{"id":15277,"date":"2021-02-28T10:48:47","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T14:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=15277"},"modified":"2021-02-28T13:38:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T17:38:46","slug":"baby-boy-peterson-with-a-david-brother-to-vivian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2021\/02\/28\/baby-boy-peterson-with-a-david-brother-to-vivian\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy Peterson-with-a-David, Brother to Vivian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle,<\/p>\n

I discovered your blog while researching names and would love your help! I am due in August with our second child, a boy. We have a two year old daughter named Vivian Iris. Our last name is like Peterson but with the name David at the beginning.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, given our somewhat different style preferences, my husband and I are basically in agreement on the name but not the spelling. We’re leaning towards naming this baby Alistair\/Alastair. We initially had Alexander and Patrick on our boy list but when we found out this baby is actually a boy, I just thought those names were so boring for real life (my apologies to anyone who used those names, they are lovely which is why they are on our list!). But we both like the Scotish version of Alexander: Alistair\/Alastair. Patrick, a family name on my side, will likely be the middle name.<\/p>\n

Upon further research, it turns out that this name is actually far more obscure than I realized. My husband and I are both very midwestern but currently live in the mid-Atlantic. We previously had pretty international careers and have both known people with this name so we were surprised to find it so low on the list in the US.<\/p>\n

Here is where we are stuck. My husband prefers the “more authentic” spelling of Alastair. He would really like to do the “most authentic” spelling of Alasdair, but I vetoed that. I, however, think we should give the kid the more common spelling of the name, especially considering that it’s pretty rare. Alistair is currently ranked 967 in the US. The other spellings are not in the top 1000 at all. Notably, Alistair is also the most common spelling in Scotland, England, and Wales (this did not convince my husband).<\/p>\n

We’re at a standstill and have dug in our heels over one letter. We both realize how ridiculous this is, but, nonetheless, here we are. What spelling do you think we should go with?<\/p>\n

As an aside, I do have a bit of hesitation that this name is weirder or more pretentious than I think it is. Does it seem too weird for midwesterners to use this name? My husband’s ancestors were Scotish but his family has been in the US for hundreds of years. Will it seem like we’re trying too hard or something? Admittedly, we can be a little pretentious (at least we’re aware, right???) so maybe we should just own it, but I don’t know.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your help!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am much more familiar with the Alistair spelling, and that would be my own choice. I agree with your reasoning: especially if I were going with a less common name, I’d prefer to use the most common spelling.<\/p>\n

The “more\/most authentic” argument feels a little dicey to me. Names change over time and as they cross into different languages\/alphabets\/cultures. If he prefers an OLDER spelling, or a spelling from a particular language\/alphabet\/culture, that’s fine: some people would rather use Iohannas or Eoin or Jan or Jean or Gianni instead of the more-familiar-in-the-U.S. John. But saying that one version is more “authentic” than another seems…well, dicey.<\/p>\n

You asked if the name is too weird or pretentious to use, and I’d say no, but then again I am a person who spends a lot of time looking at and thinking about names, and so there are a lot of names I have gotten accustomed to that might be more startling to the general public. I don’t see any reason Alistair can’t join Theodore and Arthur and Oliver and so forth—but perhaps it would strike others as being more in the range of Percival and Archibald. (I would also like to see Percival become more common. PERCY!!)<\/p>\n

It can feel ridiculous, but this spelling disagreement may indeed mean you won’t be able to use the name. Paul and I lost the name Elliot because we couldn’t agree on the spelling, and it felt\/feels so STUPID when we both LOVED the name—but, I didn’t love it the way he wanted to spell it, and he didn’t love it the way I wanted to spell it, and so in the end it was just as if we were talking about two entirely different names. You have lots of time left, so what I suggest is putting it on the list as “Alistair\/Alastair” for now, and working on coming up with more options in case the spelling can’t be resolved.<\/p>\n

Do you like Albert or Alfred? I feel as if those names have a similar English sound, while being a little more accessible. I went to kindergarten with an Alfie; I wonder if that was short for Alfred; other potential nicknames include Freddie and Al. And Bertie is a cute nickname for Albert.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen Gilbert getting some attention recently.<\/p>\n

Or perhaps Louis? Frederick? Edmund? George? Simon? Miles? (Maybe too much like Miles Davis with the surname.)<\/p>\n

Ellis? Hugh? Graham? Rupert? Roland? Barnaby? Vincent?<\/p>\n

Or maybe one of the ones I mentioned earlier as palling around with an Alistair: Theodore, Arthur, Oliver.<\/p>\n

Or August, for his possible birth month.<\/p>\n

Or Francis, with the darling nickname Frankie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle, I discovered your blog while researching names and would love your help! I am due in August with our second child, a boy. We have a two year old daughter named Vivian Iris. Our last name is like Peterson but with the name David at the beginning. Surprisingly, given our somewhat different style […]<\/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-15277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3Yp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15277","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=15277"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15279,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15277\/revisions\/15279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}