Mother W. writes:

We are having our third child, second daughter via cesarean on July 28th and are having such a hard time choosing a name.

Here’s our dilemna: Our last name is Wylykanowitz.

I decided long ago that with such a consonant heavy name that first names should be no more than two syllables and should contain long vowels. We also really like using family names. Our son is Jacob and our daughter is Mena (for grandmother Philomena).

We had already decided to name this daughter after my grandmother even before she died in March. Her name is Miriam Ruth Ellis. I like Miriam, but my husband doesn’t. There are several granddaughters and great-grandaughters by the name of Ruth (that’s what she went by) and so my father has asked to think strongly before using it also. And we all like Ellis but the soft vowel doesn’t seem to fit with our other children.

Names that we’ve come up with so far:
Grace Ellis
Ellis Marie (both family names)
Josephine Ruth (both family names)

I feel that the naming of a child is very important since it’s their first communication of who they are in the world. But I’m just stumped. I like many names but it’s fitting them with our last name that always ends up getting in our way.

The name that comes to mind is Mira (MEER-ah). It’s good with your last name, it fits with your naming preferences, and it’s similar to Miriam. I’d use Mira Ruth, I think, to evoke your grandmother even more strongly. The main problem: Mira is probably too similar to Mena.

In that case, I think you should go with Ellis. You all like it, it’s an excellent tribute name, and I think it’s good with the names of your other children: Jacob, Mena, and Ellis. The S ending doesn’t sound ideal to me with the ending of your surname, but to me it’s worth it to get the good first name. I like Ellis Ruth.

Let’s put your first-name finalists in a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (212 votes total):
Grace: 55 votes, roughly 26%
Ellis: 125 votes, roughly 59%
Josephine: 32 votes, roughly 15%

Kristin writes:

I really hope that you and your awesome readers can help me. My husband and I are expecting our second child, a girl, on July 26th. We have a two and a half year old son named William (Will), which is a family name on my side. We are just at a loss for naming her. Of course this is how it happens, right? When I was pregnant with Will, all I could think of were girl names. His middle name is my husband’s name (extremely unusual, and starts with an N.).

Our main problem is that we both actually loved and agreed on a name…and then found out that it was one of the most common names in the U.S. last year. Yes that’s right, Emma. I have always loved that name (you know when you are in middle school and you name all of your potential children? I have a notebook from 1986 that lists Emma as my top name.) and my husband loves it because it was his mother’s middle name (she passed away). So it has a lot of sentimental value for both of us. I also think it goes nicely with Will, and works well with our last name. We didn’t realize that it was so common because we live in a community where it is much more likely to give your kid a unique name. We go to the park and have playdates with kids named Finn, Harper, Lucienne, Penelope, Liam, Huck, Evelin and Moritz. Not an Emma in the bunch.

So if we live here forever I won’t worry about her being one of five Emmas in her class. However, if we move anywhere else, I fear that I’ll be naming her the equivalent of the Jennifer, Heather or Stacy of my school years, and I don’t want to do that (no offence meant if that is your name).

We are having a hard time agreeing on other names. All that my helpful husband can come up with is Gabriela. I think that name is ok, but I hate the nickname Gaby. My list is a little more extensive and I really like all of them, but neither of us feel an instant love for any of them.

Corinna
Lucia (Lucy)
Natalie
Lily
Ella / Ellie

I also LOVE the name Beatrice but my husband said over his dead body…so maybe a middle name. In addition, our last name starts with S and I’ve eliminated pretty much all of the S names because I don’t like the alliteration.

Names that we liked but have rejected due to close family members or friends having the name (or sounds weird with our last name) include:

Katherine
Grace
Anne
Joanna
Ruth

I guess I am looking for your help in two areas:

1. Is Emma too common? Are we condemning her to a life of being known as Emma S.? Should I really care if we both love the name?

2. Can you think of any other names that we might like? We both seem to like more of the classic, timeless names. We’re not into strange spellings or naming your kid something so unusual that she’s the only one ever with that name, and we’re also not into the super trendy (although Emma apparently fits into that category now).

Help! We didn’t name Will until 3 days after he was born, and I don’t want to do that again!

