{"id":14078,"date":"2019-03-14T09:32:03","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T13:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=14078"},"modified":"2019-03-26T09:41:31","modified_gmt":"2019-03-26T13:41:31","slug":"baby-girl-or-boy-rush-with-a-p-sibling-to-jerry-if-boy-can-he-be-tom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2019\/03\/14\/baby-girl-or-boy-rush-with-a-p-sibling-to-jerry-if-boy-can-he-be-tom\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl or Boy Rush-with-a-P, Sibling to Jerry: If Boy, Can He Be Tom?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle – I’m a long-time reader and a name nerd for as long as I can remember. I’m due in early April. We don’t know the sex, but we already have a girl name picked out (Len@ Gr@ce), in honor of my husband’s grandmother. Our last name is one syllable; it sounds like “rush” with a P in front of it.<\/p>\n

We’re having trouble with boy names. My husband and I have very different tastes, with a few random exceptions. My style is perhaps best described as middle-aged man names, preferably with cute nicknames (Gerald\/Jerry, Henry\/Hank, Francis\/Frankie, Carl, Dean, Russel\/Russ, Charles\/Chaz). I want to use Francis Xavier, in honor of my grandfather, and also just because I really love the name.<\/p>\n

However, my husband really dislikes Francis\/Frankie, although he does like Xavier. His other favorites: Octavius, Cassius, Casimir, Ax.<\/p>\n

There is one name we both love: Thomas\/Tommy. Here’s the catch: we already have a 2-year-old son named Jerry (Ger@ld J0seph).<\/p>\n

So what do you think – can we use Thomas? Normally, I’d agree with the majority of the people I’ve polled already, and say absolutely not. However, we’ve always loved it; we think it’s perfect, style-wise, with Jerry, and it seems silly to rule out a name based on something that might only be an issue for the relatively short period of our lives when the two kids are always together. I also wondered who even watches that cartoon anymore, but apparently there have been several reboots over the years, with new episodes as recently as 2018.<\/p>\n

I myself have raised an eyebrow at less-egregious sibling name pairs. Am I setting us up to be laughed at? I want 4 kids, and I realize it’d be better to wait and use Tommy for the third or fourth, when there would be another kid in-between to water down the association. I’d really appreciate a fresh perspective and your unbiased advice on this dilemma.<\/p>\n

If you have any suggestions of other names we might like, we\u2019re all ears! We both like Henry\/Hank, but I\u2019m hesitant to use it, only because if my husband ever comes around to Frankie for a future child, we definitely couldn\u2019t use it if we already have a Hank.<\/p>\n

Thanks in advance!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think this is the sort of thing where you might decide to avoid Tom\/Jerry as an impossible combination, but I also think you could choose to just LEAN INTO it: use the names and shrug cheerfully and enjoy the coincidence. I’m glad you’re considering having more children, because I think you might want more time to think about which way to go, and it’s nice to know this probably isn’t your only chance. My personal hope is that this baby will be a girl, postponing the decision and adding a spacer-name at the same time.<\/p>\n

It would probably sacrifice the name Henry, but would you like the name Harvey? I love it with your naming style, and it avoids the Hank\/Frank problem. One issue is that there isn’t a natural nickname for it.<\/p>\n

One of my kids has a friend named Johnny, a surprisingly fresh-sounding option, though probably too similar to Jerry.<\/p>\n

Another name in that category is Robert\/Robbie: I find I’m ready to hear it again. Gerald and Robert; Jerry and Robbie.<\/p>\n

Or Edward\/Eddie\/Ted\/Ned. Gerald and Edward; Jerry and Eddie.<\/p>\n

Similar enough to Thomas\/Tommy that you have likely already considered it: Timothy\/Timmy. Gerald and Timothy; Jerry and Timmy.<\/p>\n

I love the name Carl, and even more spelled Karl. I want to talk your husband into using it.<\/p>\n

I recently heard of the nickname Hodge used for the name Roger, and it made me see the name with new eyes. Gerald and Roger; Jerry and Hodge. I don’t know if I like Roger with your surname, though; it feels a little difficult to say.<\/p>\n

I love Albert and Alfred, with the nickname Al for either, or else Bertie\/Freddie. Gerald and Albert; Jerry and Bertie. Gerald and Alfred; Gerald and Freddie.<\/p>\n

We had Alan on our boy-name list. Gerald and Alan; Jerry and Al.<\/p>\n

Are we ready to hear Howard again? Gerald and Howard; Jerry and Howie.<\/p>\n

Or Leonard? Gerald and Leonard; Jerry and Lenny.<\/p>\n

I am ready to hear Douglas again. Gerald and Douglas; Jerry and Doug. Not sure about it with the surname.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite retro nicknames for Charles is Chip. Gerald and Charles; Jerry and Chip.<\/p>\n

There was a Beverly Cleary book called Fifteen that I must have read a dozen times as a youngish teenager. The cute boy in that book is named Stan, forever influencing my opinion of that name. Gerald and Stanley; Jerry and Stan.<\/p>\n

The show Everybody Loves Raymond, and the actor Ray Romano, influenced my opinion of that name. Gerald and Raymond; Jerry and Ray.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Thank you all for your input and well-thought our suggestions and advice!!
\nWe ended up having a boy (just as I suspected), and named him Francis Xavier! We call him Frankie!
\nJerry loves his \u201cBaby Frankie\u201d And is adjusting well to sharing his mommy and daddy and to bring a big brother!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle – I’m a long-time reader and a name nerd for as long as I can remember. I’m due in early April. We don’t know the sex, but we already have a girl name picked out (Len@ Gr@ce), in honor of my husband’s grandmother. Our last name is one syllable; it sounds like “rush” […]<\/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-14078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3F4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14078","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=14078"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14091,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14078\/revisions\/14091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}