Sherry writes:

I have a last name that is a very common first name for girls. I have friends in similar naming situations with the last names of Gale, Mallory and Shirley. (Though, I must say my last name is even more commonly a first name than any of those!)

My husband has two brothers with children- one has given his daughters middle names, the other has not. Of course, the theory for the non-middle-name givers is that the daughter’s maiden name will become her middle name when she marries.

My maiden name did NOT become my middle name; I kept my original middle name, so now I have three first names.

Anyway, what does your readership think? Do girls get middle names? What if their last name will one day turn into a perfectly suitable middle name?

I absolutely think girls should be given middle names—or rather, that their “being a girl” shouldn’t make their naming structure different than the structure we’d use for a boy. Some girls won’t marry. Some girls who do marry will keep their own names. Some girls who marry will want to call themselves First Middle Married instead of First Maiden Middle. Some girls who marry will want to hyphenate their surname. Some girls who marry will have reason to want to disassociate from their family, rather than treasuring the surname in the middle name slot. Some girls who marry will want to use their married name socially but their maiden name professionally.

Giving a girl a middle name won’t affect her choices later on: she still can, when she marries, drop that middle name and put her maiden name there instead. Or she can do what I did and add the maiden name as a second middle name. OR WHATEVER. But in the meantime, and in all the decades before she marries (if she does marry), she has a middle name, and it’s useful to have it. In the U.S. it’s useful because the naming culture is so strongly middle-name, I have even encountered the occasional computer form that won’t let the middle-name slot be left empty. (Obviously this is a flaw with the form, and it should be FIXED, not allowed to dictate naming practices. I mention it only to illustrate how much “having a middle name” is culturally assumed.)

It’s also useful if the girl is one of two with her first name in her class or in her extended family: some might prefer to be Abigail Louise, rather than Abigail M.

It’s also useful for a girl who doesn’t feel like her first name fits her, but doesn’t really want to CHANGE her name, either: she can easily go by Louise, or by A. Louise.

It’s also useful for differentiating among the near-inevitable case of more than one person in the country having the same first and last name combination. For tax forms, resumes, all legal documents, it’s handy to have an extra identifying item. Not essential, and of course the other person might have the same middle name or middle initial—but still handy.

Plus, it’s fun to choose a middle name, for those of us who enjoy baby names. And it’s a good place for naming compromises: one parent gets his/her first choice for the first name, so the other parent gets more say in the middle name, that sort of thing. It’s also an excellent place for a namesake name, especially if the name in question is not one that the parents would want to use in the first name slot. And it’s a great place for any other name that the parents don’t want to use in the first name position because of initial problems or popularity (either too common or too out-there) or any other similar issue.

And it gives her a classic 3-letter monogram.

And of course it is classically used to inform the child that he or she is in trouble: “Abigail Louise, you get in here RIGHT NOW and pick up that mess!”

I don’t think it matters one single bit if the surname happens to be an established first name as well: either way, a middle name is useful, and leaving a slot free for when she marries is making too many assumptions.

Note: None of this means that I think people MUST give children middle names, or that it is somehow required—and of course things are done differently in different cultures and/or family traditions, and there are other reasons why a middle name might not be used (I had an acquaintance whose family had a tradition of letting the child choose his or her own middle name at a certain age, which I thought was charming). I mean only to answer the question about whether girls in particular SHOULD NOT be given middle names, in order to leave a space for their maiden names when they get married.

What do you all think? Should girls not be given middle names, in order that they can use their maiden names as middle names later on? Does it make a difference if the maiden name is a girl’s name?

Vanessa writes:

LOVE your blog. A.
B. I have questions/suggestions/whatever and I would like to first apologize for rambling!

OK–questions.

1. I wonder if you might be willing to put up some kind of open forum every now and then for people to post cool names they’ve heard, or interesting sibling pairs, or whatever (without last names, obviously). I think it would be really fun to discuss. For example, when I was in ES there were–I sweartogod–sibs named Christina, Christian, and Christiana.

