{"id":10621,"date":"2014-11-12T15:28:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T19:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=10621"},"modified":"2016-02-28T14:13:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-28T18:13:00","slug":"twin-baby-boys-p______er-brothers-to-claire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2014\/11\/12\/twin-baby-boys-p______er-brothers-to-claire\/","title":{"rendered":"Twin Baby Boys P______er, Brothers to Claire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! I’m a longtime reader and obsessed over your blog when I was pregnant with my first. I have a 2 year old named Claire and just found out we’re having twin boys!! We’re so excited but I knew this would be the hardest name challenge for me – two girl names would’ve been no problem for me, but boys name I have such a harder time with! It doesn’t help that I find something wrong with and second guess myself on every name! I still question the name Claire, wondering if we should’ve gone with something more frilly, longer, flowery etc, especially now that we probably wont’ have another girl. If either of the twins was a girl I would’ve gone with Genevieve Ann. Sadly am mourning the loss of that name! Anyways\u2026\u2026on to boys names. These are our current contenders:<\/p>\n

Andrew
\nCollin
\nAaron
\nMarshall – family name
\nHugh
\nJude
\nLawrence
\nHarrison
\nChristopher
\nMaxwell
\nOliver
\nJake
\nEverett (possible nickname Rhett)
\nWalt
\nEdward
\nWesley<\/p>\n

Our last name begins with P and is 2 syllables, ends with -er. Wanting at least one of the names to be at least 2 syllables.<\/p>\n

The coming up with two names at once adds an additional challenge for me! I can’t seem to separate them in my mind, but constantly say the pair I’m trying out together. My other problem is that I’ll like something for a couple of weeks, then be “over it” so it’s hard to imagine a name I’ll love forever! Does anyone else have this problem or am I the only one? ;)<\/p>\n

I knew Claire was in the top 50 when we named her but since she was born I’ve learned of what seems like a million baby Claires. Being a Sarah of the 80s, I feel like I did the same thing to her! So, am wanting to avoid the super common – strangely, I know no Christophers, and only one each of Andrew and Jake, even though they are high on the popularity charts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

First I would like to give you some comfort about the popularity of the name Claire. You mention she’s two, so I will look at the 2012 statistics. In 2012, according to the Social Security Administration, the name Claire was given to .26% of baby girls. I will guess at your ’80s birth year and pick 1985: in 1985, the name Sarah\/Sara was given to 1.92% of baby girls. So there were more than SEVEN TIMES as many girls named Sarah\/Sara in your age group as there are girls named Claire in your daughter’s age group. For every ONE girl named Claire now, there were SEVEN girls named Sarah\/Sara then. It’s the same ratio if you were born in 1989; if you were born in 1980, it’s EIGHT times as many instead of seven.<\/p>\n

I know there will be others who will report feeling that same “like it, but then I’m over it” feeling about names. I had many name crushes, and it was alarming later to see how those crushes had faded; I too worried this meant I might not love a chosen name long-term. So far, though, I’ve found I’m only MORE committed to the names in the long term: regrets gradually fade as it becomes more and more impossible to picture having chosen a different name. A regret such as “I wish we hadn’t chosen such a common name” changes over time to something more like “I wish everyone ELSE hadn’t chosen it,” if you see what I mean. That is, I feel more and more as if we made the right choice, and I am only sorry it was the right choice for so many other people as well; I don’t wish to have made a different choice ourselves.<\/p>\n

Because I enjoy a little twinniness with twin names, and because your daughter’s name starts with C, and because twins are referred to during the pregnancy as Baby A and Baby B, I would be a little tempted to go with an ABC pattern. You don’t have any B names on your list, but my mom and I were just talking this morning about how much we like the name Benjamin, so I’ll use that as a sample name:<\/p>\n

Claire, Benjamin, and Andrew
\nClaire, Benjamin, and Aaron<\/p>\n

I do think it can be a helpful exercise to pretend you’re not having twins. Pretend you are pregnant with only one boy right now, and pick your favorite name from the list to join his sister Claire. Then pretend it’s two years later and you are pregnant again, another boy to join siblings Claire and ______: which name is your choice this time? I do always go back to trying the two names together as a twin set, but thinking of them as two singleton births helped me avoid some of that overwhelmed feeling that comes with choosing a pair of names.<\/p>\n

Do matching initials appeal to you? You could do Claire, Collin, and Christopher: 1, 2, and 3 syllables.<\/p>\n

Collin and Oliver make me think of Calvin. Claire, Calvin, and…hm. Collin seems too similar, Christopher too different, and with two C names I’d want a third in this case. (Normally I say the pattern isn’t set with only two, but I feel differently about it when twins are involved.) Maybe Claire, Calvin, and Caleb. Well, but two Cal and one Cla seems too similar again. Maybe Claire, Calvin, and Charles.<\/p>\n

Or maybe matching initials just for the twins: Andrew and Aaron, Harris and Hugh, Jude and Jacob.<\/p>\n

I think it’s fun to make twin-name pairs from a list. I am going to play with your list a little, pairing up my own favorites, and perhaps the commenters would like to do the same.<\/p>\n

Oliver and Wesley (matching number of letters)
\nOliver and Everett (matching “ver”—but is that too much “er” with the surname?)
\nEverett and Harrison (both have a doubled letter)
\nEdward and Andrew (matching number of letters\/syllables, both contain A, D, E, R, W)<\/p>\n

I also like Hugh and Walt (matching number of letters\/syllables), but neither of those has two or more syllables.<\/p>\n

I kept wanting to use Marshall (I love family names), but felt a little reluctant to give one twin a family name and not the other. Maybe something like Marshall [Non-Family Middle] and Collin [Dad’s Name] would work.<\/p>\n

Everett makes me think of Elliot, which I like in a very similar way. I like Oliver and Elliot together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle :)\u00a0 Well my babies turn 1 this week so I guess it’s time to update you on our names!\u00a0 Ha!\u00a0 I had decided on Oliver as one of the names but for the life of me couldn’t decide on the other!\u00a0 After a few days in the NICU (yes poor baby B was nameless for a while!), we decided on Andrew Paul for our darling baby B.\u00a0 We had requested a Catholic priest to bless the babies at the NICU, but had no idea when he would come by our room.\u00a0 About 5 minutes after deciding the name, I hear a knock at our hospital door, and it’s the priest who says “Hi, I’m here to bless your babies. What are their names”?\u00a0 And he proceeds to bless them, using the names finally decided on!\u00a0 It was truly a sign from God that these were the “right” names :)\u00a0 Here’s a picture of our precious John Oliver (goes by Oliver) and Andrew Paul.\u00a0 Thank you so much of your input!!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_4935\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! I’m a longtime reader and obsessed over your blog when I was pregnant with my first. I have a 2 year old named Claire and just found out we’re having twin boys!! We’re so excited but I knew this would be the hardest name challenge for me – two girl names would’ve been […]<\/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-10621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2Lj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621","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=10621"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11916,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10621\/revisions\/11916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}