{"id":10346,"date":"2014-08-08T10:32:04","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T14:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=10346"},"modified":"2015-01-15T08:11:12","modified_gmt":"2015-01-15T12:11:12","slug":"baby-boy-oravec-brother-to-haven-bombay-tusker-monsoon-and-lark-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2014\/08\/08\/baby-boy-oravec-brother-to-haven-bombay-tusker-monsoon-and-lark-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy Oravec, Brother to Haven Bombay, Tusker Monsoon, and Lark India"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi there!<\/p>\n

We are expecting a new baby in January and it’s a boy! Boy names are so much harder for us. We have two girls who are almost 6 and almost 2 named Haven Bombay Oravec and Lark India Oravec. We had a baby boy in between who sadly died shortly after birth — he kept his pre birth nickname of Tusker (we were traveling in Kenya during my pregnancy and that was the local beer) and became Tusker Monsoon Oravec.<\/p>\n

We are currently expats posted in Mumbai, India and decided to give our kids middle names to reflect their place of birth to carry with them when they return to the US. We would consider the middle name Carmichael which was the first street we lived on in Mumbai or another name reflective of the local culture or neighborhoods. We can work around any great first name choice.<\/p>\n

For first names, I was hoping to choose a name that has a strong connotation like his sisters (Haven -safe, Lark- happy, whimsical). On another note, his dad is Brian and his grandpa is Bruce so there is a tradition of Bs. We considered naming Tusker, Beckett but he didn’t live long enough to see if it fit.<\/p>\n

Names we’ve got on our early list(in no particular order):
\nArcher
\nWolf
\nBlaze
\nFlash
\nPhoenix (my husband is not so sure, but I like the idea of rising from the ashes of our earlier loss)
\nBrave
\nBenegal\/Bengal ( a family name on my side — could also be middle name)
\nLucky
\nDanger (always thought it would be a fun middle name but not sure I have the guts to follow through with it)<\/p>\n

If he was a girl, we might name her:
\nWren
\nSage
\nValentine
\nHarbor
\nHarper
\nAria
\nPearl<\/p>\n

We like to have 2-3 options and then live with the baby a couple of days to see what sticks. Can you help? I’m really struggling with this one!<\/p>\n

Best,<\/p>\n

Aisha<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Looking at the first names of the surviving sibling group helped clarify things for me: it pares the question down to “Haven, Lark, and ______?” When I looked at the full names, a name like Flash seemed to fit well; when I looked only at the names that would be used in everyday life, it no longer fit.<\/p>\n

I feel the same about Danger, Brave, and Lucky: those choices feel too bold with your daughters’ names, and are not names that pass the “Would you want to live with this name yourself?” test for me. I’ll suggest the “Starbucks test” that has been suggested here before: it can be helpful to order a coffee (or place a reservation, or anything else where you need to give them your name) and see how it feels to do so as, for example, Flash. This can also give valuable insight into the likely reactions of the public to a name.<\/p>\n

The name Flash has the additional downside of being a euphemism for people exposing their private parts in public.<\/p>\n

The name Danger has the additional downside of turning into a tiresome joke. “What, it’s not your middle name? Hur hur hur.”<\/p>\n

Lucky has the additional downside of being a euphemism for sexual success. (“Honey, I’ve got my hands full here—can you get Lucky?”)<\/p>\n

It is a little painful to consider a timid or shy person trying to carry the name Brave or Danger, or an unlucky person trying to carry the name Lucky. Your daughters’ names have pleasing meanings, but not ones that will make them look silly or awkward if their personalities\/lives fail to comply.<\/p>\n

Phoenix seems okay, though I don’t like the idea of this child rising from “the ashes of loss”: the metaphor is too strong, and gives me shivery literal thoughts of cremation ashes—as well as giving the unfortunate misimpression that this child is meant to replace his brother, or even to be the rebirth of his brother. It would also give you two children with bird names.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My first and favorite suggestion is Felix. It sounds like Phoenix, and means lucky and happy. Felix Oravec; Haven, Lark, and Felix.<\/p>\n

For B names, I’d suggest:<\/p>\n

Barnaby
\nBaxter
\nBeau
\nBenedict
\nBennett
\nBernard
\nBlaise (sounds like Blaze)
\nBlaine
\nBlake
\nBond
\nBoone
\nBowen
\nBridger
\nBrooks
\nBryce<\/p>\n

I especially like Bond for its noun meaning of a close connection or tie. The downside, I think, is the potential for James Bond jokes.<\/p>\n

Bridger, too, pleases me for its feeling of a bridge or connection or tie. The main downside is that it may be mistaken for the more familiar name Bridget. I also find it a little difficult to say with the surname.<\/p>\n

I love Barnaby, and it means “son of comfort” or “son of consolation.”<\/p>\n

Brooks gives me a naturey feeling that goes well with your daughters’ names.<\/p>\n

Benedict means “blessed,” and Benedict Cumberbatch is certainly doing his part to reduce the Benedict Arnold association. But because Benedict Oravec has the same rhythm as Benedict Cumberbatch, he may find himself participating in the name joke<\/a>—or perhaps that will soon be a distant memory.<\/p>\n

Bennett is a form of Benedict, and so also means “blessed.”<\/p>\n

Boone means “good” or “blessed,” and has a Daniel Boone association that may be pleasing.<\/p>\n

Bernard means “brave\/strong as a bear.”<\/p>\n

Bryce means “strength” according to at least one source (“speckled” or “Rice’s son” according to others).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A few more names with good meanings\/associations:<\/p>\n

Able
\nEverest
\nHugo
\nJustice
\nLoyal
\nMerit
\nNoble
\nReason
\nRohan
\nSealey
\nSterling
\nTrue
\nWorth<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name update!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi!<\/p>\n

Thanks for all your help thinking through names. Our son was born a little over 2 weeks early on December 22– giving Santa a real challenge to fill a stocking in time!<\/p>\n

We finally named him Bodhi Carmichael Oravec. Bodhi for wisdom and because I felt very “zen” as I labored with him, feeling most comfortable getting through tough contractions in a butterfly position with my eyes closed in a somewhat meditative state. Carmicheal is the street where my family house was for many years in Mumbai where he was born and the place where we burried some ashes and the placenta of the baby boy we lost at birth 3.5 years before Bodhi’s arrival.\u00a0 The name suits him perfectly and only came to us as we waited for his arrival at the hospital so I feel he had a part in it too. Sometimes it just happens that way.<\/p>\n

Thanks again!<\/p>\n

Aisha, Brian, Haven, Lark & Bodhi<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi there! We are expecting a new baby in January and it’s a boy! Boy names are so much harder for us. We have two girls who are almost 6 and almost 2 named Haven Bombay Oravec and Lark India Oravec. We had a baby boy in between who sadly died shortly after birth — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2GS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10346"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10841,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10346\/revisions\/10841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}