{"id":10720,"date":"2014-12-10T09:25:38","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T13:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=10720"},"modified":"2015-01-06T15:34:06","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T19:34:06","slug":"baby-girl-durham-sister-to-leah-alexandra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2014\/12\/10\/baby-girl-durham-sister-to-leah-alexandra\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl Durham, Sister to Leah Alexandra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,
\nOur baby girl is due on Dec 23. We still have not decided on a name. Our last name is Durham with an \u201cn\u201d instead of an \u201cr\u201d. Big Sister\u2019s name is Leah Alexandra (her middle name is honouring my amazing grandma). Little sister\u2019s middle name will likely be Margaretta, after my husband\u2019s grandma. We both also like Christine as a middle name.
\nWe like classic, but not overused names. Our problem is, most of the first names we like either seem too similar to Leah or have confusing spelling.
\nHere is a list we started with:
\n-Clara (my husband does not like as much as our other choices)
\n-Jessica (same as above)
\n-Tessa (our current favourite, but I am not 100% sure)
\n-Christina (I really like it, but we are likely to shorten it and I don\u2019t like Tina or Chrissy)
\n-Alisa (we both like it, but is it too similar to Leah? This spelling is common in my home country and I always liked it, but she\u2019d probably have to always spell it here)
\n-Kiera (we both like it, but again, would she have to spell it every time?)<\/p>\n

So this leaves us with the three top choices: Tessa, Alisa, or Kiera. We\u2019d love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!<\/p>\n

Anya.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do think Kiera would lead to constant spelling issues; I kept having to look back at the letter to see if I had it right, and I STILL got it wrong in the poll and had to fix it. Pronunciation is another issue: is it two syllables (KEER-rah) or three (kee-AIR-ah)? If it’s the same as Keira, Keira is currently the more common spelling in the United States: 443 new baby girls named Kiera in 2013, and 1,559 new baby girls named Keira.<\/p>\n

If Alisa is pronounced ah-LEE-sah, then it does sound very similar to Leah to me. LEE-ah and ah-LEE-sah. I think too that it would be confused with Alyssa and Elise.<\/p>\n

For classic-but-not-overused and a relatively easy spelling, I think Tessa is the best from your list. I like it with both middle name options, too.<\/p>\n

Let’s see what everyone else thinks!<\/p>\n

[yop_poll id=”61″]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

Our little girl Tessa Margaretta arrived on December 30! Thanks so much for your thoughts (and your readers’ thoughts) on our name question. Her name suits her beautifully.<\/p>\n

Best wishes,<\/p>\n

Anya<\/p>\n

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

Dear Swistle, Our baby girl is due on Dec 23. We still have not decided on a name. Our last name is Durham with an \u201cn\u201d instead of an \u201cr\u201d. Big Sister\u2019s name is Leah Alexandra (her middle name is honouring my amazing grandma). Little sister\u2019s middle name will likely be Margaretta, after my husband\u2019s […]<\/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-10720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2MU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10720","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=10720"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10816,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10720\/revisions\/10816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}