{"id":11623,"date":"2015-09-16T10:49:12","date_gmt":"2015-09-16T14:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=11623"},"modified":"2015-09-16T11:36:50","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T15:36:50","slug":"baby-naming-issue-are-otto-and-margot-too-much-o-for-one-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2015\/09\/16\/baby-naming-issue-are-otto-and-margot-too-much-o-for-one-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: Are Otto and Margot Too Much -o for One Family?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

I’m newly pregnant with my first baby and my husband and I are discussing names and would love your feedback. My husband is fond of vetoing names, but rarely offers any suggestions. He LOVES the name Otto for a boy. always has. I’m fine with Otto. I preferr other names, but given my husband’s enthusiasm, I can accept it.<\/p>\n

In terms of girls’ names that go with Otto (assuming we have a boy\/girl sib set), we’ve reached an impasse. I have always loved the name Margot. My aunt had a friend with the name and I remember thinking how unique and chic it sounded. My mother-in-law’s name is Margaret, so there’s a bit of a nod there. Also, a good friend of mine is named Maura with nickname Mo and I would love to use that nickname for Margot. My husband likes the name but not with Otto.<\/p>\n

Do you think Otto and Margot are too much “o” for one family? Stylistically do they mesh? Do you have other suggestions for girl names that go with Otto?<\/p>\n

The baby’s surname is Swedish, starts with an E and is pronounced “ayng-strom”. We live in the San Francisco bay area where anything goes and we prefer names that are old, and unique but familiar.<\/p>\n

My husband likes Clara (I like but Claire is popular and it kind of reminds me of Jenna to Jennifer in terms of being a take off of a popular name) and Alice (will be too popular, I think). I like Vivian (we have friends and family with the name so can’t use it), Josephine, Violet, Francis, Iris and Adele (none of which my husband likes). We absolutely can’t have an E name since we both have E names and with the surname do not want or need any more.<\/p>\n

Your thought on Margot and Otto and any other suggestions is greatly appreciated.<\/p>\n

Thanks,
\nErin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

My first thought is that the scale seems very evenly balanced here: your husband has long loved the name Otto, and you like it well enough; you have long loved the name Margot, and he likes it well enough. If the two of you decide that you don’t want to use both names, I suggest using the first baby as the tie-breaker: if you have a girl, you use Margot and forgo Otto; if you have a boy, you use Otto and forgo Margot. The worst, I think, would be to give up the name Margot because of wanting to use Otto later—and then have only girls.<\/p>\n

But I would like to urge you to consider using both names and not worrying about the matched endings. If the two names sound definitely BAD together to your husband, all the urging in the world isn’t going to change that. But perhaps it’s more of a feeling that OTHER people will think it’s not a good idea, or a feeling that it breaks a rule to have matched endings. The matched endings DO catch my attention, but not in a negative way. And I think the two names are very well coordinated, stylistically.<\/p>\n

Another possibility, depending on how you feel about your mother-in-law, is to name a daughter Margaret but call her Margo and Mo as nicknames. I think Otto and Margaret are a smashing pair of sibling names, and I find nickname issues far less concerning than given-name issues.<\/p>\n

Are you hoping to have more than two children? If so, another possibility is to take a bit of a gamble: use Otto or Margot for the first baby, then use the second baby as a spacer, and then use the remaining name for the next eligible baby. That is, if you have Otto, Alice, and Margot, the matched sounds of -o and -ot are less obvious. Otto, Alice, Quentin, and Margot is even less obvious.<\/p>\n

If the decision is to use only Otto OR Margot, perhaps the other name can be used for another child’s middle name.<\/p>\n

For another girl name to go with Otto, I suggest Celeste. It has some of the sound of names such as Alice, Frances, and Iris, and I think it falls into the category of “chic”: a different sort of chic than Margot, but still chic.<\/p>\n

I’d also suggest Meredith. Stylish, and underused but familiar.<\/p>\n

Or Fiona, which has the -fi- and the long-O of Josephine.<\/p>\n

Instead of Clara, I’d suggest Cora.<\/p>\n

I’d put strong support behind Alice from your husband’s list: Otto and Alice is so charming to me.<\/p>\n

I’d suggest also thinking ahead to brother names for Otto and sister names for Margot. This too may help decide between the two names, if you find one task more difficult than the other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, I’m newly pregnant with my first baby and my husband and I are discussing names and would love your feedback. My husband is fond of vetoing names, but rarely offers any suggestions. He LOVES the name Otto for a boy. always has. I’m fine with Otto. I preferr other names, but given my […]<\/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-11623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-31t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623","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=11623"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11632,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11623\/revisions\/11632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}