{"id":10779,"date":"2014-12-26T11:36:03","date_gmt":"2014-12-26T15:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=10779"},"modified":"2015-02-15T11:56:12","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T15:56:12","slug":"baby-boy-or-girl-molly-ache-elle-sibling-to-george-gil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2014\/12\/26\/baby-boy-or-girl-molly-ache-elle-sibling-to-george-gil\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy or Girl Molly-ache-elle, Sibling to George (Gil)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello!<\/p>\n

I am due in early February and we do not know the gender of the baby. We feel pretty good about our choice for a girl’s name – but a boy’s name is eluding us! Our last name is pronounced Molly-ache-elle.<\/p>\n

We have a 2 year old son named George Lindsey – who we solely refer to as ‘Gil’ – Gil’s name was a tensely negotiated settlement last time around that didn’t get solved until we were about to leave the hospital. ‘George’ is a family name on my husband’s side (and my father in law’s name) that I did not feel a real kinship to and Lindsey is actually MY name. My husband loved being able to honor his father and a connection to me and advocated for that name from the very beginning. I agreed on the condition that we would exclusively call him ‘Gil’ from birth on (I love Anne of Green Gables and Gilbert Blythe). This has worked out well for us so far but would love to avoid the same kind of negotiated settlement with our second kid.<\/p>\n

There is still a strong tradition of naming on my husband’s side of the family (they are very catholic and also from India) that means he would like it to be one of the following:
\nJacob
\nThomas
\nAnthony
\nPeter
\nJoseph (also my husband’s name)
\nOf those names, the only one I like is ‘Jacob’ – but am unwilling to go in that direction because of how popular it has been over the last 5 years or so and how many awesome kids I already know named Jacob. My husband says he would also be amenable to another name from the bible…<\/p>\n

I love names that my husband says sounds like little British, white boys (we are a mixed race couple) and is therefore uncomfortable with:
\nSimon
\nSamuel
\nSpencer
\nOliver (though feels trendy now)
\nMalcolm
\nLewis<\/p>\n

We considered ‘Zeke’ for awhile (full first name: Ezekiel) but it just didn’t sound quite right with our last name.<\/p>\n

So here we are….with a somewhat unique last name and a stalemate on first names. I am not worried about middle names because we will either go with my husband’s name ‘Joseph’ or my grandmother’s maiden name ‘Akslen’ depending on what flows better.<\/p>\n

Any suggestions for names that sound ok with the last name ‘Molly-ache-elle’, and goes well with the sibling name ‘Gil’ – but doesn’t remind my husband of little British babies? Bonus points if it has a Catholic connection!<\/p>\n

Thanks for any help you can offer!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I can see how a person might associate Oliver, Simon, and Spencer with little British white boys; I don’t have that association myself, but I can at least see how someone might. But Malcolm? MALCOLM? As in X?<\/p>\n

Malcolm would in fact be my favorite from your list. It goes well with George\/Gil in popularity and style. But with your surname, it seems like a lot of M and L and C: Malcolm Molly-ache-elle.<\/p>\n

My second choice is Samuel. Boy, that REALLY doesn’t sound like a British white boy to me (the first Samuel who comes to my mind is Samuel L. Jackson), and it’s traditional and biblical. I’d wonder if it were too much L with your surname, but if Gil works with it, I’d think Samuel would too.<\/p>\n

For a name to go with George\/Gil and satisfy traditional\/Catholic naming inclinations, I think I’d look on a list of saint names rather than on a list of biblical ones. Gil and Thomas, Gil and Jacob—those aren’t style clashes, but they don’t quite click into place either: one boy has a distinctive, interesting, uncommon name, and the other has a name we’re all thoroughly familiar with. I think I’d go for something more like Gil and Felix, or Gil and Quentin, or Gil and Leo, or Gil and Finian, or Gil and Edmund, or Gil and Silas.<\/p>\n

I know you’d prefer to avoid it, but it may be that the sort of solution you came up with for your first child’s name is exactly the right way to handle this child’s name as well: your husband gets his preference for a traditional and honor name, and then you bring it more toward your tastes by choosing a non-traditional nickname. Joseph Akslen, for example, with a nickname such as Joel or Jax or Joss or Jonty or Jep. I especially like Joss: George and Joseph, Gil and Joss.<\/p>\n

Or since your first son is named for your husband’s father, perhaps a second son could be named for one of the men on your side of the family?<\/p>\n

Ezekiel makes me think of Ezra, which you might like better with your surname. I like it with Gil, too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Our new addition arrive Friday morning and we named him Malcolm Joseph.
\nThanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions!\u00a0 It was great to hear people’s opinions and it spurred some great conversations for us.<\/p>\n

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

Hello! I am due in early February and we do not know the gender of the baby. We feel pretty good about our choice for a girl’s name – but a boy’s name is eluding us! Our last name is pronounced Molly-ache-elle. We have a 2 year old son named George Lindsey – who we […]<\/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-10779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2NR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10779","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=10779"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11009,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10779\/revisions\/11009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}