{"id":10811,"date":"2015-01-06T10:20:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T14:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=10811"},"modified":"2015-01-06T10:24:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T14:24:32","slug":"baby-girl-monaghan-sister-to-tristan-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2015\/01\/06\/baby-girl-monaghan-sister-to-tristan-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl Monaghan, Sister to Tristan Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello there,<\/p>\n

I was wondering if you could give us a bit of help with our choices.<\/p>\n

We are expecting a baby girl in April ’15.<\/p>\n

Surname: Monaghan
\nEDD: 14\/4\/15
\nOther babies: Tristan Thomas (1 year, boy)
\nFor boys we had considered: Humphrey, Tiernan, Jefferson, Beau, Justin
\nAnd had quite a few more in the bag!<\/p>\n

For girls: Jessica, Bethany, Matilda, Gabriella, Nancy, Nella\/Nell.<\/p>\n

We hope to have definitely 3, and potentially 4.<\/p>\n

So we are looking for help with out girls first and middle name.<\/p>\n

Jessica is the front runner as have always just adored it, but hesitant due to popularity and not being ‘unique’ enough. The name must be instantly recognisable for others to spell and say but not your everyday.<\/p>\n

Kate is grandmothers name that we would like to use and Beau is close to a dear pets name, but aware it is masculine.<\/p>\n

Love names out of the ordinary like Pixie, Dixie & Wyatt but am aware of where we live and she would be thought of as weird!<\/p>\n

We thought Bethany Kate was amazing, but Jessica Kate just doesn’t have the same ring to it, or does it!?<\/p>\n

Thanks for your help!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think Jessica Kate sounds fine. If something sounds not-quite-right to you, it may be because of the repeating K sound at the end of Jessica and the beginning of Kate. Is yours a family that tends to use first-and-middles; that is, are you likely to call her Jessica Kate? If not, it doesn’t seem like an issue to me. If so, and if it continues to bother you (or if NOT but it continues to bother you), I wonder if you’d like Jessica Jane, or Jessica Rose, or Jessica Joy, or Jessica Lane, or something similar.<\/p>\n

A bigger hesitation I have with the name Jessica is that it has passed its peak—and its peak was a considerably high and long one. The name Jessica was in the Top 10 in the U.S. from 1976 until 2000 (and either the 1st or 2nd most popular girl name in the U.S. from 1981 until 1997), and now it is dropping steadily. So my concern is not the popularity per se, but the popularity that is now over. This certainly doesn’t mean you can’t do it: I have peers named Barbara, Susan, and Kathy, even though those were the “mom names” when I was growing up. But when you say you want something that isn’t an everyday sort of name, it makes me think Jessica is not the right name for you.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, do you live in the U.S.? If not, all my statistics are meaningless: in another country, the name Jessica might not have reached anywhere near the saturation levels it achieved in the United States.<\/p>\n

Bethany is an interesting one to consider. It too had its peak in the U.S. back in the 1980s, and yet that peak was not high (it never got higher than #87) and didn’t last long (it was only in the Top 100 from 1983 until 1988). Because of that, it doesn’t seem as attached to a particular time period as Jessica does. People say “My husband likes the names of our peers, like Jessica and Ashley,” but they don’t add Bethany to that list. It has the same rhythm as Jessica, but I think it’s a much more currently-usable choice. Since you describe the name Bethany Kate as amazing, I’d vote for that.<\/p>\n

The name Nancy intrigues me. It was in the Top 10 in the U.S. from 1934 until 1955, which means it is currently a Grandma Name or Great-Grandma Name—in other words, gearing up for its comeback. I’d say its time is not quite here, but such things are difficult to predict: often I don’t know I’m ready to hear a name again until I hear it on a child, and then I’m bowled over and wish I’d thought of it first. And I definitely feel ready to hear the name Sally again, and Sally is a peer of Nancy. It would be a bold choice, but I suspect people would be happy and interested to see it.<\/p>\n

In 2013, 50 new U.S. baby girls were named Nella and 8,370 were named Ella. I think this would lead Nella to be mistaken for Ella, but I’m not sure, and it depends how high your tolerance is for correcting people and\/or repeating and spelling a name: some people don’t mind a bit and in fact relish the chance to discuss the name a little, and others flinch every time. And of course all this is irrelevant if you are living in a country where the name Nella is widely used and known. In the U.S., it would not meet your preference for an instantly recognizable name. Nell would be familiar, however, if not common; it is also sometimes used as a nickname for Eleanor or Penelope.<\/p>\n

Matilda and Gabriella both strike me as good choices, especially with Tristan. I find Matilda Monaghan a bit difficult to say, but not deal-breakingly so.<\/p>\n

I think Kate is great with all the choices, and would definitely choose that over Beau—not because Beau is more masculine, which doesn’t bother me with a middle name, but because my own preference would be to use a grandmother’s name before a pet’s name (also to HAVE a grandmother’s name rather than a pet’s name). The middle name position would also be a good place for the names you love but consider too out-there to use.<\/p>\n

Let’s have a vote! [Sorry, all the polls seem to be down, and all but this one appear to be actually deleted. I have Paul on it and am trying not to panic.]<\/p>\n

[yop_poll id=”0″]<\/p>\n

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

Hello there, I was wondering if you could give us a bit of help with our choices. We are expecting a baby girl in April ’15. Surname: Monaghan EDD: 14\/4\/15 Other babies: Tristan Thomas (1 year, boy) For boys we had considered: Humphrey, Tiernan, Jefferson, Beau, Justin And had quite a few more in the […]<\/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-10811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2On","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811","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=10811"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10814,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10811\/revisions\/10814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}