D. writes:

I am due with my second child on October 4th. We are having a girl who will be sister to Gabriel Lane. We have narrowed the list down to a few names and but are stuck now. We like unisex names, even if more masculine, as well as cute boyish nicknames from longer, feminine names. The middle name will be Ruth, after a deceased grandmother, or Brucie, after a deceased uncle. I know Bruce is an odd name but due to a large family here is not so uncommon for a girl so I feel ok with it as a middle name depending on first name choice. Here are our finalists:

Josephine (nn Joey or Josey)
Micah (Some people say this is ok as a girls name and know only girl Micahs, but others say no way, only boy)
Charlotte (nn Charlie-only reservation is it is very popular right now)
Sylvie (name from deceased grandmother Sylvia)

Thanks for the help! We are agonzing over this. I am open to new suggestions as well.

My favorite is Josephine: it gives you the cute boyish nicknames for a long feminine name, and I think it’s cute with your surname and good with the middle name Ruth. Josephine Ruth Johnson is an excellent name.

My second favorite—nearly tied for first—is Sylvie. Sylvie Ruth Johnson is also an excellent name.

I don’t even feel inclined to add more suggestions, with such good names already on your list.

Natalie writes:

Please help me! We are expecting our first baby, a little girl, October 1st, 2010. Naming her has been a major part of my life for the past 36 weeks. I am a self proclaimed name nerd. I have known just about every name under the sun, as well as their meanings and origins, since I was 10. Names are a giant passion of mine. This makes naming my first child a great excitement, as well as a HUGE burden. I have a very defined name style, which in my opinion is pretty much summed up by three words (although others may not completely agree): Edgy, Sophisticated, and Glamorous.

Our first choice for a name for our baby has been Sophia Natalia Olson. Sophia after my great-grandmother (and the gorgeous Sophia Loren), and Natalia is my favorite version of my name, Natalie (I don’t want to use Natalie, though). DH and I really like this name, but I’m starting to have second thoughts. While Sophia is sophisticated and glamorous, it is not edgy… in fact it is losing it’s luster a little considering how common it has become. Or am I imagining this? I also think it’s important to have back up names in case she doesn’t look like Sophia when she is born. Don’t get me wrong, I still really like this name….

Other names we like are (we would use either Natalia or Sophia for a middle name):

Eva – pronounced EY-va, we really don’t like EE-va. This is also sophisticated but very common, and not very edgy.

Eve – a little more edgy, but not very glamorous. I adore the nickname Evie. Unfortunately, when Eve is said with Olson it sounds like “evil son”

Zoa – I think I like this a lot, but I’m not sold on it. I normally really dislike Zoe because it seems too “out there” for my taste, but Zoa seems a little classier and cooler.

Elle – I really like this, but it sounds odd with Olson. Due to a family feud, I can’t use Ella, and I can’t stand the thought of people calling her Ellie, but I love Elle.

Shiloh – I think this is adorable for a girl. Unfortunately, I got ahead of myself and named our male dog this two years ago. Plus, my sister-in-law claimed it for her daughter someday despite it being our dogs name.

Noa – I love how fresh this name is. It has been the Number 1 girl name in Israel for a long time. Don’t confuse it with the boy name Noah, they are two completely different names with different origins and meanings. Too bad she would be confused for a boy her whole life in America :(

Arabella – I was set on naming her this a few months ago, but I quickly grew tired of how frilly it sounds. Plus Bella is super common again.

I really appreciate your expertise and advice. I need all the help I can get, plus I’m running out of time!!

Normally I think changing a spelling doesn’t help much to make a name fresh (Madysyn, for example, is if anything LESS fresh than Madison), but there are respellings and then there are alternate spellings, and in the case of Sophia I think the alternate spelling Sofia puts edge back into it—mostly because of Sofia Coppola. A downside is that it is then no longer your great-grandmother’s spelling.

The name Eva—are you saying you’d like people to pronounce it the same as Ava? I think it would be possible, but extremely wearying: either people will say it EE-va or they will spell it Ava, and there will be a steady stream of new people to explain it to. Especially since you actively dislike the usual pronunciation EE-va, I suggest using the usual spelling Ava, or else taking this one off the list.

Another I’d take off the list is Elle: it has a family feud closely associated with it, and it would be hard to avoid the nickname Ellie: even if you talked everyone else out of using it, she might choose to use it herself.

