{"id":6029,"date":"2012-12-03T11:22:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T15:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2012\/12\/03\/baby-girl-or-boy-reese-sibling-to-harper-and-rowan\/"},"modified":"2014-06-17T14:32:49","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T18:32:49","slug":"baby-girl-or-boy-reese-sibling-to-harper-and-rowan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2012\/12\/03\/baby-girl-or-boy-reese-sibling-to-harper-and-rowan\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl or Boy Reese, Sibling to Harper and Rowan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebecca writes:<\/p>\n

\n
Returning customer<\/a> here, hoping for some inspiration. Or something like that. Here’s the low-down; we are expecting baby #3, gender unknown, on 12\/28\/12. Our last name is Reese, my husband’s name is Benjamin, I’m Rebecca, and we have 2 girls, Harper Grace and Rowan Kate. We’re about 4 weeks away from meeting this baby and our baby name spreadsheet (my husband insisted we get ‘serious’ and make a spreadsheet) is feeling lackluster, and really, kind of all over the place.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
My only ‘rules’ when it comes to naming are that you must be able to look at the name and pronounce it (no crazy spelling), nothing that sticks out weirdly with siblings’ names (Harper, Rowan, & Bob would be a no-go), and preferably nothing that starts with an ‘H’ or an ‘R’.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Here’s my predicament: when thinking about names for this baby, I realized there is one girl name that I have loved since my first pregnancy, but never had the guts to use; Scout. It made me question if I would regret never using this name if this were to be our last child. I have loved the name Scout since first reading ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ in 7th grade. Here are my qualms with the name:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
-our firstborn’s name is Harper, not after Harper Lee, but I also don’t want to be to ‘theme-y’.<\/div>\n
-I can definitely envision a cute toddler girl named Scout–a 35-year-old woman, not so much.<\/div>\n
-is it just too weird?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I feel like I already think of this baby (if it is a girl) as Scout in my head, so maybe that should give me an inclination. I would prefer to use it as a first name, and give her a more feminine middle. Here are a few of our possibilities, as well as the rest of our list of girl names:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
-Scout Eleanor<\/div>\n
-Scout Noelle<\/div>\n
-Scout Madeline<\/div>\n
-Lola Jane<\/div>\n
-Sawyer<\/div>\n
-Navy<\/div>\n
-Ivy<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Basically all over the place, right? I know. Here’s the boy names we have so far–I like most of them, but I don’t have that ‘aha! its love!!’ feeling about any of them. I think I want something different, but not completely crazy (the middle name would most likely be Benjamin, after my husband).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
-Graham<\/div>\n
-Jude<\/div>\n
-Finn<\/div>\n
-Everett<\/div>\n
-August<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Please tell me how nutty I am. Any and all advice\/suggestions are welcome!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Thank you, Swistle!!<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Because my primary association with the name Harper is the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, I would not recommend using the name Scout for the sister of a Harper. I also think Scout seems too nicknamey with your other girls’ names, and I agree it’s not a name I would want for myself as a grown woman, and just as a final blow I don’t think it works well with the surname.<\/p>\n

However, I notice both of your daughters have one-syllable middle names; Scout might be a perfect middle name for a third girl. It’s common for parents to think of a fetus by a certain nickname (Peanut, for example, or Bean, or Bear), and less common to be able to use it nicely as part of the actual name like this.<\/p>\n

I’m looking over the other girl names on your list, and I don’t see anything that seems right with sisters Harper and Rowan. Madeline seems too feminine, Eleanor is a completely different style, Sawyer seems too boyish, Navy seems too unusual. Maybe Lola or Ivy—but Lola Scout seems like too much distinctiveness for one name, and Ivy Scout seems like too many nouns.<\/p>\n

Or actually, maybe Noelle. At first it seemed too different\/feminine, but when I say the three names together I start to change my mind: Harper, Rowan, and Noelle. I can see those as sisters. Harper Grace, Rowan Kate, and Noelle Scout.<\/p>\n

Or I wonder if you’d like Stella? It has some of the sound of Noelle, but has a better rhythm with the middle name Scout: Harper Grace, Rowan Kate, and Stella Scout.<\/p>\n

The name Isla comes to mind. Harper, Rowan, and Isla.<\/p>\n

Or maybe Imogen would be better: Harper, Rowan, and Imogen.<\/p>\n

Or Madigan would be nice: Harper, Rowan and Madigan.<\/p>\n

Or Averil—I like the way it gives each girl an R sound. Harper, Rowan, and Averil.<\/p>\n

Or Finley: Harper, Rowan, and Finley.<\/p>\n

Or Ainsley: Harper, Rowan, and Ainsley.<\/p>\n

Or Darcy: Harper, Rowan, and Darcy. But maybe Har and Dar are too similar.<\/p>\n

Or Delaney: Harper, Rowan, and Delaney.<\/p>\n

Looking up the name Harper in The Baby Name Wizard<\/a> (Rowan isn’t there for girls; I hope it will be in the next edition), I see she’d recommend Marlowe, Piper, Scarlett, Tatum, and Emerson; I think Marlowe, Emerson, and Scarlett would work well. And you’re not going to find Nickname-Conservative Swistle endorsing this, but I’ve heard of people using Scout as a nickname for Scarlett. But maybe the name Scarlett Reese would bring Scarlett and Rhett too readily to mind?<\/p>\n

From the boy name list, my favorite is Everett. Other names similar to Everett: Elliot and Emmett and Evan.<\/p>\n

Some of the others seem choppy to me with the surname. I do think 1-1 syllable names can work (Brad Pitt and Sean Penn are excellent examples), but I can’t tell if Jude Reese and Finn Reese work.<\/p>\n

Sawyer from your girl name list is another possibility. Sawyer Benjamin Reese; Harper, Rowan, and Sawyer.<\/p>\n

Griffin would be nice, and you could still have Finn as a nickname. Griffin Benjamin Reese; Harper, Rowan, and Griffin.<\/p>\n

Or Grady. Harper, Rowan, and Grady.<\/p>\n

Or Malcolm. Harper, Rowan, and Malcolm.<\/p>\n

Or Wilson. Harper, Rowan, and Wilson.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name update!<\/b> Rebecca writes:<\/p>\n

Hello again!
\nJust wanted to give you a name update…we had a baby BOY(!) on December 21, 2012. After a few hours of debate & hoping to just look at him and have some divine inspiration for a name, we decided on Everett Benjamin. Thanks to you and all of your wonderful readers for the input, we appreciated it so much!
\n\"Screen<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca writes: Returning customer here, hoping for some inspiration. Or something like that. Here’s the low-down; we are expecting baby #3, gender unknown, on 12\/28\/12. Our last name is Reese, my husband’s name is Benjamin, I’m Rebecca, and we have 2 girls, Harper Grace and Rowan Kate. We’re about 4 weeks away from meeting this […]<\/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-6029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1zf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029","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=6029"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9355,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6029\/revisions\/9355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}