I think this is our very first repeat customer!

Britta writes:

So, I want to name my baby girl (sister to Alexandra and Luke) to be a name that can be shortened to “Lina.” I love Carolina, but I am loathe to subject her to a lifetime of having to correct people’s mispronunciation of her name. I don’t want to tell you how I’d pronounce it, but would rather know how most people would pronounce it. And, if they think it would be a big deal if it were pronounced differently than it might first appear.

I’m also very open to other names that can be shortened to a Lina nickname. I’ve tried to think of some and have done some searching, but there’s not a lot out there. My great grandmother’s name was Axelina (no!) and called Lina and Lina has a nice Swedish ring to it–homage to my heritage.

My husband is opposed to Carolina, so I need some ammunition! Help.

By the way, if this little one turns out to be a boy, I think the contenders are Eric and John. (You my remember my husband was gunning for John when I was pregnant with Luke. 9/7/08 post.) I love Peter, but apparently most men can’t stomach Peter as a baby name. I also love Beau, but I don’t think I want Beau and Luke to be my two boys! A little too Dukes of Hazard for me.

First, pronunciation. If I saw “Lina,” I would pronounce it LEE-nah. But if I saw that the full name was “Carolina,” I would instead pronounce it LIE-nah. I’d be interested to know what everyone else thinks on this.

I am going to assume since you mentioned pronunciation issues with Carolina that what you’re looking for is LEE-nah. In that case, the name I think is best is Angelina. I have two associations with the name, both positive: the actress Angelina Jolie, who is becoming known more for her good works and humanitarian efforts and adoptions than for the old blood-in-a-necklace stuff; and Angelina Ballerina, the nice little storybook mouse. I like how it goes with Alexandra: both are long ultra-feminine names with lots of nickname potential.

There’s also Catalina.

Here is an unusual choice: Abilene. This has a couple of different pronunciations, but the English one is AB-ah-leen. Like Abigail, but with a LEEN on the end. Downside: it’s not spelled right to get the Lina nickname, and spelling it Abiline makes it look like it rhymes with Adeline.

Hey, this is odd: if I add an A to Adeline and make it Adelina, that looks like add-ah-LEE-na to me—or at least, it looks like it could go either way. So let’s add Adelina to the list.

There’s Amalina and Annalina and Avelina, which I just made up from Amalia and Angelina and Avalyn, and which look to me like am-ah-lee-nah and ann-ah-lee-nah and av-ah-lee-nah. (Let’s remember not to try Annalina without the double N, lest we create a first-four-letters problem.)

Some names that end with “-ley” can be changed to “-lina.” Ashley becomes Ashlina, Emily becomes Emilina. Because the names are familiar already with a LEE sound, the LEE-nah comes more naturally. The occasional correction will still need to be made—but then, that happens with almost every name. I regularly have to tell people that “Kristen” is not pronounced with a long E sound (like Kristine).

There’s also Alina and Elina. And whew, I am still on A and have spent a long time in the index of the baby name book, so I will leave it at that and open it up for more suggestions. Names that give the nickname Lina? And perhaps we can also say if we prefer the name Eric or the name John (I love both). And the question from earlier, too, about how we’d pronounce the name Lina if we saw it.

Name update! Britta writes:

We had a little boy on March 8, 2010 and named him Eric James. I appreciated the feedback on the Eric v. John decision. His nickname is E. Sometimes EJ.

Stephanie writes:

We’re expecting our second child in December. Our last name is two syllables and starts with M. Our son is Thomas Murray. We both loved Thomas and Murray is a family name. A girl’s name is turning out to be very hard for us. We definitely both gravitate towards traditional, solid, and ‘old’ names with a history, with no desire to create a ‘new’ and unique name while avoiding known trendy names. I love Emily, but husband strongly dislikes. He likes Maria, Marie, Mary, or Margaret. I vehemently object due to the last name (M). Our currently list includes Anne, Anna, Audrey, Claire, and Katherine. I can’t help but feel that we’re choosing from a list that we’re both ok with, but not ones that either of us love. Likely middle names are Marie (I’ll let it in as a middle), Kathryn/Katherine, and Anne.

