{"id":13222,"date":"2018-02-13T10:45:32","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T14:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=13222"},"modified":"2018-04-09T21:28:58","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T01:28:58","slug":"baby-boy-chnn-brother-to-riley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2018\/02\/13\/baby-boy-chnn-brother-to-riley\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy Ch@nn, Brother to Riley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

I wrote to you back in January 2015. I was worried that our name choice for our daughter (Riley) would not age well. Thankfully, you and others assuaged my fears<\/a> and Riley Ch@nn was born in February 2015.<\/p>\n

We’re expecting a baby boy in April 2018 and we’re stuck on a name for him. My husband really likes the name “Ryder” because he thinks it would match Riley very well. I am hesitant because Riley and Ryder seem to match too much! Would you and others consider the names too similar and cutesy for siblings?<\/p>\n

Other names that we’ve liked but have somewhat dismissed:
\nDylan – it sounds like something bad in Cantonese (we are Chinese)
\nCasey – brings to mind Casey Anthony, and we have a Caylee in our family
\nNames we like but can’t use because close friends have used them: Tyler, Logan, Zachary, Avery<\/p>\n

Any other suggestions?<\/p>\n

Thank you!
\nMom to Riley and TBD<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

The names Riley and Ryder are so similar, using them for siblings would be a dramatic and highly noticeable thing to do. And if you have any chance at all of having a third child someday, I absolutely would not give yourselves that future naming problem—though I suppose there’s still Rylan available.<\/p>\n

I wonder if thinking about other matchy pairings would help your husband see the issue? Like Casey and Caylee from your example above: if it’s too close for cousins and other relatives, it’s even closer for siblings. Or Madison and Madilyn. Brady and Braden. Carter and Carson. Emerson and Emory. Finley and Finian. Harley and Harper. McKinley and Mackenzie. Or maybe those will all sound good to him: some parents like sibling groups such as Emma and Ella or Jayden and Caden, and some parents like names such as John Johnson or William Williamson, so it really is a matter of personal preference and he might just like very matched sibling sets. My own opinion is that it makes it very, very difficult for other people to keep the names straight; helping other people tell the kids apart is not the number-one priority of baby-naming, but it’s something to consider.<\/p>\n

The situation is made even more complicated by Riley being a unisex name. In fact, I’d need to remove my examples such as Madison and Madilyn: that pairing is confusing, but it’s not as confusing as Casey and Caylee, or Carter and Carson, or Emerson and Emory, or Harley and Harper.<\/p>\n

I started to look for more options to consider, and realized we could take a few right from the list of sample pairings. Plus I’ll add a few more.<\/p>\n

Brady
\nBrody
\nCarson
\nCarter
\nConnor
\nEllis
\nFinley
\nGrady
\nKeegan
\nKieran
\nMason
\nMiller
\nParker
\nRanger
\nSawyer
\nSpencer
\nWesley
\nWilson<\/p>\n

Ranger is my Compromise Option: it’s similar in style\/mood\/sound to Ryder, but I don’t think the pairing with Riley is startling or confusing. Finley and Wesley are also potential compromises: they match the endings of the names rather than the beginnings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

Thanks for the post! We thought the suggestions from you and your readers were very helpful. Ryder was taken off the table due to my reluctance because it sounded too cutesy. We went to the hospital with a short list of two names – Ronan (my favorite) and Tristan (his favorite) – and an agreement to \u201csee what he looked like\u201d before deciding. <\/p>\n

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn\u2019t picture him as a Ronan, and he didn\u2019t seem to be a Tristan either. So we went back to the drawing board with limited sleep (and in my case, also loopy with pain meds) with the goal of getting to a name by the time we had to leave the hospital. <\/p>\n

The previously dismissed Zachary came up again, and we just liked how it sounded with Riley (and our dog Finney), and we also loved the shortened form Zac. Ultimately, we liked the name enough to overcome our previous reluctance to use it because a friend had used it.<\/p>\n

So…introducing Zachary Ch@nn, born April 5th! He completes our family. <\/p>\n

Thanks again to you and the readers!
\nMama Ch@nn<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s a picture of Zac and his sister Riley.<\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle, I wrote to you back in January 2015. I was worried that our name choice for our daughter (Riley) would not age well. Thankfully, you and others assuaged my fears and Riley Ch@nn was born in February 2015. We’re expecting a baby boy in April 2018 and we’re stuck on a name 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-13222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3rg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13222","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=13222"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13337,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13222\/revisions\/13337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}