Meredith writes:

I finally found your site last night (remembered it from years ago) and spent hours looking through past posts. We would love you and your readers help naming our “Surprise” Third Baby. We do not know whether this baby is a boy or a girl.

Actual due date is March 31st but we may deliver closer to March 18th (we aren’t sure of conception, baby is measuring big, I’m measuring 4 weeks big, and have a history of early babies) But wanted to be honest about the actual due date but this baby will most likely come mid March.

Details: This baby was a complete and utter surprise but may end up our biggest blessing. I became pregnant when my 2nd baby was only 6 or 7 months old. Because of this it has been a totally different pregnancy than past, we don’t know the gender, don’t know the name, and are just kind of flying through the pregnancy trying to survive each day :) we would love to have a boy and girl name to bring us closer to this baby and help us enjoy this last month or two of pregnancy before meeting this newest blessing. PLEASE HELP us!

Parent Names: Meredith and Marshall
Sibling Names: Peyton (boy, 3) and Mallory (girl, 14 months)
Last name: one syllable, Rhymes with “Gates”

I like a lot of names but my husband is picky. Here are some names that he has not vetoed but we are not super attached to any of these so we would love suggestions. I tend to like “Southern” and old fashioned names that are not too crazy or trendy but also not top 30. Our other kids were named because I loved the name Peyton for a girl after one of my good friends, so when the ultrasound showed a boy we just kept it. Mallory came into play because I always loved the names Madelyn and Lillian (my grandmother) but they were way too popular for our taste so my mom suggested Mallory as less popular blend of both.

We are trying to avoid an “M” name since we all have an M name except for my son. Don’t want to leave him out :)

Here are some names that haven’t been vetoed to give you an idea of our combined “taste”
Boy Names
Nolan
Patrick (but dont want nickname to be “Pat”)
Nathan
Benjamin
I really loved Bennett but he really doesn’t.

Girl names
Sadie (my great-grandmother, so family name)
Audrey
Kathleen (my grandmother)
I like Amelia
Clara (but I’m seeing it on your blog a lot lately)
Girl names are harder because we feel like we just did this with baby number 2.

Boy Potential Middle Names that have meaning: Austin, Hamilton, Christopher, William, Mark,

Girl Potential Middle Names that have meaning: Ann, Bailey, Judith, Rebecca, but should I just do Ann to keep with mine and Mallory’s?

Both Peyton and Mallory have “A” middle names, should we keep this trend?

THANK YOU, THANK YOU for any help. I have spent hours and hours and hours pouring through lists of baby names and have decided we need ya’lls professional help. :)

I think the trouble with some of the names on your boy list is that they’re a different style than Peyton. Peyton and Nolan make good brother names, I think, but Peyton and Benjamin are so very different, style-wise. Peyton and Patrick are just as different, and the matching initial P seems to draw even more attention to that; same with the almost-rhyme of Peyton and Nathan.

It’s not that “not matching in style” means you should toss the names out, but I think I would look for something more modern and/or surnamey:

Cason Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Cason
Corbin Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Corbin
Elliot Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Elliot
Ellis Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Ellis
Finlay Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Finlay
Grady Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Grady
Jameson Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Jameson
Keegan Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Keegan
Reid Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Reid
Sawyer Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Sawyer
Schuyler Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Schuyler
Spencer Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Spencer
Walker Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Walker

My own favorite is Elliot. It’s not very common (even combining the spellings Elliot, Elliott, and Eliot, it’s barely in the top 200), and it has the surname sound of Peyton while still having the classic first-name sound of Nathan and Patrick. I like Elliot Hamilton Gates.

…Hm. I am proofreading this just prior to posting it, and suddenly I’m not sure about those boy names. I think they go well in an “on paper” sense, but not with the rest of what you’ve told us about your style. I’m starting to think that your reasons for choosing Peyton make the name a different sort of choice than if you’d chosen it from the boy section of a baby name book. I think in that case Nolan is your best choice, because it goes with your style but it also goes with Peyton. I like Nolan Christopher and Nolan Mark. And I still like Elliot, too, and maybe Emmett and Everett and Garrett.

From your girl name list, I love Audrey: Peyton, Mallory, and Audrey sound like a wonderful sibling set. Aubrey would be nice too. And you know I love Clara!

