{"id":11142,"date":"2015-04-03T09:15:59","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T13:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=11142"},"modified":"2015-10-18T13:04:22","modified_gmt":"2015-10-18T17:04:22","slug":"baby-girl-or-boy-tlt-sibling-to-molly-and-thatcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2015\/04\/03\/baby-girl-or-boy-tlt-sibling-to-molly-and-thatcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl or Boy T!lt, Sibling to Molly and Thatcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok here’s the deal…
\nOur last name is T!lt – not a love for me but chose the guy, not the name.
\nWe have a 3.5 year old daughter – Molly Cutler (goes by Molly)
\nAnd a 1.5 year old son –
\nThatcher O’Shea (goes by Thatch\/ Thatchy\/Thatcher)
\nBaby No. 3 will be here on our anniversary! – Oct 21st – and we aren’t finding out the gender.
\nI’ve heard your advice ab thinking of potential sibling names when picking your first baby name and well… I didn’t. I broke a cardinal rule of adorable sibling sets by changing genres (I’m as irritated by this as anyone) however independently I LOVE their names.
\nWe are pretty set on the boy name – Shepherd O’Shea. Feels similar to Thatcher to me. Good nickname, occupation name in a “nonobvious” way.<\/p>\n

It’s the girl name that’s giving me anxiety.
\nWe will use Cutler again as a middle – perhaps odd I know.<\/p>\n

I love the name Maggie and would absolutely use it however my husband had a childhood dog named Maggie so he’s not 100%<\/p>\n

Everly – I love it but rising popularity bothers me
\nHalsey
\nLinden
\nGreer
\nI worry that these names are odd for a girl whose sister has such an obviously girly name.<\/p>\n

For whatever it’s worth my husband is Michael and I am Cassidy and we are… Stumped.
\nHelp us pls!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Looking at the list of four finalists and imagining what I’d GUESS if I saw the names with no other cues, I’d guess:<\/p>\n

Everly: girl
\nHalsey: not sure at all
\nLinden: girl
\nGreer: girl<\/p>\n

In order of perceived femininity, which is very very subjective:<\/p>\n

Everly
\nLinden
\nGreer
\nHalsey<\/p>\n

I had a little trouble ranking Linden and Greer: I’ve only encountered Greer as a girl’s name, while I’ve only encountered Lyndon as a boy name and haven’t heard of any girls named Linden, so Greer seems more obviously GIRL to me. And yet the look and sound of Linden seems more FEMININE to me; and although I’ve only encountered female Greers, I know it can be used for boys (60 new baby girls and 18 new baby boys in 2013). So I went back and forth about how to put them in order.<\/p>\n

I looked it up just now, and Linden is even more unisex than I thought. In 2013, the Social Security Administration reports 65 new baby girls and 53 new baby boys named Linden. (The spelling Lyndon adds another 17 new baby girls and 136 new baby boys; the spelling Lynden adds 33 new baby girls and 28 new baby boys.)<\/p>\n

Halsey is interesting. It’s not a name I’ve ever encountered, and it’s not in the Social Security Administration’s data base at all for 2013. It reminds me of names such as Haley and Kelsey, so it should strike me as Girl—but something about it is throwing me off. It could be the Hal, but that doesn’t catch me with Haley. It could be that it makes me think of Halston, a male designer. It seems like a surname, so I think that makes me want to put it with the name Thatcher. But if I picture the name Halsey on a boy, it doesn’t seem quite right, so I think if I had a longer time to look at the name I’d ultimately guess girl. I think pronunciation will be a larger concern: Hal to rhyme with pal, or with ball, or with pail? and then is it -see or -zee? My first guess was Hal-like-hall and sey-like-zee: HALL-zee.<\/p>\n

If I were choosing purely on the basis of which name seemed most feminine to me, I would choose Everly. Despite the Everly Brothers, the name hits my ear as entirely feminine, like Evelyn and Beverly. The current usage is entirely girl: the Social Security Administration reports 804 new baby girls with the name in 2013; it’s not in the data base at all for boys.<\/p>\n

