Michaela writes:

I’ve been fond of names for most of my life. At eight, I named my first two cats Zanzibel and Sylvester! Probably a decision which greatly disgusted their cat sensibilities, but I was ever so pleased. My husband and I are expecting our first child (gender unknown) but I’m not feeling no such certainty with my name choices. I’m very lucky I am to have a very open-minded husband – he didn’t bat an eyelid when I suggested Zanzibel as a plausible name!

More realistically though, our last name is Campbell, and we like to use either Dianne (his mother’s middle name) or Lynn (from my mother’s middle name Lynette) for a girl, and Derrick (his dad’s middle name) or Dominic (my dad’s first name since he goes by his middle name). I’m fond of long vibrant first names for a girl that aren’t intuitively reduced to a nickname, but I don’t want something that feels too flowery, stodgy or pompous (i.e. I don’t really like names that end in -ia, like Cecelia or Alexandria, or names like Eleanor and Elizabeth). But conversely, I’m attracted to short names for boys that (to me) have a strong, resilient and earthy feel, but I don’t want one that feels too lightweight (I’m not being difficult on purpose, really!)

We’re hoping you can suggest some names similar to these names we like (but don’t love).
Girls: Veronica, Felicity (I like the upbeatness of this), Juniper, Meredith, Gillian (but not Jillian or Lillian), Angelica (bordering on fussy for me)
Boys: Reid, Jon, Noah (too popular), Ross, Tom, Adam

I’d love to hear your thoughts, and anyone else who might add some comment, advice or insight please feel welcomed to!

Thank you in advance.

Okay! Let’s start with long vibrant girl names that aren’t too pompous, stodgy, or flowery, and don’t end in -ia, and don’t have an automatic nickname. Some of these suggestions do HAVE a nickname or two, but I don’t think they’d be automatically reduced to one if you (and the child) used the long version.

Abilene
Angeline
Ariadne
Briarly
Corinna
Delilah
Elisheva
Esmeralda
Evangeline
Francesca
Geneva
Genevieve
Giovanna
Gwendolyn
Imogene
Isadora
Josephine
Julianna
Lisandra
Lorelei
Marigold
Melody
Minerva
Penelope
Philippa
Philomena
Rosalind
Wilhelmina

And now for some short, strong, earthy boy names:

Abe
Amos
Elias
Gus
Heath
Hugo
Ian
Joel
Nolan
Otto
Rufus
Saul
Wade

Name traits such as strength and stodginess are highly subjective, so you may find yourself going through my list saying, “Whuh? But that’s, like, the stodgiest of all stodgy names!” or “Ack, that makes me think of the skinny little weakling I went to school with!” This is why it’s so nice to have a big group to offer other options: in the comment section we’ll get other people’s ideas of non-flowery girl names and resilient boy names.

Rachael writes:

I am due in late April with a baby of unknown gender. My first son is named Finn, and our last name sounds like Sahara (like the desert). We have a girl name picked out, Hope Ryan, which is my middle name as well as my husband’s, but we are totally stuck for another boy name. Everyone but me seems to really like the name Cooper, which is in the running, but sounds like a yuppy dog name to me. Other possibilities include James/Jamie and Fletcher/Fletch, neither of which have gotten rave reviews from my husband or other family members. We may keep the middle name Ryan regardless of the kid’s gender, and really don’t have too many problems coordinating middle names, if we could only come up with the perfect first name. I have recently been taken by the name Scout, but am not sure if it would come across favorably to strangers (and family).

So what do you think? Is Scout too “out there” (or any more “out there” than Finn)? Any objections to using Scout as a boy’s name, when probably the most common reference point would be for the nickname of the young girl in To Kill A Mockingbird (or Bruce Willis and Demi Moore’s daughter)?

Thanks for your help! I look forward to hearing your opinion!

Scout SHOULD be a great boy name. It’s so close to Scott. And it would be so adorable on a little boy! Can’t you just see him, all fuzzy-haired and wearing size 2T overalls? But for me, the book To Kill a Mockingbird bought the name Scout residential property in Girlville. I think I’d use it as a boy’s MIDDLE name, though.

Here are a few other possibilities to consider:

Camden (Cam) Sahara; Finn and Cam
Keegan Sahara; Finn and Keegan
Leo Sahara; Finn and Leo
Nathan (Nate) Sahara; Finn and Nate
Wesley (Wes) Sahara; Finn and Wes

If this baby is a boy, you might later have a girl and still want to use the name Hope, so I tried each name in that line-up: Finn, Cam, and Hope, for example.

Let’s have two polls over to the right. The first will be to get an answer to your question about whether the name Scout is too “out there” for a boy. The second will be a list of the other possibilities to consider. [Polls closed; see results below.]