I’d add Nola as a possibility since you like Nolan for a boy: Peyton, Mallory, and Nola.

If you like Clara but you’re nervous about popularity, I suggest Clarissa. It’s beautiful and much less common. Peyton, Mallory, and Clarissa.

More girl possibilities:

Bethany Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Bethany
Bianca Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Bianca
Bridget Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Bridget
Eliza Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Eliza
Emeline Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Emeline
Jocelyn Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Jocelyn
Laurel Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Laurel
Leslie Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Leslie
Lindsay Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Lindsay
Sabrina Gates; Peyton, Mallory, and Sabrina

On the middle name issues, I think you could go either way. If you like the idea of all three of you girls sharing a middle name, or of all three children having middle names that start with A, then by all means do it. But I don’t think there’s any reason to feel you OUGHT to do either one of those things: twice isn’t enough to make it feel awkward to break the theme. You have some very nice meaningful middle name options, and I think if I were you I’d take the opportunity to put another one of them into use.

Katie writes:

We are expecting baby #4 on St. Patrick’s Day, the date is pretty set unless baby decides to come earlier which is unlikely. Baby #4 is a girl and she’ll be joining Grace Kathryn Mae (6), Nora Elizabeth (4) and Asher Jack (2). We are looking for an Irish/Gaelic name, my husband’s family has Irish roots, we both went to the University of Notre Dame and of course the obvious is that the baby is going to be born on St. Patty’s Day. Our last name rhymes with Ramble but starts with a “c”.
I’m not thinking that Patricia is a good name choice but it is often suggested to us. If the baby were not born on St. Patrick’s Day her name very well would have been Audrey Jayne. I love how Grace, Nora and Audrey sound together but Audrey is not Irish. I’ve been attracted to names that have an “a” and an “r” in them but this has proven to be challenging to find in the Irish name category. Names that we’ve been tossing around…
Quinn – I love, my husband grimaces. How terrible is it that my children’s one and only cousin’s name rhymes with Quinn, his name is Flynn?
Keira – I like, again my husband isn’t sure
My husband just likes Audrey and must be banking on me going into labor before my c-section which has never happened.
Thank you for thinking this through for me!

I have such a perfect name for you, I don’t even want to tell you, for fear you won’t think it’s as perfect as I do. It’s a name I like even WITHOUT any Irish or St. Patrick’s Day connection, but if I had a reason to use it like you do, I would use it as the middle name IN A FLASH: Clover. CLOVER. It is gorgeous. I love it. USE IT. I suppose it is not an Irish name, but it sounds like you guys don’t really LIKE Irish names and want more like a HOLIDAY name tied to St. Patrick’s Day.

And then you can use Audrey, your husband’s favorite that you love with the sibling names, as the first name. Audrey Clover _amble.

My friend Firegirl was assembling her family tree, and she discovered she has a great-great aunt named Sunbeam Olive.

This led me to wonder, since so many of us have looked in our family trees for baby-naming inspiration: what fun/funny names have YOU found? I have a great-great uncle with the middle name Haddock. I have an actual Egbert in the family, and a Fanny, and a Hubert, and a Wilbur, and a Hulda, and a Jemima—names that are funny now, though I assume not at all funny at the time.

I have a several-times-great uncle named Justice, and I have other relatives with names such as Hannah, Emma, Eva, Clark, Adeline, Isabel, Polly, Henry—all names I could say I was using because they were family names, when I’d actually be using them because they were currently in style. (Unlike, say, “Haddock.”)

Caroline writes:

We have a baby girl due mid march 2011 and we are really struggling with names. Older siblings are Eleanore Quincy (3)(goes by Ellie) and Griffin William (1). Eden and Evaline (Evie) are top choices right now. I also love Vienna, but we have a distant friend with a daughter by this name and since it’s so unusual I’d feel like I was copying. We’d like to stay with something unusual as our last name is fairly common. Other possible considerations have been Avery, Amelia, Mildred (Millie)…but nothing is really convincing me I have to have it! Thanks for your help! My husband loves names with nicknames…

If you’re trying to avoid common, Avery (#32 in 2009 and rising) and Amelia (#55 in 2009 and rising) might be out.

If you like Mildred, I wonder if you’d like Matilda (Tilly) or Millicent (Millie) or Camilla (Cami, Millie) or Romilly (Romy, Milly) or Minerva (Minnie)?