If you like Evie but feel reluctant to use Eve, I suggest Genevieve with the nickname Evie.

So! Hm, is it “helpful” per se to have me shooting down one option after another?

I’d say the best candidate from your list is your first choice, and I’d be torn about which spelling to use: Sofia seems like much more what you’re looking for, but I’m super-hesitant to lose the family spelling. Since it’s a great-grandmother, I think I would change the spelling: Sofia Natalia Olson looks and sounds wonderful to me.

Second choice: Genevieve Natalia Olson, with the nickname Evie.

For more options, I think I would look for names of glamorous actresses from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s:

Audrey
Brigitte
Clara
Grace
Greta
Jayne
Jean
Joan
Lana
Lillian
Lucille
Veronica
Vivian

Or you could use Harlow, which evokes Jean Harlow while giving you the sound of Shiloh. Downside: Harlow Olson might be hard to say (I mean that it is for me, but I’m not sure if others would have the same trouble).

Harlow makes me think or Marlowe/Marlo, but that might have the same pronunciation problem as Harlow.

Or Lydia? Lydia Natalia Olson.

Or Lena, or Lila.

Or Stella: Stella Natalia Olson.

Ooo, or Nora! Nora Sophia Olson.

Josie writes:

I am due October 1st with a girl. We already have a son, Clay. Our last name begins with M and is common enough that we don’t have to worry about anything clashing with it. however, we would like to avoid names that begin w C, K or M. (We’re not fans of alliteration. clay and chloe. clay and kristen. Meredith M_______.) The middle name will most likely be Brooks (family name.) so we want a first name that is more than one syllable.
However, my husband and I have completely different ideas about what the name should be. He likes very popular names (Abigail, Charlotte, Sophia, etc.) I really don’t want a name that is too popular or too common. I like unisex names that still can be girly. There are only a few names that are on the “possible” list and we’re not sure if we love any of them.

Avery (too popular?)
Lainey (nickname but we can’t figure out what the “official” name would be)
Hadley
Harper (but way too popular)
Quinn (but only one syllable)
Skyler

Help!
Thanks!

If Harper is way too popular at #174, then yes, Avery is too popular: Avery is #32. And Skyler might be too popular for you, too: that spelling is at #419, but the spelling Skylar is #185; if we combine the 755 girls named Skyler in 2009 with the 1,749 girls named Skylar in 2009, the rank of the two names together is #129—also more popular than Harper. (Source: Social Security Administration.)

I love Lainey. I would use Elaine as the full name, but Delaney is another possibility. Or plain Laine, if you changed your mind about Brooks. Or Helene or Helena (though it will sometimes be pronounced heh-LEEN/heh-LEEN-ah, so it depends on your tolerance for gentle correcting). The sounds of cLAY and LAIney are very similar; I’m not sure if it’s too similar or if it ties the names together perfectly.

More possibilities (taken largely from the “Last Names First” section of The Baby Name Wizard):

Brinley
Ellison
Elodie
Emery
Everly
Flannery
Garland
Jensen
Landry
Larkin
Lorelei
Thalia
Waverly
Yeardley

Kate writes:

I am due with a baby at the end of September. My question is a little different since I think my husband and I have settled on names. (We don’t know the sex of the baby so we have a boy and girl name picked.) I am curious if you have any thoughts or insight on “up and coming” baby names. You know the ones – they are out of the top 100 for years and then suddenly from no where start making huge jumps in popularity. The reason I’m asking is that we’ve basically decided on Evelyn if our baby is a girl. I love this name and loved that it was familiar but not common. Well, when looking at the past few years it’s really jumped up the list! The social security website shows that it is #39 in popularity, but less than 1% of the total babies born. So how “popular” does it really make that name? Do you think a name that is trending up in popularity, like Evelyn, will likely make it to the top ten? Like I said, this isn’t your typical question, but I thought it was something interesting to talk about. I’m sure this is something you’ve thought about, and I’d be interested in hearing your take on it.

I think there are some things to watch for:

1. The first is the most obvious: big leaps on the chart. Like, not just a steady increase in popularity (#100, then #95, then #90) but from not even on the chart to #800, then the next year to #400, then the next year to #200. FAST increases mean that most people don’t know yet that the name is rising. I think of the name Isabella as the classic example:

It wasn’t even in the Top 1000 from 1949 until 1990, and THEN look at it go! (Information and screen shot from the Social Security Administration.) We have friends who named their daughter Isabella in 2001, thinking it was a highly unusual choice—because in 2001, only hospital/daycare workers and SSA site fans knew how common it was.

