{"id":10509,"date":"2014-10-03T09:07:50","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T13:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=10509"},"modified":"2015-02-02T17:43:12","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T21:43:12","slug":"baby-name-to-consider-covington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2014\/10\/03\/baby-name-to-consider-covington\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Name to Consider: Covington"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

My name is Kathryn Noblitt (“knob”- litt) and I have been reading your blog for a while. My husband is William and we have two kids, a boy, Miller who is 3.5 and a girl, Reese who is almost 1. I am currently 23 weeks pregnant surprise baby number three, and we aren’t finding out the sex.<\/p>\n

We are pretty set on using a family name — both Miller and Reese are family names. If it’s a girl it will most likely be Ellis (Clare or Marie as middle name). If it’s a boy we are having some trouble….our top name for a while has been Sullivan (occasional nn Sully, middle name Patrick) but lately my husband has mentioned wanting to use his middle name, also a family surname, which is Covington. I have always loved the name Covington, and I think it would be a great middle name if we were using a more traditional first name (obviously doesn’t go with Sullivan) but I just struggle to picture it as a first name, especially with its lack of nickname options. I wanted to get your opinion and\/or perhaps a poll from your readers on Covington as a first name. Sometimes I can see it and sometimes I cant!<\/p>\n

We like surname names and unisex names and, like I said, are pretty set on using a family name which all of the above are.<\/p>\n

Thank you for any help you can offer us!!<\/p>\n

Kathryn<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I share your feeling: I love the sound of it, but it’s a struggle to make it seem like a first name. Many surnames have transferred to first name use, but many others have not. Miller transfers well, Wilson transfers well, Delaney and Avery and Sawyer transfer well; but Covington feels to me more like Lancaster or Clements or Hathaway: there’s no particular reason it shouldn’t work as well as other surnames, but for some reason it isn’t being used as a first name in the United States right now.<\/p>\n

To me it sounds like a place: perhaps a castle, or an estate. I can picture saying, “Jeeves, pack my things: we set off for Covington this afternoon.” There is something about the name that brings castles\/estates\/butlers to mind; it reminds me of the sound of Buckingham and Kensington. (Buckingham is not used as a first name in the U.S., but Kensington was used for 223 new baby girls and 11 baby boys in 2013.)<\/p>\n

One exercise that may be helpful is to try the name on your first son, as if it were a sweater you could test on him to see if it would fit his brother. Look at him and think “Covington.” Or look at men and boys of various ages when you’re out in public: try the name on each one of them. Imagine one of them introduces himself to you as Covington. Try calling it out loud when no one’s around: “Covington, come to dinner!” “Covington, have you done your homework?” Pretend to introduce him to someone: “This is my son, Covington Noblitt.” Imagine arriving for his appointments: “Hello! This is Covington Noblitt. We have a ten o’clock appointment.”<\/p>\n

As a middle name, I think it’s spectacular: cool, distinguished, and I love preserving family surnames.<\/p>\n

As a first name I’m less certain, especially with your surname. Covington Noblitt.<\/p>\n

Are you planning to have more children after this one? Sullivan seems like such a hit, it’s hard to imagine ditching it in order to make a middle name work.<\/p>\n

Covington works well as a middle name if you have a girl: I think Ellis Covington sounds nice. My only hesitation is that with unisex first names I generally prefer to use “hint” middle names (i.e., names that are used exclusively for boys\/girls, to give options and reduce paperwork errors)—but that may not be your own preference, in which case it isn’t an issue and I’d make that the deal: if you have a girl, you’ll use Ellis Covington; if a boy, Sullivan Patrick, and maybe Covington as a middle name for the next child.<\/p>\n

Let’s have a poll to see what everyone else things of the first-name-ishness of Covington:<\/p>\n

[yop_poll id=”58″]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

I want to thank you and your readers so much for the help with our naming dilemma. Your comments helped us decide that, as much as we love the name Covington, it was not suitable for a first name. We had decided on Sullivan Patrick for a boy…but we ended up welcoming a new baby girl on January 24th! We named her Ellis Clare…I liked the suggestions of Covington as a middle name for Ellis, but we really wanted something clearly feminine and also a saint\/biblical name since we are Catholic. Also I thought it was funny one reader suggested Wilson for a boy…that’s our dog’s name!! Ellis is doing great and her big brother and sister love her! Miller and Reese are in the picture holding her. Thanks again!!<\/p>\n

Kathryn<\/p>\n

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Hi Swistle, My name is Kathryn Noblitt (“knob”- litt) and I have been reading your blog for a while. My husband is William and we have two kids, a boy, Miller who is 3.5 and a girl, Reese who is almost 1. I am currently 23 weeks pregnant surprise baby number three, and we aren’t […]<\/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":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-to-consider","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2Jv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10509","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=10509"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10931,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10509\/revisions\/10931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}