So, any ideas we’re obviously missing?

Well, so Emily is out, and so are names starting with M. Amelia comes to mind because it’s similar to Emily but maybe different enough that he’ll like it, and it’s traditional/solid/old. Or might you like Emeline? It starts out similar to Emily but has a completely different sound.

Oh! Oh oh oh! How about Ruth? At the pool this summer there was a toddler named Ruth, and I could NOT BELIEVE how cute that name was on a wee girl. Her mom also sometimes called her Ruthie. How about Ruth Katherine M.?

You’ve got Claire on your list, which makes me think of Clara. Clara Marie M.

For old and traditional with history, it would be hard to beat the name Eve. Eve Katherine M.

More possibilities:

Alice
Helen
Jane
Josephine
Rose
Sara(h)

Name update 12-02-2009! Stephanie writes:

I loved reading your suggestions and those of the commenters. Ultimately, we stuck with our list and Audrey Kathryn was born in the wee hours of Friday morning, Nov 27. We decided you were all right and that speculating on the popularity of a name we liked was silly :) Kathryn is my middle name, so our son has his Dad’s middle name and our daughter has mine. Incidentally, she just missed sharing a birthday with me as well, by 3 hours.

Kym writes:

We are due with our second son on October 28 – although these last two days of contractions are making me think it’ll be sooner rather than later.

Until recently, we had 4 names on the “short list”: Noah, Owen, Riley and Gavin. The last couple of weeks, Gavin and Riley have fallen off the list. (Jonah was also a contender for a while). I really like the other two, although I am concerned about Owen with our last name, Wootton (pronounced like foot with a “w” and then “ton”) – it just looks like a word jumble to me, Owen Wootton. I do love Noah, although I just don’t get the feeling the my husband is super crazy about it – and I wonder if it’s too popular.

The middle name will be William, for my dad. Our first son is Finn Allen (Allen is for his dad).

We definitely want the first name to be only 1 or 2 syllables, and we want it to go nicely with Finn. We like the idea of having a name that’s not weird, but also not common. We feel like we did that with “Finn”, but won’t necessarily do that with “Noah” or “Owen”.

Names that I love that he hates: Reece/Reese and Luca
Name that he loves that I hate: Ender (yes, this is pretty much his ONE and ONLY suggestion)

So – two questions…
#1 – if we don’t find anything else we like, should we go with Noah William Wootton or Owen William Wootton?
#2 – any other first name suggestions????

 
What I notice when I say those finalist names is all the W: both first names have a strong W sound (noWUH, oWEN), and then adding the W sound in both William and Wootton—it’s a lot of W. The middle name won’t often be said, of course, but both Noah Wootton and Owen Wootton are hard for me to say.

Here are some Owen alternatives without W sounds:

Evan
Ian
Ivan
Roan (unless I’m pronouncing it wrong and it’s Ro-wen rather than rhymes-with-Joan)

But three of those end in an -en sound, and I think that’s a little choppy with the -en sound in Wootton.

Here are some Noah alternatives without W sounds OR -en sounds:

Abel
Asher
Caleb
Eli
Isaac
Isaiah
Joel
Levi
Lucas
Micah
Silas

Your husband likes Ender, and so I would refer you to Baby Boy Holland, in which we worked with another sci-fi-name-loving husband. The name they chose was Gable, which I think would be a really good choice for your baby, too: unusual yet easy/familiar, good with Finn, good with William Wootton. I also suggested the name Anders to them, because it’s so similar to Ender, and that too would be good for your baby: Finn and Anders, Anders William Wootton.

BUT! If none of these appeal, and nothing else comes up that appeals, and if you like Owen or Noah best, I DO think you should use it. The “W issue” is one of those issues that, all things being equal, I would recommend avoiding—but all things NOT being equal, is not a big deal.

