{"id":14113,"date":"2019-04-15T11:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=14113"},"modified":"2019-04-15T11:11:05","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:11:05","slug":"baby-naming-issue-help-we-did-what-you-said-not-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2019\/04\/15\/baby-naming-issue-help-we-did-what-you-said-not-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: “Help! We Did What You Said Not To Do!”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle!
\nWe unintentionally backed ourselves into a naming corner and we need your help! We have three children whose names end in “an” and a baby boy due in June. When we named our third, we thought we were finished having children so we didn’t anticipate having to worry about matchiness of their names. We are planning for this to be our last child. You and your readers helped us name<\/a> our third child, we hope you can do it again!<\/p>\n

Our first is a boy, Ian Thomas. Our second is girl, Reagan Caroline. Our third is a boy, Kellan Jack. You and your readers helped us realize we like Americanized Irish type names for boys.<\/p>\n

Our top names:
\nDeclan (husband’s favorite, does it sound too much like Kellan?)
\nOwen (my favorite, doesn’t match “an” ending, too similar to Ian?)<\/p>\n

Other names we’ve found, but don’t love…
\nLincoln (too presidential with a Reagan?, and ending doesn’t match)
\nLogan (ending too similar to Reagan?)
\nLachlan (too Irish), Nathan, Duncan<\/p>\n

So my main question: do you think it has to end in an “an”? Or will a similar sound work? I don’t want him to feel left out, but I also don’t want to pick a name we don’t like just to match. A lot of the names we are finding sound like our existing boy names, or don’t flow with the set. The middle name will most likely be Graham or Anthony. Our last name is pronounced So-fe-oh, emphasis on the first syllable.<\/p>\n

Please help, thanks!
\nJackie<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was so charmed and amused by the subject line of your email, I put it in the title of the post even though readers who click the link to the last time we talked will see I was absolutely complicit in looking for a third -n name. But you are right that in general I advise against corner-painting-into.<\/p>\n

I would cross out almost every single name on your list. Yes, I think Declan and Lachlan are too close to Kellan, and that Owen is too close to Ian, and that Lincoln is odd with a Reagan, and that two -gan endings is too many. I would keep Duncan and Nathan; I think those are good options.<\/p>\n

I don’t think you have to go with another -an name or even another -n name. Last time you wanted a third -n\/-an, but that doesn’t mean you have to want it this time: it’s so understandable that parents would run out of -n\/-an names, and\/or that they would go with their favorite name rather than choosing a name they liked a lot less in order to follow a pattern. It gets harder and harder to choose a baby name the more babies you have, and it’s even harder when you’re working with additional restrictions. Get rid of the restrictions, I say! Break free! It will be at most a matter of slight interest to others, and no one will deep-down care; and this pattern is less obvious than, say, all names starting with the same initial.<\/p>\n

Although there are some people who will grow up looking for any reason to feel left out or to resent their parents, I suspect that non-matched sibling-group name-endings are not one of top choices for that: it’s not the sort of thing that gets you quality sympathy in high school. You can only wring so much emo out of “My siblings? They all have -n names. But I? *stifled sob* I DON’T!”<\/p>\n

If you DO decide to continue the pattern, I would make a point of calling the pattern “ending in -n” rather than “ending in -an,” mostly because the former is hard enough but the latter feels nearly impossible. And if you get to the point where you are choosing a name you NEVER would have chosen if you weren’t trying to follow a pattern, I think that would be a good moment to reconsider the whole decision. “We just chose our very favorite name!” is an enduring classic, name-explanation-wise, and I think it outshines “Well, we had to find something that ended in -n, and this was the best we could do considering all the other limitations.” Not that we would actually say that second thing.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, -an is a surprisingly common ending, and so I do have a few -an names that might work (though I do think they are sounding Quite Similar to the siblings names, and if you’d had them on YOUR list I might have crossed them off with the others, so):<\/p>\n

Aidan (quite similar to Ian)
\nAlan (quite similar to Ian and Kellan)
\nBrendan
\nBrennan
\nColman (quite similar to Kellan)
\nDarian (ends in his eldest brother’s name)
\nDylan (quite similar to Kellan)
\nFinian (ends in his eldest brother’s name)
\nFinnegan (another -gan)
\nKeegan (quite similar to Kellan AND it’s another -gan)
\nMaclean (I would get tired of hearing it mispronounced like a McDonald’s menu option)
\nMorgan (another -gan)
\nNolan
\nQuinlan (quite similar to Kellan)
\nSullivan (tongue-twister with surname?)
\nTiernan<\/p>\n

I am feeling a little excited about the name Nolan. I think it fits well with your style and with the sibling names, and even though it ends in -lan like Kellan, it feels different enough to me in sound. Ian, Reagan, Kellan, and Nolan.<\/p>\n

I’m also interested in Brennan. It brings in some new sounds while sticking to the theme. Ian, Reagan, Kellan, and Brennan.<\/p>\n

Finnegan ends in -gan like Reagan, but the extra syllable kept me from noticing that until I was going through the list a second time. I think the extra syllable also helps the whole group of names sound a little more different from each other. Ian, Reagan, Kellan, and Finnegan.<\/p>\n

I’m also pretty keen on Tiernan. New sounds, but sticks to theme. Ian, Reagan, Kellan, Tiernan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But if I were you, I would go even further and call the pattern “Americanized Celtic names,” or “Names we liked,” and not do an -n this time at all. Maybe I’d lean toward something with an N-sound in it, but probably not.<\/p>\n

Ian, Reagan, Kellan, and:<\/p>\n

Brody
\nCormac
\nDesmond
\nEmmett
\nFinn (maybe not with this surname, I can’t tell)
\nFinley
\nGarrett
\nGrady (too many sounds in common with Reagan?)
\nMalcolm<\/p>\n

…Actually I think I am liking the -an names better. Nolan! Brennan! Finnegan! Tiernan! Nathan! Duncan! And I get the feeling you would be happier with another -an name. (Still, I assure you that I think it is more than fine to ditch that whole thing and just do a cheery “We ran out of -an names we liked, so we went with something different this time!” if anyone is so bold as to ask. And I really like Emmett.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! We unintentionally backed ourselves into a naming corner and we need your help! We have three children whose names end in “an” and a baby boy due in June. When we named our third, we thought we were finished having children so we didn’t anticipate having to worry about matchiness of their names. […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3FD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14113","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=14113"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14119,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14113\/revisions\/14119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}