J. writes:

I am due at the very beginning of January with my second baby, and we don’t know the gender. We have one son whose name is Declan Christopher James (the two middle names are for a specific reason, but not one we need to repeat with this baby). Our last name is F.o.l.e.y., thus rendering most names that end with -y, -ie, and especially -lie too cutsey or sing-songy for our tastes. If you couldn’t tell from our son’s name or our last name, we’re Irish, but a lot of the Irish names we like (ex. Aiobheann) are terribly difficult to spell or pronounce in English, so we’re willing to branch out, unless someone has any suggestions.

At this point, I think we’ve whittled our list down to either Eleanor Megan or Margot Anne for a girl, and Elliot Somers, Miles Thomas, and Winston Somers for a boy. All of the middle names are family names, so we’re set on using those, but we’re open to suggestions for first names. My husband also likes Miles for a boy, and I like Adrian and Julian (neither one of us has managed to sell the other on any of those, but we also haven’t eliminated them), and we both like Maura for a girl.

We’d love additional suggestions, as well as opinions on the names we’ve already listed.

Thanks!

I really, really like your choices. If you twisted my arm and forced me to choose, I’d choose Eleanor Megan for a girl and Elliot Somers for a boy, but I don’t think you can go wrong no matter what you choose. I’m going to make two polls, one for the girl names and one for the boy names. Polls are over to the right [polls closed; see below]—let’s vote! And hurry: baby is due at the very beginning of January, and ACK! we are a week into it.

Poll results, girl names (232 votes total):
Eleanor Megan: 136 votes, roughly 59%
Margot Anne: 96 votes, roughly 41%

Poll results, boy names (231 votes total):
Elliot Somers: 99 votes, roughly 43%
Miles Thomas: 105 votes, roughly 45%
Winston Somers: 27 votes, roughly 12%

Name update 01-17-2009! J. writes:

We finally had a baby girl yesterday, January 16 (I guess she just needed extra time to get those sweet chubby rolls!), and we decided to name her Eleanor Megan. Thanks so much for the votes!

Catherine writes:

Our daughter is due around New Years. We’ve reached an impasse and need some help.

Some ground rules:

• Our last name is 4 syllables, lovely, uncommon, starts with an L and is rather commanding; similar to Leonardo. So nothing too long (as much as we love it, no Juliana / Alexandra / etc.). Also, nothing that starts with an L (we liked Lillian / Lauren, but had to leave them out)
• Nothing too trendy or “weird”, and no “creative” spellings. We are looking for simple, elegant names with a little whimsy.
• Must go with Benjamin Henry — we would like to use it if we have a boy

Our favorites so far are Julie / Julia and Natalie

We keep coming back to Julie / Julia Elisabeth but can’t figure out which to use. We really like Julie (we’ve used it since we found out it was a girl), and don’t like Julia that much. I’m worried Julie will start sounding dated soon, but it’s popular in Europe, so maybe? With our last name, Julie hardly sounds boring. Plus Julia, Natalie and Sophie just doesn’t work as well as Julie, Natalie and Sophie. We’d like to use those if we have more girls, and I love love love “Ben & Julie”. But maybe we could put Julia on the birth certificate but call her Julie, and she could choose to use Julia if she wanted. Would love some input on the status of Julie vs. Julia these days.

Natalie keeps coming up and I must admit it’s growing on me a lot. But we can’t agree on a middle name that we both love. I love Natalie Frances except for one thing — the initials (NFL). Football fan I am not, and even if I were I don’t think I could go through with it. Can’t use Frances for a first (family reasons). I like Natalie Eleanor but my husband prefers Natalie Elisabeth. We just can’t agree. See the baby name wizard’s comment on Eleanor. So true for us! Natalie Therese works, and we both like it a lot, but, we just don’t love it. Other middle names for Natalie?

Would love some input on all this, especially the Julie / Julia issue.

