{"id":16512,"date":"2024-01-28T16:21:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-28T20:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=16512"},"modified":"2024-06-08T13:13:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T17:13:16","slug":"baby-girl-carrot-with-an-m-sister-to-avil-r0se-ze1ie-and-clire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2024\/01\/28\/baby-girl-carrot-with-an-m-sister-to-avil-r0se-ze1ie-and-clire\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl Carrot-with-an-M, Sister to Avil@, R0se, Ze1ie, and Cl@ire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s crazy to think that I started reading this blog when I was expecting my first, and now I\u2019m catching up to you with five kids. How time flies! We are due in April and our last name sounds like Carrot with an M.<\/p>\n

Our daughters are Avil@, R0se, Ze1ie, and Cl@ire. And baby 5 is a girl!<\/p>\n

I think somewhere half-spoken in my mind, I had been thinking that it would be fun to mix it up this time: daydreaming about learning how to do a cute little boy haircut and\u2026 Well, anyway, I could still totally learn how to give cute haircuts.<\/p>\n

I think what I need to get excited about little girl 5 is a great name. But it\u2019s a catch-22, Swistle; I need a great name to help me get jazzed about twenty more weeks of pregnancy and a new baby, but I\u2019m just so blah about naming this time around. Every name on our list has already been rejected before. What I really need is for someone else to help me look at names afresh, (which, isn\u2019t that what so many of us write in to ask?)<\/p>\n

In the early days of baby naming, I had a lot of angst about naming because my husband and I both cared about names, but our styles seemed very different, (see previous letters here<\/a> and here<\/a>). In the end, we’ve settled on a naming compromise: we take turns naming the baby with full veto\/suggestion power from the other person. This has worked pretty well for us!<\/p>\n

He loves saint names out of the top 1000, and he chose Avil@ (sounds like Avalon) and Ze1ie (rhymes with Ellie). I like what I jokingly call Hollywood Pirate names: Will, Rose, Theo, Jack, Hope, Kate. Short, familiar, and snappy. I also like names like Anneliese, Vivian, Genevieve. I chose R0se and Cl@ire for my names.<\/p>\n

We love nicknames, and use them interchangeably with our daughter’s names: Avi, Rosie, Ze1ie-Lou (from middle name Louise), Clara\/Coco.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s his turn to choose a name, but he also seems surprisingly uninterested in the task this time around and he keeps asking me for suggestions. The only part I\u2019m excited about is using my name Gabrielle as the middle name. We used my husband\u2019s name Michael for Cl@ire\u2019s middle name, (at my insistence because I just loved it and wanted to honor him,) and I am feeling that same excitement for using my name this time.<\/p>\n

His suggestions:<\/p>\n

Hildegard (vetoed. Hildie is a cute nickname, but the name seems harsh to me.)<\/p>\n

Anastasia (but we both like the nickname Ah-na, which honors my Grandma. So far everyone we\u2019ve tested it on says Annastasia and Anna; it feels like an uphill battle. The full name seems very long to me.)<\/p>\n

Blaise (This has been our boy name for 9 years, but I just don\u2019t know for a girl)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My suggestions he vetoed:<\/p>\n

Vivian<\/p>\n

Sylvie<\/p>\n

Anneliese (name of his cousin)<\/p>\n

Hope (name of his mom\u2019s cat)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our list so far:<\/p>\n

Genevieve (He said maybe and likes the nickname Evie. Not great with middle Gabrielle.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hmm, well, I don\u2019t know. Can I admit to you? Secretly, I feel like you may not choose this letter because the names are too \u201cboring\u201d. Recently the Swistle name posts that got me excited were for names far outside my usual naming style: this one<\/a> was awesome, and I thought about possible names for ages! This recent one<\/a> was fun too. Am I having a midlife naming-style crisis and need to name this kid Oak or Maverick? Or should we name her Genevieve and that is still exciting? Help me, Swistle, before I go crazy overthinking this.<\/p>\n

Thank you!!<\/p>\n

Gabrielle<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I suggest Mathilda, which includes the nickname Hildie as well as Tilda, Tilly, Mattie, etc. It’s a saint name, and it’s alliterative with the surname in a way I find it pleasing to say. Avil@, R0se, Ze1ie, Cl@ire, and Mathilda.<\/p>\n

Belina. I found it in the Saints section of The Baby Name Wizard<\/a>, so I am suggesting it without knowing the story of this or any of the other saints; I don’t know if that part matters to the selection. Belina strikes me as distinctive and unusual but accessible; my one hesitation is about whether it could be too similar to Ze1ie, but for myself I come down on the side of no. Avil@, R0se, Ze1ie, Cl@ire, and Belina. Nicknames and pet names absolutely abound: Bella, Belle\/Bel, Lina, Lee, Bee, Bina, just so many fun sound combinations to make.<\/p>\n

I wanted to suggest Annika (I have an Annika in my circle, and although people will sometimes GUESS ANN-nika, once they HEAR ON-nika it seems to click into place for them), but it seems too similar to Avil@.<\/p>\n

Blaise, for me, does not pass the “Would I want this name for myself?” test—especially if I had four sisters all with highly feminine names. I think it would accidentally communicate that you were hoping for a boy. I find, in fact, that even seeing it on the list is giving me a surprisingly strong feeling of indignation. It makes me want to pointedly offer counter-suggestions such as Felicity (lucky) and Evangeline (good news) and Beatrix (blessed).<\/p>\n

Bonus: Felicity and Beatrix are both saint names, so I do suggest them, earnestly as well as pointedly; I love them both, and will give them their own spaces below so they don’t get lost in the “Swistle says no to Blaise” section:<\/p>\n

Felicity. Avil@, R0se, Ze1ie, Cl@ire, and Felicity.<\/p>\n

Beatrix. Avil@, R0se, Ze1ie, Cl@ire, and Beatrix.<\/p>\n

Oh, WINIFRED is a saint name?? You know I am not going to miss the opportunity to suggest that favorite! Avil@, R0se, Ze1ie, Cl@ire, and Winifred!! …I see I also discovered this while answering a previous letter, and then forgot. This is one of the glories of aging: fun fresh surprises, again and again!<\/p>\n

I like Genevieve a lot, and this is subjective but I really like it with the middle name Gabrielle. I think it’s intriguing the way the G initials match but are pronounced differently, and it gives you the nickname G.G.\/Gigi, which is especially nice if Evie seems too close to Avi. There’s also Ginny.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Hi Swistle!
\nI enjoyed reading all your suggestions so much. Amazing how it can make the process of baby naming appealing again! We had pretty much decided on the nickname Evie by the time baby was born, but it still took us some time to decide between Genevieve and Evangeline (thanks for the suggestion!) as the first name. Her uncle had also suggested the name Wren, which wasn\u2019t quite our style for a first name, but was fun to add as a middle. In the end, we named her Genevieve Anastasia Wren, and we mostly call her Evie (or Evie-Wren.) Evie is a peaceful baby, which is just the best for a fifth child. Thanks for helping us name her!<\/p>\n

P.S. Although we didn\u2019t end up with Gabrielle as a middle name, she did end up with my initials, which still makes me feel like we have a special connection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! It\u2019s crazy to think that I started reading this blog when I was expecting my first, and now I\u2019m catching up to you with five kids. How time flies! We are due in April and our last name sounds like Carrot with an M. Our daughters are Avil@, R0se, Ze1ie, and Cl@ire. And […]<\/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-16512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-4ik","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16512","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=16512"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16630,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16512\/revisions\/16630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}