounds fine with any of the girl names. I also like combinations such as:

Laura Jane (LJL)
Laura Naomi (LNL)
Hannah Jane (HJL)
Anna Grace (AGL)
Anna Ruth (ARL)
Emma Jean (EJL)
Lauren Elizabeth (LEL)
Tessa Mae (TML)
Olivia Joy (OJL)

Based on your comments on the names, I think my top choices are:

Evan Joshua and Laura Jane
Evan Joshua and Olivia Joy

 

 

 

Name update:

Hi Swistle!

Its Sarah and Timothy sending our regards from Singapore! We’re back to give you an update on our twin babies and of course, their names!

We proudly welcomed our healthy twins yesterday morning, 12th May. After countless sleepless nights and grueling discussions we finally decided that Tessa, Emma and Anna were not good middle names because they felt too sing-songy with the first name Laura, though we do really love those names.
Shane, Joshua and Matthew were too, middle names we really wanted our boy to own, because they held a special significance to us. It was particularly agonizing deciding between Shane and Evan as first name,

Well, all that agony was worth it, because we’re finally proud to welcome Laura Olivia and Evan Shane into our new family!!

Here’s to you for your helpful insights and of course, not forgetting the readers who gave great suggestions, it all meant so much to us! We are absolutely satisfied and at peace with Laura and Evans’ names!

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Sarah and Timothy