Name update! Kym writes:

Our little boy finally came yesterday – 6 days late (so much for reading into those early contractions!). As we were walking the halls during contractions, we finally settled on William Ender, deciding to call him Will. My husband just loved the name Ender so much and we didn’t want to do the 2 middle names thing, so we thought this was a good compromise. Although we do have the first and last name starting with the W, we really love it – and I love how Finn and Will sound together. Thanks to everyone for your input, it finally got my husband thinking more seriously about names and after he read the post and the suggestions. :)

(My mother-in-law is in town this week, but the babies don’t wait and the questions are coming in faster than I can answer them, so I’ll post some for anyone interested to work on.)

Mechi writes:

My name is Mechi Foster and my husband, Joey and I are expecting our second child on October 17th. We have a three and a half year old daughter, Sofia Juliana, and we had a really easy time picking her name. We came up with and agreed upon a first and middle we liked very quickly. Not really the case for baby no. 2 (and we decided we want the gender to be a surprise, so its trickier).
The main problem we have is a culture clash. Joey (Joseph Henry) is of English, Irish, and Scottish origin (but they’ve been here in the US for generations). My family is from Spain and Argentina, and my parents moved to the US after they got married. I speak almost fluent Spanish, and although my family was just an average American family, I feel like if I name our second child a completely English name, I’ll be losing some of my culture (and I already am because we’re obviously raising them in English, not Spanish.) Joey understands that, and he loved Sofia Juliana, two bilingual names. He’s completely open to it.
So what’s the problem? Well, neither of us can find any Spanish names we like! And we don’t want a name like Ignacio or Magdalena, that is impossible to pronounce in English, so nix all of those names. We want to find a name like Sofi’s (or mine – my full name is Mercedes Alicia) that is bilingual – embraces my culture, but also is English (for Joey, and so people won’t be constantly mispronouncing his or her name).
And one last thing. When we picked Sofia in 2006, we didn’t really do that much research on the popularity of the name, and therefore didn’t realize that it’s one of the top fifty names right now (and Sophia, which may be spelled differently, but is essentially the same name, is in the top ten!) and I regret that. I don’t want my kids to be one of many in a crowd. (Sofia just started preschool last week and there are two Sophia’s and one other Sofia in her class!) So we really would like a bilingual name that is less common.
And for middle names, we’re not the kind of people that are huge on honoring family members, so the same criteria as the first name.
Thank you so much!

Name update 10-27-2009! Mechi writes:

Hi, Swistle! Thanks for all the help
Sofia’s little sister was born on October 15th. Our newest addition is Maya Elena Josephine Foster! Maya Elena is her full first name, and Josephine is the middle. Maya Elena sounds sort of like Magdalena when spoken (“Mayalena”) which we liked because we always did like that name. And Sofi has taken to calling her Mali, and now I find myself calling her that too, and I think thats just the greatest twist. I think Mali is just adorable. Thanks to all the readers who gave us suggestions – they were great! And we have tons of ideas for any future child, thanks!

(My mother-in-law is in town this week, but the babies don’t wait and the questions are coming in faster than I can answer them, so I’ll post some for anyone interested to work on.)

Karen writes:

Your help would be appreciated in coming up with names for our baby if it is a boy. I am due in October.

Some info on us: We have a one syllable irish surname: Kane. We have a daughter, Shannon. If we have a girl this time, she will likely be Margaret Thomas nn Maggie. Thomas is surname from my family that we would have used for a boy’s name, but a child in the immediate family was named Thomas so that is no longer an option for us. Where possible, we’d like to use Thomas as the middle name. Other middle name possibilities we like are Ryan and Patrick (family names as well).

We tend to lean towards celtic/irish names, but also like traditional and classic names as well. We tend to shy away from anything too obscure (although one could argue that Seamus & Cormac are pretty obscure) but we are also leery of top ten names and don’t mind unusual yet familiar names. We like decidedly masculine and strong names for a boy.