2. What’s up with month and color and flower names? Or I guess all noun names? How come–and I don’t mean this snarkily–some are considered names and some aren’t? See: June/May vs November, Lily/Daisy vs Peony, Violet vs Yellow…

3. What are your thoughts on giving kids in the same family different last names? I love my name–it’s Vanessa S____ V____ Steck which is possibly the greatest name ever. I am definitely not changing it if I get married, but I’d also like to give my kids my last name–at least some of my kids–and I don’t think I want to hyphenate anything. What do you think? Would it be horrid to have, say, Annie Steck and Cora SomeoneElse’sSurname?
thanks!

1. Oh, good idea! We sometimes have things like that (what names have you had to give up because of surname compatibility and what is our favorite Z name and cool names from our family trees)—but I think they would be fun to do more often, and I don’t always think of it. Or, now that we have the new non-due-date order, people can submit a question of that sort! Ooooo, that would be fun! Yes, if anyone has a general name-related discussion question, they should submit it. Come to think of it, I have a couple on the spreadsheet from wayyyyyy back—perhaps I’ll do one after this!

2. I know, isn’t that weird? Violet, Rose, Lily—YES! Tulip, Carnation, Daffodil—no. April, May, June—YES! February, July, October—no. One thing I find particularly interesting is the BORDERLINE word-names. That is, a FEW people use December, and Magnolia, and Emerald—but VERY FEW. I think those make a nice choice when someone wants something a LITTLE out-there but not TOO out-there: the use of other word-names from the same category make the names easier to accept, just as unusual rhyming names are easier to accept (“It’s like Natalie, but without the N” or “It’s like Jenna, but with a K instead of a J”).

3. My mother’s friend Donna was telling us that she knew a family where all the boys had the dad’s surname, and all the girls had the mother’s surname. Wait, no, I think it was a whole CULTURE where they did that. Seems like a good idea to me. The downside is that until it becomes a cultural norm, it gives the wrong signals: a family where the children had two different surnames would, I think, be assumed to be a blended family. It’s none of their business + who cares + people who know you will know the real story + nothing wrong with blended families—but it’s the sort of thing that can feel like too much of a hassle to take on.

But if I were you, I’d want to keep that name TOO. One possibility is to keep your own name and give the children their father’s surname (which is done often enough to be familiar), but then give the children two middle names: either a new middle name plus your surname, or your second middle name plus your surname, or something of that sort. We did something like that in my own household, when I was loathe to give up my own name.

A. writes:

My husband and I are expecting our 3rd baby, we have two beautiful baby girls named McKenna and Mia and then surprise we found out we are having a baby boy! His due date is August 4th, but the doctor says probably end of July. We are having such a hard time choosing a name for a boy. Do we stick with an M name like our girls names or do we branch out and give him a non M name? There really aren’t too many great M names for boys. If we would have had another girl, it we would have gone with Molly or Macey. My husband likes Milo for a boy, for some reason that name just doesn’t settle with me. I am also so worried that if we go with another M name and we have another baby we’ll be really trapped with M names! We have decided on James for a middle name. James is a family name and seems to work well with most first names. To go even further our last name starts with the letter M! So my girls initials are MGM and MFM! I like the name Owen, but that names doesn’t settle with my husband. He also doesn’t like Micah or Mason. I kind of liked Madden but that was a NO too! I like the name Zane but Zane James doesn’t work. Both of us like the names Weston and Keaton but nothing really seems to be sticking! My husbands name is Aaron and so is his dads and my brothers, so we were trying to steer clear of Aaron but I kind of like Aaron James, even AJ for a nickname. Any suggestions for this M or not to M name dilema?

Thanks

It seems to me that it’s the third child that makes parents feel permanently locked into an initial. If you have McKenna, Mia, Weston, and Keaton, no one will think, “Why didn’t they keep going with M names?” But if you have McKenna, Mia, Milo, and Keaton, it’s different. Something about the third child is what makes the pattern solid. Not that it can’t be broken, of course; I’m only talking about how it seems to FEEL to people.