2. Feeling like the name is a discovery. If the name feels like a dusty treasure, other people are probably feeling the same way. This happens especially with names that have been out of style for awhile—but WERE in style before: Henry, Oliver, Emma.

3. A smack of freshness. If the name has the feeling of surprise—but PLEASANT surprise—it’s feeling that way to a lot of other people too. This happens especially with names that haven’t been in style before, or have been in style for the other sex: Avery, Emerson, Cadence, Juniper, Braden.

4. A pleasing tie-in. I’ve mentioned before how people credit Charlotte’s Web for their choice of Charlotte for a baby girl—but my guess is that most people thought of the name first and the tie-in second (otherwise I’d expect to see Fern and Wilbur likewise increasing in popularity). The tie-in is what pushed them from “What a great name!” to “Let’s use it!” This is also what makes great-grandparent names appealing: the name is already coming back into style, and so it catches people’s attention when they see in their family trees (and, as with Charlotte’s Web, the names in the family tree that are NOT yet coming back into style go unnoticed).

Numbers 2 and 3 are very similar and have some overlap. One reason I separate them is that I think it’s far safer to use dusty treasures than to use fresh smacks: if you were to use the name Henry and then it got to the top ten, it almost wouldn’t matter because the name Henry has come and gone many times and is always a sturdy choice even if it’s not in fashion. Whereas if you choose Madison or Caden, it could be a different story depending on what the name does in the future. This is the difference between a name that “gets popular” and a name that “gets trendy.”

I SUSPECT that the reason Evelyn is coming into style is all the parents looking for alternatives to Ava and Eva and Ella and Emma, combined with Evelyn having a rhythm that happens to match other favorites Isabelle, Abigail, Emily, Madison, and so on. BUT, The Baby Name Wizard has talked extensively about “the 100-year cycle” (which is why great-grandparent names like Emma and Henry are so appealing while parent names like Barbara and Jerry aren’t—until our grandchildren are choosing baby names), and although Evelyn has never gone totally out of style, it was last in the top ten in 1915. It’s Evelyn’s time again.

Considering Evelyn’s enduring popularity (it hasn’t even slipped out of the 200s since 1915), combined with it getting toward its 100-year mark, combined with what we can see it doing on the charts (not leaps, no, but a pretty fast upward climb after 50 years of not even being in the top 100)—I wouldn’t be surprised to see it in the top ten soon.

On the other hand, I also wouldn’t be surprised to NOT see it in the top ten. Because plenty of names go up, up, up—and then stop: maybe in the 40s, maybe in the 20s, but never getting to the top ten. The names find their exact balance of being popular enough to be familiar and well-liked by the general population, but not so popular to discourage people from using it.

In any case, I feel about Evelyn the way I do about the name Henry: if it DOES go top ten, you’ll still have made a solid choice, not a trendy one.

Now, as to how popular a #39 name really is. If a name were evenly distributed across the entire United States, this would be pretty easy to figure out. At #39, the name Evelyn was given to approximately .28% of all baby girls, which means there are approximately 28 Evelyns per 10,000 girls born in that year. If a classroom has 30 children in it, and half are girls, there will be approximately 1 girl named Evelyn per 24 classrooms. Well, goodness, that’s not bad at all! That’s positively RARE. And yet, doing that same math tells us there’s only 1 Isabella per 6-7 classrooms, and GOODNESS it feels more popular than that—not only because of all the Isabelles and Isabels we’ve failed to take into account, but also because of regional popularity differences: if some regions barely use the name at all for whatever reason, this makes for many more Isabellas in the other areas. And it’ll be the same with Evelyns.

One of my sons has a name that was approximately as popular as the name Evelyn, the year he was born. But if I’d consulted the by state information, I would have seen it was in the top ten in our state. Evelyn is #100 in New Mexico, #98 in South Carolina, #96 in Rhode Island, #89 in Connecticut, #88 in South Dakota, #86 in Oklahoma, #83 in Florida, #81 in Pennsylvania—but #27 in Texas, #25 in California and Oregon, #24 in Illinois and Vermont, #23 in Colorado, #21 in Minnesota in Washington, #20 in D.C., #18 in Wisconsin. And in Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and West Virginia, it’s not even in the top 100. So of course it depends too on where you live—and where you might move, and where SHE might move as an adult! (Do you feel like running screaming into the sea yet?)