Names we like that are on The List:

• Maxwell Thomas – nn Max. My concern is Max is getting (or already is?) pretty popular, but we still like it.
• Seamus Ryan or Seamus Patrick. Love Seamus. My concern is would two siblings with names beginning with the “Sh” sound be a little too singsongy? Should I even be concerned about this? Also, their names would begin with the same letter – something I guess I never imagined myself as a parent doing, but this is it for us for kids, so the sibset would consist of the two of them.
• Cormac Thomas – nn Mac. Love nn Mac. My concern is too much emhpasis on the hard “k” sound and blending from the hard “k” ending of Cormac into the hard “k” of our last name.
• Magnus – nn Mac – alternative to the heavily “k” sound laden Cormac.
• Malcolm – nn Mac – alternative to the heavily “k” sound laden Cormac.
• Ryan Thomas. Ryan is husband’s middle name. It’s okay to us, but we aren’t wowed by it, but it’s solid and irish and well known.
• Charles Thomas or Charles Ryan – nn Charlie. We don’t love Charles, and rather dislike “Chuck” but we do find Charlie to be a nice nn. Charles is also a family name.
• John Thomas – nn Jack or JT. John – oh boy. My dad is a Jack Jr., my older brother is a Jack III. Love the name, but is it overkill with all the family members with this name? Also – is Jack just too trendy at this point?
• Lincoln nn Linc – husband likes but I am not sure what I think yet. Could grow on me.

Let’s have a poll over to the right! [Edit: see Karen’s comment in comment section; new set of names for poll.] [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (198 votes total):
Cormac (Mac) Kane: 46 votes, roughly 23%
Seamus Kane: 44 votes, roughly 22%
Liam/William Kane: 108 votes, roughly 55%

Name update 10-30-2009! Karen writes:

Seamus Patrick arrived on October 26, 2009! Thank you to you and your readers and commenters for their insightful posts. Seamus is a doll and his sister loves her new baby brother! We love his name and feel that this was the best choice for us. Thanks again! – Karen

(My mother-in-law is in town this week, but the babies don’t wait and the questions are coming in faster than I can answer them, so I’ll post some for anyone interested to work on.)

Katherine writes:

My husband and I are currently expecting a baby girl, who will be induced on October 7, 2009. We already have a daughter, named Violet Claire. Violet is named after my husband’s beloved grandmother, and I have always loved the name Claire. We settled on her name well into my second trimester. Naming a second daughter is so much harder than I ever expected, and we are nowhere nearer finding her name than we were the day I found out I was pregnant. Our family’s names are Andrew (Husband), Katherine (Me), Violet (Daughter). Our last name is K_____is.

My preference, if possible, is to have each child have one family name and one name of their own. Though, at this point I am open to anything.

Names we have discussed that are still in consideration: Hazel, Esme, Pearl, Jane, Audrey, Arden, Anne, Amelia, and Molly.

Our reservations about Hazel are that both Violet and Hazel are colors and plants. Am I the only one that immediatly goes to that connection? Also, my daughters will be less than 2 years apart and I don’t want them the silly, little ‘flower’ children. I love Esme and first discovered it and fell in love with it from the J.D. Salinger short story years ago, but we worry about the ‘Twilight’ coorelation with Esme, though the name is much more common in my husband’s native country therefore not a problem there (though we live here). Jane is by far my favorite, but my husband goes back and forth. I worry that Molly is a great name, but may sound too young or demure later in life. Is that just me?

Names I love that my husband has vetoed: Imogen, Bronwyn, Olive.

Names my husband likes that I won’t use: Grace, Sophia, Olivia.

Family names that could be used as middle names : Ruth, Adaleen, Marie, Jacquelyn.

Names that we love but don’t want to use due to the duplicate ‘ette’ ending sounds are : Charlotte, Juliet, Cosette.

We are open to any other considerations. I am still waiting for that magic combination of names that will just fly off the page!

Name update 10-22-2009! Katherine writes:

Jane Mirabelle was born October 11th. I loved many of the suggestions your readers sent in (especially Amelia Louise) but Jane was the name I really had my heart set on since I found out I was pregnant, and I was thrilled when my husband committed and said he felt like it ‘fit’ her too. Mirabelle is a name of a favorite character in a favorite book, but I wasn’t sure I was brave enough to use it until I read it as a suggestion for another one of your readers as a middle name. Thank so much for your help!

(My mother-in-law is in town this week, but the babies don’t wait and the questions are coming in faster than I can answer them, so I’ll post some for anyone interested to work on.)

