{"id":15533,"date":"2021-08-19T14:49:18","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T18:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=15533"},"modified":"2021-12-16T08:03:26","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T12:03:26","slug":"baby-girl-rhymes-with-mctune-rose-or-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2021\/08\/19\/baby-girl-rhymes-with-mctune-rose-or-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl Rhymes-with-McTune: Rose or Lane?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

My husband and I are expecting our first child, a girl, in early October. We are torn between two names and it feels impossible to choose! Our last name rhymes with McTune and the middle name will be my maiden name.<\/p>\n

The two names we are deciding between are Rose and Laine\/Lane (I know Laine is the traditional spelling of the girls name, but I personally prefer the look of Lane. However, spelling is not the issue here). Although we\u2019ve tried not to share potential names with many people in fear that their reactions would influence us too greatly, there does seem to be strong preference by friends towards Rose.<\/p>\n

We both have short, familiar (some may say common) names and have always appreciated that. I never wished that instead of Kate I had been named something more exotic. I really appreciate having a short, classic name. Rose definitely fits the bill, but is Lane too out there? Should we go with Rose even if we have a slight preference towards Lane in order ensure that our little girl has a Perfectly Acceptable and Well Liked Name?<\/p>\n

Help!!!<\/p>\n

Kate & Chris<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s obvious to me (and I suspect to you) that the answer to your final question is no. It sounds to me more as if you’re feeling pressure on various levels to prefer\/use Rose, and you would rather make your choice WITHOUT those pressures—and for what it’s worth, I certainly think that you can go ahead and choose the name you prefer rather than the name some of the other people in your life prefer. Other people’s preferences are generally fleeting and shallow: that is, you may indeed be correctly assessing that some of your friends and family have a strong preference for the name Rose—but I doubt any of them care deeply, or that they will continue to care long after the baby is born and named. It may help to think about how you’ve felt in the past about what your friends\/family have named THEIR children: even if you had a reaction\/opinion, did you DEEP-DOWN care? did you LASTINGLY care? Or did you have a flicker of interest and then go on with your life, unaffected?<\/p>\n

Certainly I think it’s appropriate to feel SOME pressure from society\/culture: if you were trying to decide between the names Rose and Yogurt, and you were getting shocked\/horrified reactions to the name Yogurt from a few trusted friends and family members, I would suggest you should consider that feedback carefully, as it might represent how the larger society would react as well. But when we are talking about the names Rose and Lane, and about different people just having different naming styles, I don’t think you need to be unduly influenced by what other people might prefer. Lane is less common, but I would not put it in the Out There category: it feels familiar and normal and non-startling.<\/p>\n

I think of Laine as another possible spelling, but not as “the right\/traditional spelling for girls” or anything: Lane feels correct for anyone.<\/p>\n

I notice two small things, neither of which are objectively positive or negative, but both of which I would want to think about ahead of time. The first is that Lane with your surname is a little sing-songy. “Lane” and “[T]une” have similar word structures (one syllable, long vowel, -ne ending), and then the “Mc” in the middle gives it the little storybook hop of a children’s book\/poem. The second thing I notice is that the name Lane is somewhat similar to the name Kate: one syllable, dominant long-A vowel.<\/p>\n

Because Rose and Lane are quite stylistically different, I think it could be helpful to think ahead to future sibling names, to make sure neither name is an outlier of your usual style. Would you want to use Rose and Lane in the same sibling group, or does using one of them rule out using the other? Does the rest of your list look more like Lane, or more like Rose, or is it a nice mix? Usage of the name Lane is currently unisex-leaning-fairly-strongly-boy in the United States (103 new baby girls and 1360 new baby boys named Lane in 2020, according to the Social Security Administration<\/a>) (another 111 new baby girls and 99 new baby boys were named Laine that same year); the name Rose is currently used exclusively for girls. Look at the rest of your favorites list: do they tend to be unisex? exclusively boy\/girl? a mix? Imagine you have one or two more children after this one: can you make a satisfactory sibling set with either Rose or Lane as the firstborn? Do you find yourself preferring one set of names over another? If there is no trouble coming up with future names to go with either Rose or Lane, and if either set seems good to you, then I see no reason you shouldn’t very naturally choose whichever name you find you prefer.<\/p>\n

But if you remove other people’s preferences as far as you are able to do so (it is nearly impossible for some of us not to consider them), and you still can’t decide, then you could try doing some little games\/exercises: Narrowing Down a List<\/a>; Deciding Between Two Finalists<\/a>. And\/or you could see if you can find more names similar to Rose\/Lane: Sloane, Lynn, Fern, Joan, Ivy, Brynn, Pearl, Jean, Jane, Grace, Eve, Leigh, Claire, etc. Or you could take some time off: you have some time left before the baby is here, and you have two names you both love, so you are in a good place right now. If it is helpful, I will say that I don’t see much danger here of Choosing the Wrong Name: both names seem like good solid choices that would serve a person well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Thank you so much for all the help. In the end, we decided to go with our gut and baby Lane was born in October. Although there have been one or two less than enthusiastic responses to her name, we love it and it seems to fit her well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, My husband and I are expecting our first child, a girl, in early October. We are torn between two names and it feels impossible to choose! Our last name rhymes with McTune and the middle name will be my maiden name. The two names we are deciding between are Rose and Laine\/Lane (I […]<\/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-15533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-42x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15533","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=15533"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15680,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15533\/revisions\/15680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}