I think it’s too hard to predict future classrooms, and that the best name for your daughter is the name you both love. I’ve written about this before, and I stand by it: the Top 10 is not the kiss of death. Only 9/10ths of 1% of female babies were named Emma in 2008 (source: Social Security Administration); that’s not even 1 Emma per 100 girls, and a classroom has in the range of 10-15 girls. Compare that to the 1974 Jennifers: over 4 Jennifers per 100 girls. Still, if popularity will bug you, the name Emma is about twice as common now as the name Stacy was in the 1970s.

Here are a few names that are similar to Emma:

Amelia/Emelia
Anna
Emlyn
Emmaline/Emeline
Gemma/Jemma

Let’s have a poll over to the right, for Emma and the Emma alternatives. [Poll closed; see results below.] Other name suggestions can go in the comments section.

Poll results (224 votes total):
Emma: 110 votes, roughly 49%
Amelia/Emelia: 33 votes, roughly 15%
Anna: 10 votes, roughly 4%
Emlyn: 10 votes, roughly 4%
Emmaline/Emeline: 35 votes, roughly 16%
Gemma/Jemma: 26 votes, roughly 12%

The winner of the revised TBNW book giveaway is Erin of The Schwant Family! I’m emailing you right now to get your shipping info, Erin!

If you’ve been following the comments section on the Torment Ended! (Edited: Re-Begun) post, you know that many of us are experiencing intense frustration as we try to get our hands on a copy of the revised edition of The Baby Name Wizard. My copy from Amazon arrived and it was the original 2005 book; as far as I know, NO ONE has received the second edition we expected.

So last night after the littler kids went to bed, my eldest son and I went on A Mission to find a copy of the second edition ANYWHERE in our area. We went to Barnes & Noble, because I’d seen people commenting over at The Baby Name Wizard blog that they’d found copies there. But I looked at every single book in the baby name section, and they didn’t even have the first edition.

We were about to leave, but Rob had a question for the clerk about Wall-E books, so while we had her attention I asked about the second edition. She looked in her computer and it said it was in stock, but she couldn’t find it on the shelf either so she looked in the back—AND THERE IT WAS. With the dark pink dot on the cover!

When I regained the power of speech I asked, “…You don’t have TWO, do you?” and she said yes and went back and got me another. And so I HAVE ONE TO GIVE AWAY.

Let’s make this giveaway FAST, because if you don’t win you might want to go quest at bookstores this weekend. Leave a comment on this post by Saturday, July 18, at 8:00 a.m. U.S. Pacific time, and I’ll set a timer to remind me to draw a winner promptly. The contest is for U.S. or APO or FPO mailing addresses only.

Courtney writes:

What do you think is the likelihood of a baby named Joshua Jonathan being nicknamed “JJ” even if the parents discourage it?

 
Let’s have a poll over to the right! [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (287 votes total):
It’s inevitable: 8 votes, roughly 3%
It’s likely: 40 votes, roughly 14%
It could go either way: 65 votes, roughly 23%
It’s unlikely: 100 votes, roughly 35%
I would never have thought of it: 74 votes, roughly 26%

Liz writes:

My husband and I are expecting our first child (boy) on July 20th! We cannot seem to agree on names at all!!! We would like a name that is easy to spell, not weird or too trendy, but something that is not common. We do know that his middle name is going to be Knight (a family last name) and our last name is Herron…so now we are just trying to find a first name to go with the other two. Our top pick at the moment is Obadiah, and we would call him Obie for short. My absolute favorite name is Finley, and my husband loves Finn, but hates Finley. AGH!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I like Finley, too. I suspect it’s headed for Girlnameville, if that is any comfort. Do you like Phineas? Phineas Knight Herron. I like Finian even better, but I wonder if it’s too much N with Herron.

Obadiah is biblical-sounding like current popular choices Noah and Isaac, but less common. Other possibilities of this type: Phineas, Isaiah, Judah, Malachi, Barnaby, Abraham, and Silas.

However, with a noun-like middle name and a noun-like surname, I think I might err on the side of commonness for the first name. James Knight Herron sounds distinguished, as does Charles Knight Herron and Jonathan Knight Herron.

