{"id":15491,"date":"2021-06-23T15:56:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T19:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=15491"},"modified":"2021-08-14T09:16:09","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T13:16:09","slug":"middle-name-challenge-baby-girl-corinne-_______-kitten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2021\/06\/23\/middle-name-challenge-baby-girl-corinne-_______-kitten\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle Name Challenge: Baby Girl Corinne _______ Kitten"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve started and deleted an email to you so many times, hoping inspiration would strike, but I think we\u2019re really stuck! We are expecting our daughter Corinne in mid-September, and we cannot decide on a middle name:<\/p>\n

– To give you an idea of style, we chose Corinne for several reasons. It\u2019s always been on my list because it\u2019s uncommon but not unusual; relatively easy to say and spell; and I don\u2019t know any. It also happens to be my husband\u2019s great grandmother\u2019s name. Her family called her Coco.
\n– Her last name is Kitten, but with an \u201ca\u201d instead of the “i”.
\n– Corinne is our first and likely only child. She has all girl cousins: Caroline Rose, Nora Kate, Audrey Joanne, Eden Abigail, Samantha and Brooklyn (family middle names we would not use.)
\n– We are cognizant of initials, so middle names like Olivia would not work.
\n– Names we have considered: Elena, Cecilia, Celeste, Elise or Elisa; family names Adele, May (or Maye) or Vivian, (but I don\u2019t like the triple \u201cn\u201d sound – Corinne Vivian Kitten seems to be a bit much to me); Josephine, Genevieve.
\n– My husband\u2019s grandmother recently passed away, and we would love to honor her but haven\u2019t come up with anything. Her name was Doris, which we don\u2019t care for; her maiden name was Quicksilver. In the Jewish naming tradition, we would love to use one of those initials, but haven\u2019t found anything we love.<\/p>\n

Can you help us find something that flows? Thank you!<\/p>\n

– Monica and Dave<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

From your list, my favorites are Corinne Josephine Kitten and Corinne Genevieve Kitten. With a first name and a last name that both have two syllables, both begin in a hard-C\/K sound, and both end in an -n sound, I find I want variety in the middle: more syllables, different sounds. Although I find I also like ANOTHER two-syllable name there: Corinne Elise, Corinne Adele—and I like the idea of a family name, so Corinne Adele Kitten stands out, and joins the favorites.<\/p>\n

Quicksilver is a delightful family name. Is there any chance you’d like to use that as-is? Corinne Quicksilver Kitten. I am so envious of people with good family surnames to use as middles. The only thing that bothers me about it is that then the child has three honor names from her father’s side of the family, and none from her mother’s. Perhaps your own family’s surname as the middle? Or another surname from your side of the family?<\/p>\n

Or your first name? Corinne Monica Kitten. I love that. I know I just said a couple paragraphs ago that I wanted new sounds in the middle—but repeating that hard-C\/K sound and the N-sound but in the MIDDLE of the middle name is very pleasing to my ear. The whole name sort of SNAPS. This is probably my first choice, though I am still tempted by Corinne Quicksilver Kitten.<\/p>\n

For more ideas starting with Q or D, I recommend looking through the comments on Our Favorite Baby Names Starting with Q<\/a> and Our Favorite Baby Names Starting with D<\/a>. Q names are scarce, but there are tons of good D names. Putting some of my own favorites with Corinne: Corinne Delaney Kitten, Corinne Dahlia Kitten, Corinne Darcy Kitten, Corinne Delphine Kitten.<\/p>\n

Part of what may be tripping us up, I think, is the second-syllable emphasis of Corinne. I can’t decide if I like to REPEAT that emphasis (Corinne Elise, Corinne Adele, Corinne Celeste, Corinne Joelle, Corinne Simone, Corinne Louise) or go against it (Corinne Josephine, Corinne Genevieve, Corinne Eleanor, Corinne Henrietta), or something in between (Corinne Elizabeth, Corinne Veronica, Corinne Penelope, Corinne Francesca, Corinne Matilda, Corinne Emilia, Corinne Petunia). I think I lean somewhat toward the in-between ones: names with three or four syllables, but with the emphasis on the second syllable. Here’s a post we did on four-syllable names with second-syllable emphasis<\/a>, but I think I like the sound of three-syllable-with-second-syllable-emphasis even better:<\/p>\n

Corinne Bettina Kitten
\nCorinne Bianca Kitten
\nCorinne Diantha Kitten
\nCorinne Eliza Kitten
\nCorinne Fiona Kitten
\nCorinne Francesca Kitten
\nCorinne Georgina Kitten
\nCorinne Gianna Kitten
\nCorinne Louisa Kitten
\nCorinne Lucinda Kitten
\nCorinne Matilda Kitten
\nCorinne Mackenzie Kitten
\nCorinne Marina Kitten
\nCorinne Melinda Kitten
\nCorinne Minerva Kitten
\nCorinne Miranda Kitten
\nCorinne Naomi Kitten
\nCorinne Regina Kitten
\nCorinne Rosella Kitten
\nCorinne Sabrina Kitten
\nCorinne Sophia Kitten
\nCorinne Susannah Kitten
\nCorinne Theresa Kitten<\/p>\n

And some names just DECLINE TO FLOW, and that’s okay! We say the entire name at graduations, and that’s about it. So it is also okay to choose something that doesn’t necessarily flow, but makes you happy in another way: a good honor name, a name you wish you could have used as a first name but couldn’t, etc.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

I’m glad I wrote in when I did, as our sweet girl made an early appearance at 29 weeks weighing 2.5 lbs. She is thriving in the NICU thus far, and we can’t wait to bring her home.<\/p>\n

This did, however, lead to an “oh crap! we need a middle name!” moment in the hospital. I fought for Quicksilver but lost that battle. We read through the list of suggestions and the one that got the best “oooh, I like that!” response was: Lucille! It’s the name of the restaurant where we had our first date, it gives nice initials, and it’s a little whimsical. Thank you all for your thoughts! Picture to follow when she’s free of all the medical gear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, I\u2019ve started and deleted an email to you so many times, hoping inspiration would strike, but I think we\u2019re really stuck! We are expecting our daughter Corinne in mid-September, and we cannot decide on a middle name: – To give you an idea of style, we chose Corinne for several reasons. It\u2019s always […]<\/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-15491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-41R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15491","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=15491"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15525,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15491\/revisions\/15525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}