{"id":14031,"date":"2019-02-28T08:58:22","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T12:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=14031"},"modified":"2019-06-19T22:58:51","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T02:58:51","slug":"baby-boy-van___ant-brother-to-benjamin-and-zachary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2019\/02\/28\/baby-boy-van___ant-brother-to-benjamin-and-zachary\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy Van___ant, Brother to Benjamin and Zachary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

I’ve been an avid reader of your blog since I was pregnant with our first, and I’m coming to you for some naming advice for our third and last child… a third boy.<\/p>\n

Older children are Benjamin Wesley (Benji \/ Ben) and Zachary Owen (Zachi \/ Zack). My husband’s name is Bradley (Brad) and I’m Jacquelyn (Jacqui). Our last name is a two-syllable Dutch name that starts with “van” and the ending rhymes with “ant”.<\/p>\n

Sadly, boy names are really hard for us and we have an intentional naming pattern going with our two older boys: 3-syllable first name with a Biblical connection and a 2-syllable middle with a “w” in there somewhere.<\/p>\n

We like the name Matthew for a middle, and it fits the naming pattern perfectly. But we’re struggling with the first name.<\/p>\n

After a long search, we finally decided that Jeremy (nn Remy) is our favorite and the top contender of an extremely short list. My only concern is that it has a similar ending sound as Zachary: Benjamin, Zachary, and Jeremy. Would people assume the younger two are twins with “matchy” names?<\/p>\n

Granted, all three of our boys are\/will be very close in age (17 months apart and 16 months), so maybe the twin thing is a moot point. We will be fielding those questions because of their ages anyway. We are already getting questions on whether our two older boys are twins because they are almost the same height now. So maybe I am over-thinking the matchiness of the names… and we should go with the name we both love.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your advice.
\n~Jacquelyn<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think these are all non-issues. No, I don’t think the names Zachary and Jeremy are so matchy that people will wonder based on names alone if they are twins. No, I don’t that would be a negative thing even if someone did manage to wonder that. No, I don’t think you have to repeat a naming pattern you’ve done only twice, especially when it includes specifications such as “two-syllable middle name containing a W,” which is one of the most arbitrary naming patterns I have ever heard of. Since you HAVE found a two-syllable middle name containing a W and ALSO you’ve found a three-syllable first name with a biblical connection, AND those names are your top choices and you agree on them, there is no problem here for us to solve. Yes, you are over-thinking the matchiness of the names, and you should go with the name you both love. It’s a great name.<\/p>\n

If you were less happy with your choice, I would be leaning hard on you to get rid of some of these requirements. If, for example, these are your top names from names that meet those specifications, but they’d be very low on your list if all names were considered, then I think it would be worth starting over. When parents are struggling with names, that is not the appropriate time to add a bunch of hard and unnecessary and completely voluntary filters that dramatically reduce the number of choices. There I was, reading the letter: “Sadly, boy names are really hard for us” and I was nodding along—and then I read “3-syllable first name with a Biblical connection and a 2-syllable middle with a ‘w’ in there somewhere” and I said, out loud, “COME ON.” Why would you do that to yourselves? You are having three boys in under three years and boy names are hard for you; are you trying to make this into some sort of Iron Man Reality TV Ultra Challenge Naming Event?<\/p>\n

Do you know how many people over the years will say, “Ah, I see what you did there: 3-syllable first name with a Biblical connection and a 2-syllable middle with a ‘w’ in there somewhere!” Nor do I, but I can tell you the number will be very, very low. Even Swistle, with her rabid and unceasing interest in names and naming stories, would not have picked up on all the elements of that theme. And here you are, wringing your hands over this while pregnant and dealing with two babies already! This doesn’t have to be this hard.<\/p>\n

If you are happy with the name Jeremy Matthew, then you are DONE! You have done it: you have found a third name that fits the same specifications as the first two names, and you can rest easy—or rather you can continue to be busy and exhausted, because there is not much resting in the toddler-and-a-baby-and-pregnant stage. If on the other hand you have chosen these names only to meet voluntary\/unnecessary preferences, and you don’t actually like the names very much, then ditch the preferences and start over fresh with an EASIER task: finding a nice solid name you both like, without worrying about syllables and W’s.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle and Readers! First, I would like to thank everyone for your thoughts and suggestions on our naming dilemma. We thought everything through again, tried a few alternatives, and kept coming back to the same name. Jeremy Matthew, nn Remy, arrived two weeks early on June 10th, and the name fits him quite well.<\/p>\n

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

Dear Swistle, I’ve been an avid reader of your blog since I was pregnant with our first, and I’m coming to you for some naming advice for our third and last child… a third boy. Older children are Benjamin Wesley (Benji \/ Ben) and Zachary Owen (Zachi \/ Zack). My husband’s name is Bradley (Brad) […]<\/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-14031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3Ej","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14031","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=14031"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14233,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14031\/revisions\/14233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}