{"id":11162,"date":"2015-04-13T08:49:39","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T12:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=11162"},"modified":"2015-04-14T06:03:01","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T10:03:01","slug":"baby-naming-issue-are-jillian-moms-name-and-vivian-babys-name-too-rhymey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2015\/04\/13\/baby-naming-issue-are-jillian-moms-name-and-vivian-babys-name-too-rhymey\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: Are Jillian (Mom’s Name) and Vivian (Baby’s Name) Too Rhymey?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

The subject line of my email [“HELP! Baby Girl due in 2 weeks – chosen name might rhyme with my own!!!”] pretty much says it all. My husband and I are expecting our second daughter in two weeks and after months of debate, we finally settled on a name\u2026only to discover that it might possibly rhyme with my own! To complicate matters, the name we chose for our first daughter is a name that we both really love but it doesn\u2019t really fit with either of our individual naming preferences (which are already pretty opposite) and I\u2019m afraid we\u2019ve really shot ourselves in the foot as far as creating a cohesive sibling set goes.<\/p>\n

Just for a bit of background \u2013 my name is Jillian and my husband\u2019s name is John (yes, just John). We have a 3 syllable English surname that last name starts with an \u201cH\u201d and is sort of similar to \u201cHarrington\u201d. We are looking for a name that isn\u2019t too trendy and has a good nickname and will flow well with our daughter\u2019s name (and any names of our future children \u2013 we\u2019re thinking 3-5, my husband is convinced they will all be girls, for what that\u2019s worth). As far as boy names, we both easily agree on Gabriel, August, Emery, and Alexander.<\/p>\n

With our first, my husband\u2019s suggested girl names were all over the place \u2013 Cambria, Sif, and Ashley were his top 3. I liked Eleanor, Frances, Twila, Poppy, Willa, Cora, and Hazel. At ten days past her due date (!!!) we finally agreed on a short list of Aurora, Clementine, Everleigh, and Willow and ended up naming her Everleigh Frances. Her name suits her perfectly and I couldn\u2019t imagine her being called anything else (except Ev!e, her nickname).<\/p>\n

As far as Baby Girl #2 goes, after months of passing names back and forth, we agreed on the name Vivian Margaret. There were actual tears of happiness on my end and Evie, who has shown complete indifference to the baby, ran around the house shouting \u201cHappy Birthday Vivian!\u201d. It seemed like such a great fit\u2026until I realized that Vivian sounded a whole lot like Jillian\u2026sort of? And while Evie and Vivie would be very cute together, I worry that it is too matchy matchy! Would every future daughter need a \u201cv\u201d in their name? Are we just getting out of one naming corner and into another? All of this second-guessing has definitely taken the original luster off \u201cthe one\u201d!<\/p>\n

We both agree on Margaret as a middle name so that both girls have their grandmother\u2019s middles names as their middle names. My top picks this time around are: Daydrie, Olivia, and Maren. My husband\u2019s list includes Aurelia, Clementine, and Leontine. The few that we sort of agree on include:<\/p>\n

Ada (a family name but also his best friend\u2019s daughter\u2019s name\u2026they live in another country)<\/p>\n

Adeline (not quite right but I like that it is longer than Ada)<\/p>\n

Hazel (he previously hated this name so I\u2019m not sure this is a good choice)<\/p>\n

Laurel (I did know a girl named Laurel who liked Marilyn Manson in 7th grade\u2026I\u2019m thinking I can overlook that; \u201cLaurel Margaret\u201d doesn\u2019t sound too great to me though)<\/p>\n

Lucy (Lucia is a family name but neither of us really like any of the longer variants; I\u2019m leery of naming her Lucy, my husband doesn\u2019t want to name her something longer if we intend to call her by the diminutive; and again, \u201cLucy Margaret\u201d doesn\u2019t sound right)<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s your verdict \u2013 is Vivian too similar to Jillian? Should we keep looking? I think we have some good contenders but I\u2019m also afraid that in the future I\u2019ll be desperately writing you again because we can\u2019t find a 3rd\/4th\/5th girl\u2019s name to go with Ev and Viv. I am open to any and all suggestions! Perhaps you and your wise commenters can find some secret set of names that appeal to both my husband and I!<\/p>\n

Most appreciatively,
\nJillian (and Vivian\u2026?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

This seems completely fine to me. The names Jillian and Vivian have some sounds in common, but it doesn’t seem to me that they rhyme: Jillian and Lillian rhyme, for example, but Jillian and Vivian just share an ending. I might prefer not to use them for sister names (though I wouldn’t consider it weird if someone else used them), but for a mother and daughter they seem absolutely fine and I wouldn’t worry about it at all. If you were considering Lillian I might waver (though I’d be with you if you wanted to shrug and go for it), but Vivian doesn’t seem like an issue.<\/p>\n

To me, Evie and Vivi is the bigger concern, especially if Evie is with a short-E (like EH-vee). But I generally don’t worry anywhere near as much about nickname compatibility as I do about first-name compatibility: if the nicknames turn out to be a problem, there are other options. Maybe they will go by Evie and Viv, or by Ev and Vivian, or by Everleigh and Vee.<\/p>\n

Only you know if it’s likely two girls with V sounds would make you feel painted into a corner. For me, it would be fine, especially if you’re planning to have a larger family: two names is not enough to start an unbreakable theme, and a family of Everleigh, Vivian, Gabriel, Ada, and August is not going to make anyone say, “Why did they break the V pattern??”<\/p>\n

I can’t know for sure, of course, but if I had to place a bet on it, I’d put my money on this being normal last-minute nerves. I think your initial reactions to the name (tears of happiness and a joyful older sister) are the ones I’d expect to pay off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, The subject line of my email [“HELP! Baby Girl due in 2 weeks – chosen name might rhyme with my own!!!”] pretty much says it all. My husband and I are expecting our second daughter in two weeks and after months of debate, we finally settled on a name\u2026only to discover that it […]<\/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-11162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2U2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11162","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=11162"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11169,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11162\/revisions\/11169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}