Isla writes:

I’m due 10/6, and we still haven’t found a name for our newest addition.

My husband and I have two kids already. Our oldest is his son from his previous marriage (but I’ve legally adopted him) and his full name is Geovanni Domenico – though he is always, always Geo. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call him Geovanni in the seven years I’ve known him. Our younger son is Owen Phinneas.

We are now expecting our first girl. I really want her name to fit in with Geo and Owen’s, but I feel like their names are too different and we’re having a hard time finding an in between point. Geo’s name was picked by my husband’s late wife, who was 100% Italian – my husband and I are not Italian whatsoever, but I don’t want Geo to feel left out if we give our little girl a name that sounds great with Owen’s name, but not with his.

Names at the top of our list right now (but not necessarily a fix to the problem I mentioned) include Eloise, Beatrice, Clare, Eliza, Danika, Rosalie (with ‘lie’ pronounced ‘lie,’ like not telling the truth), Safia, and Violet.

We also like names like Flannery, Hadley, Bliss, and Willow that don’t go with either of our sons names at all!

One last thing – for the past week or so I’ve been really loving the nickname Leni. I love the sound of it, and I like how it sounds with Geo and Owen. This may be our top contendor, along with Eloise and Flannery. But the only full names we can come up with for it are Helene and Elena, and we don’t like either. So if you could help me with some other possible full names for Leni, that would be great.

And any other names that you think might go well with our sons.. I don’t feel like we’ve found the perfect name yet (although I think we’re close) so maybe it will be one of your suggestions!

And finally, for middle names, we’re not looking to honor anyone, really, so whatever sounds good, because we don’t have any ideas in terms of that. But probably not any of the names I mentioned earlier, because we may want to use them for a future daughter.

Oh, Leni is so cute. I wonder about using a name like Marilena (which I am, perhaps incorrectly, pronouncing mare-ih-LAY-nah) and then using Leni as a nickname? Or Adelaina (add-eh-LAY-nah), which gives you not only Leni but Addy? Maddalena, which gives you not only Leni but Maddie?

Name update 10-17-2009! Isla writes:

Hi Swistle, thanks so much for all your readers suggestions. Our daughter was born on October 7th and her name is Rosalena Violet, called Leni, obviously (pronounced “Len-nee”). We’re really happy with the name .. we feel it fits in well with Geo and Owen – it has that long “o” which some of the comments pointed out, and it was a nice alternative to Rosalie. Thanks to mayberry for suggesting it to us!

(My mother-in-law is in town this week, but the babies don’t wait and the questions are coming in faster than I can answer them, so I’ll post some for anyone interested to work on.)

Amy writes:

Our 1st daughter is named Simone Maya. The middle name having a special meaning to us as we were married in Riviera Maya, Mexico. The choices of middle names with meaning we have come up with for our second daughter are Jean (runs in both sides of our families), Rose (our relationship started with a single rose) and Lily (Tiger Lily was our wedding flower). Now we can not come up good first name options, it’s been a huge struggle. I’m hoping you can help. Our Last name is one syllable and starts with a ‘B.’ Here’s some criteria of our likes and dislikes:

We would like:
Two syllables but no more than three
Something that sounds good with Simone
A Name (not made up, put together names)
When you see it written, you know how to say it (no funny spellings)
Meaning (Something that doesn’t have a negative meaning)

We do not like:
Super Popular Names (if it’s on the top 100 Social Security List, I will hestiate using it, even if I like it)
Highly Feminine Names (these often end in the ‘ee’ or ‘ah’ sound; Christy or Hannah) This is a hard one to avoid and if I find the right name, this one won’t matter.
Nicknames (the name should be the name)
Classic Names (we want something different than Elizabeth)

Name update 10-19-2009! Amy writes:

I wanted to thank all your readers for their name suggestions. It was great to read other people’s ideas. Our 2nd daughter was born on Oct. 18 and her name is Giselle Marie. Thanks to reader Giselle, we did use your name! In between contractions we decided on Marie for the middle name. We liked the flow and Marie is the same middle name of 3 very strong women that are and will forever be in our lives. Thank you again.