You rebuke yourself for changing name styles between Molly and Thatcher, but I think those are very compatible in a sibling set. I prefer not to change styles between two brothers (Thatcher and then, say, Andrew, or Billy), but having different styles for the boys and the girls in a family seems just fine. I would still avoid clashes, or styles that seemed to say something about differing expectations (girls named Poppy, Trixie, and Lulu with brothers named Theodore, Everett, and Sebastian), but I think the names Molly and Thatcher go very nicely together, and wouldn’t have thought of it as changing styles. And I think your choice of the name Shepherd shows a consistent style for boy names.<\/p>\n

For girl names, one thing you have going for you is that Molly is a name that goes with a lot of styles. I had trouble thinking of a clash example for the previous paragraph. Molly and Everly are different styles (one traditional\/early-American and the other modern\/surname), and yet I don’t think they clash per se. They feel similarly energetic and neither of them seem overly girly-girl.<\/p>\n

Molly and Linden, Molly and Greer—those both seem fine too. It’s a style\/popularity change, but not a style clash. I think Molly and Greer makes a great sister pair: I like how they both have double letters, and they’re both five letters long. Molly and Linden strikes me favorably, too: definitely a change in style, but I don’t get the “off” feeling I get with, say, sisters named Clarissa and Cameron, which feels like the set-up for a sitcom about a princess and a tomboy.<\/p>\n

I feel less sure about Halsey, but I think that’s because I feel less sure of the name overall. If it’s a family surname, I would think it a far better choice than if it’s a modern invented name.<\/p>\n

I also like Everly best with the surname. Everly T!lt. Linden T!lt. Halsey T!lt. Greer T!lt.<\/p>\n

Because you like Maggie, though, I wonder if we could find something you like that’s closer in style to Molly. My first association is with early American names, and with names that used to be nicknames (Molly was a nickname for Mary) but are now also\/primarily stand-alone names. Names such as:<\/p>\n

Betsy
\nDaisy
\nEliza
\nGinny
\nKatie
\nKay
\nLibby
\nLily
\nLucy
\nMaisy
\nMandy
\nMilly (not with Molly)
\nMindy
\nNancy
\nNora
\nPolly (not with Molly)
\nSadie
\nSally
\nTessie<\/p>\n

But I don’t at all think the name needs to be “nicknamey”: Molly has been stand-alone for so long, many people don’t even know it used to be a nickname. So I’d add a ton of full names to the list: Abigail, Clara, Anna, Violet, Charlotte, Phoebe, Hannah, anything from the vintage revival category. I suspect, though, that most of these are too popular for your tastes.<\/p>\n

I wonder if you’d like the name Darcy? It seems similar to Molly, but it’s not common at all: not even in the Top 1000 for 2013. Darcy T!lt; Molly, Thatcher, and Darcy.<\/p>\n

Or Delaney? Surnamey like Thatcher and Shepherd, but feminine. Delaney T!lt; Molly, Thatcher, and Delaney.<\/p>\n

Linley has some of the sound of Linden, but currently used only for girls. Linley T!lt; Molly, Thatcher, and Linley.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Just remembered I owned you an update as I was nursing the newest and decided click over and read your blog…
\nThe baby came early! On October 12, 2015 Shepherd O’Shea T!lt joined us and our hearts – and hands! – are overflowing!
\nThank you to you and your readers for pointing out things we hadn’t noticed with the potential names!<\/p>\n

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Ok here’s the deal… Our last name is T!lt – not a love for me but chose the guy, not the name. We have a 3.5 year old daughter – Molly Cutler (goes by Molly) And a 1.5 year old son – Thatcher O’Shea (goes by Thatch\/ Thatchy\/Thatcher) Baby No. 3 will be here on […]<\/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-11142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2TI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11142","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=11142"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11679,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11142\/revisions\/11679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}