So this is your moment to decide: Do you want to stick to M names, or don’t you? Does it appeal to you? I can see upsides to both ways. On one hand, I wouldn’t want to narrow the field that severely: so many great names you wouldn’t be able to use! On the other hand, most people have certain letters they tend to be drawn to, and so if M is one of yours, you’re likely to find quite a few names you like there; and I’ve noticed from writing this column that it can be fun and interesting to work with a tight restriction—as well has HELPING to narrow things down, considering how overwhelmingly large the field really is.

One possibility is to see if there’s another initial you tend to be drawn to for boy names, as you’re drawn to M names for girls, and then use that initial for this and all future boys.

Another possibility is to first find the name you like best, without thinking about the initial, and then just see how it works out: if you do find an M name you like best, use it; but if you don’t, play it from there, either going with that new initial for all future boys, or else discontinuing all initial-matching.

If you do decide on M names, one problem is that a lot of the ones I think would work well with your style start with Mc or Mac, and you’ve already got one of those. I don’t know if that would work or not. McKenna, Mia, and Macaulay? McKenna, Mia, and Macgregor? I guess it…well, I’m just not sure.

Maguire might work. It has a sound similar to McKenna but without actually repeating the Mc/Mac. McKenna, Mia, and Maguire.

Or Malcolm: McKenna, Mia, and Malcolm.

Or for something more unusual, how about Malone? McKenna, Mia, and Malone.

These may seem so ordinary your mind will flit right over them, but give some thought to Mark and Michael and Matthew. They’re common because they’re good solid names with staying power. Marcus/Markus makes Mark a little more exotic; Matteo and Matthias do the same for Matthew; Micah kind of does the same for Michael.

In fact, I want to give Matteo its own paragraph. It has the fashionable -o ending but the casual nickname Matt, and it’s good with the sibling group: McKenna, Mia, and Matteo.

Marshall would work: McKenna, Mia, and Marshall. It adds in a completely different sound, which is a bonus when repeating the initial.

Or Mitchell? I think I like that even better: McKenna, Mia, and Mitchell.

I’ll mention Maverick, but that name seems like a lot to live up to—like telling the child we want him to have a particular personality, which could be a bit hard on him if he’s the careful cautious type. Still, we do similar things with names such as Faith and Charity and Patience, and to a lesser extent with high-association names such as Scarlett; it’s probably more that the name Maverick is relatively new, and so still seems more tied to its meaning.

Speaking of which, maybe Merit or Merritt? McKenna, Mia, and Merrit.

Do you like any of the Max names? Regular plain Max is my favorite of them: the others sound to me like “longer versions because we want the nickname Max.” And in your family I think that’s the best fit anyway: McKenna, Mia, and Max. It doesn’t go well with James; do you have other male family members you’d like to honor? Or you could use Maxwell, which DOES go well with James.

One of my favorite M boy names is Miller: McKenna, Mia, and Miller.

Another of that type is Mercer: McKenna, Mia, and Mercer.

You wouldn’t want to consider Morris, would you? I think of it as a warm and solid name ready to join other comebacks such as Warren and Walter and Conrad and Cedric. McKenna, Mia, and Morris.

Morrisey spruces it up a bit: McKenna, Mia, and Morrissey.

Or Morrison: McKenna, Mia, and Morrison.

Murphy has charm: McKenna, Mia, and Murphy. Murray too: McKenna, Mia, and Murray.

Andrea writes:

We are expecting our second child, a girl, May 6. We have gone back and forth on naming her. Our first is also a girl we named Lilly Savannah and although we love it I regret not spelling it Lily. What we love about Lilly is it seems suitable at any age to us but still whimsical and cute. The only other name we considered for Lilly was Naomi but my husband hated it and still does.

