Hello Swistle.\u00a0 Thanks for taking the time to read this!\u00a0 We are a two-mom family expecting our second child, another boy, in October.\u00a0 I carried our first son, whom we named Miles Ru$$ell MySurname David$on, and my wife is carrying our second son.\u00a0He will also have four names, First Middle MySurname David$on.\u00a0 We had a long, complex process for naming our first child, involving a huge poster on the wall, pulling different combinations out of a hat, and ultimately making a list of six finalist first names and naming him a day after he was born.\u00a0 We both love the name Miles.\u00a0 Other things to know: Ru$$ell is an honor name from my wife’s side of the family.\u00a0 Also, we have abandoned nearly all of the alternate names we considered for Miles — Quinn, Owen, Preston, and Langston.<\/p>\n
What we’re looking for now feels impossible: a boy name we like as much as Miles that sounds good with Miles and that satisfies her more traditional taste and my slightly more unusual taste.\u00a0 I’m a name maniac, but my initial list of about 30 names was quickly pared down when my wife found most of my suggestions way too wildly unfamiliar.\u00a0 To give you a sense of her style, I will say that she strongly objected to Haskell, which I liked, and Dashiell, which I presented as a variaton on my father’s name, which is Darryl.<\/p>\n
I would like to use a name from my side of the family somewhere in there, although we are not making that a requirement.\u00a0 We also prefer that it not be another M name (my name also starts with an M), but we are not firm on that. Finally we have pretty much ruled out any name ending in “son,” to avoid repetition with the last name David$on.<\/p>\n
Qualities we like a name to evoke are kindness and intelligence.\u00a0 For me, creativity would be a plus, but I don’t necessarily need an artist name.\u00a0 We’re less into names that come across as macho, if that helps, but we also are not looking for an androgynous name.<\/p>\n
If we’d had a girl, top names would have been Delia Claire and\u00a0Hazel Magdalena.<\/p>\n
Here’s what’s left of our list.\u00a0 Family names from\u00a0 my side include Charles, Glenn, George, and Sever.\u00a0 I strongly prefer to use Glenn somewhere because it honors both my dad and grandfather, but my wife is so-so on it.\u00a0 She likes Sever (rhymes with Weaver) but thinks that everyone would pronounce it SEH-ver and that he’d have to constantly correct people.\u00a0 She suggests adding an A to make it Seaver, but to me that seems like an entirely different sort of name.\u00a0 Sever is a Norweigan first name from my great-great grandfather, and I just can’t handle how the letter A changes the feel of the name for me.\u00a0 I would consider Seever, but maybe that is too weird?\u00a0 We are on the verge of abandoning Sever altogether.<\/p>\n
Edgar and James are family names from my wife’s side that we both like.\u00a0 If we used one, though, I’d want to use it with one of my family names for balance, especially because we have chosen to use her surname for the kids.<\/p>\n
Here are the other names we both somewhat like.\u00a0 You can see they are all over the place because we have such different styles.\u00a0 Otis, Luke, Clark, Vaughn, Leo, Sawyer, Amos, Graham, Grant, Hugh, and Silas.\u00a0\u00a0Leo and Luke are the ones she is most comfortable with, but I think she is\u00a0warming up to Otis too.<\/p>\n
We are considering using the name Falkner as a first or middle.\u00a0 It is a reference to a place that is meaningful to us, and it was almost Miles’s middle name until we decided to use an honor name in its place.<\/p>\n
We have been calling the baby Chet in utero (long story).\u00a0 We could use Chet as a nickname for Charles.\u00a0 I think it sounds good with Miles: Miles and Chet.\u00a0 This brings up the issue of a possible musician theme.\u00a0 When people see the name Miles David$on, they assume our son was named after Miles Davis.\u00a0 He was not, but we don’t mind the association because it is a pleasant one to us.\u00a0 However, if we name our second child Chet or Otis, will the musical theme seem intentional?\u00a0 And would that matter?\u00a0 It doesn’t really bother me, but should it?<<\/p>\n
Oh, and my surname starts with an O, for the purposes of inital cross-checking for weird words.\u00a0 Like, Otis Glenn would have the initials OGOD, and would that be okay? Hee hee.<\/p>\n
Oh, yeah — are Miles and Charles too similar sounding?\u00a0 We’d probably call a Charles by Chet or Charlie, but still…<\/p>\n
We’d love any additional name ideas, as well as feedback on our current ideas.\u00a0 We’d be grateful for the help!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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The extensive naming process and 6-name finalist list for your first son can be a comfort when naming your second: the name that now seems perfect didn’t stand out as perfect from the start. The next name you choose may very well follow the same path: not standing out as obviously perfect before it’s chosen, but growing into a name just as perfect as Miles grew to be.<\/p>\n
