Melissa writes:

I will have a c-section on 5/11/11 to deliver our baby boy, and we are having trouble deciding on a name! We have twin girls, Victoria Rose and Christina Marie, and this will be our last child.

Our girls’ middle names are family names, and we’ve considered some family names for this little one:
Robert
Phillip
Walter
Arthur

I only really like Robert for a first name; the rest I would consider for middle names. We’ve come up with a few other names as suggestions, Alexander and Andrew, but nothing that we just really love. We tend to prefer more “traditional” names as you can probably tell. I just would like to have it narrowed down at least before we get to the hospital! Thank you and your readers for any help!!

The Baby Name Wizard has these suggestions as brother names for Victoria and Christina: Alexander, Nicholas, Benjamin, Spencer, Nathaniel, Jeremy, Christopher, Patrick, Matthew, Adam. I’d cross Christopher off because of being too similar to Christina, but a lot of the others look good. I like Nicholas and Benjamin best. Other possibilities:

Frederick
Harrison
Isaac
John
Jonathan
Nathan
Samuel
Timothy

Jh writes:

I am expecting fraternal twin boys. We have a three year old son named Jack. My husband and I like english names. Our short list is:

Thomas (Tom)
William (Billy or Will)
Charles (we only have this name chosen for the nickname Charlie, we both don’t really like Charles)
Henry

names we can’t use:
Harry

Our last name begins with H and sounds like Harper.

I love the name Henry but I’m unsure how I feel about alliteration ie. Henry Harper.

Any further suggestions would be welcome.

Since you have your doubts about both Henry and Charles, I vote for Thomas and William. They’re great together, great with your first son’s name, great with your surname, and they have compatible nicknamingness: Thomas/William, Tom/Will.

Another possibility to add to the list is Edward, though I wouldn’t use it with William because of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I like the way it sounds with your surname. Edmund would be a good option, too. Or Simon? Simon and Edmund Harper.

Katie writes:

We are expecting our first child – a baby girl! I am due May 1. We want to use Hank as the middle name in honor of my father-in-law who recently passed away. Choosing such a masculine middle name has made it difficult. Our choices are…

Berkley
Nora
Esme (not sure if we would include the accent mark or not)
Matilda
Elyse

PLEASE give me some guidance!!!

Hank is a particularly difficult middle name to work with even if you were naming a boy. With a girl’s name, it is nearly impossible. Was Hank your father-in-law’s given name, or was it short for Henry? The name Henry would be significantly easier to work with, especially since it sounds like a surname: Nora Henry DeYoung works just fine.

If you must use Hank (if, for example, it WAS your father-in-law’s given name), I suggest using it as one of two middle names. Not only will this improve the rhythm and make the name easier to incorporate, it gives your daughter an option later if she would prefer not to have the middle name Hank.

Julie writes:

I am expecting my third baby on May 3rd. I have two boys, Luke and Elliot and we just found this will be a GIRL! My husband and I have never had to look through girl names before and are desperate for some suggestions. Our last name is french sounding, rhymes with Lupuis but begins with a D. My husband grew up in France, we both have French heritage and would LOVE to incorporate a French name into our family. However, we are not bound to this as I grew up in Ireland and love some of the Irish names too. We hardly ever agree on a name as my husband wants a classic predictable name whereas I want a name that is recognised but not at all popular. I also love a longer fancier name with a cute nickname. The only names we have somewhat agreed on are longer names (that I like) but with a nickname that is simple (which he likes) Sort of a compromise. The middle name will be May, to honor my grandmother.

Here are some of the names we have been considering:

Genevieve (Evie or Eve)
Annabelle (Anna)
Camille (Cami)
Evelyn (Evie)
Lillian (Lily)

PLEASE can you help?

One of my favorite French names is Celeste: Celeste Lupuis; Luke, Elliot, and Celeste. Classic AND not at all popular. It’s awkward with the middle name, but no more awkward than Camille, which encourages me to suggest it anyway.

Another of my favorites is Simone: Luke, Elliot, and Simone. Again, awkward with the middle name.

Another of my favorites is Liane, if you don’t mind repeating an initial: Luke, Elliot, and Liane. Again the middle name problem. I think it’s that a lot of the names I think of when I try to think of French names have the accent on the second syllable (Nicole, Danielle, Monique), and none of those work nicely with a one-syllable middle name. I’m continuing to include them in my list, firstly because you have Camille in your own list, and secondly because sometimes middle names are flexible or sometimes the rhythm is not considered important.