If you like Evaline, I wonder if you’d like Emeline (Emmie—maybe too much with Ellie) or Genevieve (Evie) or Edith (Edie) or Geneva (Genna, Evie).

If you like Vienna and Eden, I wonder if you’d like Virginia (Ginny), Verona, Geneva (Genna, Evie) again, Sienna, Fiona, Gianna, Liana, Zinnia, Azalea, Gemma, Karenna, Verity.

Other possibilities:

Agnes (Aggie)
Agatha (Aggie)
Alice
Beatrix (Bee)
Esther
Florence (Florrie)
Frances (Frannie)
Georgia (Georgie)
Gretchen
Harriet (Hattie)
Lucille (Lucy)
Marian
Olive
Pearl
Silvia (Silvie)
Willemina (Willa, Mina)

Jen writes:

Hi–My husband and I are due with our first child, a boy, on March 13, 2011 and we need help! My husband is Italian and I’m English. We disagree on almost all names and seem to be getting nowhere! For girls names we liked boys names that you can put a feminine twist on or classic family names-I feel like naming a girl might have been easier! Our last name is Peeta with an R and I feel like this eliminates most if not all ‘R’ names (We named our dog Riley bc it was my favorite girl’s name, but I felt like Riley Peeta-with-an-R would never be a good match for a girl). We also agree that the name have a nickname. However, most other things we disagree on…my husband tends to like more common names; Joseph (I do like Joey, but not Joseph), Matthew, Nate, Tyler (and what he likes for names is very limited and is concerned about names not sounding masculine enough and when he’s older). He definitely has said he doesn’t like names that he considers more trendy: Aidan, Mason, Caden…My suggestions that he’s vetoed have been: Beckett, Boden, Giovanni (no nn?), Maximo, Maxwell, Milo (love this one!-husband vetoed bc might not be masculine enough as he gets older?). I also own a preschool so I feel like there’s some names that just aren’t a good fit because I’ve known several children with certain names…

We have a super small list of options that we agree on so far:

-Callen (too feminine? Callan?) nn Cal
-William (too common in our area? but this is also a family name) nn Will
(we do not have a middle name picked out yet either so are open to suggestions here too)

First names we love but cannot use: Brian, Andrew, Anthony, James, Daniel

As you can see, we don’t have much to go on so far and are coming down to the wire. Hope you can help!!!
Thank you!

If Callen seems too potentially feminine, Callum might work. Callum Peeta-with-an-R is nice. Or Calvin, or Callahan, or Caleb. Or I think my favorite would be Malcolm.

If you like Joey but not Joseph, I wonder if you’d like Josiah? Or I’ve liked the name Joel ever since a nice boy named Joel in 4th grade. Or Jonah might still have the slightest smack of whale, but Jonas works now that The Jonas Brothers have made it mainstream. Or I love the name George with the nickname Geordy—not quite Joey, I realize, but something of the same sound. Your choice of Giovanni also has the nickname Joe and perhaps Joey, though I’m not sure how I’d spell them: Gio doesn’t have at all the same flavor as Joe.

If you like James, may I put in a good word for John? The name is so familiar, it’s too easily dismissed. It feels over-common, and yet it’s increasingly uncommon to run into actual little boys named John—especially since often if they ARE named John, it’s a family name and they go by something else. This gives the name the unexpected freshness of a name like Mary: the mind glosses over it while perusing the baby name book, but on an actual child there is a feeling of pleasant surprise.

My favorite William alternative is Wilson—but then you lose the family connection.

Perhaps you could get your husband to reconsider Milo. I don’t see any reason it would lose masculinity as the child grew. Would your husband like Miles better? Or Leo?

If you both love Daniel and your husband likes Nate, perhaps Nathaniel?

Or Isaac?

Sophie writes:

I am due on the 15th and we keep selecting and then tossing out names. We have a short list and I would love your insight/advice.

This is our second child. Our first is named Dahlia Carmel. We love her name. Dahlia is after my husband’s grandmother, and Carmel is the place where we were married. Our last name is three syllables and starts with a B and ends with “nik”, so my husband likes soft feminine names that end in “a”. I like French names as I am half-French. I also like unusual names, but not something terrible unrecognizable or hard to spell.

