{"id":12455,"date":"2016-12-08T11:58:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-08T15:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=12455"},"modified":"2019-07-07T07:20:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T11:20:57","slug":"baby-boy-pairton-brother-to-edith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2016\/12\/08\/baby-boy-pairton-brother-to-edith\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy Pairton, Brother to Edith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

As a fellow name nerd, I adore your blog.<\/p>\n

When we first started thinking about future children many years ago, my husband and I decided on Edith and Henry, and we were happy to have that done and decided. Three years ago this month, Edith became a reality, and today she is an opinionated toddler. Her baby brother is now due at the end of March.<\/p>\n

However, a ton of people must share our taste because since having our first baby, I have met so many tiny Henrys I can’t even count them all, including children of close friends and colleagues. We live in New York City at the moment but travel to the UK a lot, where it is even more common and at number 15 on national name lists. Popularity doesn’t bother me so much conceptually; a lot of nice names are very popular, but from a practical standpoint, I realize he would be Henry P. all throughout school and possibly within work cohorts as well. Also, Edith’s name feels a lot more fresh or as if we put more thought into it, and it doesn’t really seem fair.<\/p>\n

I grew up with a very common first name in the 80s and absolutely dreaded the first day of school every year when I would have to go by “first name, last name initial” to account for all the other name sharers. Other people don’t seem to be bothered by their own common names at all. I wish I could predict my son’s preferences!<\/p>\n

That said, we are considering some alternatives. Albert is a family name, and I like the nicknames Albie and Bertie, at least until he tells me to knock it off. My husband likes Phillip, and his English grandfather’s name – Ralph (pronounced “Rafe”), which would not be pronounced that way in America. I like it pronounced Rafe, but not otherwise. I like Arthur but he does not.<\/p>\n

Do you have any advice or alternatives for me? We are going in name circles. Don’t like surnames as first names. Middle name will sound like Cadlier and last name sounds like Pairton.<\/p>\n

Thank you so much in advance!<\/p>\n

Former Henry-Lover<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I see what you mean, and so I am torn. On one hand, I want to urge you to use the name you love\/chose, even though it has become more popular; I love the idea of you choosing your kids’ names long ago and then those children actually coming to be. On the other hand, the gap between the popularity of the name Edith (#526) and the popularity of the name Henry (#29) is wide, and it sounds as if some of the shine has come off the name Henry for you; and if you were saying “But now we HAVE to use it because we chose it long ago!,” I would be arguing vigorously that you were under no such obligation. So. Where does that leave us?<\/p>\n

Reading your letter a few times, my feeling is that you would prefer to use a different name at this point. Before we move on to that, I will make sure to say that I do think sticking with the name Henry is also a good, valid option. In the U.S. the name is only at #29 as of 2015, given to less than half of one percent of new baby boys: on average, that’s approximately one Henry per 13 classrooms (assuming a class size of 30, about 50\/50 boys\/girls). Because even the most popular names are given to a smaller percentage of babies now than they were in the 1980s, the name Henry currently has popularity equivalent to a name barely in the Top 50 in the 1980s, such as Dustin or Kenneth. You may have had a Dustin and\/or a Kenneth in one of your classrooms when you were a child, but statistically speaking he would be very unlikely to have needed to use his surname initial. Still, if you are currently living in and traveling to areas with more Henrys than typical, it is possible your Henry would sometimes have another Henry in his class, and would need to go by Henry P. or Hank or Henry Cadlier or some other option. Could you ask your friends and colleagues with Henrys if there are repeats in their classrooms?<\/p>\n

If you decide to choose a different name, I think Albert and Phillip are both fabulous choices with Edith. I have a soft spot for the name Albert, so that would be my vote.<\/p>\n

I think Ralph-pronounced-Rafe would be a huge headache in the United States, and not one I’d want to deal with as either the parent or the child. I suggest considering it as the middle name, if Cadlier is not set in stone. Albert Ralph Pairton. Phillip Ralph Pairton.<\/p>\n

Henry would also make an excellent middle-name option, if you are reluctant to let it go. Albert Henry Pairton. Phillip Henry Pairton.<\/p>\n

I’m having a little trouble with the Social Security site<\/a> this morning, but it appears the name Edith was last popular in the 1890s and early 1900s. I looked at boy names from that period and found these possibilities to consider:<\/p>\n

Alfred Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Alfred
\nEdward Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Edward (not sure about both names beginning in Ed-)
\nFranklin Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Franklin (not sure about the sound of Franklin Pairton)
\nFrederick Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Frederick
\nLeonard Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Leonard
\nLouis Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Louis
\nOscar Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Oscar
\nRobert Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Robert
\nRussell Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Russell<\/p>\n

These are reminding me of a post we did the other day: Baby Girl or Boy Lutter-with-a-C, Sibling to Theodore and Edwin<\/a>. Looking at that post, I’d also like to add Harvey: Harvey Cadlier Pairton; Edith and Harvey.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

We ended up with an Albert (Bertie)! Sometimes I still wonder about Henry and I think if we ever accidentally had another boy we\u2019d probably still use it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, As a fellow name nerd, I adore your blog. When we first started thinking about future children many years ago, my husband and I decided on Edith and Henry, and we were happy to have that done and decided. Three years ago this month, Edith became a reality, and today she is an […]<\/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":true,"_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-12455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3eT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12455","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=12455"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14245,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12455\/revisions\/14245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}