{"id":16520,"date":"2024-02-06T20:10:52","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T00:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=16520"},"modified":"2024-02-06T20:10:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T00:10:52","slug":"baby-boy-lynch-brother-to-natalie-and-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2024\/02\/06\/baby-boy-lynch-brother-to-natalie-and-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy Lynch, Brother to Natalie and Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi there!<\/p>\n

My name is Alexa! I am due in March with baby boy #2. My last name is Lynch. We had (and lost) a micropreemie in 2021 named Natalie Marlena. It was still so early, and we didn’t know what we were having\u2014so we had both boy and girl names brainstormed. When I woke up in the SICU, I told my husband this name with 100% conviction. Just one of those weird gut things, I guess? I can’t say for sure this baby will be our last child, but based on my high-risk pregnancies, it is likely.<\/p>\n

Our first son was born in 2022 and his name, Thomas (Alexander), floated around on our lists for a while\u2014first as a middle name, but we committed to the name about a month before he was born. We call him Thomas, and my approach to nicknames is that they must be OK’d by the bearer and\/or develop naturally. (Also, how hard is it to say ‘Thomas’ instead of Tom or Tommy?!) Alexander is homage to me, Alexa. My husband’s name is Donovan. Neither of us go by nicknames, and my husband has grown out of his childhood family nickname.<\/p>\n

Our main challenge is that my husband is one of nine children, and I have three sisters with six children of their own. We both come from large families beyond that. I tell folks that I’ve probably heard all the names before, or we know someone, etc. I tend to dislike the most popular or trendy names. I guess Thomas is “old-school popular” to me. (Side note, husband has two siblings that are “juniors” of dad AND mom already!)<\/p>\n

I was stuck on Alden for our first son before switching to Thomas. I liked how it was a sort-of mashup with Alexa and Donovan, but my husband has been repeatedly “meh” on it. Desmond was our first frontrunner with this baby\u2014my husband has always loved the name and after a friend used it in 2017, we tabled it for our first son. I like how uncommon it is, but I can’t get over the fact that it was already used by a former friend. It passes the vibe check, but I don’t love it.<\/p>\n

Right now the leading name is Tristan, but I think it’s weirdly alliterative with Thomas already. We like Matthias as a middle name, similar to husband’s middle name (Matthew). There are 25+ names on the veto list, and I think I’m getting overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

As I read back through your blog, I’m interested in your perspective! Each post I read has names with merits, or that I can reconsider in the right light. Either way, I think I need a fresh take. Thank you so much!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am inclined to look for another old-school popular name, like Thomas: a name that FEELS common, and yet there aren’t many in the classrooms. A name that, the last time it was common, every single person with that name went by the standard nicknames, leaving the full name feeling fresh and unexpected.<\/p>\n

Andrew
\nDaniel
\nJames
\nJoseph
\nJoshua
\nMartin
\nMatthew
\nNathan
\nPatrick
\nPeter
\nPhilip
\nStephen<\/p>\n

I am particularly drawn to Daniel and Stephen: I have known numerous of each, all of whom went by Dan and Steve, none of whom went by Daniel and Stephen. I don’t know if the -l\/L- of Daniel is an issue at all; I didn’t notice it until I started to make my usual little sounding-it-out arrangement: Daniel Lynch; Thomas and Daniel. Stephen Lynch; Thomas and Stephen. Other possible sound issues: if Andrew DID go by Drew, does Drew Lynch sound like drool inch? if Philip DID go by Phil, do we have an -l\/L- issue?<\/p>\n

These don’t fall into my “old-school popular, all of them went by a nickname last time around” category, but I also suggest:<\/p>\n

Adam
\nCalvin
\nElliot
\nEmmett
\nEthan
\nGeorge
\nGideon
\nJeremy
\nOwen
\nSimon<\/p>\n

I realize I may have just listed 20+ names straight from the veto list. And certainly none of these will be new to you. But for a sibling group including Natalie and Thomas, I am looking for something more along the lines of “SURPRISINGLY fresh” (i.e., the name John doesn’t seem as if it would have any freshness left after generations of use—until you encounter it on a kindergartner) as opposed to something new and exciting that would be a jolting change of style. I suspect what is needed is not for a name to stand up and slap you, but rather for a name to grow on you sneakily, until you realize you have been thinking of the name warmly and affectionately and now wish to squeeze a baby with that name.<\/p>\n

How did the name Thomas change from a name knocking around as a possible middle name to a name you wanted to squeeze on a baby? Do you remember how it went from “Sure, pretty good name” to being THE NAME? I think it’s very likely something similar will happen this time around.<\/p>\n

Finding the right middle name may help: sometimes hearing the full three-name combination brings a name from “Sure, pretty good name” to “YES.” (Watch the initials: one wouldn’t want to accidentally name a Franklin Matthias Lynch.)<\/p>\n

Calvin Matthias Lynch
\nDaniel Alden Lynch
\nElliot Alden Lynch
\nGeorge Matthias Lynch
\nJames Alden Lynch
\nJoseph Tristan Lynch
\nMartin Matthias Lynch
\nPeter Tristan Lynch
\nPhilip Desmond Lynch
\nStephen Desmond Lynch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi there! My name is Alexa! I am due in March with baby boy #2. My last name is Lynch. We had (and lost) a micropreemie in 2021 named Natalie Marlena. It was still so early, and we didn’t know what we were having\u2014so we had both boy and girl names brainstormed. When I woke […]<\/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-16520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-4is","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16520","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=16520"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16524,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16520\/revisions\/16524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}