Here is the short list:
-Camilla (is this usually spelled with one or two l’s?)
-Camille
-Kira (would you spell it like this or Keira which seems more complicated to me)
-Amelie
-Clara (my husband and I realized after deciding we loved this name that there are two ways to say this name and he likes one and I like the other)
-Nadia (we like slavic sounding names too)
-Tea or Teya/Taya (we love the name but are not sure how to spell it)

Now, for her middle name we were thinking of calling her Royale. My husband is from Montreal, and we have spent a lot of time there. Mount Royal is what Montreal is named for. The only problem is that we have shared this with a few people and they keep telling us that it reminds them of the bit in Pulp Fiction where John Travolta talks about what cheeseburgers are called at MacDonalds in France….Royale with Cheese. Did you think of that?? I also thought of using Monique (MONtreal, QUEbec), but my husband isn’t sure. Other middle name options could be other places we have been/love like Rio (many places in India, Morocco, China, Australia, South Africa—we love to travel), or after my grandparents which would start with an A or H.

Please help us. We don’t have much time left!!!
Thanks!

Any other ideas? Which of these do you like from the list?

Thanks for your help and advice!

If I hadn’t looked it up, I would have been absolutely certain that Camilla was the standard spelling and Camila an odd variation (odd because it’s not phonetically correct for the U.S. English pronunciation cah-MILL-ah). But I DID look it up, and according to the Social Security Administration, 547 girls were named Camilla in 2009, and 3707 were named Camila. According to The Baby Name Wizard, “Camila” is the Spanish version. Sometimes when I suggest the name Camilla, someone will say they associate it too strongly with the Camilla who married the Prince of Wales; perhaps the Spanish version lacks that association completely and so is more often used.

The spelling Kira lends itself to more mispronunciations: it could be KY-rah or KEER-ra. Whereas Keira is only KEER-ra. I’m not sure what I’d do, either: I prefer the look of the first spelling, but the ease of the second.

The primary downside of the name Téa is, as you say, the problem of how to spell it. I sat here for awhile puzzling it out, wondering how I’d spell it. Taeya, maybe, if what you want is the TAY-yah pronunciation. I wonder if you’d like Tia instead? Another option is to name her Mattea and call her Tea for short.

I didn’t think of Pulp Fiction when I saw the name Royale. I also like Rio and India and China from your list—but both Royale and Rio seem more masculine to me, and India and China don’t seem to fit well with any of the first name possibilities. I would lean toward the family names, if they fit better, or perhaps use one of the other first-name options.

My favorites from your list are Camilla and Nadia. Dahlia Carmel and Nadia Amelie, or Dahlia Carmel and Camilla Taeya.

Marce writes:

I write to you from Buenos Aires, Argentina, expecting a baby girl on 19th of Feb! My husband and I have a 2 year old son named Agustin Marcelo (said Ah-goo-steen in Spanish) which was lucky, because it can easily be pronounced in English, and my family will be moving to Virginia, U.S.A. about four months after the new baby is born.

We have not come up with any names we are seriously considering so far because we are wanting to be extremely cautious about the bilingual factor. We will be in the US for 10 years at the least, so our children will clearly be raised very American. I myself spent my high school years in Washington, and as a Marcela, I know the troubles of having a name that is not pronounceable in the country where one is living, and I do not want that to happen to my daughter.

The only names we’ve really liked so far are impossible to pronounce in English, so let us start from scratch. We like very lovely, long names, although short is fine too. Hopefully it will sound nice with Agustin (with the English pronunciation too). We would also love for the middle name to be Magdalena or Isabel, but it is not necessary. Hopefully it would not be too common a name in the US. We do not really like common names (we have looked at Andrea, Julia, etc, but they do not appeal). Also, we are inclined toward nickname-able names (Agustin is called Agu, I am Marce, my husband Feli).

Sorry if that is very much to ask! Of course not all the criteria needs to be met, just some things we am looking for.

These are, for me, the hardest questions to answer. I feel pretty solid with U.S. names, but nowhere near familiar enough with other countries’ names or pronunciations—let alone the connotations of names, which is the hardest part for a non-local to get a feeling for, or to research—to even make a start at it.