Two more: Corinne and Noelle.

My mother’s favorite French name is Esmé (again, if you don’t mind repeating an initial): Luke, Elliot, and Esmé. This doesn’t work with the middle name at all.

Adelaide is pretty: Luke, Elliot, and Adelaide.

Josephine, too, and I just heard the most adorable nickname for it: Posy (presumably from the rhyming route of Josie).

A non-French option that seems like it would work well is Fiona: Luke, Elliot, and Fiona. And Fiona May is beautiful.

Or Molly? Wouldn’t that be adorable with the middle name? Molly May Lupuis; Luke, Elliot, and Molly.

ALL the names on your list are wonderful, I think. It may just be a matter of having one of them grow on you more than the others. My own favorite is Genevieve, followed closely by Annabelle (I usually prefer the spelling Annabel, but in this case I prefer -belle because you’re hoping to refer to French ancestry).

Sarah writes:

We are expecting baby #2 on April 12th and within the last week, I have started to seriously question our “potential” names. Our first daughter is Maggie (Margaret) Sue, last name sounds like Milchak. We don’t know the sex of this baby. We are pretty settled on Henry for a boy first name, but I like Daniel for a middle name, my husband likes George (both are family names). We tend to go for “older” names as opposed to new/trendy names. Our girl names… well, we just don’t have a clear winner. We like Emma, Alice, Katherine. I think Emma is a front-runner but again the middle name hangs me. Let’s face it, I really only use our daughter’s middle name when she’s doing something wrong or needs to come back to reality…. Margaret Sue just snaps her into attention. I would like #2’s name to do the same.

Any and all help/comments/ concerns/suggestions will be much appreciated. I’m sick of losing sleep over this :)

I too get all doubty right at the end. It could mean that the names need re-working, or it could be last-minute nervousness.

I suspect that either middle name you choose for Henry will work equally well and be equally satisfying. We were down to three middle names for our fifth child, and we finally narrowed it to two, then back up to three, and ack! But when I think of it now, I think any of the three would have been very good choices, and I think the same about George and Daniel: they’re both family names, they both work with the first name and surname, and you’ll probably be happy with either one.

With Margaret (Maggie), my favorite sister name is Katherine. Would you use a nickname, so it would be, for example, Margaret and Katherine / Maggie and Katie? I like Katherine Jean: Margaret Sue and Katherine Jean. Or Katherine May? Or Katherine Ava? Katherine Jane? Katie Ava doesn’t work as well, but Katie Jean, Katie May, Katie Jane—all cute.

My second favorite with Margaret is Alice, and it is only the smallest smidgen behind Katherine, mostly because of it not having a nickname compatible with Maggie (maybe Allie?). I like Jean again here: Alice Jean Milchak, Maggie Sue and Allie Jean.

With Emma, I think I’d use the middle name Katherine. This gives you Maggie Sue and Emma Kate—or, for reprimands, you’d have the full Emma Katherine, just as you have the full Margaret Sue.

Katie writes:

Please help us! My husband and I are expecting our first baby on April 23, 2011. It is a boy and OF COURSE I have a sturdy hand full of girl names that I love, but boy names are hard. Jones is such a plain last name that I want something different to make it unique. I think his name should have more than one syllable and definitely not start with a J. Anytime we ask for suggestions people find plenty of names that DON’T work, but rarely do we find names we like. We also have to be careful that his name doesn’t make him sound like an NFL linebacker!

I like the middle name David, after my Dad, but I’m not sold on it.

Some names we like are:

Liam
Henry
Landon

Some newer contenders are:

Rhys or Reece
Addison
Sawyer
Oliver (?)
Benjamin

We would LOVE some suggestions!

Thanks so much!

I would like to swiftly steer you away from Addison. In 2009, there were 10,567 new baby girls named Addison in the U.S., and only 240 boys—and I can almost guarantee that every one of those 240 boys has a teeth-clenching road of “No, I’m a boy” ahead of him. The nickname Addy/Addie, the similarity to the names Madison and Allison…I suspect this name is going fully to the girls.