There can also be odd little quirks: the name Noah was #24 in 1999 (approximately .73%) when my first son was born, which SHOULD mean there’d be about one Noah per 9 classrooms. And yet TWO school years, he’s had two Noahs in his class, and I think only one school year had no Noahs. It’s the SAME Noahs: the statistics show a nice even distribution, but it happens that there are two Noahs in his grade instead of the expected less-than-one Noah, and it happens he’s been put into a classroom with one or both of them almost every year. The same could happen with Evelyns.

Er, I seem to have gotten a little carried away, but you’ve brought up one of my totally favorite subjects, and one I never get tired of talking about because there IS no way to predict these things, and isn’t that WEIRD that there isn’t??

Lindsay writes:

This has been such a headache, and I have been browsing your archives for inspiration, thinking I’d see something that would tickle my fancy. But since we’re having such a rough time thinking up and narrowing down names for our baby girl, I thought it best just to write and get your/your readers’ advice and suggestions!

Our last name is (phonetically) Will-HELL-mee. Our first child – a baby girl – is due in late September / early October, and our finalist names are currently: Sophie, Jamison (“Jamie”), Rowan, Nola, and Riley. Sophie (my parnter’s grandma’s name) is the current front-runner, but we want some others in our back pocket, and also are concerned that Sophie might be a little too “girly.” Our possible middle names include Ellen (my grandma’s name), Nelle (Ellen backwards), Kate, and Nola (it’s both a first name and middle name finalist).

We definitely like gender-neutral names, and tend towards the classic as opposed to the trendy. Celtic/Gaelic names are always welcome for consideration, but we don’t like spellings that are too outlandish or impossible to pronounce (like Siobhan or Roisin). We tend to prefer names under three syllables, but if it’s a really good one, it can be considered (which is why Jamison is still hanging by a thread on our list).

We’ve rejected many “-yn” names (think Jadyn, Kalyn, Kamryn, etc.). Other names that one or both of us liked but ultimately rejected include: Sadie, Carlie, Avery, Madison (“Maddy”), Grace, Charlotte (“Charlie”), Josie, Tegan, Ryan, Posey, Presley, Maisie, and Mina.

Thanks so much for any help you can provide! We really like Sophie, but want to decide on some alternatives we like just as much to have in our back pocket when our little girl arrives!

Brittany writes:

We are having our first baby, due September 27th and we are thrilled! My husband and I know we are very picky and view naming our child as a huge responsibility (and one we’re so happy to have). We quietly turn up our noses at pretty much every suggestion we’ve received from friends & family. That said, at least we’re sort of on the same page about what we’re looking for. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but we want something on the less common side that isn’t too far ‘out there’. Even if I like a name on the top 10 list, I can’t stand the thought of naming my child the same name as his future classmates. Maybe this is because I have a very trendy name from back in my day. Even though we’re both picky, I seem to be the one suggesting name options and my husband is the one giving the veto vote. Our last name is a long dutch name that starts with a B and ends with -ema. We both really like the name Jack (my husbands favorite author is Jack Kerouac) and I find it adorable for all ages. Although it doesn’t meet our criteria for uncommon, and my husband would prefer it as a middle. But we find it timeless. We’ve seemed to have been drawn to Irish/Gaelic names such as Kaelan ( I love names with consecutive vowels) but due to the unsettling trend of the name being given to GIRLS these days, we’ve decided a strong ‘no’ against it. Side note: for a girl possibly someday, Eowyn, Aeris or Charlotte. Here is the short list of the few we’ve tossed around:
Kaelan (the girly issue)
Jasper/Jesper (vintage, but I’m worried about a strong Twilight association)
Grayson (my husband’s one suggestion that I find utterly boring! “son of gray haired man”)
Jax (I LOVE this name, but my husband give it a huge “no way”)
Callen (soft ‘a’ sound… we both got kind of bored with it after a while)
Easton (hubby gave a big veto)
Alistar/Alistair or some variation (we’re really drawn to it for some reason, but it’s a little too..’much’ to feel okay using)
Kai (recently found out an acquaintance is using this name, due within the same week)
Ellison
Alec (hubby vetoed)
Kael (too much like Kale greens?)
Jude/Judah (hubby vetoed)
Kellen (hubby vetoed)
Fin(n)ley/Fin(n)lay/Finn (the one name we both agree on, but can’t seem to nail down what we really want out of it. I usually think one should be given the name that will be used, even if it is considered a “nickname”, but I do like Finley as well as Finn so I think I could easily stand to use the full version and nickname in this situation. The issue then would be spelling. We considered whether or not we like just Finn by itself, but were never quite sure. So if he’ll be called Finn much of the time should we spell the full version with one N or two? And Finley happens to be more popular in the US as a girls name, which bothers me because I want a strong masculine name. Although maybe I should just forget it because it seems to be strongly masculine in it’s Irish origin. And what about the spelling Fin(n)lay. I’ve read that it’s pronounced the same as Finley, but will it be forever mispronounced? And is that even true? And the biggest question of all, is do we even love it, or is it the ‘best of the blah’?