I think that if you like Julie and don’t like Julia much, you should use Julie and not use Julia. I think of Julie as its own name, and don’t think it needs to be a nickname for another name. The only thing I’m wondering is if the “-lee” ending sounds awkward with the “Lee-” beginning of your surname. Julie Leonardo, for example, would have a juLEE LEEonardo issue, as would Natalie Leonardo. It’s a minor issue, though, and not one that would rule out the name for me.

Julie is indeed the 1960s/1970s version of the name, whereas Julia has been the version used more often in recent years. A more modern sounding version would be Jolie, but that name is strongly associated with Angelina Jolie. Pretty name, though, and in fact the name means “pretty.”

You say you like the name Lillian; how about Jillian? You could call her Jilly, which is one vowel sound off from Julie. Jillian Leonardo has a pleasing repeating lee sound (because the lee is in the middle of the first name rather than at the end), has a more modern sound than Julie, and I think it’s nice with Benjamin: Jillian and Benjamin, Jilly and Ben. I’d go with Jillian Frances, I think, but I also like Jillian Elisabeth.

Let’s put the candidates in a poll to the right and see what everyone thinks. [Poll closed; see results below.] After you vote for a first name, come to the comment section to discuss middle name preferences: Elisabeth, Frances, Eleanor, Therese.

Poll results (227 votes total):
Julie: 46 votes, roughly 20%
Julia: 51 votes, roughly 22%
Jillian/Jilly: 106 votes, roughly 47%
Natalie: 24 votes, roughly 11%

Name update 01-03-2009! Catherine writes:
We welcomed Julia Elisabeth (with an -s-) into the world on December 30th. We’ll call her Julie or Jules, but she’ll have a lovely grownup name to use in the “real world.” I also fell in love with the Beatles song “Julia” recently, so that helped. We are happy with our choice. My husband loves the name Elisabeth / Elizabeth, so we went with that (though I won on the -s- vs. -z- issue!). I’m still not crazy about her initials (JEL) but honestly I don’t think it’s that important. We’re really happy with the name, and so far it seems to suit her quite nicely.

Rachel writes:

My husband and I are struggling with names for our second son (arriving end of December/beginning of January). We made the (very wise) decision last time not to tell anyone our name choice until after our son was born and we’d like to do that again this time. However, we’re struggling with what name to use and some second opinions would be helpful. Since we’re keeping it a secret from family/friends I thought I’d turn to you! Also, while my husband has strong opinions he named our first son, so he’s stated that in the end I get to to decide the name for this baby…..oh the pressure!!!

First of all, our last name is similar to “Hull” or “Hill,” so we need a name that works with that. His middle name will be my maiden name (which is also our first son’s middle name). Our first son (19 months) is named Wyatt. We had his name picked out before the ultrasound. We liked it because it wasn’t so uncommon that people would think it was “weird” but not as common as Jack or other popular boy names. (Although Sheryl Crow named her son Wyatt one month later and now it’s becoming more popular!).

Anyhow, as for names for this baby…..

We’ve narrowed it down to 2 or 3. Choice A is Cooper. It goes well w/ our last name, goes well with Wyatt and is easy to spell/pronounce. I think it will be really cute for a baby or a little boy. What we’re less sure of is what it’ll sound like for a 30 year old grown man. I keep picturing a grown man in a suit shaking hands and introducing himself as “Cooper” and I’m just not sure it works.

Choice B is Harrison, although we’ll call him Harry. I like this because I had a great grandfather named Harry and my husband’s grandfather is Harold so it keeps it in the family. Plus I think a baby Harry is so cute sounding. It also gives him the option of going by Harrison as an adult if he wants to. The only downside…I think Harrison sounds great with our last name, but I think Harry with our last name sounds silly. And I keep envisioning him introducing himself as Harry H— and it sounds weird. What do you think?

Choice C is Charlie. My husband just came up with this in the last week. Neither of us like Charles so we’d put Charlie on the birth certificate.. I think it’s an okay name but I don’t love it as much as Cooper or Harrison/Harry.

I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts/opinions on this!

So would I! Let’s put the three names in a poll over to the right [poll closed; see below], and people can give freestyle opinions in the comment section.