I suggest Anderson instead. Or Dawson, or Edison, or Erickson, or Harrison, or Lawson, or Tennyson, or Wilson. I think Anderson and Wilson are my favorites from that list. (Normally Lawson is a favorite of mine, but Lawson Jones has a little too much cowboy in it for my tastes.)

Because you have two of my own favorites (Oliver and Henry) on your list, I’ll mention a few of my other favorites: Milo and Leo and Isaac. I like the repeating O sound better with Milo than with Leo: Milo David Jones is wonderful. Or Isaac David Jones. (Isaac might be getting too common for what you want, but I’m encouraged to keep it in the list anyway by Benjamin, which is even higher in the ranks.)

Another name I like is Everett, and I think Everett Jones is a very handsome name. Elliot Jones would also work well.

One way to help narrow things down is to look at your list of girl names and choose one or two that right now you DEFINITELY want to use, and see which of your boy name choices are best with those girl names. Also, check to make sure that none of your boy name choices eliminate any of your girl name choices: for example, if you wanted to use Eva, you’d want to avoid using Evan.

Taylor writes:

My husband and I are expecting our 4th child together soon- due date is April 17th to be exact. My husband’s name is Jordan, my name is Taylor and our last name is Mills. We have 3 other children together: Elias Caden, age 6 and twin boys Jacob Harrison and Dylan Riley, age 2. With our previous pregnancies, names were not a big challenge at all. Eli’s name was determined by 20 weeks, and with the twins, we walked into delivery with 2 names for each of them and decided there. This time around we are struggling, partly because we seemed to have used all the names we loved with our first three kids. To add to the situation, we decided that we would let the gender be a surprise.

Our 3 boys each have a family middle name, so names that are in the running to use are:
Francis, Nicholas, Oliver, Samuel, Isaac, Vincent, Matthew, Reagan, Adele, Juliette, Morgan, and Danielle/Daniella.

We have a very short list of names, but nothing we truly love so far:
BOYS:
Owen
Luke
Ryder
Griffin

GIRLS:
Leah
Abigail
Sofia
Madison
Kinley

Names we cannot use due to family/friend use:
Molly, Camden, Isabella, Katherine/Katelyn/Kate, Henry, Amelia, Evan, Ella, Savannah, Cooper, Lindsey, Hanna, or Lily

Please help us!

Robin writes:

My husband and I are expecting a baby soon – due date is April 7, but I’ll probably be induced at 39 weeks, so two weeks, tops. We have a son named Sebastian. We have lots of great boy name ideas, but we’re really struggling with girl names. Last name starts with a C and sounds like Sha-meer. Current frontrunners are:

Scarlett (Probably my favorite, my husband goes back and forth – do you think this is going to get very popular? That’s my only concern.)
Camilla

Other names that we like but maybe don’t love are:
Josephine
Juliette
Charlotte
Clara

I like Noelle a lot and my husband likes Annabel a lot, but the feelings are not mutual. We both like Nora a lot but can’t use it. I want the name to be a “real” name, no funny spellings, no surname or place names, etc. Do you have any other ideas? I feel like I should have a better list at this point, and my husband and I seem to have stalled out on discussions, so time for a neutral third party! Hopefully you can help!

The graph for Scarlett’s rising popularity looks scary:

(screenshot from SSA.gov)

Nevertheless, if you’re asking my opinion, which you are, I don’t think it’s going to get Very Popular. I think it’s going to stop rising soon. My GUESS is that it will stay in a comfortable position: common enough so people won’t be shocked or say “WHAT’S her name??”—but always a little unusual, and never a Top 10.

I’d put my vote with Camilla, though. I think that is such a pretty name, and so underused. Corinna would be pretty, too, or Corinne. I also like Camille, which makes me think of Simone and Celeste. Camilla also makes me think of Romilly.

Oh, I too love Noelle and Annabel! Other possibilities: Abrielle, Arabella, Giselle, Elodie, Eloise, Ellery, Elowyn.

I also like Elise: Elise Shameer, Sebastian and Elise.

Nora makes me think of Rory, Nina, Maura, Laura, Willa—and of Cora, which is similar to the Clara you like.

Instead of Scarlett and Charlotte, would you like Violet? Violet Shameer, Sebastian and Violet.