As you can see we’re pretty far from naming our son, despite being weeks from his due date! We’re completely open to new suggestions beyond what we’ve listed!

At one point we thought meaning would be important to us, but I think we’re past that due to the extreme difficulty we’ve had finding ANYthing decent.

And “no” to the name Jackson (even though it has Jack in it)

Can you help us?! And is there any hope?

Barbara writes:

My husband and I are expecting our second & final child, a boy, on September 26th and we can’t seem to settle on a name. I am hoping you and your readers could help us out because there are so many Issues with naming this child that it is making my head spin.

Issue the First:
Initially we had assumed that if this child was a boy we would use either one of two names
Leo Joseph, named for both of our grandfathers, both deceased
or
Simon Edward, named for both of our fathers.

I truly love BOTH these names. However….our last name is Anselmo. I cannot decide if I love Leo enough to overlook double O endings. As for Simon Edward….I’m fearful that there would be Hurt Feelings over this one. For one, his father’s name is actually Eduardo (Portuguese). For another, his father’s name would be “only” the middle name and my father’s would be first and I can see my MIL getting in quite a tizzy over that.

Issue the Second:
Our daughter’s name is Madeleine Danielle. (Only Madeleine…never Maddie) She is not named for any family members. I feel like it is weird to use a family name for one child but not the other. But we have lots of really nice male names in the family and terrible female ones.

Issue the Third:
I do not love Madeleine’s name. It was on a list of about ten that I was okay with naming her that I, frustrated with Hubs, gave to him to choose from. It was not my favourite. I will feel a bit resentful if this child also winds up with a name I feel kind of “meh” about.

Issue the Fourth:
This is the BIG Issue for me….our little boy’s in utero nickname is Fred. We have all been calling him Fred since before we knew he was a boy, even. Now I actually LOVE the name Frederick (the in utero nickname came about partly because my family mocked me SO mercilessly for saying I liked Frederick). My husband most decidedly does not like it. I have no problem compromising on names but there are currently no frontrunners and so Fred is still Fred and I am worried I will not be able to call him anything else soon.

Our short list is currently Nathaniel, Leo, Simon, Felix, Desmond and Donovan.
My husband likes Felix best, which is weird since that’s not his naming style at all.
I don’t mind Felix terribly but am not crazy about it either. My favourite name so far has been, sadly, Frederick.

I also really, really love Elliott but hubs vetoed that one.

Other names that have been vetoed are Jeremy, Isaac, Ezra, Isaiah, Oliver, Henry and Jean Luc. They were all names I LOVE but DH doesn’t. He has never suggested a name therefore NO names he loves are on the veto list.

Um, what else? Oh…if this baby had been a second daughter we would have likely named her Natalie.

I will give you a clue as to how dire the situation is: our daughter has long insisted a baby boy should be called Matthew. Neither Hubs nor I hate it but neither of like that it is so common either. We are, however, so absolutely tired of discussing baby names that we have seriously considered letting the FIVE YEAR OLD name the baby.

(If we choose a name that doesn’t automatically come with a middle name ie Leo, Simon, I’d like to use Matthew as a middle name)

Sorry for the novel. But there are just so many things BOTHERING me about naming this baby and I really wanted you to have all the info. Thank you so much for your help.

OH! A fellow fan of Frederick! I reallllly like that name. Two of the names on my own list are Simon Frederick and Oliver Frederick.