Poll #1: Is Scout too “out there” for a boy? (326 votes total):
Yes: 206 votes, roughly 63%
No: 120 votes, roughly 37%

Poll #2: Choose a name for Baby Boy Sahara (287 votes total):
Camden: 59 votes, roughly 21%
Keegan: 26 votes, roughly 9%
Leo: 76 votes, roughly 26%
Nathan (Nate): 63 votes, roughly 22%
Wesley (Wes): 63 votes, roughly 22%

Do you go by your given name, or do you go by a nickname? Poll is over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

I put the “some of both” option in there for if, for example, people at work and some of your friends/family call you Nicole but other of your friends/family call you Nicki, and you answer to both, and you might introduce yourself as either one. You don’t have to count it as “going by a nickname” if, for example, your dad calls you Muffin and your husband calls you Sweetheart and your best friend calls you Sippy, but all your other friends and family and coworkers call you Nicole, and you introduce yourself as Nicole. That counts as going by your given name.

There’s a lot of grey area here, and some of us will have to kind of guess. Like, what if your whole family calls you Sippy, but everyone else calls you Nicole and no one has ever called you Nicki? One way to test it is to think, if your name is Nicole, “Do I object to people calling me Nicki?” or if your name is Jennifer, “Do I correct people who call me Jen or Jenny?” If yes, then you go by your given name even if your family has a special non-name-related nickname for you. If no, then you’re some of both.

Poll results (376 votes total):
Given name: 231 votes, roughly 61%
Nickname: 56 votes, roughly 15%
Both: 89 votes, roughly 24%

What’s your favorite Z name for a girl? for a boy? Like, if you were required by law to choose one that started with Z. I would choose Zinnia for a girl and Zach for a boy, I think. Here’s a list of some Z names to consider before making a choice:

Zach: 57 votes, roughly 16%
Zachariah: 29 votes, roughly 8%
Zachary: 100 votes, roughly 28%
Zade: 4 votes, roughly 1%
Zander: 34 votes, roughly 9%
Zane: 50 votes, roughly 14%
Zavier: 13 votes, roughly 4%
Zebediah: 13 votes, roughly 4%
Zeke: 40 votes, roughly 11%
Zeus: 4 votes, roughly 1%
Zev: 14 votes, roughly 4%

Zadie: 16 votes, roughly 4%
Zahara: 8 votes, roughly 2%
Zaria: 9 votes, roughly 2%
Zelda: 27 votes, roughly 7%
Zella: 5 votes, roughly 1%
Zena: 3 votes, roughly 1%
Zenobia: 7 votes, roughly 2%
Zephyr: 11 votes, roughly 3%
Zeta: 7 votes, roughly 2%
Zillah: 6 votes, roughly 2%
Zinnia: 30 votes, roughly 8%
Zoe: 201 votes, roughly 55%
Zola: 7 votes, roughly 2%
Zora: 28 votes, roughly 8%

Lonnnnnng polls (one for boy names, one for girl names) are over to the right. [Polls closed; results added to above lists.]

Lauren writes:

my husband and i are expecting our second child in a matter of days. (our due date is tax day.) we are having a boy, and as the date gets closer we believe we need your help.

here is our list.. (rider is my husbands middle name, and we would like to use it as a middle name for our son as well)

ewan rider mcdowell
kellen rider mcdowell
rudy william mcdowell
caleb rider mcdowell
samuel rider mcdowell

i also wanted to mention that our daughters name is nina.

we would love any suggestions or alternatives you may have.

My favorite from your list is Caleb.

The name Kellen makes me think of one of my own favorites: Keegan. Keegan Rider McDowell. Nina and Keegan.

Ewan makes me think of Eamon (AY-mun). Eamon Rider McDowell. Nina and Eamon.

Nothing at all makes me think of Malcolm. Malcolm Rider McDowell. Nina and Malcolm.

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

Poll results (259 votes total):
Ewan Rider: 37 votes, roughly 14%
Kellen Rider: 35 votes, roughly 14%
Rudy William: 10 votes, roughly 4%
Caleb Rider: 63 votes, roughly 24%
Samuel Rider: 45 votes, roughly 17%
Keegan Rider: 17 votes, roughly 7%
Eamon Rider: 23 votes, roughly 9%
Malcolm Rider: 29 votes, roughly 11%

Amanda writes:

My husband and I are due with our first little one April 15th… and we are not close to having a name picked out at all! I tend to lean towards the names that are not in the top 100 (some have slipped through though) and he tends to not care if they are popular. I was Amanda S. for my entire education, so I don’t want to do that to a little girl by naming her Addison or something else extremely popular. His name is Paul. Our last name, Cada, is pronounced like Cadillac so we would like to stay away from C and K names, they sound a little too comic-bookish to me.

The names I like…

Mira
Alexis
Mara
Nora
Alannah
Eliza
Leah
Adeline

My husband’s fav’s…

Jane/Jayne
Addison
Mia
Kirsten
Alexis
Lauren
Victoria

We both have Alexis on our lists, but it’s still not winning us over as the finalist! (and it has been very popular in the past).

We both love Mira but fear that people will pronounce it Myra, and then everyone pronounces Cada as ‘Cayduh’ instead of the short a sound. So she would have to correct everyone on her first and last name forever! We could spell it Meera though… we just prefer the Mira spelling.

