{"id":11919,"date":"2016-02-29T11:01:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T15:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=11919"},"modified":"2016-05-30T15:52:25","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T19:52:25","slug":"baby-girl-h0lmes-sister-to-fiona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2016\/02\/29\/baby-girl-h0lmes-sister-to-fiona\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl H0lmes, Sister to Fiona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Krista and my husband is Jordan, and we have a two-and-a-half year old daughter named Fiona Maisie. Our last name is H0lmes. I\u2019m currently 30 weeks pregnant with our second baby girl (due May 7). We absolutely love Fiona\u2019s name and feel like it is pretty perfect\u2026but now we\u2019re totally stuck. I feel like because we like Fiona Maisie so much, we\u2019re paralyzed by the pressure if coming up with something \u201cas good\u201d for baby girl #2.<\/p>\n

Fiona\u2019s name was almost Elise; Adelaide was also a contender. Maisie is an honor name, after my great-great aunt who was an awesome lady. If this baby was a boy, he would have been Nial James (yes, only one L). My husband has always liked Nial \u2013 since he was a kid \u2013 and I like it too, so that was that. James is an honor name, after my late father-in-law. For what it\u2019s worth, I\u2019m not a fan of Niala\/Nialla.<\/p>\n

This baby will be our last and we are seriously considering using James as her middle name, but whether we do or not will depend on what we decide on for her first name. Fiona has adamantly declared that her sister\u2019s name is Lula. That\u2019s what we refer to her as right now and the nickname will likely stick, but we\u2019re not fans of any of the obvious names for which Lula could work as a nickname (Tallulah, Lucy, Luana, etc.). We\u2019re not concerned about this \u2013 Fiona\u2019s nickname has emerged as Bo, so having another kid with a nickname that\u2019s totally random and not associated with her real name isn\u2019t a problem.<\/p>\n

We would like to find a name that is familiar but not common, easy to pronounce, and goes well with Fiona. I would like to try to stay away from names ending in \u2013h or another name ending in \u2013a, and if possible would like one that starts with its own unique letter (not K, J or F). The currently names that we\u2019re considering are all over the map:<\/p>\n

Margot \u2013 if this name could stand alone it would probably be the winner, but we\u2019re not huge fans of the double \u201co\u201d sounds in Margot H0lmes
\nSibyl
\nReverie
\nAinslie
\nMaeve
\nImogen
\nCarys \u2013 starts with C, which sounds like K
\nAila \u2013 ends with a
\nMeredith \u2013 ends with h
\nEisley \u2013 too hipster? Also, I\u2019m not sure it goes well with Fiona<\/p>\n

My husband also likes Leighton and Avery, but I\u2019m not a fan.<\/p>\n

Names that we like but can\u2019t\/won\u2019t use: Eilidh (ay-lee) \u2013 love how this sounds, but the fact that it is hard to spell makes it a deal breaker; Elodie; Louise\/Louisa.<\/p>\n

Please help! The more we talk about names, the farther away from a decision we seem get. We would love to hear what you and your readers think!<\/p>\n

xo Krista<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I have the perfect name: Eloise. It is SO PERFECT, there is almost certainly a reason you have had to rule it out. But just look at this QUALITY LOGIC supporting it:<\/p>\n

1. Fiona and Eloise both have three syllables, are similar in style\/whimsy\/awesomeness, and have the shared long-O sound. You say you don’t like the double-long-O of Margot H0lmes, but Fiona H0lmes has the same double-long-O thing, so my guess is that what you don’t like is the two-syllable\/second-syllable-long-O situation, or maybe it’s the “go home” sound that is formed by Margot+H0lmes specifically.<\/p>\n

2. Eloise is basically Elodie + Louise, both on your like-but-can’t-use list. It’s also similar to Elise, one of your frontrunners last time.<\/p>\n

3. Lula would not be a crazy nickname for it.<\/p>\n

4. It starts with its own unique initial and doesn’t end in -a.<\/p>\n

5. I think you like the S-pronounced-Z sound: Maisie, Ainslie, Eisley.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The sister pairing of “Fiona and Eloise” just THRILLS me. I am feeling almost physical pain at the idea of you not using it. But because your lists circle SO CLOSELY to Eloise without mentioning it, my guess is that you HAVE thought of it and can’t or don’t want to use it.<\/p>\n

In that case, let’s look at the other options.\u00a0 My top favorite from your list is Imogen. I love it. Fiona and Imogen. I could almost get over the pain of losing the name Eloise.<\/p>\n

My second favorite from your list is Meredith. I know you said you don’t want a name ending in -H, but I’m wondering if you’re thinking of the rule of thumb that suggests not ending a first name with the first letter of the surname—an overly sweeping rule meant to avoid an unpleasant clash\/blend of sounds. In the case of -h\/H-, and particularly when it’s -th\/H- I don’t see any clashes or blends.<\/p>\n

More ideas:<\/p>\n

Annabel
\nAudrey
\nBeatrix
\nBianca
\nCecily
\nClarissa
\nClaudia
\nEliza
\nGenevieve
\nLorelei
\nLydia
\nMatilda
\nMinerva
\nNadia
\nRuby
\nSabrina
\nTwyla
\nWinifred<\/p>\n

You will notice I’m leaving in names that end in -a. I’m keeping that preference in mind, but so MANY great girl names end in -a, and it doesn’t bother my ear at all to think of two sisters with -a names.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

Eloise James was born on May 19.\u00a0 My husband likes to make fun of me about the fact that after months and months of agonizing over this decision I ended up blissfully following the advice of a bunch of strangers on the internet – and I wouldn’t have it any other way!\u00a0 Imogen and Margot remained contenders right up until the end, but ultimately she is definitely Eloise.\u00a0 Her sister still almost exclusively calls her Lula, so it looks like that nickname will stick around for a while yet.<\/p>\n

Thanks so much for your response, and to your readers for all of their thoughtful comments!<\/p>\n

xo Krista<\/p>\n

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

Dear Swistle, I\u2019m Krista and my husband is Jordan, and we have a two-and-a-half year old daughter named Fiona Maisie. Our last name is H0lmes. I\u2019m currently 30 weeks pregnant with our second baby girl (due May 7). We absolutely love Fiona\u2019s name and feel like it is pretty perfect\u2026but now we\u2019re totally stuck. I […]<\/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-11919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-36f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11919","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=11919"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12137,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11919\/revisions\/12137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}