{"id":16095,"date":"2022-12-21T11:07:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T15:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=16095"},"modified":"2022-12-21T11:07:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T15:07:00","slug":"baby-girl-sweeney-sister-to-alexandra-alex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2022\/12\/21\/baby-girl-sweeney-sister-to-alexandra-alex\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl Sweeney, Sister to Alexandra\/Alex"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi! I’m having our last child, a baby girl in February, and we don’t know what to name her!! Our only other child is 3 year old Alexandra but is always called Alex. The girls’ surname is Sweeney and both of their middle names are my surname (a 2-syllable American last name that starts with a D). My name is Amanda and my husband is Kyle. We prefer “A” names and names that can be shortened–especially names that are gender neutral or can be shortened to a gender neutral nickname (e.g., Alex). We also like names that are somewhat regal or grown up (again, e.g., Alexandra)–names suiting a high powered attorney or politician. I know this is a lot of criteria.<\/p>\n

Names we don’t hate: Kennedy, Abigail, Anderson<\/p>\n

Obviously, Kennedy doesn’t start with an A but can be shortened to Ken for gender neutrality, is regal, and shares a K with my husband, although I’d prefer she have an A like me and Alex. Abigail isn’t gender neutral. Anderson can be shortened to Andy but an issue with using surname names is that this child already has a surname as her middle name, so does she really need to have 3 names that are surnames?<\/p>\n

I have no idea what I would name a boy–probably Alexander. \ud83d\ude02 Alex is the most perfect name IMO!<\/p>\n

Please help me find a gender neutral, nickname available, starting with “A,” regal name for my daughter!! I promise to write back and tell you which name we choose! Thank you!!!!!!<\/p>\n

Amanda and Kyle<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I do think you will have a much easier time if you can eliminate some of these requirements. I suggest writing each preference on an index card, and then playing with them a little: which ones are MOST important \/ which ones CANNOT be eliminated \/ which ones are strongly preferred but can go if necessary.<\/p>\n

For example, I would definitely eliminate the preference for a gender-neutral long form, now that you’ve gone with the exclusively-used-for-girls name Alexandra for your first child. I wouldn’t pair an Alexandra with an Anderson unless Anderson were a boy.<\/p>\n

I suggest Anastasia. Regal and high-powered, starts with A, and shortens to Stacy or Tacy or Sasha or Asia or even Andy (though not if you want to keep Anderson for a remote-possibility future son). It’s also one of the names from my own Sad I Can’t Use list, so I’d love to see it used on someone else’s dear little baby.<\/p>\n

If you don’t mind a big difference in popularity: Acadia. It’s fairly uncommon (according to the Social Security Administration, it was used for only 40 new baby girls in 2021; compare that to 1,715 new baby girls named Alexandra), and it may cause those of us who grew up with ’90s music to find we have Sarah McLachlan’s song Adia going through our heads for some reason; but the nickname Cade is great with Alex, and she can go by Cate\/Katie if she turns out not to be a short-boyish-nickname type of person.<\/p>\n

Adelaide: regal! distinguished! starts with A! For the nickname, I suggest Del. I went to school with a boy Del, and Elizabeth is friends with a girl Del (short for Delaney). Along similar lines: Adeline\/Del.<\/p>\n

Adrienne, nickname Ren.<\/p>\n

Augusta, nickname Gus.<\/p>\n

I want to suggest Annabel (another from my Sad I Can’t Use It list), but I don’t have the right kind of nickname for it; I’m hoping someone else will think of something. Can we stretch to Abe or Abel, do you think?<\/p>\n

Amaryllis. I dare you, I DARE you to use this wonderful underused name—though I can see it isn’t ideal with the surname. Nicknames, hm. Les? Again, I hope others will be better at this than I am.<\/p>\n

Amethyst. I like this even more than Amaryllis. It’s perhaps an odd combination with Alexandra, and a little bumpy with the surname, but when there are a lot of preferences to accommodate, something’s got to give. Once again, I must beg for help with nicknames.<\/p>\n

Andromeda. I realize this, like Amaryllis and Amethyst, is a long shot, but you’ve got me in the long-A-names section and I am bringing out all the contenders. And this one has the easy nickname Andy! (Unless you want to save Anderson for a future boy.) I think you could also do Matt\/Mattie.<\/p>\n

Artemisia, nickname Art or Tom or Timmy. Okay, I will stop with the more out-there ones.<\/p>\n

Angelica. Nicknames…could we do Nick? Eli? I know I’m reaching.<\/p>\n

Annika!! THAT gives us Nick without a reach! Oh, I feel excited about this one. Alexandra and Annika; Alex and Nick.<\/p>\n

Annaliese, nickname Lee. I would rather avoid -s\/S- with the surname, but I don’t think it has to be a dealbreaker.<\/p>\n

Antonia, nickname Tony.<\/p>\n

Arabella\/Arabelle, nickname Rob\/Robbie.<\/p>\n

Aubrey, need help with a nickname.<\/p>\n

Aurora, nickname Rory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi! I’m having our last child, a baby girl in February, and we don’t know what to name her!! Our only other child is 3 year old Alexandra but is always called Alex. The girls’ surname is Sweeney and both of their middle names are my surname (a 2-syllable American last name that starts with […]<\/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-16095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-4bB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16095","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=16095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16096,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16095\/revisions\/16096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}