{"id":10783,"date":"2014-12-30T07:22:07","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T11:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=10783"},"modified":"2014-12-30T07:29:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-30T11:29:59","slug":"baby-girl-or-boy-dunn-sibling-to-deacon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2014\/12\/30\/baby-girl-or-boy-dunn-sibling-to-deacon\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl or Boy Dunn, Sibling to Deacon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

I’m hoping you can help be get an unbiased opinion on some naming issues we are having.<\/p>\n

We are expecting our second child in March and do not know the gender. Our son is Deacon and IF this baby is a boy, his name will be Charlie. We don’t love Charles, & I’m okay with a “nickname” as a first name (my full name is Nicki and it never bothered me) so I think we’ll leave it at that, plus I don’t really think Charles goes as well with Deacon.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it’s the girl name we are soooo stuck on. We have a long list of “okay” choices, and a few that I like and a few that my husband likes. But nothing we agree on and definitely nothing that stands out to us as a strong candidate or even “the” name! Which is hard because I am so set on Charlie, I want to feel something for a girls name.<\/p>\n

Right now my top name is Mercy, if I could name her myself, it would be done. But my husband isn’t fond of it. Other names I’ve suggested are: Blaire, Olive, Georgia, Tae (which I’m not sure sounds okay with our one-syllable last name) and Maren.<\/p>\n

My husband loves Daisy (the name we were going to use if our first child would have been a girl) but I don’t want my kids to have the same letter, people would think we were going for a Duggar theme. My husband says that doesn’t matter, because we will have more kids but I think it would bother me until we did. Is that silly? To further compound this aversion is that our last name starts with a “D”. So adding Daisy just feels singsongy.<\/p>\n

My husband also likes Nora (which I think is too popular) and Caroline (which is pretty but it’s how my Mother spells her name, but hers has always been pronounced Carolyn. Which I feel would cause a lot of confusion with any family\/friends who know my Mom.)<\/p>\n

For a middle name, I’ve thought about using mine (Tyler, which was my grandmothers maiden name). I’m not totally set on it, but a girl name that goes well with Tyler as a middle would be a plus. We feel strongly that middle names should honor family members or someone influential in either of our lives. The short list of middle names is Tyler & Lou.<\/p>\n

So if you could help, I would really appreciate some insight. My goal is to find a name that is timeless, classic and feminine yet not overused and not a name that falls into the old-fashioned turned trendy category.<\/p>\n

Thanks so much,
\nNicki Dunn<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think the first thing I’d do if we were having this consultation over coffee is to find out what the various words mean to you, because usage varies so much: timeless, classic, trendy, overused, old-fashioned, feminine. I’d want to ask you a lot of questions to see if I could narrow in on the definitions: i.e., at what point for you does “in style” turn into “trendy”? Are Henry and Molly old-fashioned-turned-trendy, or are they classic\/timeless? Are Harriet and Margaret feminine? Are Lydia\/Audrey\/Grace\/Emily overused? And so on.<\/p>\n

The name Deacon, for example, is modern in usage, and occupation\/surname names are currently in style. I wouldn’t consider Charlie trendy per se (though it’s definitely enjoying one of its many returns to stylishness), but if someone specified “not old-fashioned turned trendy,” I’d be hesitant to suggest it in case that’s what they meant. Tae and Maren don’t seem to fall into the timeless or classic categories. Olive and Georgia and Nora seem like old-fashioned names that have come back into style, and I wouldn’t necessarily have used the word feminine to describe either Olive or Georgia, despite them being clearly\/exclusively female names.<\/p>\n

