G. writes:<\/p>\n
I definitely could use some name advice. <\/p>\n
<\/div>\nWe already have one son, born January 2010, named Noah Christopher. Our last name starts with a hard G like in “goal.” Christopher is my husband’s middle name and he just liked Noah.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nI am due with boy #2 on Feb 25, 2013. We have agreed (for now) on Nathaniel for the first name but are stumped for a middle. Husband’s first name is Johnathan (and it was originally supposed to be John Nathan Christopher until his mother objected), so we’re taking the Nathan from that.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\nI suggested Joshua, my husband’s brother’s name, as a middle. Husband doesn’t like the sound of the J following the ending L.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWe would both consider giving the baby a middle name after my dad, but his names are both fairly awful – Eugene Francis. He does go by Gene (and my name is derived from his), but I don’t think the husband would go for that since Gene has the same starting sound as Joshua. I might try to convince him. My dad doesn’t like his name, so I don’t really feel like pushing past my dislike would be worth it, even though I would love to find a way to incorporate his name.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThere are no other good male family names on either side to choose from, and we’re kind of stumped. Despite what our choices in names indicates, we’re not particularly religious, so no requirements there.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMiddle names husband has rejected so far: Joshua, Lee, Anthony<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nSince both boys have names honoring your husband’s side of the family (and do they also have your husband’s surname?), I feel very motivated to find a middle name that honors your side this time. Perhaps even if your husband doesn’t find the L\/G combination ideal, he can tolerate it for the sake of honor and balance? Nathaniel Gene is great, and I suspect your father would find new appreciation for his name seeing it on his grandson; it’s particularly encouraging that he liked his name well enough to give a version of it to you. And since the two names from your husband’s side are directly from your husband’s own names, it gives a pleasing balance to find a name that reflects your own name as well as your dad’s.<\/p>\n
But if you’re not keen on Gene either, are there any surnames from your side that would make good middle names?<\/p>\n
Or perhaps you could find something that represents your family’s ancestry? Or the name of an important town\/street in your family’s history?<\/p>\n
Or, I suppose we could go back for another name from your husband: if the Nathan- of Nathaniel is from Johnathan, the middle name could be John. Noah Christopher and Nathaniel John. While I’d prefer a better balance of family names, in some families the names just don’t work out that way. And it does appeal to think of both boys having names from their father. And it does make a good naming story: from John Nathan to Johnathan to Nathaniel John. My first choice, though, is still Nathaniel Gene.<\/p>\n
Without the surname, it’s difficult to find more middle names that would sound good with the whole name, but here are some that I like with Nathaniel:<\/p>\n
Nathaniel Charles
Nathaniel David
Nathaniel Davis
Nathaniel Dean
Nathaniel Emmett
Nathaniel Everett
Nathaniel Flynn
Nathaniel Frederick
Nathaniel Henry
Nathaniel Louis
Nathaniel Owen
Nathaniel Peter
Nathaniel Ryan
Nathaniel Sawyer
Nathaniel Scott
Nathaniel Shepard
Nathaniel Tyler
Nathaniel Wesley
Nathaniel Wilson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"G. writes: I definitely could use some name advice. We already have one son, born January 2010, named Noah Christopher. Our last name starts with a hard G like in “goal.” Christopher is my husband’s middle name and he just liked Noah. I am due with boy #2 on Feb 25, 2013. We have agreed […]<\/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-6065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1zP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065","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=6065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}