Poll results (223 votes total):
Cooper: 113 votes, roughly 51%
Harrison (Harry): 68 votes, roughly 30%
Charlie: 42 votes, roughly 19%

Name update 02-21-2009! Rachel writes:

A belated update….our son Harry was born on January 8th. We named him Harrison but are calling him Harry. Thanks for all the comments and voting from everyone. Even though Harry wasn’t the popular choice, reading everyone’s comments helped us decide.

Jenna writes:

Not for lack of effort, but my baby girl (our first) is due on Christmas Day and we are still completely undecided on a name. Growing up as one of MANY Jennifers, I have always vowed to name my children very unique, individualized names, but nothing too out there where people have to ask you to repeat it or spell it when you introduce yourself. I’m very fond of unisex names such as: Hayden, Harper, Blair, Payton, and Quinn. I also like the cutsie girly names such as: Lily, Molly, Macie, Madeleine, and Ella. And my husband and I even really like Piper which is very unusual and Tegan also relatively unusual. I actually recently fell in love with the name Tegan, but my cousin (not a cousin that I speak to or see but about once a year) just named her baby girl Tegan.

So, I’m in part writing to ask, is it appropriate to still use that name, or is that rude? And I’m also looking for other suggestions that would be in line with the types of names that we like so far. The problem is, besides Tegan, I’m not really head-over-heels in love with any of these names. We do have a family name that we like for a middle name (Maggie), but are open to whatever for that as well. Our main criteria though would be originality, and not simply in variations of spelling. Any feedback on these or other names would be so greatly appreciated! She could arrive any minute!

Jenna writes again:

So our minds have changed somewhat since I last wrote. We are now strongly considering Lily as a first name, but I’m worried about it’s growing popularity. It was #27 last year and the trend seems to be upward. Any thoughts? I’m still considering the same alternatives as before and am still open to new ideas. I’m also having a hard time with middle names for Lily…Lily Bella (like the sound), Lily Marguerite (family name), and Lily Noelle (Christmas baby…).

I’ve had this one in my inbox for AGES, and can’t seem to tackle it. The only suggestion that comes to mind is Iris, Iris Marguerite. Anyone else want to give it a try?

Name update 01-10-2009! Jenna writes:

Thank you so much to all who commented on our posting to find the perfect name for our little girl. Teagan Lily was born January 2nd and fit her name
perfectly!

Chantel writes:

Hello, we are due to have our 3rd child and second girl Christmas eve. We have always had a harder time picking names both my husband and I could agree on. We have Allison Adelaide and our Son is Lucas Calvin who we call Allie and Luke. For our new baby girl we have narrowed the options to Phoebe and Amelia. Amelia is my husbands favorite it is also a family name from my grandmother, I like it also, but I feel like I lean toward Phoebe, which isn’t a family name just one we both happened to like. I would be happy to name the baby Phoebe Amelia. Hitting both the names. Amelia is tricky for me because I don’t like Milly AT ALL, and the middle name can’t be an S because our Last name is an S name and I am not thrilled about those initials! I wanted to use a “Christmas” middle name but my husband vetoed Noelle which was my favorite, and all the A, names are out…So Middle names for Amelia are running low!
Any advice would be welcomed…
Thanks!

OMG, am I BEHIND much? Your baby could easily be here already. But we will plow ahead anyway in the hopes that she is not yet here and there is still time to be of use.

Phoebe Amelia is a terrific name. I like the way it introduces a new first initial, too. We’ll leave it alone and turn our attention to the problem of if you want to use Amelia as the first name.

One nickname I’ve heard for Amelia is Mia. You could also do Amy or Ammy (kind of like Emmy) or Lia.

Middle names, hm. It’s too bad he’s vetoed Noelle, because I love the sound of Amelia Noelle. How about Eve, since she’s due Christmas Eve? Amelia Eve. Or Amelia Holly or Amelia Ivy (from The Holly and the Ivy). Amelia Merry. Amelia Carol. Amelia Christmas. Okay, I am reaching here. My favorite is Amelia Eve: it commemorates her due date whether she’s born before or after or on, and it’s a pretty middle name.

