{"id":13305,"date":"2018-03-23T09:57:47","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T13:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=13305"},"modified":"2021-01-04T13:29:41","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T17:29:41","slug":"baby-girl-a-sister-to-sawyer-beatrice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2018\/03\/23\/baby-girl-a-sister-to-sawyer-beatrice\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl A., Sister to Sawyer Beatrice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

We\u2019re quickly approaching baby #2\u2019s due date and are lost on what to name her. Our second daughter is due on May 30th (though, I anticipate she\u2019ll be a few weeks early, due to a few complications I\u2019m experiencing.) We have a 3-year-old named Sawyer Beatrice (Beatrice is a family name) – we went into the hospital with 25 names when she was born, and I was certain she would be named Grey. 4 days later, hubby convinced me that his choice of \u2018Sawyer\u2019 would be a perfect name for a life we hope is filled with adventure. Of course it fits her perfectly now.<\/p>\n

Our last name starts with an \u2018Abe\u2019 and ends in -son, and if we were having a boy, favorites would include Crew + Grey. We\u2019ve agreed upon two names so far for girls: Finley and Wren. We were pretty close to deciding on Finley, when my hubby realized there were far too many people in his office with little Finley\u2019s at home, so that name is hanging in limbo. While we like Wren, we just haven\u2019t fallen in love with it, so we continue the search. We are open to a middle name, likely something feminine knowing that we\u2019ll choose a first name that is unisex to align with Sawyer, though the family name Kathryn is a strong option for the middle name.<\/p>\n

Other names we\u2019ve discussed:<\/p>\n

Rowan (I love, husband ruled out for both girls as he has a business partner with a son Rowan)
\nMilo (hubby does not like)
\nLuca (just used by good friends for a boy)
\nMalou (hubby keeps singing \u201cskip to Ma-lou\u201d when we discuss)
\nWinter, nn Winnie (hubby\u2019s choice, I do not like it)<\/p>\n

As you can see, we like unisex names, though nothing overly popular for both genders (especially the Charlie\u2019s, Riley\u2019s and Alex\u2019s). I also like the idea of connecting the sib-set with the \u2018w\u2019 or \u2018y\u2019 in the name, though definitely not tied to this idea. Because of our last name, I\u2019m trying to avoid first names stating with \u2018A\u2019 (as initials would be \u2018AA\u2019) and any names that end in -son. As an avid reader of your helpful advice since trying to choose my first daughter\u2019s name, I would certainly love your take on ideas for baby girl #2.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,
\nNicole<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think I might start here by finding out exactly how many Finleys are involved in your husband’s office: if you both love and agreed on the name, and it seems to me a near-perfect choice with Sawyer, it would be a shame to cross it off the list unnecessarily. There definitely can be little pockets of a name, but are we talking ten co-workers with children named Finley, or are we talking two? I remember one day when I was pregnant with William and we’d already chosen his name, I took toddler Robert for his two-year check-up and then to have his two-year portraits done—and there was a baby William in each waiting room! I went home in a panic, telling Paul we couldn’t use that name. But…it was only two Williams total. It just FELT like a lot of Williams because of the coincidence, and because I was highly sensitive to hearing that name once we’d chosen it.<\/p>\n

But if we’re talking a truly surprising number of baby Finleys, I can see how that might take the shine off the name. For other possibilities to consider, I’d look for another unisex and\/or surname name, ideally one used more often for boys (according to the Social Security Administration<\/a>, the name Sawyer was used for 1,272 new baby girls and 4,213 new baby boys in 2016):<\/p>\n

Baxter
\nBeckett
\nBennett
\nBrady
\nBrecken
\nCallan
\nCarter
\nChandler
\nChanning
\nColby
\nCollins
\nCrosby
\nDeclan
\nElliott
\nEllis
\nEmmett
\nEmory
\nFlynn
\nHollis
\nKeane
\nKeegan
\nLennox
\nLachlan\/Locklyn
\nLogan
\nMerrill
\nMerritt
\nMiller
\nPadgett
\nPresley
\nQuincy
\nReeve
\nSterling
\nTeague
\nTiernan
\nTyler
\nWinslow
\nYates<\/p>\n

It’s a little tricky: so many surnames end in -son (duplicating your surname) or -er (duplicating the sibling name). I left a few of the -er names in because there are just SO MANY, it seemed wrong to rule them out entirely—but sometimes the resulting pairing makes me think of the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. For example, I thought Miller might be a great candidate, but does “Sawyer and Miller” sound like two side-by-side shops in the village?<\/p>\n

I particularly like the idea of Winslow. It’s similar to your husband’s choice of Winter\/Winnie, and to your choices of Rowan and Milo.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

I don\u2019t think a follow up ever got posted here\u2026 for those wondering, we went with Quinn for our second baby girl to big sister Sawyer. It took three days after she was born to name her, at which point we still couldn\u2019t choose and narrowed it down to two and let big sister pick. In the end, it fits her perfectly of course. I still think of this name list from time to time, and how it really helped me narrow down what names I liked, brought fresh ideas even after a long search, and confirmed that in the end I would figure out the perfect name for my daughter. This list was an important stop on the journey to meeting our girl. Thanks to all for the suggestion, and especially to Swistle!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle, We\u2019re quickly approaching baby #2\u2019s due date and are lost on what to name her. Our second daughter is due on May 30th (though, I anticipate she\u2019ll be a few weeks early, due to a few complications I\u2019m experiencing.) We have a 3-year-old named Sawyer Beatrice (Beatrice is a family name) – we […]<\/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-13305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3sB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13305","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=13305"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15135,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13305\/revisions\/15135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}