{"id":10617,"date":"2014-11-10T09:54:39","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T13:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=10617"},"modified":"2014-11-13T14:31:52","modified_gmt":"2014-11-13T18:31:52","slug":"middle-name-challenge-zoey-________-hildebrand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2014\/11\/10\/middle-name-challenge-zoey-________-hildebrand\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle Name Challenge: Zoey ________ Hildebrand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello!!<\/p>\n

We need middle name help! Our baby girl is due this Friday (November 7th), and a friend just told me about your site last night, so I figured I’d write in and see if we can get some middle name suggestions.<\/p>\n

Her first name is Zoey, and our last name is Hildebrand. I saw a recent post<\/a> on your site about the name Zoey where you said it’s getting popular and you suggested a bunch of Zoey alternatives, but we are set on that as a first name. Our problem is that there is just nothing that stands out as a middle name! We have spent many hours browsing name websites (including the Social Security name database), and after awhile they all start to blend into mush!<\/p>\n

So here’s the relevant information:<\/p>\n

Big sister is Phoebe Kate
\nBig brother is Wyatt David (David is a meaningful family name)
\nZoey’s middle name can’t start with H (because of our last name) or R (because for some reason R names blend too much with the vowels in Zoey when I say both names fast)
\nWe want to keep her middle name to one or two syllables (because it could easily become a mouthful with our last name)
\nIf the name has two syllables, we like the sound of the accent on the second syllable, but we are not necessarily locked into that pattern
\nThe middle name should probably not end with an “ee” sound, because that’s the sound that Zoey ends with
\nWe are open to common, uncommon, popular, less popular, or whatever<\/p>\n

Alright, I think that’s it.<\/p>\n

Thanks!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

This may be too late to be of any help, but the letter stood out to me when I was looking through the possibilities this morning.<\/p>\n

One way to narrow things down is to look for a name that fits the same rhythm as your first daughter’s name. Phoebe Kate and Zoey ____ would mean looking for a one-syllable middle name. Some possibilities:<\/p>\n

Zoey Belle Hildebrand
\nZoey Faith Hildebrand
\nZoey Fay Hildebrand
\nZoey Grace Hildebrand
\nZoey Grey Hildebrand
\nZoey Jade Hildebrand
\nZoey Jane Hildebrand
\nZoey Jean Hildebrand
\nZoey Laine Hildebrand
\nZoey Mae Hildebrand
\nZoey Paige Hildebrand
\nZoey Quinn Hildebrand<\/p>\n

I like Claire as a one-syllable middle, but with first names ending in an -ee sound I always hear eclair: Zo Eclair.<\/p>\n

I also like Zoey Louise a lot, and that would give you the 2-syllable accent-on-2nd-syllable sound. And I love Zoey Noelle. The middle name Marie was very common in my generation but I feel like I hear it far, far less often on current babies; Zoey Marie is pretty. Or Zoe Elise.<\/p>\n

If nothing stands out, here are a few strategies to try:<\/p>\n

1. Look for a name with significance to you: a family name, for example. If you don’t really care if it’s Zoey Marie or Zoey Elise or Zoey Mae, but Marie is your mother’s middle name, you can let that tip you toward the Marie choice. Would your own middle name work? Or are there any family surnames that could be preserved?<\/p>\n

(I can see how this might be a little worrisome if Phoebe’s middle name doesn’t have any particular significance, and then Wyatt’s and Zoey’s both do. If Phoebe is the firstborn, I would spin it that “being firstborn” is her special thing. If not, I still wouldn’t worry very much: four of my kids have honor middle names and one doesn’t, and so far none of them care. We say to the one without the honor middle name: “And your middle name was because we loved it so much.”)<\/p>\n

2. If one or both of your other children are old enough, ask for their input. It can make for a sweet story to say that an older sibling helped choose a younger sibling’s name.<\/p>\n

3. Are there any names you would have liked to use as a first name, but couldn’t because of issues such as a friend using the name, or not liking the initials, or not liking it with the sibling names, or not liking it with your surname? This could be a good way to salvage one of those names.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And I think at some point it’s fine to say “Let’s just PICK something.” For my fifth child, we had three middle names that all sounded equally good to us and all had similar levels of significance. Finally we just PICKED one. I haven’t regretted the one we chose, and I don’t think I would have regretted choosing one of the others: the nice thing about nothing standing out is that it probably means all the choices are equally good and you’d be equally happy with any of them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle!<\/p>\n

Baby Zoey was born this week, and we named her Zoey June. Thanks for your suggestions, and to everyone else who added their thoughts!<\/p>\n

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

Hello!! We need middle name help! Our baby girl is due this Friday (November 7th), and a friend just told me about your site last night, so I figured I’d write in and see if we can get some middle name suggestions. Her first name is Zoey, and our last name is Hildebrand. I saw […]<\/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-10617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2Lf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617","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=10617"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10631,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10617\/revisions\/10631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}