Let’s put it to the vote in a poll over to the right [poll closed; see below]: Phoebe Amelia, or Amelia ___. If you have a favorite middle name idea, you can put it in the comment section.

Poll results (193 votes total):
Phoebe Amelia: 76 votes, roughly 39%
Amelia ___ : 117 votes, roughly 61%

Name update 12-26-2008! Chantel writes:

We had our baby December 23rd,2008, healthy and well! We named her Phoebe Amelia, she was dark haired and in my mind Phoebe was dark haired and Amelia light, so to us nothing else fit her…Thanks for all the advice, I loved many of the names, Especially Eve but my husband is Adam which we thought was just kinda funny sounding…
Thank you all again, and A Happy New year to you all!

Rusti writes:

I’m 37 weeks pregnant with our first child (due in 21 days!! YIKES!) and the gender is unknown (well – to me! my husband and sister know, but they’ve both been threatened that if I find out – there will be consequences!!) :) Anyway – we have narrowed down our boy name choices to two boy names – with variations on each middle name, although the girl name list keeps changing… and I was hoping for some outside help :)

Our last name is Sidel (long “i” sound – like “sigh-dell”) if that helps!

The names my husband and I both like are as follows:

BOY

• Clay Allen (his choice)
• Clay Adam (my choice)
• Cole Allen (his choice)
• Cole Thomas (my choice)

GIRL

• Jemma Jean (we would call her JJ)
• Emma Grace (only girl name that was on BOTH our lists, but is a little more popular than we like)
• Addison Jean
• Alex/Alyx Jean
• Allie/Ally Jean

Other names we like for a girl but haven’t made it to the short list for one reason or another include:

Maggie (my favorite!)
Summer (his favorite, not for me)
Bailey (both like it – but a girl with the initials of BJ??? not sure on that)
Abigail/Abby
Olivia, Aubrey & Mara (he hates all three)
Hailey, Katy, Amy, Jessie (his picks, not for me)
Anna (his pick – I prefer Annalise – he hates it though)

Other boy names we liked (to get a better idea of our tastes)

Me – Grady, Owen, Grayson
Hubs – Kyle, Casey, Austin, Mason, Parker

A little background on the family names which have us debating still… Jean is both my mom & sister’s middle name, as well as my husband’s deceased grandmother’s – it’s not his favorite, but he’s compromising with me :) Clay is my mother-in-law’s maiden name, we lost her last September to cancer, and I thought it was a nice way to honor her… Allen is my husband’s middle name – and he often goes by “Al” (which is also his father & grandfather’s – hubby is a III, but if it’s a boy, we’re not having a fourth) Adam is my deceased cousin’s name, and was actually a front-runner for first name on hubby’s original list… Thomas is the most passed-down middle name on my father’s side – although not his middle name, it was my grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s – as well as several cousins’…

So… that’s what we’re dealing with – I hope y’all can help us!! We’d even be happy to get it down to two each to take to the hospital in the next few weeks!! :) Thanks in advance!!! Oh, and sorry it’s sooooo long!!! :)

All right, we’re going to use two separate polls here, one for girl names and one for boy names! Form two lines, please, and vote one time in each poll! [Polls closed; see below.]

Girl name poll results (289 votes total):
Jemma Jean: 70 votes, roughly 24%
Emma Grace: 93 votes, roughly 32%
Addison Jean: 78 votes, roughly 27%
Alex/Alyx Jean: 14 votes, roughly 5%
Allie/Ally Jean: 34 votes, roughly 12%

Boy name poll results (277 votes total):
Clay Allen: 46 votes, roughly 17%
Clay Adam: 47 votes, roughly 17%
Cole Allen: 37 votes, roughly 13%
Cole Thomas: 147, roughly 53%

Name update 01-22-2009! Rusti writes:

Our sweet Emma Grace was born on January 6th and we couldn’t be happier with her! I want to thank you & all your readers for their help! Hubs still loved Jemma, but after watching me go through delivery, when I said “babe, we aren’t naming her Jemma” he said “what do you want?” and we agreed that Emma Grace was perfect!

