Jenna writes:

I know this is very late notice, but I’m hoping for some outside advice and suggestions.
I wish I had found your blog a couple months ago!
I am due with a baby girl in a couple days, but it looks like she will probably be late like her brother was.
My name is Jenna, my husband is Josh, and our son is Jacob Gavin (Gavin is a family name I’ve always loved).
We did not intentionally choose a “J” name for him and don’t want to continue with the “J” names.
I always said that it was a good thing he was a boy, because my husband and I could never agree on a girl name. Well, I was half joking, but now I’m due to have a girl and she still doesn’t have a definite name! I need help!
Some requirements are:
1. It sounds good with our names, even though it doesn’t start with a “J”. I especially want it to go well with Jacob/Jake.
2. It cannot end with an “S” or “S” sound because our last name starts with an “S”.
3. Nothing made up/no creative spelling
4. Not too popular, but not too weird. Jacob is so popular (which I don’t seem to mind with my son), but I would like something less popular for our daughter. Top 100 would be OK, but probably not top 10.

Names that I have suggested:
Peyton (this has always been a favorite and is a family name)
Alexa
Lena
Lila
Kenley
Cara (my son suggested it and I love it, but hubby doesn’t)
Eva (I love it, but it does not go with our last name as it has an “eve” sound in it)
Brenna (I love this too, but it’s out because it rhymes with my name)
Elizabeth

Other names that I like, but are too popular right now
Grace
Kayla
Emma

Names my husband has suggested
Miriam (I really don’t like this)
Elise (which is nice, but runs together with our last name)
Braelyn
Ashley/Ashlyn
Morgan
Megan (I think it’s OK)

Possibilities that we both like:
Rachel
Caroline
Addison (a little too popular right now for me)
Myla
Catherine

We are thinking of using Malia for a middle name since we recently moved to Hawaii and it is Hawaiian for Marie which is my middle name as well as my mother’s and my grandmother’s . However, I’m OK not using it if it doesn’t go with the first name.
I really would like to try and honor my grandmother with a middle name and her name was Anita Marie, so maybe another version of Ann or Marie (I’ve never cared for Marie, I think because every other girl I knew growing up had the same middle name!)

I love the old classic names that don’t go out of style, but I also like names that you don’t hear all the time. I would love a name that is feminine, but still strong and not too cutesie, and it needs to go with Jacob. I just think there is a name or name combination that we haven’t thought of. Maybe we have thought of it, I just want to know which sounds best! With the move and everything I just feel like I haven’t been able to focus on names and now she’s going to be here! Please help!
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

I liked this story of how a baby’s name was chosen, and I thought you might like it too. It’s from Through the Looking Glass, and Annika has generously allowed me to reprint an excerpt here:

So I wanted to tell the story of how we came up with our daughter’s name. Only it’s not much of a story, unlike her brother’s name. But I can’t think of anything else to talk about, and I get twitchy if I go too long without updating, and Will’s mom is here entertaining Sam (he is in HEAVEN) so I don’t have anything to distract me other than a ridiculously good-natured baby who is happy to just lay on her Daddy’s chest. So naming it is.

With Sam we were still discussing names the day before I went into labor. This time we settled on names when I was 20 or 21 weeks pregnant (though it’s not as if that stopped us from discussing them over the remaining time). We picked two girl names and two boy names, and almost immediately narrowed the boy name down to one (sort of–our favorite boy name was the two names combined as first and middle). The girl names were a favorite from the first time (which I am convinced would be Sam’s name were he a girl) and Grace. Each name had a middle name after one of my grandmothers.

My name is the Swedish diminutive form of Anna, which is a form of Hannah, which means grace. My mother’s name, Nancy, is a form of Anne, which is a form of Anna, et cetera. My step-sister is named Hannah… Read the rest of the story at Through the Looking Glass.

Heather writes:

My husband and I are expecting our first baby right around Valentine’s Day. We have a boy’s name picked out, Charles Anthony, after my husband’s grandfather and great uncle. Plus, they are both saint’s names, which my husband also prefers. However, we are having trouble picking out a girl’s name. My husband is very partial to family names, and his favorite girl name is Anna Maria, after various female relatives of his, although he would accept a variant of this, maybe Annemarie or Marianna. I don’t mind using the family names for a first boy, but I don’t really want both name options to come from his family!

His family is from Spain, so perhaps a girl’s name with a Spanish flavor, but not one that is too common in the U.S., would be nice. Our criteria are: at least one saint’s name, classic–definitely no place names like Madison or Savannah, and not a top-10 name. Unfortunately, several of my favorite names just seem too popular, such as Emily and Abigail. Jillian, Claire, and Margaret are others I like, but they also out b/c they are already in the family. The list of names we both agree on for a girl is pretty short. Our first choice is Elizabeth Anne, with nn Libby, but I wonder if the name is too vanilla, besides Elizabeth being pretty popular right now. Another option is Evangeline Marie, but we’re not quite sure about it. I do like all the nickname options it gives, though. Our last name starts with an E and is similar to Rivera.