My name is Andrea and my husband is Dan. This pregnancy we first decided on Ella Violet but I decided I didn’t like Violet and Ella was too popular, his two favorites have been Lucy and Olivia. Neither seemed right to me but I do like them. After I vetoed Ella we settled on Molly Rose, which I still like but there is a little voice nagging me that its too cutesy. Other names on our list

Chloe too popular
Magnolia (Maggie) too cutesy
Juniper, I don’t like Junie and I want a nickname for this one
Ruby, again not quite right
Penelope (Penny) too popular
Tallulah, husband hates

I think the kind of name we like is fresh and cute but can still mature pretty easily.
Thank you!

To me, many of the candidates sound SO CLOSE to Lilly: Lilly and Ella, Lilly and Lucy, Lilly and Molly all have so much in common. But then, I have trouble reading a book in which two characters’ names start with the same initial, so I am not sure I am a reliable indicator of Name Similarity.

I think your choice of Molly is great. It repeats the -lly of Lilly, but the different initial and different vowel sound keeps it separate. I don’t think it’s too cutesy: I have no trouble imagining a college-aged Molly, a mother named Molly, a grandmother named Molly, etc.

If you wanted to tone down the cute, you could use a different middle name: Molly Margaret or Molly Samantha or Molly Caroline has more weight.

Another option for cuteness-toning-down would be Holly.

You’ve got Penelope (#252 in 2009) listed as being too popular, but Molly is #92 and Lilly is #117 (and the spelling Lily is #18). On the other hand, Molly has been hovering right in that area for DECADES, whereas Penelope is shooting up at an alarming rate (from #946 in 2001 to #252 in 2009, and I expect another big increase when the 2010 data is released next month). This makes a huge difference in PERCEIVED popularity, which I think is even more important than actual popularity: it may feel as if the name Penelope is suddenly everywhere, whereas Molly feels steady and not very common (as it should: at #92, the name Molly is given to only 1 in 576 baby girls).

More possibilities:

Bridget (a little difficult to say with the surname)
Calliope
Clara
Clarissa
Cleo
Elodie
Felicity
Flannery
Imogen
Josie
Joy
Melody
Mina
Sadie

I also liked Piper, but thought it might not work with the repeating -er in your surname, and also might be too much of a change from Lilly: Lilly seems more soft and feminine, and Piper seems more sparky and energetic. Similar problems with the name Paige, though to a lesser extent (and no -er, but I still don’t think I like the sound of Paige Drucker). And I considered names such as Ivy and Rosalie and Calla, but wasn’t sure you’d want to start a botanical theme (Holly is also botanical, now that I think of it).

Jayme writes:

I’ve been reading your blog daily since I found out I was pregnant and I’ve found it to be great inspiration for names. I really did not think that my husband and I would be in the situation of having the hardest time with names but here we are less than a month away from my due date (May 10th). So, now I’m turning to you for help!

My name is Jayme, my husband’s name is Shane and our last name starts with an S and rhymes with Brand (like a _trand of hair). This is our first child and we have not found out the gender. We feel pretty good about the girls names we have narrowed down which would be either Makena Leighton or Ashton Makena.

Our issues are with picking Boy’s names. We just can’t seem to find something that we both LOVE. We like names that aren’t too popular or too plain. Below is a list of names that have been on the list at some point or another.

Holden (top contender at this point but still not sure about it)

Parker (just not sure about it as a first name)

Ryker

Leyton (like the name but not the spelling and the Leighton spelling seems feminine to me)

Mason (too popular)

Cooper (hubby does not like and I really don’t like the nickname Cooooooop which I think he would be called all the time!)

Hudson (hubby does not like)

If we chose Holden as the first name we like Parker with it as the middle name. As for all the other names we just have no idea.

I’m sure I’m way over thinking this now and making it way more complicated than needed…..please help us!