Elise writes:

I’m due in December with my third child, a boy. My husband and I both have French heritage, so we’re looking for French names that are also used in America. Our last name is Martel (prn. mar-TEL.) We’d like our son’s name to fit with our daughters, Adeline Claire (5) and Vivienne Audrey (3).

So far, our top names are Oliver, Chandler and Sebastien. My husband likes Benjamin and Nicolas, but they’re both very common where we live, so I’m hesitant to use them. My favorite is Oliver. I love the way it sounds! Charles will most likely be the middle name, after my father.

Please help us out with suggestions – boys names are so hard! I don’t want anything too popular, and it should be easy to pronounce. Thank you!

Oh, I just LOVE the name Oliver. LOVE it. I’ve said this before, I know, but when I was pregnant with Henry, Oliver was my first choice and also Paul’s—but unfortunately we have a cat named Oliver. I asked Paul if we could name the baby Oliver if the cat died before the baby was born, and he said yes. Then we both looked at the cat in an evaluating manner.

So anyway, my vote is already for Oliver. I love it: Oliver Martel. Oliver Charles Martel. Adeline, Vivienne, and Oliver. I don’t know if anything could be better.

In fact, I find I can’t even concentrate on looking for more options. I turned to the French Names section of The Baby Name Wizard and I tried REALLY HARD to make a list. There are some good names there: Hugo, Jerome, Luc, Xavier. But I am sold on Oliver.

Let’s put the vote to a less-biased audience. I’ll add a few names to your list and put a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see below.]

[Poll results (228 votes total):
Oliver: 147 votes, roughly 64%
Chandler: 8 votes, roughly 4%
Sebastien: 46 votes, roughly 20%
Hugo: 8 votes, roughly 4%
Jerome: 3 votes, roughly 1%
Luc: 11 votes, roughly 5%
Xavier: 5 votes, roughly 2%]

Update 01-03-2009! Elise writes:

Oliver Charles Martel came into the world on December 20, 2008. Our family is so thankful for our little Christmas baby. :) Thank you so much for helping us pick the perfect name!

Heather writes:

I am expecting # three soon. I have a 13 year old Grant Anthony Fink and an 18 month old Brady Tann Fink (family name, Tann is short for Jonathan). I am at a loss for names I think this time around.

My husband likes Savannah and Delaney. I say no to both Jimmy Buffet names. He also loves Delilah which I can do because I love Lilah. I love Grace, Claire, Mary Claire, and Lila/h.

For boys I love Tate and Finn. Finn is out due to our last name. I LOVE Henry but DH says no. I also love Carter and Travis, both used up by friends of ours. My husband likes Liam and John. I could do Liam but not so much with John.

Please help! What other names sound great with Grant and Brady? I am stuck this time when it was so easy they last two times! I want something different but not super trendy (don’t we all!). I like classic and different. DH is just different. Please help.

Thank you!!!!

I am just dying for the new edition of The Baby Name Wizard to come out! DYING! Well, we’ll use what we’ve got. The book suggests these sibling names for Grant: Paige, Hope, Elena, Victoria, Claire; Reid, Miles, Bond, Spencer, Preston. And these sibling names for Brady: Avery, Payton, Macy, Brenna, Madelyn; Parker, Riley, Carter, Bryson, Drake. Do any of those (other than Claire and Carter, which were already on your list) seem like candidates?

Elena and Miles and Brenna are all names from my own baby name lists, so of course I’m in favor of those—but I think Brenna is too close to Brady. I’ll add Lena, which is similar to Elena. I like Elena best, though: it’s similar in sound and rhythm to Delaney, which your husband likes, but is more in line with your choices of Claire and Lila. And I like it with your surname: Elena Fink. Maybe Elena Claire Fink or Elena Grace Fink.

