{"id":11890,"date":"2016-02-15T11:21:51","date_gmt":"2016-02-15T15:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=11890"},"modified":"2016-10-30T09:15:17","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T13:15:17","slug":"middle-name-challenge-would-a-girl-mind-having-ryan-as-a-middle-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2016\/02\/15\/middle-name-challenge-would-a-girl-mind-having-ryan-as-a-middle-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle Name Challenge: Would a Girl Mind Having Ryan as a Middle Name?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle!
\nI wrote to you when we were pregnant with our second (baby boy, Theodore). We are currently expecting our third in September, and we are fairly certain of the baby’s first name for each gender. However, I wanted an opinion on the middle.
\nOur 4 year old daughter is Adeline Elizabeth (Elizabeth for my middle as well as my mom). Our 2 year old son is Theodore (nicknamed Theo) Justus (for my dad and my grandpa). When we were pregnant with Theo, my husband didn’t want a namesake (other than giving our kiddos his surname). Since then, he’s changed his mind and would like to pass down his name (Ryan) as a middle. I’m completely fine and supportive of that. If it’s a boy, his name will be Henry (nicknamed Hank) Ryan.<\/p>\n

My question is do you think, if this baby is a girl, would she mind having Ryan as a middle name? Her first name would be Eloise. So, full name would be Eloise Ryan.<\/p>\n

When I try to imagine having Justus (my dad’s name) as my middle name, I’m not sure if I’d like it (I’m actually fairly certain that I wouldn’t like it). However, Ryan seems to be an easier name for a girl to carry than Justus. We’ve always preferred traditionally feminine names for girls, so maybe that’s why I’m having a hard time with this.<\/p>\n

We would like more kids (ideally 4 total), so it’s possible we could get another future son. However, nothing’s guaranteed, and this is important to my husband. What do you think? Should we use Ryan as a middle regardless of gender for #3?<\/p>\n

Thank you for any advice or opinions,
\nKatie<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think part of the issue is that Ryan is an easier name for a girl to carry than Justus (though I think Justice would work nicely for either boys or girls), but I think an even bigger part of the issue is that naming trends have changed to better allow for it. When I was a child, I would have been fairly appalled to have a “boy name” as my middle name, but then as I grew up there was that whole fad of girls on TV being called Sam and Alex and Teddy and Frankie, and then the whole thing felt different. I think NOW if I had a “boy name” as my middle name, I’d think it was pretty cool—depending on the middle name (e.g., Wesley yes, Robert no, James yes, Paul no). In any case, the name Ryan is familiar enough for girls that it wouldn’t surprise me at all as a middle name even WITHOUT the honor name situation, and I think it sounds nice with Eloise.<\/p>\n

But if you’re quite sure you’d like to have another baby after this one, I think I would save the name Ryan. My reason has less to do with whether Ryan works for a girl, and more to do with keeping sibling names comparable. If Adeline Elizabeth has a fully feminine name with honor names after women, and Theodore Justus has a fully masculine name with honor names after men, it feels most pleasing to me that a baby girl named Eloise should have a fully feminine name with honor names after women. (I suggest Katherine, so that each daughter has one of your names.) I’m not saying it’s crucial, or that I think it’s a huge big deal—only that it would be my own choice because of being pleasingly consistent. If this baby is a girl, and then you are expecting a fourth child who will likely be your last child, THEN I’d say use Ryan as the middle name no matter what—because at that point, the part about being pleasingly consistent loses out to the priority of getting to use the name.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle!
\nThank you for your advice and everyone’s input on our middle name question. We decided to go for it and use my husband’s name regardless of gender. We did end up with a little girl, so Eloise Ryan was born on September 26. We all like her a lot. :)
\nThanks again!
\nKatie<\/p>\n

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Hi Swistle! I wrote to you when we were pregnant with our second (baby boy, Theodore). We are currently expecting our third in September, and we are fairly certain of the baby’s first name for each gender. However, I wanted an opinion on the middle. Our 4 year old daughter is Adeline Elizabeth (Elizabeth for […]<\/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-11890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-35M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11890","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=11890"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12393,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11890\/revisions\/12393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}