Jen writes:<\/p>\n
Hi Swistle!
\nHere we are, baby #3 and you would think we’ve never done this naming business before. But, we are stumped. I think that we could name a gaggle of girls, but now that we are faced with naming a boy, we are stuck. We have 2 girls, Tatum and Campbell. There was a short list when naming both girls, but the one name that kept creeping up during both of their births was Barrett. Any other names have long since been forgotten.
\nAs we consider names, we definitely want something that isn’t too popular. My husband and I are Jennifer and Jason, complete with my brother, another Jason and his sister, another Jennifer. I would love for my children to only be identified by their first names and not by their first names and the first initial of their last name like we all had to deal with throughout our lives. Since our girls names are more masculine, we want a boy’s name that is different, but doesn’t take on too much of a feminine quality. My husband is also beginning to fight for names that are more “normal” but I still want to stay away from popular. I guess we are trying to find a middle ground that might include a mainstream name, but not too mainstream.
\nOur last name is a verb that ends in -er, so most names with an -er ending are out. I am also not a fan of many of the -den names like Caden, Braden, Jaden and Brendan. Our family is oversaturated with biblical names including Samson, Samuel, Seth, Silas, Gabriel, Simon and Shadrach, so I’d like to avoid duplication of those. The only other semi-restriction we have on names is that we would like to avoid a name that lends itself easily to a nickname. While we still love Barrett for a boy, we are worried about him being called Barry. A name that could be shortened isn’t out, but we’d have to consider it carefully.
\nWe aren’t set on a middle name yet, although we are considering both Jason and Brett. These aren’t set in stone though because we are more concerned with figuring out the first name. The current list of names only includes names that I like and my husband is mostly indifferent about. Unfortunately, he hasn’t brought any names to the table, so I’m stuck. My list includes: Cullen, Graham, Elliot, Griffin and Reed. If I could get past the popularity issue, I also like Landon, but in my mind, it’s out because it’s so common these days. Names that have been rejected include Jace, Stellan, Gage, Deacon, Atticus, and Slade.
\nAny suggestions you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Our boy is expected to arrive at the end of January and I’m starting to get a little nervous since we seem to be at a standstill.
\nThanks!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nBarrett sounds like a very good choice to me. It’s unusual but not unheard-of, and I suspect you could avoid Barry (though he might one day choose it for himself). (I became more fond of the name Barry, too, after having a smart\/cute\/funny one as a co-worker.)<\/p>\nThere’s also Merritt, but with the sibling names I think it sounds too feminine. (I think it would be a great option if later on you have another girl. Beckett, too, would be a great name for a third girl.) (Now I’m getting really off-topic, but Jenson would be charming for a girl, if you liked the idea of combining your names—or you could say she was named for her aunt and her uncle! …Okay, now I will get back to work.)<\/p>\n
If you want to move slightly more mainstream but without losing the no-surname-initial-required thing you’ve got going so far, I suggest using surname names that have mainstream nicknames. Bennett, for example: it continues your surname theme, but with the mainstreame nickname Ben. Tatum, Campbell, and Bennett. (I realize this completely ignores your preference for non-nicknameable names, but I still think it might work as a compromise idea.)<\/p>\n
On the topic of Ben, in school I had a classmate named Benton. Tatum, Campbell, and Benton.<\/p>\n
Similar to Bennett\/Ben is Nicholson\/Nick. Again, it’s a mainstream nickname with an unexpected full version. Tatum, Campbell, and Nicholson.<\/p>\n
Another: Davis. He can use Dave if he wants to (though it was only in thinking of it with Bennett and Nicholson that I realized that was an option), but the name Davis is handsome and unusual and masculine. Tatum, Campbell, and Davis.<\/p>\n
Another: Anderson. I don’t think I’d use the nickname Andy, but it would be nice to have it available. Tatum, Campbell, and Anderson.<\/p>\n
Or Edison, handsome AND smart, and with the potential nickname Ed if he wants it. Tatum, Campbell, and Edison.<\/p>\n
Or Robinson, which gives you Rob. Tatum, Campbell, and Robinson.<\/p>\n
Or Jacoby, the unusual surname version of the fully mainstream name Jacob. Tatum, Campbell, and Jacoby.<\/p>\n
I wonder if you’d like Aidric? It has a familiar\/traditional sound (Aiden\/Eric), but it’s uncommon. Tatum, Campbell, and Aidric.<\/p>\n
Keaton is familiar but not overly common. Tatum, Campbell, and Keaton.<\/p>\n
This would be such a good sibling group for an honor surname. Maybe an old family surname, for something both uncommon and familiar? Or the surname of a favorite author or scientist or actor?<\/p>\n
We just recently discussed the name Lennox, so it’s on my mind. Tatum, Campbell, and Lennox.<\/p>\n
One of my favorite boy surname names is Lawson. Tatum, Campbell, and Lawson.<\/p>\n
Another of my favorites is Lincoln. I love the nickname Linc, and its familiarity as a surname makes it feel more traditional\/mainstream. Tatum, Campbell, and Lincoln.<\/p>\n
Another is Sullivan, with the nickname Sully. Tatum, Campbell, and Sullivan.<\/p>\n
I like Malcolm for you. It’s unusual, it’s all boy, and it ties the sibling names together with a subtle M theme. Tatum, Campbell, and Malcolm. Actually, now that I write it out, I think it might have too many sounds in common with Campbell.<\/p>\n
I like Everett even better. It’s similar to Elliot (I think in this sibling group, Elliot might be too feminine), it’s boyish and surnamey, it’s uncommon but familiar. Tatum, Campbell, and Everett.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Name update!<\/strong> Jen writes:<\/p>\n
I’m excited to tell you that he arrived on January 24th. At a healthy 9 lbs, 12 oz. and 21 1\/2 inches long, he is loving the attention from big sisters Tatum and Campbell. And his name? Lincoln Brett!
\nThanks for all your help, we couldn’t be happier with our name choice!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jen writes: Hi Swistle! Here we are, baby #3 and you would think we’ve never done this naming business before. But, we are stumped. I think that we could name a gaggle of girls, but now that we are faced with naming a boy, we are stuck. We have 2 girls, Tatum and Campbell. There […]<\/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-5853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1wp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5853","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=5853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9628,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5853\/revisions\/9628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}