Jenn writes:

My husband and I are expecting our first in the middle of July. We know we’re having a boy so that has solved half of our problem.

We’re pretty set on the first name Lachlan as we got married in Scotland and our only common heritage is Scottish. What we’re stuck on is the middle name. Options we’ve tossed around have all been family names:

Lachlan Alexander – Both DH and my grandfathers were Alec, and DH’s middle name is Alexander
Lachlan David – after DH’s godfather who is a dear friend to both of us
Lachlan Augustus – My Grandmother’s middle name was August, and my Grandpa was Gustav, so it kinda covers both.

I’m currently leaning toward Lachlan Augustus, but I’m wondering if it’s too stuffy? Too pretentious? Would he have to be quite a character to pull off a name like that?

Anything else that sounds fantastic with Lachlan that you can think of?

I love the idea of using the middle name slot for a family/significant name. Both Lachlan Alexander and Lachlan David sound really good to me. I particularly like David because of the sweet godfather connection: I can just SEE the godfather tearing up when he hears about it. But I love the sound of Lachlan Alexander.

If you’re considering having more than one child, I wonder if you might want to save the name Augustus for a possible second son? Lachlan and Augustus is such a good sibling pair, and Gus is a adorable nickname. In fact, why don’t I just go ahead and name your son and future son for you? Lachlan David MacLean and Augustus Alec MacLean, or Lachlan Alexander MacLean and Augustus David MacLean.

Oh….er, would anyone else like to add a suggestion before I fill in the birth certificate? And let’s have a poll over to the right for the current three middle name candidates. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (171 votes total):
Lachlan Alexander: 99 votes, roughly 58%
Lachlan David: 57 votes, roughly 33%
Lachlan Augustus: 15 votes, roughly 9%

Rose writes:

I am pleased to find your blog and hope that you can help me identify a name for our baby girl that is due this month (yikes!). The hubster and I have two boys named Chase and Cole. We used the Baby Name Wizard book to help us name our second child, Cole. We knew Cole followed the same style and went well with Chase and it was a great name for us.

The issue we are experiencing this time around is that the names we (or maybe I should me) like this time around do not follow the same style as Chase and Cole and the book’s suggestions are not to my liking. Here are some names that the Hubster and I like:

Hubster loves names like: Emma, Olivia, Paige, Macy and Ella
I love names like: Annika, Jillian, Charlotte, Hailey, Harper and Joella

Hubster’s style: Names that are really popular right now, his names follow the same style as Chase/Cole (i.e., Paige, Macy)
My style: More traditional names, Longer syllabled names, Not in the top 10 list of most popular, meaning is of importance to me

Our middle name choice for baby girl is probably going to be Kathryn or Katherine. Our last name is Kincaid so we have to be careful our first name does not contain a lot of “k” sounds in it. If you say Kate Kincaid, it sounds bad due to all the “k” sounds.

In the end, we are hoping for some suggestions that follow these rules:
1) The name is easily pronounced
2) The name is not so uncommon that people ask her if it is a family name or where the name came from (my fear with the name Harper)
3) The name is not so incredibly popular that she is signing her projects/papers with her last name initial to distinguish herself from the other two Emmas in the classroom (i.e, “Emma K”.)
4) A feminine name, not one that is androgenous since she will have two brothers (don’t want her mistaken for another boy)
5) No names that are flower or nature’like (i.e., Lillian, Violet) since my name is like that
6) No more C names since we have two C names already
7) We are open to having names that are longer and can serve to have a nickname

Any helpful suggestions for baby girl names?

I think it’s totally fine to have different naming styles for boy names and girl names. I think the divide between the genders reduces the potential “someone is different” problem.

Here are a few suggestions:

Juniper – I know, I know, it’s nature-like AND it’s probably similar to Harper in its “Where did you get that name?” potential. But it has the current-style flavor your husband likes, while also having the multi-syllable, less-common style you like. Juniper Katherine Kincaid.

Piper – Again, currently in style but not very common. I think it’s ADORABLE with the middle name and surname: Piper Katherine Kincaid. “Piper Katherine” is fun to say.