Carter is a name I keep putting on my baby name list but having to scratch out because surname names are bad with my surname, but I think it’s great with yours. Friends are different about whether it’s okay to use the same name: if you’re going with “no,” then I suggest Carson. Another surname name I like is Turner. Carson Fink is my favorite, though, if Carter is out of the running. Maybe Carson Travis Fink, or Carson John Fink.

I’m never sure how to do the polls when there are both girl and boy names to choose from. Usually I put all the names in one poll and let people choose one boy name and one girl name—but this time let’s try it a different way. I’m going to make TWO polls [polls closed; see below], one for if Baby Fink is a girl, and one for if Baby Fink is a boy. We’ll see if that works better.

[Poll results:

Girl names (236 votes total):
Delilah: 39 votes, roughly 17%
Grace: 10 votes, roughly 4%
Claire: 24 votes, roughly 10%
Mary Claire: 18 votes, roughly 8%
Lila/Lilah: 71 votes, roughly 30%
Elena: 63 votes, roughly 27%
Lena: 11 votes, roughly 5%

Boy names (240 votes total):
Tate: 23 votes, roughly 10%
Liam: 55 votes, roughly 22%
Miles: 38 votes, roughly 16%
Carter: 33 votes, roughly 14%
Carson: 83 votes, roughly 35%
Turner: 8 votes, roughly 3%]

Name update 02-17-2009. Heather writes:

We have not had baby boy #3 yet but we have selected his name. My father in law passed away very unexpectedly on January 20th after complications due to a hospital stay for minor out patient surgery. He was only 62 and very healthy so it was a shock to us. My FIL loved Harley motorcycles, riding them and being outdoors. I am not a fan of the name Harley so we decided to go with the name Ryder as our own inside tribute to the great man “Paw Paw” was.

Baby #3 will be named Ryder Donald Fink. First name at tribute to the hobby Paw Paw loved and the middle name Paw Paw’s first name. We love it as our personal tribute to him and now our baby will carry on a piece of the grandpa he will not be able to know.

Thank you so much for the name ideas and the polls. Carter had been our choice until we lost Paw Paw.

Thank you again!

Second name update 06-06-2009! Heather writes:

I wrote in a few months ago about our name issues. We had decided on Ryder Donald Fink but once our little guy was born (4/29/09) we knew he was a Matthew just like his dad. Matthew Donald joins big brother Grant Anthony and Brady Tann. We are so in love with our new little man. Thank you for your baby naming help. Just goes to show it can all change once you meet the little person :)

The last post I did (Baby Boy ___ Earl Van Brimmer) is not sitting well with me. As Erin noticed in the comment section, the names I suggested were not ideal with the middle name Earl.

Here was my struggle: with the rhythm set by a one-syllable middle name and a three-syllable surname, my preferred number of syllables for the first name would be three or four syllables. Furthermore, with the middle name Earl, it seemed like it was better if the first name didn’t end with an R or a vowel. But jeeks! Trying to find a 3- or 4-syllable boy name that didn’t end in R, didn’t end in a vowel, was a good fit with names such as Logan and Noah, and wasn’t too common? PANIC.

So then I started making excuses: Rhythm preferences are so subjective. We don’t usually say the entire name anyway. A 2-syllable first name sounds great with a 3-syllable last name. The two sample choices are 2-syllable. The middle name is a family name, and so probably the sentimental value trumps the negligible problem of the entire name not sounding perfect all together.

Excuses, excuses. I came up with a list of names that do indeed sound good with Van Brimmer. Isaac Van Brimmer is GREAT, isn’t it? And I hoped no one would notice that Isaac Earl Van Brimmer is…less great. The rhythm is okay if not perfect, but the hard-C in Isaac blends poorly with the name Earl, giving a sound almost like “girl.”

Owen Van Brimmer is another good choice. But “Owen Earl”? Not ideal, is it? Sounds almost like, “Oh! An earl!” Sigh.

These things bothered me, and so we’re going to try again. Here are some 3- and 4-syllable boy names. A couple of them DO end in R. Some of them are probably too common. But I think they’re all better names than the first list.