Laura writes:

Since I realized I was pregnant while reading your blog, it only seems fitting for you to help me name my baby girl. I am due October 16. I really thought I’d settle on a name as soon as I found out the baby’s sex, but here I am at 37 weeks and our list keeps getting longer. The baby’s last name will be Wilkerson, but I tend to prefer Italian or Italian-sounding first names since I kept my (very Italian) last name and I want both sides represented in her name. The middle name doesn’t have to be Italian, it just has to flow well with her first and last (and not lead to offensive initials, something my husband’s parents didn’t consider). Here is the list of names we came up with:

Giana Rafaela (Does this name work? My dad’s name is Ralph so I thought I’d try it out – I like it best with Giana but I’m not sure if it’s too much or not)
Zaira Jane
Sabrina Eve (Open to other middle names)
Lucia Isabella
Adriana (Looking for a middle name that flows like Marie…but any suggestions are welcome)

I’d like some middle name feedback where indicated, and (if possible), a poll on just the first names, and a poll on the first / middle combinations (one per first name – pick your favorite if you suggest more than one). Which name do you like best?

Thank you so much for your help!

How much do I love Giana Rafaela? HOW MUCH? A LOT, that’s how much. Beautiful. Oooo, I want so much to put it with YOUR last name. Imagine THAT lovely rhythm! But it’s lovely with Wilkerson too. I don’t think it’s too much: Giana is an unusual but easy first name, and you can call her Gigi if you want to. CUTE.

But you have a ton of good choices here—I can see why you’re having trouble narrowing it down. Have you tried some of the Narrowing Down tricks? Like, pretend you’ve decided on one name. Say to each other convincingly, “That’s it. That’s the name.” Then see how you feel. Disappointed? Sorry not to be using another name? Satisfied and happy? This helped me to narrow down my girl name when I had a list that included everything from Margaret to Magnolia: I found that one name appealed to me greatly, but not when I thought of actually choosing it for an actual baby—and another name I thought maybe I shouldn’t choose (in my case, because it was too unusual) ended up ripping my heart out when I thought of not using it.

Another good trick is to think of what you might like to name future children, and see which of your current names go best with that style.

Another trick is for you and the other parent to both make lists ranking the names. It doesn’t have to be 1-5 (though it CAN be)—-you can do it like this, for example:

Giana 1
Lucia 2
Sabrina 3
Adriana 3
Zaira 4

And maybe the other parent’s list would look like this:

Giana 1
Zaira 1
Adriana 2
Sabrina 2
Lucia 3

And then you can see where your tastes intersect most.

And here is my most useful trick: which one seems like My Baby? Picture your baby daughter in your arms, and picture each name on her. Which name makes you feel a rush of MY BABY? I have some names I LOVE but they DON’T sound to me like “My Baby”—they sound like Someone Else’s Baby whose name I LOVE.

I don’t shrink back from using a lot of syllables in a name ANYWAY, but I think Italian names sound particularly beautiful when they’re long. Seven syllables for Giana Rafaela seems PERFECT to me. So then a name like Sabrina Eve is just a little disappointing. I would lean more toward Sabrina Gabriella. Sabrina Mirella. Sabrina Gianna. Sabrina Elena. Sabrina Luciana. Sabrina Bianca.

Same for Adriana: the Adriana Marie sort of rhythm is so pretty (Adriana Nicole, Adriana Celeste, Adriana Clarisse, Adriana Corinne, Adriana Elise, Adriana Louise), but I want less French, more ITALIAN. Adriana Valentina. Adriana Rafaela. Adriana Caterina. Adriana Isabella. Adriana Marietta. Adriana Marilena. Oh so pretty!

Well, and yet I like Zaira Jane just the way it is, so go figure.

Okay, let’s have a poll! [Poll closed; see results below.] The poll will be for the first names, and anyone who has a middle name preference to go with their first-name choice can leave it in the comments. I don’t even KNOW what I’m going to vote for—I thought I liked Giana best, but then I kind of talked myself into all the others with the middle name stuff.