 
Looking at your name list, I suggest making your future naming decisions easier by deciding now (if you can—it may be hard to think this far ahead and this theoretically) how you’d like the sibling set to go. If this baby is a girl named Ashton, it might seem like future girl names need to be equally boyish, and/or that future boy names needed to be unequivocally boyish to avoid making Ashton seem like a brother, or that you can’t use Leyton because now it’s even harder to tell who’s a boy and who’s a girl. I talked about this issue at more length in this post: Baby Naming Issue: What to Name the Siblings of a Child With a Gender-Neutral Name or With a Name Traditionally Given to the Opposite Sex (that title just SINGS, doesn’t it?).

So, if I were you, and this is only if _I_ were you, because this sort of thing is sooooo regional (in some areas, for example, Parker is perfectly androgynous; in others, it’s almost exclusively boy), I’d eliminate Parker and Leyton except as middle names—and if you use Ashton, either use it for a boy (220 girls were named Ashton in 2009, but 3519 boys were named Ashton the same year, so it’s still 1:16 in boy-name territory), or else spell it Ashtyn to lean it toward girl territory.

Are you pronouncing Makena mah-KAY-nah or mah-KEN-nah? If the latter, I suggest putting the second N back in to aid pronunciation and spelling. (If the former: never mind.)

And you’re not asking for girl name suggestions, but I’ll mention Padgett anyway. I heard that recently and thought it was just about the cutest name ever.

But you asked about boy names. So, as I said, I’d take Parker and Leyton off the list of first-name candidates to start with. And your husband doesn’t like Cooper or Hudson, so that leaves Holden and Ryker. Of those two, Holden is my favorite.

More possibilities (I’m avoiding B names, to avoid initials B.S.; I wasn’t sure about M.S. and P.S. and S.S., but left them in):

Archer
Coleman
Coulter
Donnelly
Grady
Hatcher
Keaton
Keegan
Kiefer
Lawson
Miller
Porter
Sullivan
Turner
Wilson

T. writes:

Because I have an Annalise, I don’t know if I could use the name Louisa on my current to-be-born baby (too much “ise” – ?), but I wanted to know how people pronounce the name Louisa before I seriously consider it. My grandmother says loo-EEZ-ah, but I’ve always pronounced it and thought of it as loo-EESE-ah, and I think they sound like two different names. I wouldn’t want to name my baby loo-EEZ-ah. Can we have a poll to determine what the common pronunciation is?

Thank you!

 
Good idea! This reminds me of a high school acquaintance who had to work hard to get people to say LESS-lee instead of LEZ-lee: I’d never realized there were two ways to pronounce it, and now I note which one it is when a Lesley introduces herself.

I say Louisa loo-EEZ-ah (and Louise “loo-EEZ”), and because I find it so fun to say I probably overdo a W sound: more like loo-WEEZ-ah. I use the Z sound for Louise and Eloise, too. I think if I wanted a soft S I would use the name Luisa: because I pronounce Luis “loo-EES,” it would come naturally to me to use the soft S with Luisa. (Which is a silly and arbitrary thing, since I also say Louis with a soft S. But the Luis(a) spelling draws my attention to it in a way Louisa doesn’t—maybe I think of Louisa as coming from Louise instead of from Louis.) Or I might use Lucia (pronouncing it loo-SEE-ah) to get similar sounds.

Let’s put a poll over to the right: How do YOU pronounce Louisa? [Poll closed; see results below.]

Allison writes:

I am hoping you can help me with a name for our daughter. Her due date is July 21st. Our process for our first two children was this: an unusual, or little used, Biblical first name and a middle name that honors a family member. Our last name is Petersen.

We have a 3 1/2 year old, Selah Mae. Mae is my maternal grandmother’s middle name.

We have a 21 month old, Titus Glen. Glen is my father-in-law’s name and my husband’s middle name.

I love the name Ava or Eva, but I feel that it is way to common right now so I am looking for something different. Adah is at the top of my list, but my husband doesn’t like it. I have also considered Kyra, Michal, Calah, Eve, Mara, Micah and Eden.