Alexander Earl Van Brimmer
Nicholas Earl Van Brimmer
Benjamin Earl Van Brimmer
Christopher Earl Van Brimmer
Anderson Earl Van Brimmer
Elliot Earl Van Brimmer
Gideon Earl Van Brimmer
Harrison Earl Van Brimmer
Jefferson Earl Van Brimmer
Sebastian Earl Van Brimmer
Sullivan Earl Van Brimmer
Jonathan Earl Van Brimmer

There. I feel better. Let’s have a new poll over to the right—and I’ll leave the original poll up as well, for interest’s sake. [Poll closed; see below.]

[Poll results (207 votes total):
Alexander: 11 votes, roughly 5%
Nicholas: 30 votes, roughly 14%
Benjamin: 21 votes, roughly 10%
Christopher: 8 votes, roughly 4%
Anderson: 26 votes, roughly 13%
Elliot: 29 votes, roughly 14%
Gideon: 12 votes, roughly 6%
Harrison: 16 votes, roughly 8%
Jefferson: 5 votes, roughly 2%
Sebastian: 20 votes, roughly 10%
Sullivan: 15 votes, roughly 7%
Jonathan: 14 votes, roughly 7%]

Name update! Sarah writes:

I finally won out with the name choice of Logan. I only had to watch an entire marathon of Star Wars and agree that the husband could have the final say on Baby #2. Thanks for helping us out!

Sarah writes:

I’m writing because my husband and I are desperately trying to find a name for our baby boy, due in December. We’re both teachers and this has infinitely complicated the naming process. Every name we’ve come up with reminds us of some student we’ve had or heard about.

We know that we want to use my father’s middle name (Earl) as our baby’s middle name.

Our last name is Van Brimmer, pronouned van (like the automobile) – BRIM (like on a hat)- er.

The names that I like are Logan and Noah. We also considered Brennan, but nixed that because of too many “B” sounds. I’m not quite sure exactly what my husband wants — except to disagree with me…We do know that we want something that is unique. But, we don’t want him to be made fun of, either. We would really appreciate your help! Thanks!

 
I think teaching must be just about the HARDEST profession for baby-naming! My son’s teacher just had a baby and I wondered what on earth she would name it. (She chose a name that was in style in the ’80s, before she started teaching.)

The name Logan is on its way up in popularity: it was the 17th most popular boy name given to babies in 2007. The name Noah, too, continues to rise: it was the 14th most popular boy name given to babies in 2007. (Source for both rankings: Social Security Administration.)

Let’s see if we can find some more possibilities to choose from. I’ll follow each one with its 2007 popularity ranking according to the Social Security Administration.

Isaac Van Brimmer (#41)
Owen Van Brimmer (#56)
Adrian Van Brimmer (#61)
Henry Van Brimmer (#91)
Marcus Van Brimmer (#118)
Jeremy Van Brimmer (#122)
Oliver Van Brimmer (#140)
Elias Van Brimmer (#173)
Collin Van Brimmer (#185)

Do any of those sound like names you might be interested in?

Let’s have a poll to see what everyone else thinks. Vote for your favorite of the list, but also leave your suggestions in the comment section. [Poll closed; see below.]

[Poll results (249 votes total):
Logan: 23 votes, roughly 9%
Noah: 13 votes, roughly 5%
Isaac: 47 votes, roughly 19%
Owen: 23 votes, roughly 9%
Adrian: 18 votes, roughly 7%
Henry: 29 votes, roughly 12%
Marcus: 25 votes, roughly 10%
Jeremy: 12 votes, roughly 5%
Oliver: 17 votes, roughly 7%
Elias: 18 votes, roughly 7%
Collin: 24 votes, roughly 10%]

(Also see the revisit of this question, with new answers.)

Name update! Sarah writes:

I finally won out with the name choice of Logan. I only had to watch an entire marathon of Star Wars and agree that the husband could have the final say on Baby #2. Thanks for helping us out!