{"id":14390,"date":"2019-10-16T09:01:30","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T13:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=14390"},"modified":"2019-10-16T09:04:56","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T13:04:56","slug":"baby-boy-hegarty-brother-to-anna-ethan-and-evan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2019\/10\/16\/baby-boy-hegarty-brother-to-anna-ethan-and-evan\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy Hegarty, Brother to Anna, Ethan, and Evan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m expecting my 4th child early next year and need some name help!<\/p>\n

My children are: Anna (girl), Ethan (boy-twin), and Evan (boy-twin). Need help with new baby boy names. Our last name is similar to Hegarty.<\/p>\n

My husband and I both love the name Andrew, but I can\u2019t get over the fact it is too close to Anna. I feel like I\u2019ll constantly be confusing and combining their names, but my husband doesn\u2019t think they are too close at all.<\/p>\n

We also both like the name Owen, and is what I\u2019m leaning towards because of our above conundrum. We\u2019d like to try to stick with the vowel theme and want to avoid another \u201cE\u201d name.<\/p>\n

Thoughts?<\/p>\n

Thanks so much,
\nMaria<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I generally try, when giving opinions, to make it clear from the wording\/attitude that I know they’re OPINIONS: name stuff is so subjective, and I want to make sure we reflect that here.<\/p>\n

That said, your husband is wrong, and Anna and Andrew are noticeably close, and the potential nicknames Annie and Andy are noticeably close (and the pairing makes me think of Raggedy Ann and Andy). On the other hand, the fact that ALL the names on your list are very close (Anna\/Andrew, Evan\/Ethan\/Owen), and you don’t have ANY that aren’t very close, tells me that you LIKE names that are close—so I think you could make the deliberate choice to lean into this. I think it would please people the way matching twin names please people, or the way a family with all matching initials pleases people: it’s kind of FUN. (And Raggedy Ann and Andy is a positive association for me, and an ancient one for current children.)<\/p>\n

Is this likely to be your last child? If this is it, then I say go ahead and do another vowel\/similar name, either Andrew (linking to Anna’s name) or Owen (linking to the twins). I like the way the name Andrew makes two sets of linked names (Anna\/Andrew and Evan\/Ethan), and gives all the kids an -an-. I like the way Owen links all the boys, and also I am finding Annie and Andy bothers me a little even though I don’t usually mind nickname similarities.<\/p>\n

But if you’re going to keep having more children, I think choosing either Andrew or Owen paints you into a very difficult corner for next time, and I would look for ways to break things up a little this time.<\/p>\n

A vowel theme feels too subtle and not fun enough to be worth eliminating so many good names starting with consonants (especially if you’re ruling out using any more E names), but if a vowel name is important, then I recommend the name Oliver. It adds a new syllable count and a lot of new sounds. Anna, Ethan, Evan, and Oliver. I’m not sure I like it with the surname, though.<\/p>\n

After that, we’re kind of stuck with A names: the I- and O- and U- names are too uncommon (Ulysses, Orion) for this sibling group, or else way too similar even for leaning into it (Ian, Ivan).<\/p>\n

Aaron. It gives you two A names and two E names, and it leans into the similar sounds, but it brings in a new consonant and avoids duplicating the first half of Anna’s name. Anna, Ethan, Evan, and Aaron.<\/p>\n

Or Aidan. Two A names; all three boys have -an; but there’s a new consonant and we’re not duplicating Anna’s first syllable. Anna, Ethan, Evan, and Aidan.<\/p>\n

Adam feels too similar in sound to Anna when I say them aloud, and I find I get them tangled. Abel and Abram are nice, but seem too unusual alongside Ethan and Evan. I love the names Albert and Alfred and Arlo, but they don’t seem right here. Angus repeats the first two letters of Anna, but with a totally different sound, which makes it less noticeable than with Andrew or Anton. I considered Asher, but I’m finding I don’t like the repeating -er with the surname. Adrian, maybe? Too unisex?<\/p>\n

Or Alec? Anna, Ethan, Evan, and Alec. Hm. I like that.<\/p>\n

August? Anna, Ethan, Evan, and August. Maybe.<\/p>\n

I think my own favorites here are Aidan, Aaron, and Alec.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle, I\u2019m expecting my 4th child early next year and need some name help! My children are: Anna (girl), Ethan (boy-twin), and Evan (boy-twin). Need help with new baby boy names. Our last name is similar to Hegarty. My husband and I both love the name Andrew, but I can\u2019t get over the fact […]<\/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-14390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3K6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14390","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=14390"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14393,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14390\/revisions\/14393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}