{"id":16044,"date":"2022-10-09T17:18:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T21:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=16044"},"modified":"2023-04-19T13:30:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T17:30:47","slug":"baby-girl-________-ellen-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2022\/10\/09\/baby-girl-________-ellen-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl ________ Ellen Hour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

My husband and I are expecting our first child, a baby girl, in March. We are completely stumped when it comes to her first name, but we know that her middle name will be Ellen. My middle name is Ellen and I am the 5th generation woman on my mother’s side to have this middle name. In addition to wanting to carry on the tradition, we really like the name, too, so it doesn’t feel like a burden. Our last name is pronounced “hour” like a time of the day, but begins with the letter A.<\/p>\n

Requirements for her name:
\n1. Must not be popular\/trendy or the name of a friend’s baby
\n2. Must sound good with Ellen
\n3. Should also sound good with our surname, though I haven’t found our surname to be much of an issue with any name we like.<\/p>\n

Names we like but have ruled out for the above reasons: Violet and Iris (too popular); Olive, Margot, Ruby, and Esme (have friends who have used these names); Eloise, Lilah, and Lola (sound strange next to Ellen).<\/p>\n

Our favorite name for our baby is Mabel, but we can’t decide if that sounds weird next to Ellen (two “el”s in a row). Other options for our baby are Poppy, Clementine, June, Opal, and Florence.<\/p>\n

You can see we have a preference for old fashioned names that are not popular, but are also not “weird,” but we aren’t afraid to embrace a quirky name. If our baby were a boy, he would probably be named Archie.<\/p>\n

Also relevant, the names of the “Ellens” in our family all end in a ‘y’ or ‘ie’, which I think makes me question the names on our list. Only Poppy fits with that pattern. Mallory Ellen (me), Kimberly Ellen (my mother), Dixie Ellen (my grandmother), Gertie Ellen (great grandmother), and Lucy Ellen (great-great grandmother).<\/p>\n

Please help us name our sweet baby!
\nWarmly,
\nMallory<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think when you’re already working with one important requirement (this nice middle name tradition), it’s better not to accidentally add a second requirement (e.g., -ie\/-y endings)—especially if you are hoping the next generation will continue to feel it’s a fun tradition and not a burden. If your favorite first name happens to end in -ie\/-y, I wouldn’t rule it out—but if I were you, and I ended up with two finalists, and one of them ended in -ie\/-y and the other one didn’t, I would be swayed toward the one that didn’t.<\/p>\n

I have said “Mabel Ellen” roughly one million times and can’t decide if it’s totally fine, or if it’s just a little odd but basically fine. Either way I think it’s fine. Do you think you’re a family that will say “Mabel Ellen” pretty often? If so, then you may want to test it out a bit: “Mabel Ellen, I told you to clean your room!,” “Mabel Ellen, are these your socks on the kitchen floor?,” etc., just to see if you like the feel of it. I found I was in favor: the little bounce of the “bel\/ellen” reminded me of other names I enjoy saying, such as Belinda. But I had Paul test it, and he said for him he found it just a little uncomfortable to work his mouth around it.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which: I find Opal Ellen and Opal Hour both a little uncomfortable to work my mouth around. I would think “Mabel Ellen” and “Opal Ellen” would be almost exactly the same (the b\/p are nearly the same, the e\/a are nearly the same), and yet the first one feels nice in my mouth and the second one doesn’t. I suspect this will vary considerably from person to person, with some having the same experience as me, and some having the opposite experience, and some not liking either one, and some having no idea what any of us are talking about.<\/p>\n

Trying out Poppy with your surname, something about the sound of it was reminding me of something else, which turned out to be “Happy Hour.” Not a deal-breaker, but just the sort of thing I like to have thought about BEFORE the baby is named.<\/p>\n

The name that leaps out to me (because it’s on my own list) is Florence. I am so ready for that name. Florence Hour—does it make the word “sour,” accidentally? If it does, do we mind, or would we just make sure to put a teensy little pause in there: “Florence. Hour is here for her 9:45 appointment.”<\/p>\n

Let’s look for some more candidates! You’ve got a nice wide range there from Poppy to Florence, so this list will aim for similar width:<\/p>\n

Azalea; Azalea Ellen; Azalea Hour
\nBelinda; Belinda Ellen; Belinda Hour
\nBianca; Bianca Ellen; Bianca Hour
\nClarissa; Clarissa Ellen; Clarissa Hour
\nClaudia; Claudia Ellen; Claudia Hour
\nCordelia; Cordelia Ellen; Cordelia Hour
\nFelicity; Felicity Ellen; Felicity Hour
\nGenevieve; Genevieve Ellen; Genevieve Hour
\nImogen; Imogen Ellen; Imogen Hour
\nLouisa; Louisa Ellen; Louisa Hour
\nMagnolia; Magnolia Ellen; Magnolia Hour
\nMarigold; Marigold Ellen; Marigold Hour
\nMaisie; Maisie Ellen; Maisie Hour
\nMeredith; Meredith Ellen; Meredith Hour
\nMinerva; Minerva Ellen; Minerva Hour
\nNadia; Nadia Ellen; Nadia Hour
\nPersephone; Persephone Ellen; Persephone Hour
\nPolly; Polly Ellen; Polly Hour
\nSally; Sally Ellen; Sally Hour
\nSimone; Simone Ellen; Simone Hour
\nTilda; Tilda Ellen; Tilda Hour
\nVeronica; Veronica Ellen; Veronica Hour
\nWinifred; Winifred Ellen; Winifred Hour<\/p>\n

I wanted to suggest Millicent and Harriet and Celeste, but I wasn’t sure about those with Hour: it seems like it makes the word “tower,” though that’s not a NEGATIVE word so maybe that’s fine. And it’s not as if it makes the first name into something else: no one would think they were hearing Harria Tower, for example, the way Liam Mason can turn into Leah Mason; they just might sometimes think the surname was Tower, which would be fine and we would all move on with our lives. (Winifred\/Marigold Hour could similarly make the word “dour”—but do people know\/use that word often enough for it to spring to mind? I know it, but I read old British mysteries. And I still don’t USE it.)<\/p>\n

I prefer initials not to spell things; I mind less if it’s something neutral\/innocuous, but I still prefer to avoid it. So with the middle\/last initials _EA, I would probably at least want to think ahead of time about first names that made the words PEA, SEA, TEA, YEA. On the other hand, I have an acquaintance whose lifelong nickname Mia came from her initials, so I might be favorably inclined toward initials such as BEA, LEA, MEA.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Dear Swistle and readers, <\/p>\n

Thank you so much for your input on our baby\u2019s name. She was born on March 18th and we named her Florence Ellen. We decided to wait to meet her to choose her name and she just looked like a little Florence! <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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

Dear Swistle, My husband and I are expecting our first child, a baby girl, in March. We are completely stumped when it comes to her first name, but we know that her middle name will be Ellen. My middle name is Ellen and I am the 5th generation woman on my mother’s side to have […]<\/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-16044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-4aM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16044","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=16044"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16279,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16044\/revisions\/16279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}