Possible middle names include Violet (paternal grandmother) and Louise (husband’s grandmother). I was concerned that it doesn’t follow our 3 syllable names with the previous two.

I think it’s fine not to match the number of syllables in the sibling names. And trying to match it eliminates so many possibilities, for no benefit.

From your list my favorite is Eve. Uncommon (#582 in 2009, though the popularity of Ava/Eva makes it feel more common) and biblical, and very close to the Ava/Eva you love. Eve Louise would be pretty, and then you’d still have three syllables total, even if they weren’t divided the same way.

Some of the names on your list are names I would use—but not if the Bible were my motivation for using them. The name Mara, for example, is a beautiful name, if I’m not thinking of it as a biblical name. But as soon as I think of the Bible, I think of Naomi, after her husband and both her grown sons had died (leaving her, in those times, completely impoverished and unprotected and unable to support herself), saying, “Don’t call me Naomi anymore—instead, call me Mara, because God has dealt very bitterly with me.” (Mara meant “bitter,” from another unpleasant biblical connection where the water of a river was too awful to drink, so they named the place Marah.) Do you see the sort of thing I mean? Mara alone is a very nice name; but using it FOR its biblical connection and BECAUSE OF its biblical connection brings to mind the sadness and bitterness and death it was used to represent in that book.

It’s the same with the name Cain (not on your list—I’m just on a roll now). If someone uses it with no intention to link it to the Bible, it’s just a name, not much different than Dane or Cade. But if they use it as a biblical name, then they’re using the name of the guy known for murdering his brother, and that’s an odd thing to do: the deliberate biblical connection brings in the negative biblical significance.

Okay, sermon over. I’m going to ignore what I just said, and suggest names that appear in the Bible whether the associations are positive or negative, because what _I_ would want for a biblical baby name is not relevant, just fun to discuss while we’re on the topic.

Naomi seems like a great possibility but at #107 on the Social Security charts for 2009, I suspect it’s too common.

I suggest Miriam: it’s biblical, and uncommon (#310 in 2009) yet familiar. Miriam Louise Petersen; Selah, Titus, and Miriam.

Or Esther (#267): Esther Louise Petersen; Selah, Titus, and Esther. If you decided you DID want to match the syllables of all the children’s names, you could reuse the middle name Mae, or you could use Lou as a short form of Louise.

Or Bethany (#342): Bethany Louise Petersen; Selah, Titus, and Bethany.

For something similar to but more unusual than Bethany: Bethel. Bethel Louise Petersen; Selah, Titus, and Bethel.

Zorah would be pretty: Zorah Louise Petersen; Selah, Titus, and Zorah. This is my top choice for you: it seems most compatible with the style of the sibling names. I like both Zorah Louise and Zorah Violet, or Zorah Mae if you want to keep the same syllable pattern.

Or Cana: Cana Louise Petersen; Selah, Titus, and Cana. Cana and Esther are my second favorites for you.

We’re going to try something new for dealing with baby name questions. We now have EVEN MORE questions coming in than the last time I fretted about what we should do about having too many questions to answer. I was fretting about it to my mother, and she had what I thought was a really good idea, and I want to give it a try. So instead of going by due date, I’m going to answer questions by choosing a few from the ones that come in that week. We’ll try that for awhile and see if it goes better.

This means that if you’ve submitted a baby naming question, you’ll need to resubmit it (unless you sent it in the last week). This will also help me weed out the questions that no longer need answers.

Laura writes:

Hello, we are pregnant with our first baby, a girl, due in May. This will be our only child and we really need your help in selecting a fabulous name! My name begins with L and my husband’s starts with J, our last name is Lange. We would prefer a 2 syllable name, since Lange is only one and because of the strong L in Lange, we do not like names ending in S, L or K-giving you a slange or klange sound. We also will not be giving the child a middle name (common in the UK-I don’t have one either) s the name needs to be a good stand-alone name.
As with most people lately, we would love an interesting name that is not in the top 50 list, but yet is simple to spell and is easily recognizable. We have been leaning towards more classic, older names, but also have some more modern options in there too-we are a little lost!