Jenn writes:

Our 2nd little girl is due April 20, 2011 and we can’t decide on name for her. We have one child, Aubrey Lynn, and are trying to find a name that goes well with Aubrey and a name that goes well with our last name (Michael) and that’s really all our requirements (oh and we don’t want it to rhyme w our names Jenn & Nate). I am also having a hard time with the middle name. At first we were set on Lee because Aubrey has my middle name (Lynn) and Lee is the middle name of both grandmothers. However, I don’t want the middle name to dictate the first name if that makes sense, I am open to other middle names, I really just want it to go with the first name. I am more open to different names that the hubby is but he surprises me sometimes with what he likes so I hesitate writing this.

First names we are considering:
Reagan (has been our top name for awhile and like the way Reagan Lee sounds)
Claire (really like this name but don’t like it w/ middle name Lee so need to find a middle name to go with it)
Macy (not sure about the -ie sound….don’t want it to be too cute w Aubrey)
Elliot (hubby not sure about this one, is it too masculine for a girl?)
Mckenna (I like it but hubby does NOT)
Presley (again not sure about the -ie/ey sound w Aubrey )
Ruth
Emily
Addison
Avery (we were going to name Aubrey this but not sure about having our kids names start w the same letter? We think we want 3 kids:)

Names that are out bc of friends kids/animal names/relative names etc:
Molly
Lucy
Hannah
Sophia
Sarah
Sadie

Thanks for any help and suggestions!

Heidi writes:

So we are having a bit of a dilemma. Its the age old theme, our first two children have names starting with the same letter and now that we are expecting our third should we continue with this unintentional trend?

Let me explain:
My name is Hyacinthe, nn Heidi and my husbands is Joel the youngest of 5, all beginning with J. Our 3 year old daughter is Lela Grace ( Lee-lah) and our 1 year old son is Lennox Joel. From the moment I knew I was pregnant with my daughter, she was our Lela Grace. I never even considered other names, never opened a baby name book, never thought about the fact she could have been a boy.

Then we found out we were pregnant and having a boy this time around and we can’t agree on any names whatsoever. I jokingly call him “Lennox Lewis” the entire pregnancy since I started feeling him move before I was even 3 months along and he never stopped kicking or punching. So the name we had picked out was Carter Joel ( we both felt meh about it but neither of us hated it) and then he was born and we looked at each other and said, he is definitely a Lennox, so it stuck and we have nicknamed him Knox.

And now we are expecting again and we can’t agree on any names at all. My husband really likes Lorelai Joy if we have another girl and I am leaning towards Beatrix Ruby, nn Trixie but we aren’t really sure about either. Boy names we have none…I told him I would name the boy Huckleberry Malachi if he doesn’t keep vetoing all my choices and not giving me any of his ideas! Joel prefers nontraditional names as he was always Joel M. through school and I obviously have a very unusual name!

Any suggestions? We are open to any name ideas that would sound good with Lela and Lennox.

Thanks!!!!

I’ll answer your more general question first. If you have two children whose names start with L, this is your Deciding Moment: there’s almost no pressure to use an L name after only two, but there’s significant pressure after three. If you DO plan to have more children, this would incline me toward helping you find non-L names now. I think I would avoid Lorelei in any case: Lela and Lorelei is so much L.

It’s hard to find names without knowing the surname, but the section of The Baby Name Wizard I’d turn to first is Exotic Traditionals: both Lorelei and Beatrix are in there. Your joking middle-name choice of Malachi would be a really good first name, I think: Lela, Lennox, and Malachi. I also like Aidric: Lela, Lennox, and Aidric. For girls I like Imogen and Averil. Isis from this section makes me think of Iris.

I think for boys I might then turn to the Last Names First section: Archer, Baxter, Darwin, Forrest, Miller, Patten, Redford, Tillman, Turner.

For girls I might try the Short and Sweet section: Calla would be nice because its L sound ties it in to the other names. Or Cleo or Esme.

Or for both, I might look around in the Why Not? section, which has Beatrix and Lorelei as well as Lennox, plus Archer, Calla, Cleo, Esme, Forrest, and Turner. I like Cecily, Coraline, Elodie, Penelope, Willa for girls; Clark, Keane, Malcolm, Ruben, Shepard, and Wilson. Ruben makes me think of another possibility: Rufus.