Our middle name options (just depends on which first name we go with)… Ann, Marie or Elizabeth.

Thanks for your help!! :)

I think you’re right about the Mira thing. I think the name Mia gets the same sort of thing, with some people saying it MY-ah and some people saying MEE-ah. And Mara is another one: MARE-ah or MAR-ah.

When you said Cada as in Cadillac, that’s when it occurred to me that Alexis as in A Lexus might be too much car for one name.

Both Addison Cada and Alannah Cada seem rhymey—but this is one of those areas where in some situations I’d be saying that was what made the names click so well, so this could go either way. In fact, I wonder if it might help people remember how to pronounce the surname, by getting their mouths in the right shape with the first name. The flip side of this is that a name like Jane Cada might have the opposite problem: getting people’s mouths in the shape of AY, so that they go naturally into CAY-da by mistake.

Well, enough chipping away at the lists you already don’t agree with each other on; let’s see if we can find some other possible candidates.

Since you DO both like Alexis, and your husband likes Addison, I wonder if you would like Ellison. Ellison Marie Cada. Ellison is unusual but not too unfamiliar because of its similarity to Allison, and it has the cute nickname Ellie.

Emerson is similar to Ellison, but with the cute nickname Emmie. Emerson Marie Cada.

Elaine. Elaine Marie Cada. Elaine is underused but completely familiar, and it has the cute nickname Laney. It sounds something like your choice Eliza and something like his choice Jane.

Elena would be a little more up to date: Elena Marie Cada.

Eleanor. Eleanor Marie Cada. Eleanor is like the sounds of Lauren rearranged (nor instead of laur, and len instead of ren), and you could use Nora as a nickname.

Emeline. Emeline Marie Cada. Emeline has the sweetness of Adeline, but without the repeating “addah” of Adeline Cada—which, as I said before, might be a plus or might be a minus. Also, it has the cute nickname Emmie.

I didn’t mean for those all to start with E and get paired with Marie, but there it is. Apparently I was on a roll with E/Marie.

[Edited to add: I thought of this too late to put it in the poll, but how about Aliza? It’s so similar to Alexis, and also to your choice of Eliza.]

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

Poll results (263 votes total):
Ellison: 51 votes, roughly 19%
Emerson: 52 votes, roughly 20%
Elaine: 18 votes, roughly 7%
Elena: 27 votes, roughly 10%
Eleanor: 55 votes, roughly 21%
Emeline: 60 votes, roughly 23%

Sarah writes:

We are due with our second baby on the 12th April. We don’t know what the sex is and we already have a daughter called Amy Grace White. She was named for her maternal great grandmother and paternal great grandmother. My husband and I can’t seem to find anything we like this time around and have only come up with a few choices for either sex. We desperately need some help!

The only names we know we will use are Margaret as middle for a girl and Patrick as middle for a boy so we are looking for help choosing first names for both a girl and boy that will go with those middle names and our common and easy surname, White, while still sounding good with Amy.

Our top list for a girl are:
Stella Margaret White
Tessa Margaret White
Erin Margaret White
We would prefer to stick to a two syllable first name to tie in with Amy.

For a boy we are struggling and really want to find something that just clicks! (I know, the holy grail of baby names!)
Top contenders are:
Cameron Patrick White
Byron Patrick White
Russell Patrick White
We would also like a name of more than one syllable for a boy.

We live in a country that likes to shorten names to silly nicknames so have tried to stay away from longer names that have obvious nicknames but are really struggling to pick something that just sounds right! (that said both Cam and Russ are nicknames above!)

Any suggestions?

I love those girl name choices. Of the three, my favorite with Amy is Erin. I also like Holly: Holly Margaret White; Amy and Holly. And Erica is pretty: Erica Margaret White; Amy and Erica. And I love the name Laurel: Laurel Margaret White; Amy and Laurel. Or Nora would be nice: Nora Margaret White; Amy and Nora.

For boy names, if you like Cameron I wonder if you would like Callum? Callum Patrick White is handsome. I also like Carson: Carson Patrick White; Amy and Carson. Ooo, or Ian: Ian Patrick White; Amy and Ian. Owen: Owen Patrick White; Amy and Owen.

Let’s have a couple of polls over to the right, one for girl names and one for boy names. [Polls closed; see results below.]

Poll results:

Girl names (297 votes total):
Stella: 41 votes, roughly 14%
Tessa: 33 votes, roughly 12%
Erin: 78 votes, roughly 26%
Holly: 31 votes, roughly 10%
Erica: 16 votes, roughly 5%
Laurel: 44 votes, roughly 15%
Nora: 49 votes, roughly 16%

Boy names (282 votes total):
Cameron: 30 votes, roughly 11%
Byron: 16 votes, roughly 6%
Russell: 16 votes, roughly 6%
Callum: 46 votes, roughly 16%
Carson: 30 votes, roughly 11%
Ian: 76 votes, roughly 27%
Owen: 68 votes, roughly 24%