Other names I like are:

Caroline/Carolina
Amelia
Audrey
Helena
Veronica

Middle name will probably be something like Marie or Anne, although other suggestions are welcome!

Thanks so much!

I liked this story I read of how a baby’s name was chosen, and I thought you might like it too. It’s from Kirida dot com, and Mona has generously allowed me to reprint an excerpt here:

We decided our second baby’s name this weekend and a choir of angels sprung forth in our house. Well, actually I went, “AHHHHHHHH!” which is as close to cherubic as you’ll get in our hotbed of hedonism and Cinemax favorites. For a few weeks, Mike has been set on the name Chase, which is a fine name in itself. It’s French, it means “hunter.” It also represents the damn bill I get every month. I told Mike no, I would not have Chase as a son. It doesn’t fit our family and it’s not like the company would lower my interest rate if I sent in a birth certificate with my next payment, like hey you guys, can’t we do something? I mean, meet me halfway, I named my son after you! What are you going to do about my reward points?!?

I loved “N” names–Nolan being my favorite. I also loved Simon which is still an awesome name to have. Simon was the smartest of the three chipmunks. Simon liked to take baths and do drawreeeengs, you cheeky monkey!

So there was a war between Chase and Simon. Mike kept saying that our son’s ass would get beaten at the park with a name like that, which makes me wonder what kind of freaking park we would take our kids where names are reason enough for a beatdown. Wouldn’t he be beaten down for something else? Like winning the spelling bee and showing punks how to spell “paternity test”? Still, it was pretty contentious. Mike doesn’t backdown and the more I fought against Chase, the more he was convinced that it was the BEST. NAME. EVER. (Which again, is a great name, but not for me!)

We did the logical thing which was to ask our three-year-old what he thought. I mean, this kid has a lot of opinions. He’ll walk up to me and say, “Mommy! I like your susu (chamorro word for BOOBIES)” Then using his little toddler finger, points to my right boob and adds, “THIS ONE.”

So we said, “Nathan, which do you like more–Chase or Simon?” Read the rest of the story over at Kirida dot com.

D. writes:

We are expecting a little girl (our first child) February 13. Her last name will be Bliss. We had originally decided on Harper (perhaps Harper Ann Bliss), but have been feeling less sure as of late and are exploring other options (in heated conversations!). Other finalist names are: Adelaide, Auden, Delilah, Emerson, Clementine, and Greer. We’ve ruled out (but I like) Quincy, Matilda, Phillipa (or Pippa) and Helena. Please help!

Let’s have a poll! It’s over to the right.

Christie writes:

I have a 3.5 year daughter named Alexandra Brielle, but we call her Allie 99.5% of the time. We also have a 1.5 year old son named Keegan Gregory (Gregory is my husbands middle name). Keegan and Alexandra seem so different, but the Alexandra was picked in a last ditch effort to name her. I still don’t love her name. My husband liked it when he picked it and he loves it now, I was so frustrated that I ended up agreeing and never could come up with anything I liked better. I do like the nickname options she has, and I like that she has a good grown up name to fall back on. So if all else fails, I guess that would be a good thing to duplicate in another girls name… nn options, nice adult full name. I LOVE my sons name. This time around, I still can not find one girl name that I more than kinda like. Not one girl could I picture as MY BABY.

Our last name is Parker.

Boys names I love (in this order)
Camden
Liam
Lachlan
Deacon
Declan
Cullen

Boys Middle Names
Nathaniel (family)
Nicholas (family)
Michael (family)
James (just kinda like it)

Girls names I kinda like:
Genevieve (Genna/Jenna) (this is the only that doesnt get deleted off the list everytime we start over… but I still dont love it)
Elisabeth (Lissa) I dont like the beth part but I like that its long like Alexandra… friend suggested Elisabelle and I like the sound, but i’m just not sure here…
Claire (does this fit with Alexandra?)
Anneliese (I dont like the nicknames and I know people will try to call her Annie/Anna or even worse Elise)
Emmeline (Emmie… dont know about this one)
Madeleine (Maddie… lots of little Madison’s running around with this nickname, and I am sure about the full name)

Girl Middle Names
Nicole (family)
Anabelle
Arianna (husband likes)

Names that I can’t use…
Julia
Ashleigh (no Ash names)
Aidan
Braxten

Names that we have discarded…
Boys
Kieran, Logan, Luke, Landon, Lincoln, Caleb, Tiernan, Callum, Connor

Girls
Sophia, Ava, Samantha, Gabrielle/a, Amelie, Embry, Emerson,

Feel free to bring up the discards if you think they fit. I mostly need girl suggestions, but I would love opinions on what fits with Keegan the best as far as the boys name go.
Also, after this baby… we may end up trying one more time… so if you could pick the two best boy names and two good girl names, that would be even better!