We need to summon your husband. Call him over. Here is his assignment: he needs to give serious thought to his family, since he’s the one who knows them best, and he needs to tell us if, for example, his parents might be happier with no namesake at all rather than a middle/changed name namesake. Some parents would go one way on this and some would go another. And Simon Frederick Anselmo would be a terrific name, and would let you have Frederick and even still call him Fred sometimes as a nickname. And it’s a pleasing naming story.

Which grandfather is your husband’s, Leo or Joseph? Another option would be to use that as the middle name instead of Edward. Simon Leo, or Simon Joseph. Then instead of one father getting higher billing than the other, it’s the nearer generation ranking over the farther—and yet still one name from each side of the family. (Plus, let’s remember that the surname is from your husband’s side of the family.)

Another option is to use Eduardo instead of Edward. It may grow on you with time, and it may improve the situation with the in-laws. Simon Eduardo Anselmo. In that case, it could be argued that “Eduardo Anselmo” is more than half the name and also both your father-in-law’s names, so it’s nicely balanced with just one of your father’s names in the first-name position. You could even have your husband frame it that way: “We named him Simon Eduardo Anselmo—Eduardo Anselmo after you, dad, and Simon after Barbara’s dad.” Plus, that arrangement of names avoids any confusion there might have been if there were two Eduardo Anselmos in the family.

I think it’s okay to have one child with family names and the other without, though I feel the same way you do about it. We have a similar situation in our family, with all four of the boys having one family name, and two of the boys ALSO having the names of friends of ours, and our girl having no family or friend names. I thought it would bother me, but it only bothers me a little teeny bit, and only when I’m telling someone my kids’ names and I’m saying “Rob, after my grandfather; William, after Paul’s grandfather; Elizabeth….after nobody, we just liked the name….” and so on. But a lot of the time I’m just listing the names (“Rob, William, Elizabeth…”) and it’s not an issue anyway. AND, I do think that culturally it’s understandable if a boy is named for family and a girl isn’t, irritating as that tradition may be.

I like these three as finalists: Simon Frederick, Simon Leo/Joseph, and Simon Eduardo.

Adrienne writes:

I’m due September 24 with our fifth baby – gender unknown. Our others are Liberty Skye, Eden Rayne, Sterling Blaine, and Ruby Alexandra. Ruby and Sterling have family names for middle names, the others we picked because we liked. But this time around – my husband likes Charles (family name) but I do not, and Gideon – also one I really do not care for. He hasn’t mentioned finding anything he remotely appreciated for a girl. (Three girls and one boy later, probably because he’s just hoping it’s a boy!) I love River Elliot for a boy but my husband isn’t crazy about it and we’ve tried thus far to avoid the same first initials among kids. My choice for a girl is Colleen Brooke – but it’s been cast aside by my dear husband as well. Chloe was in the running for Ruby, but was cast out because it’s quite popular these days. Asher, Galen, and Sawyer are some of my favorites for boys, and Greta, Nina, Josie and Ainsley for girls – but all have gotten “the frown”.

Reuben was a favorite when Ruby was due, but would be awkward to say the least at this point. Another name we both somewhat like is Silas. Brynne is one of my favorites for girls’ middle names – I like one syllable for the middle since our last name is three syllables. It begins with F so we’ve left all the names also beginning with F alone, and it ends in “uh”, making Dahlia and Deliah – both past considerations – sound a bit repetitive and not necessarily in a good way.

Getting my husband involved in the naming process is difficult – mostly, he reads through the 20,000 names book we have and doesn’t like any of them. Frustrating! Any ideas or suggestions? We like names that aren’t terribly popular that are spelled “normal”. I really would like to find a name with a great meaning, but several times through the baby name book later, I’m not finding anything we can agree on.

Thanks!

So far all of your children have word names; I’m inclined to continue that. This is more difficult for boy names:

Archer
August
Clay
Deacon
Forest (repeats surname initial)
Gable
Grant
Grey
Heath
Mason
Merit
Miles
Miller
Pierce
Reed (repeats sibling initial)
Roman (repeats sibling initial)
Shepherd (repeats sibling initial)
Wade
Walker

You’ll notice I did some REACHING: the names Pierce and Wade, for example, are not considered word names in the same way Liberty and Ruby are word names—but it’s enough of a tie-in to feel like they fit in, without being an overwhelming theme. And Shepherd is usually spelled Shepard when used as a name, but I got a little carried away with my self-imposed Must! Be! Words! theme.