But this is the beauty of the internet: we can pool our knowledge. And so I post this question, even though I’m unable to answer it, and I hope others will be able to work on it.

Trisha writes:

I write to seek help with a name for a baby girl in a blended family. My partner and I are in the process of adopting a daughter from Japan. She is due February the 14th. (we aren’t looking for any holiday themed names!)

We currently have three children, Ingrid Eliza and Winona Alice (called Nona, quite exclusively), aged 5 and 3.5, my partner, Elizabeth’s daughters, and my son, Ezra Arthur, 7.

We have been all over the place in our name search, but currently, our short list includes Kirstie, Autumn, Ida, Matilde “Tillie,” Shea, Maya, Johanna, and Adele.

Except we don’t really *love* any of those names, and we also don’t see them falling into a certain “group,” so it is difficult to discover similar names that may be the one.

Another thing we’d really love is to give her a middle name that somehow includes her heritage. Japanese names are completely foreign to me, so we’re really just hoping for a name that sounds good with her first name.

Also, on a tangent, I really would like to somehow incorporate the name Katherine (it is very meaningful to me). I love it as a first name, but my partner isn’t too convinced. She is more open if we could call her by a more creative nickname, but we can’t seem to think of any, so if you know of any nice nicknames for Katherine, please do tell.

I know it’s a bit of a tall order, but I am hoping you will be able to help!

Katherines used to go by Kathy, but now mostly go by Kate. My favorite nicknames for it, though, are Kay and Kit: I think they have the sass of Kate, but with more vintage charm.

I too am unfamiliar with Japanese names. Will she come with her own name, which could used as her middle name? Or will you have any information about the city in which she was born? Or depending on how the adoption is being done, could someone in Japan help you by choosing a name for her, perhaps with a specific meaning?

I have a book called The Best Baby Names in the World, From Around the World (it looks like this version is the currently available one) that has a small section of Japanese names. It looks like there are a lot of good choices: names with pleasing meanings, and pleasing sounds to the U.S. ear. Just a few examples: Aiko (EYE-koh) means beloved; Chiyo (CHEE-yo) means eternal; Hana (HA-nah) means flower; Kana (KAH-nah) means beautiful or excellent; Kei (KAY) means happiness; Keiko (KAY-koh) means happy child; Sachi (SAH-chee) means blessed or lucky; Suki (SOO-kee) means loved one.

Here are some first name possibilities I think work well with the sibling group:

Adeline
Alice
Beatrix
Carys
Cecily
Cora
Iris
Pearl
Phoebe
Stella

I like Stella Kei J_____-F____. Or Iris Keiko J_____-F____. Or Phoebe Keiko J_____-F___. Or I like Katherine (Kit/Kay) Suki J_____-F___.

Trini writes:

WOW, I have been waiting to write to you for ages! The time has finally come! (I think I delayed picking a name just so I’d get to write! Ha!)

My husband and I are due with our sixth (!!) and definitely final child on February 12th (though all of my babies have been late).

The Greene family is Elias (Eli) Fletcher (11), Eliot Jude (10), Alek Neal (8), Owen Heath (6), Ira Steffen (3).

Our naming style is quite a cornucopia, I know, so I’m not quite sure how to classify the parameters for this name. I know we like shorter names, but preferably not one syllable, because I imagine that to sound quite choppy with Greene. Also, I’ve realized that all of our sons’ names begin with a vowel! Unintentional, but a tradition I think I’d like to continue onto the final child. It is not necessary, but it would be nice to have a sort of pattern, I think.

Oh! This is a baby girl, I’ve forgotten to say! (Poor girl, with five older brothers!) Our first, so this is very exciting for me!

My husband, on the other hand, was always very excited to contribute boys name, is not so keen on girls names. He tends to throw out “Madison” or “Emily” and becomes uninterested when I resist those sort of very popular names.

I like very classic names, Elouise, Augusta, Mathilda, Clementine, Eleanor, Philippa, etcetera, but my husband has scoffed at them all, so I’m not sure where to go from here.

The middle name must be a variation of Rose— what variation we haven’t set yet, so suggestions on that would also be great.

Thanks so much!