For a girl, I suggest Anastasia, Cassandra, Penelope, Philippa, or Philomena. They’re all nice long Greek names, like Alexandra, and in fact I think they favorably emphasize the ancient-Greek elements of Alexandra.

Or to go a different route, perhaps Felicity, Arabella, Clarissa, Josephine, Evangeline, or Susanna: all long and feminine like Alexandra, but without the Greekiness. I also like Annabelle as the first name.

I notice all your boy names are Celtic; I wonder if you’d like Celtic girl names?

Bethan
Brenna
Bridget
Bronwyn
Carys
Ciara
Elspeth
Emlyn
Fiona
Flannery
Gwendolyn
Gwyneth
Isla
Kennedy
Madigan
Mirren
Riona
Tamsin

To narrow down the boy names, you could choose your favorite of Lachlan, Declan, and Cullen, since they all have the same ending. Since you have two each of Ls, Ds, and Cs, whichever name of those three you choose, you could choose a second boy name from the names starting with the other two letters. So, for example, if you choose Declan, that would rule out Lachlan and Cullen (same ending), and then it would rule out Deacon (same starting letter) and you’d choose from Liam and Camden. If you chose Lachlan, that would rule out Declan and Cullen (same ending), and then it would rule out Liam (same starting letter) and you’d choose from Deacon and Camden. My own favorites:

Keegan, Declan, and Camden
Keegan, Declan, and Liam
Keegan, Lachlan, and Camden

Or of course you could choose none of the -lan endings and go with something like Keegan, Camden, and Liam, or Keegan, Liam, and Deacon. There are so many good combinations.

For middle names I like Declan Nathaniel, Camden James, Liam James, Lachlan James, Deacon James, Cullen Michael—but I think most of the middle names match up nicely with most of the first names.

I would use Callum (from the discard pile) over Cullen, because I’m worried that Twilight’s Edward Cullen will have a long effect on the name Cullen.

Lara writes:

Hey! I’m emailing on behalf of a friend, who recently heard the name Savvy (that’s s-a-v-v-y, not s-a-w-y) and loved it. However, she would prefer to use it as a nickname for something rather than a proper name. The only name we can think of is Savannah. Are there any other names out there that Savvy would be a good nickname for?

THANKS!!!

I looked in the index of The Baby Name Wizard to find all names starting with “Sav,” and found this list:

Savanna
Savannah
Savina
Savion
Savvas

Well, hm. If it’s the SOUND she likes, she could use a name that gives a similar nickname such as Sabby or Saffy or Saphy.

Sabina
Sabrina
Saffron
Saphira
Sapphira
Sapphire

And of course she could make up a name. Saveela. Savayla. Savella. Savona. Saveena. Savika. Savrina. Savira. Savinna. Savayna. Saverra. Well, I am not very good at making up names, but maybe she is.

I do think, though, that the name you thought of is the best way to get the nickname: Savannah/Savanna is the clearest route to Savvy.

Toni writes:

I’m due January 22, 2010 and we don’t have a name yet. We’re having our second child, a boy, and have possibilities narrowed a bit- here’s what we’d like/need:
My first child is a girl, named Rachel Lynn.

1. We’ve decided on the middle name James.
2. We lean more towards traditional type names- no creative spellings, no trendy names, etc
3. I’ wanted to stay away from some of the more popular names, but (as in #2) don’t want to get too trendy/creative
4. Our last name has a strong B sound, so we’re trying to stay away from B sounds in the first name
5. To us, it seems like two syllable first names work best with our last name
6. The only possibility that we have both agreed up so far is Ethan, but I don’t think we’re sure of that…

I’d appreciate your help!
Thanks!!!

Oh, Ethan is nice! Or maybe Evan? Rachel and Evan? Or Ian: Rachel and Ian. My favorite of those possibilities is Evan: Evan James.

Or Andrew: Andrew James, Rachel and Andrew.

Lucas: Lucas James, Rachel and Lucas.

Simon: Simon James, Rachel and Simon.

Edmund: Edmund James, Rachel and Edmund.

Eric: Eric James, Rachel and Eric.

Stephen: Stephen James, Rachel and Stephen.

Nathan: Nathan James, Rachel and Nathan.

Calvin: Calvin James, Rachel and Calvin.

I emailed Nichole today asking, “Is it too late? Have you already had him?,” and she emailed back:

Ha! Your timing is so funny…. I had “him” yesterday and “he” is still NAMELESS!!!!! Any suggestions? :) Our current list includes Andrew, Reid, and Benjamin but DH and I can’t agree on anything. We’d love some help!! We leave the hospital tomorrow and would like to have a name by then but we’re not required to have one until Sat. Thanks!