Annabel – One of my own favorites. Annabel Katherine Kincaid.

I also suggest seeing if you can take a name from one list and make it into a version that the other parent likes better. His choice of Emma is too common for your tastes, but perhaps Emmeline? Emmeline Kathryn Kincaid. Or Annabella is like a combination of your choice of Annika and his choice of Ella. Annabella Kathryn Kincaid.

Kristi writes:

Baby boy (after three girls!) will be born soon. He will be our last kid (and only son).

I like relatively uncommon names, but NOT WEIRD. I like Gage and Price (my maiden name, which we will use for a middle since I CANNOT cajole him into using it as a first). Hubby likes Connor, Trevor and possibly Cole. I think Connor and Cole are decent, but too popular. Popularity doesn’t bother him. Of course, he was not one of five Kristi/Christy/Christi/Kristy/Kristie/Christie’s (+ 15 more K/Christine, Kristin, K/Christina’s) in every class. GAH. Trevor I just don’t care for. We both liked kind of a weird one, Ridge, but think it sounds too much like ‘Rich’ (ok, so I take back we don’t like weird for this ONE name). Still, it would be hard to subject a kid to repeatedly have to say and spell his name for the rest of his life…

Our last name begins and ends with ‘N’ so I want to avoid any names that begin or end with n, to ‘n’ey for me. Siiiigh, so very many boys names end in n. HELP. ME.

Our girls’ names are Gracie, Cora and Mary…. old-time names, but we don’t seem to have that same style for a boy… ?

I assume your husband has rejected Gage, and that’s VERY SAD because it seems perfect to me: modern but also old-timey. Gracie, Cora, Mary, and Gage. Nice.

I know you said the name Ridge is an exception to your usual tastes, but I can’t resist looking around a little in that area, just for fun. You wouldn’t like the name Ridley, would you? It’s like Ridge, but less easily mistaken for another name (though there might still be some who would think it was a typo for Riley). I think it has an old-fashioned sound that goes nicely with your girl names: Gracie, Cora, Mary, and Ridley. Ranger would be another option, although because I am a ’70s baby it immediately brings to mind Ranger Rick (a positive association, but, well, a raccoon). Or, okay, one more: Bridger. It has ridge in it but doesn’t sound like Rich. One possible problem is that it looks feminine to me, I think because of the name Bridget.

Too weird? Here are some that are not as popular as Connor and Cole (both Top 100 names, according to Social Security), but more familiar than, say, Bridger:
Asher
Cade (similar to Gage)
Cale (almost Cole, but not)
Elias
Everett
Grant
Joel (almost Cole, but not)
Levi
Lyle
Wade (similar to Gage)

And here are a few that are Top 100 but have less of a common FEEL to them—at least where I live:
Caleb
Charlie
Eli
Isaiah
Thomas

I think my top pick would be Asher Price (Gracie, Cora, Mary, and Asher), but I’m worried about recommending it because the popularity of the name Asher is increasing so relatively rapidly. I feel like pushing the name Lyle because I think it’s so sadly underused, and because Lyle Price has a really nice sound to me.

What does everyone else think? Do any of these names seem normal and yet unlikely to be duplicated in the classroom? Can you think of others?

Remember how I was all tormented about the second edition of The Baby Name Wizard only being available when the first edition was sold out? Today Laura Wattenberg announced on her blog that Amazon.com has agreed to sell only the second edition! I’ve already ordered mine; now I have to go camp out by the mailbox.

Edit 07-10-2009: NEVER MIND! Three people have already contacted me to let me know that their copy arrived from Amazon.com and it was the ORIGINAL edition. And that’s just the ones that arrived by cheetah: I ordered mine with 2-day shipping before I wrote this post, and it’s not due to arrive until Monday. I’ll let you know what I get, and please continue to leave comments in the comment section if you get the wrong thing. I’ve found Amazon.com to be very good with returns, though of course this is still an ENORMOUS DISAPPOINTMENT. I’m going to go look at The Baby Name Wizard’s post about Amazon.com shipping the new edition and see if other people are reporting similar results.