Some vowel possibilities:

Adeline
Annabel
Annika
Aubrey
Audrey
Emeline
Emerin
Emlyn
Eva
Imogen

I had Eliza and Elizabeth on the list, but with two boys already starting in Eli-, it seemed like it might be too much. And I had Ellen on there, but: two boys already starting in El- and having five letters. And Elsa—but Elias has all four of those letters, in almost the same order. It started to seem like maybe E names (and especially El- names) were a bad idea. But Emeline works, I think, because it’s three syllables instead of two, and it doesn’t start with El-, and also because it’s similar to your husband’s suggestion of Emily, but without being common at all. Emlyn and Emerin work too, I think.

One of my favorites from the list is Annabel. I think it goes well with the line-up: Elias, Eliot, Alek, Owen, Ira, and Annabel. I love it with your surname: Annabel Greene.

Some Rose-related possibilities:

Rosa
Rosabel
Rosalie
Rosalina
Rosalind
Rosamaria
Rosamond
Rose
Rosella
Rosemary
Rosie
Rosina

Using Rose alone emphasizes that it and your surname are both colors—but if you’re honoring a family member named Rose, I’d go straight for Rose rather than using a variation.

Mary writes:

I am due March 11th with a baby girl. I have a 2-year-old son named Jack and our last name starts with an H and ends with an N and is two syllables. My husband and I had no problem agreeing on Jack as a name for our son. We have also had no issue picking a name for our baby girl. Before we knew that our first child was a boy we agreed on the name Clare and still love the name. Perfect right? No! The problem is that this name has caused some family drama.

I have a very large and close family and when I was pregnant with my son Jack everyone knew that Jack and Clare were the names that my husband and I had agreed upon. When my cousin got pregnant last year she announced that her girl’s name was also Clare. I was shocked and upset but she had a baby boy in the end. Now that I am having a girl she has made comments that she still loves the name Clare and that we can just have two in our family. But I do not know if I am O.K. with that. We are open to other suggestions but just can’t seem to give Clare completely up. We tend to like Irish names that are classic and are not fans of trendy names. So should I pick another name or just hope that she will not go through with naming a future daughter Clare as well?

Other names that we have considered are:

Bridget (my husband and I both like this name too)

Mary Clare (which would differentiate the two kids if she ever did use the name)

Agnes (I like this name but my husband does not)

Mabel (we both liked this name but have had some negative reactions from family members and friends which has moved us away from the name)

We plan to use Marie or Margaret as a middle name after one of my grandmothers (although these are not set in stone either).

We would love some advice and/or other name suggestions.

I see this as a balance scale. One one side: How you would feel if you gave up the name Clare and then your cousin didn’t use it after all. On the other side: How you would feel if you used the name Clare and your cousin used it too.

You describe yourself as “shocked and upset” that your cousin also loves the name and wants to use it. The word “shocked,” along with the point you make about everyone knowing you liked the name during your first pregnancy, makes me wonder if you may be thinking that by mentioning it back then, you had claimed dibs on the name. So I first want to say that mentioning a name (especially in a pregnancy where you didn’t end up using the name) is not staking a permanent and exclusive claim to it. Think of it more as a heads-up than a claim: you’re letting people know that it’s your intention to use it, and maybe you’re going on record as being the one who mentioned it first, but you’re not saying that the name is YOURS and no one else can use it.

This is, in fact, the same thing your cousin is doing: she’s been giving heads up, but without saying no one else can use it. And since you both want to use the name, it’s good she mentioned that she doesn’t mind two Clares: this gives you important information for making your own decision. Even if your cousin plans to use the name later, nothing at all is being taken away from you: not only do you still have every right to use the name, but also you get to use it FIRST. And of course it is possible your cousin will have only boys, or discover another name she likes better—which is why you need to consider how you’d feel in that situation, if you had given up the name based on a future possibility.

I would really like to urge you not to abandon your favorite name just because the child’s second cousin might have the same name. In a family where second cousins see each other all the time, there are plenty of ways to tell two Clares apart that are not only easy but also fun: nicknames, first-and-middles, initials, family-significant names that evolve over time. It may also forge a special bond between the two girls, who, as long as their mothers aren’t telling them otherwise, may think of it as a wonderful and special thing to share a name.

If you decide the negative feelings you’d have about both children having the name outweigh the negative feelings you’d have about giving the name up, I think both Bridget Marie and Mary Clare are wonderful, beautiful names.