Poll results (216 votes total):
Giana: 129 votes, roughly 60%
Zaria: 7 votes, roughly 3%
Sabrina: 20 votes, roughly 9%
Lucia: 39 votes, roughly 18%
Adriana: 21 votes, roughly 10%

Name update 12-19-2009! Laura writes:

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response to my email – your advice was just what I needed! You made me realize that my tendency to pair a long first name with a short middle (and vice versa) was limiting my possibilities. I also really liked your advice about whether the name felt like it belonged to “My Baby”. As much as I loved the name Giana Rafaela in theory, it wasn’t My Baby’s name…but Adriana Rafaela is, and it’s perfect! Our happy, healthy, beautiful little girl was born at 1:09 pm on October 14, 2009, and she had a name by 1:15. Thanks again for all of your help!

Gwen writes:

I’m due in 2 weeks with my 2nd child, a baby boy (But he’s likely to come early as his sister did.) I have an 18 mo daughter, Kate Harlow. We thought we had a name nailed down for most of the pregnancy and JUST noticed that, Houston, we have a problem! Our top name was Leopold, with him going exclusively by Leo. I can’t believe we just noticed the Kate & Leopold connection. Is it too much, or do you think it could work, especially since I doubt he’ll ever go by Leopold? We were thinking Leopold Gray, since we love Gray but feel it’s a little too close to Kate – especially when you’re yelling it across the house. Our second choice is Graham, but hubby isn’t as enthusiastic about that, and we still haven’t nailed down the spelling – Graham or Graeme?

We were also looking at Jude (Feel it’s becoming too common), Fallon (Is it too far out there?), Callum (Both of us used to LOVE but our enthusiasm is waning), Arlo (I love, hubby’s not too sure), Devin, Elliot, and Max (All 3 of which – too common?). Our last name is M0rgan.

Help!

I am going to focus on your original question, because in my opinion it eliminates the need for the other questions. I don’t think the Kate & Leopold thing is a problem. When you mentioned it, I felt a faint twinge of possible familiarity but couldn’t place it. I said to Paul, “Do you know of a Kate and Leopold connection?” and he said he didn’t. So then I looked it up and found the movie from 2001. Well. Hm. Anyone who had seen the movie could very well make the connection, it’s true. Hm hm hm.

Well, as someone who didn’t see the movie, of course I think it’s not a big deal. I say use the names you love, and if anyone says, “Oh, like the movie?” you can blink at them blankly and say, “…No.”

But we definitely need more opinions here. Maybe everyone but me saw the movie, or maybe not everyone saw it but those who DID see it retain a very strong impression of the two names. So let’s have a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Then let’s have a second poll [poll closed; see results below] to see what people think you should name him if you decide against Leopold. I suggest using Leo. It’s a perfectly good stand-alone name and eliminates the Leopold problem, and you were planning to call him exclusively Leo anyway. If you don’t want to use Leo on its own, my vote is for Arlo, a name I think is dramatically underused, or for Elliot, a name I’d use in a heartbeat if Paul and I weren’t both so stubborn about our preferred spellings (he prefers Eliot; neither of us will budge).

Poll results, Kate & Leopold being a problem (262 votes total):
Yes, dealbreaker: 41 votes, roughly 16%
Yes but not a dealbreaker: 61 votes, roughly 23%
Heard of it but no: 134 votes, roughly 51%
Never heard of it, so no: 26 votes, roughly 10%

Poll results, what to use if not Leopold (208 votes total):
Leo: 75 votes, roughly 36%
Graham: 32 votes, roughly 15%
Graeme: 5 votes, roughly 2%
Jude: 19 votes, roughly 9%
Fallon: 4 votes, roughly 2%
Callum: 11 votes, roughly 5%
Arlo: 14 votes, rougly 7%
Devan: 3 votes, roughly 1%
Elliot: 30 votes, rough 14%
Max: 15 votes, roughly 7%

Name update 10-02-2009! Gwen writes:
Thanks for all of you (and your readers’) help! I went into labor – no joke – while I was watching “Kate & Leopold”. Our 6 lb, 2 oz Leopold Gray was born Sep. 29 and is doing fantastic!