{"id":15068,"date":"2020-11-27T11:35:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T15:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=15068"},"modified":"2020-12-02T11:01:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T15:01:21","slug":"baby-girl-harding-sister-to-hannah-holden-and-norah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2020\/11\/27\/baby-girl-harding-sister-to-hannah-holden-and-norah\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl Harding, Sister to Hannah, Holden, and Norah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

Baby girl is due in 4 days and I am freaking out! We have no idea what her name is going to be, and I’m desperate for an outside opinion.<\/p>\n

For context: I’m Elisabeth and my husband is Michael, and our last name sounds like Harding. This will be our first child together, but we each have children from prior marriages. I have two daughters, Hannah Eileen (8) and Norah Joanne (5), and he has a son, Holden Emory (7).<\/p>\n

Because both Holden and Hannah start with H, we don’t want another H name, which would cause Norah to feel left out. Unfortunately, Harleigh, Hartley, and Hailey are all among my favorite names. Even more unfortunately, hubby actually really likes all of those. Eek! Why are the only names we can agree on the ones we cannot use?<\/p>\n

At five, Norah is really at the peak of understanding her name versus her siblings’ names and I don’t think I would feel comfortable with her being the only non H. She is already losing her spot as the youngest and I wouldn’t want to make it an even harder transition for her, so the no H thing is fairly non negotiable.<\/p>\n

Ok, onto other possibilities. The middle name we like is Corinne, but this is still rather up in the air. Our first choice is Hailey Corinne, but obviously that’s not going to happen. As for first names, here is our list:<\/p>\n

Caitlyn
\nPiper
\nWilla
\nLilly
\nClare
\nRose
\nGrace<\/p>\n

Obviously our taste is kind of short and sweet and more contemporary names, although we’re having so much trouble fully agreeing to anything. There’s just nothing we love as much as Hailey Corinne, and that sings to our hearts the way it does. As far as personal preferences go, my favorite is probably Clare or Grace, while my husband favors Piper and Lilly. I also love Rose, but do not like Rosie but Rose Corinne does flow nicely to me. Caitlyn is also nice but I’m still on the fence about it, while Willa is a bit outside our normal range which makes me a little<\/p>\n

I hope you can help us narrow down this list but also add some suggestions of your own! With the due date coming so close we are in desperate need of some advice and an outside opinion!<\/p>\n

Thanks so much,
\nLissie and Mike Harding<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is hard when a preference is so strong\/important that it has to rule out the parents’ first-choice name. What I suggest in situations like this is a redirect: Don’t try to find a name you love as much as Hailey Corinne, or a name that makes your hearts sing as much, because there might not BE any such name. Don’t compare your new list to Hailey Corinne, because you’ve ruled that name out and it is no longer relevant. Instead, make your goal to find your favorite of all the non-H names, and only compare those names to each other.<\/p>\n

Would it be fun in any way to choose a name that starts with N? I don\u2019t mean in an \u201cOh, no, now our choices are even more limited!\u201d kind of way, but more in a \u201cLet\u2019s try this interesting little side path first!\u201d kind of way. We\u2019ve just done Our Favorite Baby Names Starting with N<\/a>, if that would be helpful. Nadia is pretty: it gives all three girls an -a\/-ah ending but with a different sound to it, and it ties into the -d- of Holden and of the surname. Nadia Harding; Nadia Corinne; Hannah, Holden, Norah, and Nadia.<\/p>\n

If she is born in December—well, I am a sucker for a good holiday-themed name, and would lean very hard toward Noelle. Noelle Harding; Noelle Corinne; Hannah, Holden, Norah, and Noelle.<\/p>\n

Or do you have any interest in switching first\/middle? Especially adding an -a: I think Corinna Hailey is very pretty, and lets you have most of what you wanted, without ending up with an H- first name. Corinna Harding; Corinna Hailey; Hannah, Holden, Norah, and Corinna. And I also like Hannah, Holden, Norah, and Corinne.<\/p>\n

From your list, I like Willa if it appeals to you to give all three girls -a\/-ah endings: I like the old-fashioned sound of it with Hannah and Norah. Willa Harding; Willa Corinne; Hannah, Holden, Norah, Willa.<\/p>\n

I also like Lilly, Clare, Rose, and Grace: all great vintage-revival choices, all good with the sibling names, all good with the surname and middle name.<\/p>\n

Piper feels to me like a sudden style jump: it’s great with just Holden, but doesn’t feel like a natural choice with Hannah and Norah, and emphasizes the change in naming partners. Caitlyn is a name that has had an extended season in the sun, and now perhaps is ready to take a well-deserved rest until its revival in a few generations.<\/p>\n

We can also look for names similar to Hailey\/Harleigh\/Hartley—though I\u2019m nervous that many of those veer from the style of her sisters\u2019 names: e.g., I could suggest Kailey\/Bailey\/Paisley, and Marleigh\/Carly, and Carter\/Courtney\/Atley, but those seem mismatched with Hannah and Norah. So I\u2019m going to be looking for names that ideally combine to some degree the sounds of Hailey\/Harleigh\/Hartley with to some degree the style of Hannah\/Norah; I\u2019ll also add in anything else I find during the search:<\/p>\n

Abigail
\nAda
\nAdelaide
\nAudrey
\nCharlotte
\nClaudia
\nDahlia
\nDaisy
\nDarcy
\nElena
\nFaith
\nGarnet
\nIvy
\nJane
\nLaney
\nLayla
\nLilah
\nMaisie
\nMargaret
\nMargo(t)
\nMolly
\nRosalie
\nSadie<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

I’m sure you normally don’t get updates this soon, but then again I suppose most people write to you more than four days before their due date. :)
\nOn December first, Noelle Corinna Harding was born at 5:36 am, happy and healthy. Older siblings Hannah, Holden and Norah are over the moon with joy. We are so happy with her name! Thank you so much for the suggestion of Noelle, Swistle, it’s absolutely adorable and suits her perfectly. She is our little Christmas baby.
\nMany thanks to you and your readers for all the help!
\nLissie, Mike, Hannah, Holden, Norah and baby Noelle<\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle, Baby girl is due in 4 days and I am freaking out! We have no idea what her name is going to be, and I’m desperate for an outside opinion. For context: I’m Elisabeth and my husband is Michael, and our last name sounds like Harding. This will be our first child together, […]<\/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-15068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3V2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15068","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=15068"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15078,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15068\/revisions\/15078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}