I just love your blog and am seeking some help in naming our second baby. We have a 21 month old daughter named, Adeline Elizabeth. My name is Katherine Elizabeth (but I go by Katie) and my husband’s name is Ryan Neal. Adeline was a very easy choice as my favorite author is Virginia Woolf, whose given first name was Adeline. My husband also immediately loved this name and it just fit from the beginning.<\/p>\n
Adeline and all of our future children have my husband’s last name of Gudayle–pronounced just like a synonym for good beer. I have kept my own last name. We are due with our second baby in July and are having a difficult time naming him or her (we aren’t finding out the gender). We had a miscarriage right before getting pregnant with this baby; this was an extremely emotionally difficult loss for me and I think is a very big reason why I am finding it difficult to narrow our name list for this baby, who is now 19 weeks and (knock on wood) doing great. I was hoping to give you our (not so) short list and you could pick your favorite(s).<\/p>\n
One more little note before the list. Since our children have my husband’s last name, it is important that I feel like my family is represented in the middle spot. So likely middle name choices for this baby are: Marie, Margaret, Eva, Emma, Arthur, Justus, and Vincent.<\/p>\n
So here’s our list (I’ve grouped some names together because I think they are similar sounding or nicknames of each other)<\/p>\n
Girls
\nViolet (my long time favorite, but I can’t quite commit 100%)
\nEloise\/ Louisa\/ Louise
\nJane
\nCelia
\nBeatrice
\nSusanna<\/p>\n
Boys
\nArthur\/Artie
\nFrank\/Francis\/Franklin
\nCalvin\/Cal
\nWalter\/Walt
\nDean
\nPercy<\/p>\n
Thanks so much! And I really hope to hear from you and your readers!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
and<\/p>\n
I had previously written you the below email and I (being the obsessive namer, of course) had a few additional thoughts to add.<\/p>\n
1. I think my problem and my husband’s problem of committing to a name is that we had bonded with the baby that we lost. In our heads and hearts, he or she was Frank or Violet. Because we got pregnant so quickly after (about 10 days!) our loss, our favorite names hadn’t really changed so we anticipated using these 2 names for our new baby. However, at this point doing that doesn’t feel right; it doesn’t feel like it is fair to the baby we lost or the baby growing now.<\/p>\n
2. Our criteria for names for both genders are names that we feel are strong and will mature well with our child, but are still aesthetically pleasing in sound and looks. The meaning and association of a name is also important–specifically I tend to like names that I have a strong and positive association to a person in history (especially authors) with the same name.<\/p>\n
Thanks so much again!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Before your second email, I would have said Violet! Use Violet! After your second email, I’ve changed my mind. It’s not that I feel the name ought<\/i> to be or should<\/i> be or must<\/i> be ruled out in every situation like this, but it sounds to me as if in this particular situation it just isn’t going to feel right to you. It’s possible that the names Frank and Violet will go back on the list for a future baby, but it sounds like it’s too soon for this baby.<\/p>\n
In that case, my favorites from your girl name list are ALL OF THEM. Oh, is that not helpful? All right, I will choose: Eloise. It’s on my own favorites list so I lean toward it anyway, but it’s also my favorite with your surname and with the name Adeline. I’d pick Margaret for the middle name. Eloise Margaret Gudayle; Adeline and Eloise. Hm, or maybe I’d choose Eloise Eva. I like both, and I also think Eloise Marie works well.<\/p>\n
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