{"id":13518,"date":"2018-07-13T09:17:26","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T13:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=13518"},"modified":"2018-12-17T11:58:53","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T15:58:53","slug":"baby-boy-whit-with-an-e","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2018\/07\/13\/baby-boy-whit-with-an-e\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy Whit-with-an-E"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle!<\/p>\n

I have been reading your blog for years, from the time I was unmarried and definitely not considering naming a child to present, where I am 19 weeks pregnant and undecided on a name! My husband and I are expecting a baby boy in November, and we are thrilled! However, we’re stuck on names and I’d love your input. My husband’s surname is Whit (with an e at the end, like the color) and the baby will take his name. Another thing is that the baby will definitely have 2 middle names; my husband does and his father does, too (their middle names are the first names of both of their grandfathers, which I love).<\/p>\n

We have a similar naming style: classic, easily recognizable, not overly popular (not top 10), and we particularly like names that lend themselves well to nicknames.<\/p>\n

Our top pick had always been Finley (we’ve talked about names for our kids for years). There are two “problems”: 1) it’s his grandfather’s name, so we have agreed that the 2 middle names would come from my side, since first and last would be his… this is fine but breaks the cool pattern of grandfather middle names, and 2) we have a friend who named his son Griffin, and the parents call him “Fin” for short. Obviously, a Finley would also have Fin as a nickname… The full name would be Finley David (my dad) Ru$$ (my mom’s maiden name) Whit (with an e at the end).<\/p>\n

Because of those two things, and because I overthink everything and want to make sure I’ve left no name unturned, we have not yet settled on that name.<\/p>\n

Here’s the rest of our shortlist.
\nLincoln
\nHarrison
\nJameson
\nEmerson
\nQuinn
\nUlysses (*husband loves this, obviously a bit out there compared to the rest of the naming style; nn Lee)
\nRussell
\nHenry
\nMalcolm
\nIan<\/p>\n

(middles names for any of these would be David Dinsm00r)<\/p>\n

I am wondering if my qualms with Finley are overstated, and whether there are any names that we are not thinking of that go with this list\/naming style. I bought the baby name wizard and we have poured over it quite a bit, most of these names came from there.<\/p>\n

Would love your input and that of your commenters!!<\/p>\n

Thank you!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wanted to make sure I understood the grandfather\/middle-name issue, so I got more information from the letter-writer:<\/p>\n

Finley was my husband\u2019s grandfather, so I guess I felt a bit like it would be fair to give \u201cmy\u201d side two names if we did his grandfather\u2019s as the first and then his surname. Dinsm00r is my husband\u2019s father, so if we came up with a different first name the two middle names would be David and Dinsm00r. Since writing, we have continued to think a lot about Finley David Ru$$ White, where David is my dad and Ru$$ is my mom\u2019s maiden name. That makes the entire name an honor name which gives me some pause as we probably wouldn\u2019t have so many honor names for a future child – boy or girl.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I agree: if the first name ends up being a name from your husband’s side, it definitely makes sense to use two names from your side as middles, and I like your solution. Another option would be to use your father’s name and one of your grandfathers’ names, or both of your grandfathers’ names, but I greatly prefer your idea of bringing your mother’s name into it.<\/p>\n

I see what you mean about using so many honor names for one child. Would that make you feel pressured to do something similar for future children? It’s not uncommon for the firstborn to have a different name situation than the other children, but it’s good to consider ahead of time if you want that or not. You could decide that the firstborn boy has his grandfathers’ names, the firstborn girl has her grandmothers’ names, and the rest of the children have a different system. Or you could give all the boys the same two middle names and all the girls the same two middle names—perhaps with the order swapped back and forth, so for example the second boy would be ______ Dinsm00r David Whit.<\/p>\n

Would you want to consider saving Finley for a future child? It risks losing a chance to use the name, but it could solve all your issues in one swoop if you’re not planning to do the same middle name tradition for subsequent children. The firstborn could then follow the naming tradition and have both his grandfathers’ names, the secondborn could have the honor name Finley and not run into problems with middle names, and it would put more distance between your friend’s Fin and yours.<\/p>\n

Another option, though it also involves risk, is to go ahead and use Finley David Dinsm00r for this child, but use three honor names from your side for the second child. This lets you have your favorite first name and also follow the naming tradition you like. I prefer to mix honor names from both sides for each child, but sometimes other preferences take precedence over that one.<\/p>\n

Whether the friend\/Griffin issue matters or not depends on the particular friend. Is it a close friend? Will you see them often? Does this friend seem from other name discussions to be prickly\/possessive about names? I do think it helps tremendously that it’s just the nickname that is the same (and not even from the same part of the name, as it would be with, say, William and Wilson), and also I think Finley being a family name gives you full license to go ahead and use it anyway. You could soothe things further by referring to your son as Finley when you’re with the friend’s family.<\/p>\n

I love a lot of the other names on your list. My favorites from there are Lincoln, Harrison, Russell, Henry, and Ian; of those, I am particularly swoony over Ian, Henry, and Russell. I love Malcolm, too, but with the surname it feels a little odd. Ulysses feels hard to wear, and the nickname Lee is not intuitive. I would normally suggest using it as a particularly fun middle name, but we are already full-up on middle names!<\/p>\n

More names to consider:<\/p>\n

Anderson
\nCallum
\nCalvin
\nDavis
\nElliot
\nEllis
\nEmmett
\nEverett
\nFlynn
\nGeorge
\nHarris
\nHarvey
\nKeegan
\nLawson
\nLouis
\nOliver
\nSimon
\nSullivan
\nThompson
\nWilson (alliterative with surname)<\/p>\n

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

Swistle,<\/p>\n

Name update! Baby boy, Finley David Russ Whit(with an -e), was born 11\/24 at 11:03. His name was solidified by your commentary and the comments of your readers who helped me feel that using two names from my family was fair and equitable. He\u2019s a doll and we are in love!<\/p>\n

Thanks for everything! Happy holidays to you and yours!<\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle! I have been reading your blog for years, from the time I was unmarried and definitely not considering naming a child to present, where I am 19 weeks pregnant and undecided on a name! My husband and I are expecting a baby boy in November, and we are thrilled! However, we’re stuck on […]<\/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-13518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3w2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518","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=13518"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13916,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13518\/revisions\/13916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}