It is a bit of a challenge to find a name that is timeless\/classic but not overused or old-fashioned-turned-trendy, because “overused” and “old-fashioned turned trendy” are perhaps the main two issues of timeless\/classic names. One of the markers of a timeless\/classic name (especially the classic ones) is that it keeps coming back into style; and sometimes when people use the word “trendy,” they mean “in style” or “just came back into style”; this can be avoided by using names that are OUT of style, such as Beverly and Bernice, but there’s always the danger that those are the next ones to come back in. Classic names typically go through cycles: first they’re in style, then they’re Parent Names, then they’re Grandparent Names, and then they’re Great-Grandparent Names and start to sound fresh and interesting again. The names Henry and Lucy are good examples: they go in and out, but they keep coming back, and right now they’re back. I don’t consider them trendy (their long usage keeps them safe from that, in my view), but if someone specifies “not old-fashioned turned trendy,” I’d wonder Henry\/Lucy was exactly the sort of name they meant. “Vintage revival” would be another way to put it. The more popular ones in this category can find themselves called “trendy”; the less popular ones can find themselves called “hipster.” Often the names are FIRST called hipster, while they’re still unusual\/edgy (I remember the startle factor of the first baby Lucy I encountered, more than 20 years ago), THEN called trendy as they come into more common usage.<\/p>\n

Other timeless\/classic names (especially the timeless ones) don’t go in and out like that, in which case they’re usually considered overused. John and Elizabeth are good examples of this: decade after decade they’re right up near the top of the popularity charts, timeless\/classic, never trendy, but if someone says “not overused,” I’d be hesitant to suggest them. Their continued popularity decade after decade after decade can make the market feel saturated, and\/or can make the names so familiar the eye skips right over them.<\/p>\n

If your husband isn’t fond of the name Mercy, and he loves Daisy but the D initial is an issue for a couple of reasons, I wonder if you would like Maisy. If you want timeless and classic and not trendy, I think I’d start with Margaret and use Maisy as the nickname; Daisy is also a nickname for Margaret, so you could use it without the same D-initial problems.<\/p>\n

If what you like about the name Mercy is the sound, I wonder if you’d like Darcy. It has the same D-initial issues as Daisy, however.<\/p>\n

Or Mercedes, which means mercy or mercies (Oxford Dictionary of First Names<\/a>; Baby Names Made Easy<\/a>) and could be used with the nicknames Mercy or Sadie.<\/p>\n

Lacey is another option. Lacey Dunn; Deacon and Lacey.<\/p>\n

Or Lucy, but I suspect that’s too popular for your tastes, and may also be old-fashioned-turned-trendy.<\/p>\n

Meredith doesn’t sound similar, but the visual similarity caught my eye and it feels like a very nice fit for your preferences. Merry is a cute nickname for it.<\/p>\n

If what you like about the name Mercy is the virtue-name element, I wonder if you’d like Verity. I do start to feel a religious theme happening with either Deacon\/Mercy or Deacon\/Verity, but that may be a positive.<\/p>\n

Felicity is another option. I also like Hope and Joy and Grace, but Grace is probably too popular for your tastes and forms Grace Ton or Gray Stun with your surname; and all three may turn your surname into Done.<\/p>\n

Or Constance? I know a Constance who goes by Consie. Constance Dunn; Deacon and Constance.<\/p>\n

Clementine means merciful (Baby Names Made Easy<\/a>). Clementine Dunn; Deacon and Clementine. One of the issues people mention with the name Clementine is the difficulty of finding a good nickname; I would be interested in seeing if Minnie would stick.<\/p>\n

Claudia comes to mind. Claudia Dunn; Deacon and Claudia.<\/p>\n

Or Harriet. Harriet Dunn; Hattie Dunn; Deacon and Harriet.<\/p>\n

Josephine Dunn; Josie Dunn; Deacon and Josephine.<\/p>\n

Molly Dunn; Deacon and Molly.<\/p>\n

Cordelia Dunn; Delia Dunn; Deacon and Cordelia.<\/p>\n

Lydia Dunn; Deacon and Lydia.<\/p>\n

Louisa Dunn; Deacon and Louisa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, I’m hoping you can help be get an unbiased opinion on some naming issues we are having. We are expecting our second child in March and do not know the gender. Our son is Deacon and IF this baby is a boy, his name will be Charlie. We don’t love Charles, & I’m […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2NV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10783","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=10783"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10788,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10783\/revisions\/10788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}