Girl word names are so MUCH easier, they pass into being HARDER: there are so many choices, it’s hard to even sort through them. Flowers! Jewels! Virtues! Emotions! Birds! Colors! But ruling out -uh endings will help, and we can also rule out names that would make other names too word-like: no Garnet or Pearl or Scarlett with a Ruby, for example.

April
Autumn
Briar
Clarity
Clover
Constance
Harper
Haven
Hazel
Holly
Honor
Iris
Joy
June
Juniper
Laurel (repeats sibling initial)
Melody
Olive
Paisley
Patience
Piper
Verity
Violet

Some of these are iffy: the V of Verity might be too close to the F of your surname, and both Verity and Clarity might be too close to Liberty; Haven may be too similar in flavor to Eden; Honor might go too wordishly well with Liberty; Joy and June might work better as middle names.

For non-word names, your husband might like Galen better for a girl than for a boy, and I wonder if he’d like Gibson instead of Gideon? Nolan comes to mind, too.

Kristen writes:

Finalist names:
Gwen (our favorite)
Audrey (also a fave, but it’s my mom’s name – sort of feel weird about that)

Other kids:
Quinlan Elise, Drew (boy), Margot Laine

Surname:
One syllable and starts with a T, so first name shouldn’t start with a T. I don’t love names ending with a t either (other than the silent “t” in Margot). We liked Bridget but rejected it for that reason.

I lean towards older, traditional names that aren’t as popular – like Arwen, Blythe, etc. — all of which my husband hates. He likes stripper names. Heh. But seriously. They sound like strippers. We like Daria as an alternative for Margot but I wanted everyone to have their own letter, so I’m leaving that out as an option right now.
I love the name Gwen and was thinking Audrey Gwen and just calling her Gwen but I’m not sold on naming someone something as a middle name and then using it as a first name. Like, why not just make it her first name.

And I don’t really love Gwen Audrey.

I’d really just like a cool middle name for Gwen. Our kids are not named for anyone in the family, so it doesn’t need to be something sentimental. We’ve been toying with Alexandra and Elizabeth – but I’ve got Elise already and I’m sort of “meh” about having another derivative of Elise.

Help!

I’m with you: I’d rather not call a child by his or her middle name unless I have some super-compelling reason to do it, such as a naming tradition where it’s necessary to avoid mix-ups.

So let’s look for a good middle name for Gwen. I THINK Quinlan Elise and Gwen Elizabeth are too similar. The “Quin” of Quinlan is already so close to the sounds of Gwen, it seems like adding a similar middle name is too much similarity.

I might look first for names starting with D, M, and Q, since you don’t want to use any of those as first names for this or future babies.

Gwen Daria
Gwen Madigan
Gwen Magnolia
Gwen Mallory
Gwen Marissa
Gwen Matilda
Gwen Melina
Gwen Meredith
Gwen Millicent

I find that with the one-syllable first name and one-syllable surname I like the longer middle names: Magnolia is my favorite from this list, and I like the way it has the same rhythm as the name Elizabeth. Others like that:

Gwen Amelia
Gwen Cecelia
Gwen Cordelia
Gwen Felicity
Gwen Livinia
Gwen Olivia
Gwen Veronica
Gwen Victoria

Also Gwen Penelope, but something about that sounds amusing to me.

But before I act as if Gwen is The Choice, I think Audrey is a wonderful name, and I like the two syllables with your one-syllable surname, and I like how it’s not similar to any of the other kids’ names: Quinlan, Drew, Margot, and Audrey is a very nice assortment. One of my kids is named for my dad and it hasn’t been weird—but then, I also didn’t mind the idea that it might make my pinehole father-in-law wonder why we didn’t use HIS name. Some middle names for Audrey:

Audrey Carissa
Audrey Corinne
Audrey Gwenyth
Audrey Helene
Audrey Isla
Audrey Jean
Audrey Jocasta
Audrey Joella
Audrey Laurel
Audrey Penelope
Audrey Piper

Do the rest of you want to vote? Not with a poll this time, but just say which of the two names is your favorite, and then list some middle names?

A commenter mentioned that he/she is unable to find the name updates: that when he/she clicks the links on a name update post, there’s “nothing or just the old post.” In case others are equally confused, the link does in fact take you to the old post, yes. Then you scroll down to the bottom of the post, where the name update has been added to the post, keeping the entire story (question, answer, update) in one place rather than scattering it over several unconnected posts. “Name update” is bolded to assist with the finding.