Miles and Charles do sound a little matched-ending to me, but not to the point of ruling out the name—and I love the tie-in to the baby’s in-tum nickname.<\/p>\n
I do think people will pronounce Sever like the words sever and seven, but that in the middle name slot it wouldn’t be an issue. I too would be resisting changing the spelling, since it’s a family name. I like something like Elliot Sever OSurname David$on. But it seems like the name of a great-great grandfather is much less of an honor name than the name of your dad and grandfather, so I’d be under-motivated to use it.<\/p>\n
I would sell Glenn as a sort of nature name: “a forest glen” has a much prettier spin. Or I might mention Glenn Close. Or I might say, “It’s not my style either, but it’s an important honor name for me.”<\/p>\n
The musical theme is only slightly noticeable to me with Miles David$on (I thought “…Hey, that is ringing a bell…”) (I did figure out why after a moment), and a brother named Chet or Otis wouldn’t have raised any connection for me at all. But I’m almost completely unmusical, so I think we need feedback from people who would immediately have wondered if it were intentional. As to whether it should bother you (when it doesn’t naturally), I don’t think so. When the connections aren’t negative, I think it’s mainly a problem when the parents are bothered by other people questioning\/assuming the connection (“I don’t want them to think we used Jack and Rose because of Titanic!”)—and if that hasn’t bothered you with Miles David$on, I don’t think it’s an issue.<\/p>\n
I did notice Miles and Otis sounding like Milo and Otis<\/a>—even though I’ve never seen the movie and it’s over twenty years old. I think I noticed it because long long ago when I was considering Milo<\/a> for the child who turned out to be Henry, a bunch of people mentioned the movie; and, since then, on our many cat-acquiring quests to animal shelters, I’ve noticed a large number of orange cats named Milo. (Not as many as black-and-white cats named Oreo, but close.)<\/p>\n I am trying to hold myself back from OVER-PUSHING you to use George. I love that name and I think it’s the perfect companion name for other revival names like Max and Jack and Sam and Henry and Oliver. It sits right on the line of “completely traditional” and “whimsical\/interesting\/unusual.” It has long roots and it has George Clooney, and I’m just not sure I can stand the wonderfulness of George Falkner OSurname David$on. Miles and George! I love it.<\/p>\n For kindness and intelligence (while still trying to find something between traditional and unusual), I like:<\/p>\n Edmund …Okay, so that’s pretty much my own boy name list. But I think “kindness and intelligence and not overly macho” is a very good way to describe what I too look for in a boy name. And since George and Milo\/Miles and Charles and Leo have ALL been on my list TOO, the others from the list sprang to my mind.<\/p>\n The one I keep coming back to (other than George) is Elliot. Elliot David$on; Miles and Elliot.<\/p>\n With Hugh and Leo both on the your list, I also suggest Hugo. Hugo Charles OSurname David$on; Miles and Hugo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Name update!<\/b> Melissa writes:<\/p>\n We are happy to announce the arrival of Hugo Carl On$tad David$on on Tuesday, October 23 after 37 hours of labor!\u00a0 We went to the hospital with a list of first names, and it didn’t take long to determine he looked like a Hugo. We considered the middle name Atticus for its literary and historical connections, but my desire for an honor name was strong and we ultimately chose the middle name Carl after my great-grandfather.\u00a0 The suggestions and input provided by you and your readers were helpful — when you recommended Hugo, you gave me the courage to add it to the list.\u00a0 Thanks again for your thoughtful help.<\/p>\n Melissa writes: Hello Swistle.\u00a0 Thanks for taking the time to read this!\u00a0 We are a two-mom family expecting our second child, another boy, in October.\u00a0 I carried our first son, whom we named Miles Ru$$ell MySurname David$on, and my wife is carrying our second son.\u00a0He will also have four names, First Middle MySurname David$on.\u00a0 We […]<\/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-6142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1B4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6142","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=6142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9464,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6142\/revisions\/9464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nElliot
\nEmmett
\nEverett
\nFelix
\nHenry
\nIan
\nKarl
\nLouis
\nMalcolm
\nOliver
\nSimon
\nWesley<\/p>\n![\"Hugo\"](\"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Hugo.jpg\")
<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"