So I haven’t FINISHED-finished this post, it’s still in draft form and I haven’t double-checked all the names to make sure they fit the requirements, but I’m going to post it right away because I want us to help name this baby as soon as possible!

Nichole writes:

We are in desperate need of naming help for our second son. It has been a tough pregnancy and I’ve been on bedrest since week 17 – now at week 36 we have finally hit our goal and are allowing ourselves to begin naming our son. I could go into labor at any time and since we didn’t feel comfortable discussing names until we knew for sure this pregnancy would turn out ok, we are just now realizing we can’t agree on ANY names!!! Our first son is named Parker and our last name is Snow. We do not want a first name beginning with P (my husband’s name starts w/ a P and that is confusing enough for some people!), and since “Snow” actually means something, we don’t want a first name that has meaning too (example: Tanner) or anything that is cutesy or sounds like a sentence (example: Landon Snow!) We also do not want a first name that ends in S as we feel it is too “hissy” (example: ThomasSnow, JamesSnow). No names ending in an “o” sound – it just sounds silly w/ our last name (example: Milo Snow, Leo Snow). No traditionally boys names that girls are taking over (Elliott, Morgan) or too-trendy names (Cayden/Jayden/Hayden/Aiden). My thought is we need a first name with at least 2 syllables since our last name is so short and kind of harsh… but maybe I’m wrong? Would love to hear your thoughts! Last restriction is my own weird one: I would prefer a non “er” ending name as I feel having a Parker and an Archer or Asher is too similar in structure. I am soooo picky with names and am driving my husband CRAZY!!! I’m not into creative spellings or “unique” names, but on the other hand my husband will not go for anything too common (John, Matthew, Ryan, etc). The ONLY 2 names we are considering is Andrew (my fave, but too common for my husband), and Barrett (his first pick, I’m not crazy about it). I am so worried that I will have this baby and we won’t have picked out a name in time!! To sum it up – no “er,” no “P,” no “s ending,” no “o ending,” no names the girls are taking, no too-trendy, probably two syllables, and something uncommon but not weird. Thank you all so much in advance!!

I’ll use this as an opportunity to push an unusual and underused name: Karl. Karl Snow. Parker and Karl. That’s my favorite.

If the more Z-like S-sound of Charles doesn’t bother you as much with Snow, or if you didn’t mind going straight to Charlie without using Charles, I’d suggest Charlie. Charlie Snow, Parker and Charlie. Jazz fans may think of Charlie Parker; most people will just think the names go perfectly together and not know quite why.

If Andrew is too common for your husband, maybe Anderson? Anderson Snow, Parker and Anderson.

And I know you say not Elliot, but OH I love Elliot, and it’s so dashing with your surname: Elliot Snow, Parker and Elliot. I know some girls are using it, but I think it’s still Boy.

Or if not Elliot, maybe Everett? I don’t think the girls have gotten to that one yet. Everett Snow, Parker and Everett.

Some other possibilities:

Adrian Snow; Parker and Adrian
Brady Snow; Parker and Brady
Brenden Snow; Parker and Brenden
Evan Snow; Parker and Evan
Gabriel Snow; Parker and Gabriel
Gavin Snow; Parker and Gavin
Henry Snow; Parker and Henry
Keegan Snow; Parker and Keegan
Kyle Snow; Parker and Kyle
Larson Snow; Parker and Larson
Marshall Snow; Parker and Marshall
Mason Snow; Parker and Mason
Ridley Snow; Parker and Ridley
Ruben Snow; Parker and Ruben
Wesley Snow; Parker and Wesley
Wilson Snow; Parker and Wilson

P.S. Karl! Karl Snow! Baby Karl! Parker and his little brother Karl!

Bridie writes:

We are due in just a few weeks and wondered what you thought about giving a child multiple middle names when the last name is hyphenated and both of the middle and the first name are longish. Basically, if we included the names we’d like to, we’ll end up with a little girl with a 16 syllable name! We are absolutely committed to our first name (Penelope) and the first second name (Alexandra) is a tribute both to my beloved and deeply missed BIL who died this year and to my husbands father, so we’d like to keep it, too. The wild card is the second middle name: Magnolia. This, we both loved and had originally wanted for a first name, but friends and family deemed it to weird… So. Our baby’s full name would be Penelope Alexandra Magnolia Cotter-Taylor. Is that too long? Too over the top? What do you think?

As long as we’re clear that this is purely a matter of opinion, I’d say that name is too much. It’s long enough to start being a little bit funny. I think if I were you I would save Magnolia for a possible later daughter—perhaps as a middle name, or perhaps you’ll decide you want to use it as a first name after all: I think it’s a great first name, and a good sister name for Penelope.

I think we ought to put this question to the vote—there’s a poll over to the right.