Our favorites right now are Audrey and Elina. We have also considered Stella, Elsie, Evie and Olivia. We seem to like names starting with vowels, but are not limited to that.
I am British, and so a name popular in the UK, that is less common in the US is also a possibility. If we were having a boy our favorites were Callum, Cameron, Holden and Allistair.

We are hopeful that you and your readers can help us with some great suggestions.
Thank you!

I like all your choices. In the U.S., both Olivia and Audrey are in the Top 50: Audrey is just BARELY there and may dip back out, but Olivia is Top 10. Evie is difficult to rank because it’s used as a nickname for other names (Genevieve, Eva), but I’ve been hearing it often on this blog which leads me to think (perhaps wrongly—lots of talk doesn’t always mean lots of birth certificate action) that it’s getting popular. Stella is climbing quickly and it’s hard to say where it will land.

Other suggestions:

Acacia
Bridget
Clarissa
Cora
Eliza
Elodie
Emmeline
Felicity
Fiona
Genevieve (Evie)
Georgia
Imogen
Josephine
Karenna
Livinia
Lydia
Nora
Ruby
Vivian

Savannah writes:

We are expecting our 3rd child together, 5th child overall. When it comes to names, we have very different naming styles and we are having a very hard time deciding on name for our baby.

Some things to know:

– I have a son from a previous marriage named Dylan Christopher (age 5). His name is very traditional and his name is steadily climbing in name ranks. He was adopted by his step-father (my husband) when he was a baby and he has the last name Hightower along with his siblings.

– My husband has a son from a previous marriage named Sawyer Anthony (age 6). My husband selected his name and he loves more unique names. Sawyer’s name is a name you don’t hear so often and it feels “fresh” when you do hear it.

– We have twin daughters together (age 2) named Karley Rae and Bryanna Morgan “Karley and Brynn.” It was almost impossible to decide on Brynn’s name. We selected Karley after my grandmother Caroline, but decided to make it a little more unique. Bryanna was decided on in the hospital after I saw it on the computer and just instantly loved it.

This time around with gender unknown, its even harder. We have a short list, but we don’t seem to love anything so much.

BOYS:

Everett (Rhett)
Elias
Rowan (Rowe)
Camden

Girls:

Hanna
Teagan
Ryane
Delaney
Kailyn
Cassidy

Middle names will come from family:

Jeanne
Quinn
Oliver
George
Lillian
Catherine
Denise
Taylor

Thanks and by the way, my name is Savannah Marie and my husband is Nolan Anthony.

From your list of boy names, my favorite with the sibling names is Camden: it gives a new initial and a new sound, but is similar in style to the others. I like Camden Taylor Hightower.

From your list of girl names, I’m less sure. Dylan and Delaney are too similar to my ear, and Kailyn seems almost like a blend of Karley and Bryanna. Hanna seems too similar to Bryanna and Savannah, and Teagan is so much less feminine than the other two girls’ names. I’m not sure how Ryane is pronounced (is it Ryan with an E to make it seem feminine, or is it ry-ANNE, or is it like Rain, or is it ry-ANE like to rhyme with cane?). So that leaves Cassidy, which I like for similar reasons as Camden: it introduces a new sound and a new initial. I like Cassidy Jeanne Hightower.

For boys I feel like Camden is such a good fit, I’m hardly motivated to search further: anything I think of seems not as good.

Archer
Beckett
Cade
Callum
Carson (too close to Karley?)
Carter (too close to Karley?)
Cason
Corbin
Cormac
Grady
Greyson
Lennox
Ruben

Possibilities for a girl:

Alivia
Avelyn (too close to Dylan?)
Berkeley
Cadence
Eleni
Emery
Everly
Juniper
Laney
Madigan
Marin
Paisley
Piper
Shelby