S. writes:<\/p>\n
Hey there, Swistle!
I’m in need of help!!
I’m due on LABOR DAY (good one, right?!) with my first born baby girl.<\/p>\nMy boyfriend and I are having trouble selecting a name despite a long list we’ve managed to narrow down. We love Shakespeare and intially were looking to tie in names with a meaning in some way. We also anticipate a spunky, fiery daughter so we want her name to have some sass!<\/p>\n
FYI: Last name T@ylor.<\/p>\n
These are the names we’ve been stuck on for quite a while, though my dear beau has his favorite that I’ve been leaning towards but still cant commit to…I still have other favorites in this mix.<\/p>\n
Jaqueline Elise T@ylor
Juliet Elena T@ylor
Penelope Corinne T@ylor
Fiona Wren T@ylor
Cecelia Pearl T@ylor
Camryn Kay T@ylor
Elliot Reese T@ylor
Marlowe Maeve T@ylor
Gwendolyn Elena T@ylor<\/p>\nWe did, for the most part, nix Jacqueline. Mostly because he’s always pronounced the name like “Jaclyn” and I’ve always loved it as a 3 syllable name with the “que” pronounced smoothly as in “question” and I’d hate going through life hearing it pronounced incorrectly (in my opinion – ha!). His sister begged us to avoid Jacqueline due to horrid nicknames, which I don’t mind as much – kids will be kids. But there’s also the potential of us having another child in the future and my dear partner has always favored “Jack” for a boy.<\/p>\n
The middle name Elena stems from “Helena” in Midsummer. Obviously there are a number of other names related to Shakespeare on the list as well I won’t single out. Marlowe is from the playwright Christopher Marlowe – a very interesting man with ties to Shakespeare. We like nicknames for a child – but do prefer an adult-sounding adult name, if you will, which causes me to feel slightly hung up about Penelope – though I do love that name. Might be too cutesy, I don’t know… <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I also have some reservations about Elliott, as I’m fearful the nickname will be Ellie which is nearly identical to my own name (lacking a few consonants) and that’s far too rhymey for me.<\/p>\n
(I’ll also mention we’ve gone through a number of boyish names for our girl in addition to Elliott\/Camryn we’ve considered Dylan, Dru, Charlie, Griffin and a variety of others I can’t recall at this moment…)<\/p>\n
Marlowe has been in the top for me since the beginning – I’m open to alternate spellings – but don’t know how I feel about people calling her Marley, given the dog and\/or the Bob reference. I do favor Cecelia Pearl and Fiona Wren as well.<\/p>\n
The boyfriend has been partial to Gwendolyn Elena (he enjoys the lyrical flow) for quite some time now and I’ve nearly convinced myself of OFFICIALLY selecting this as her name. But I worry that it’s quite a refined name for what I hope will be a quirky chickadee. Also, if everyone ALWAYS calls her Gwen – why name her Gwendolyn? As it’s such a wonderfully lovely name…<\/p>\n
I’m all torn up as you can see!<\/p>\n
Anyway – that’s far too much information, I am sure. Maybe you can steer me in a clear direction or offer up some alternatives? I’d love to hear some thoughts from your commenters as well.<\/p>\n
Thank you so much!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Gwendolyn is my favorite from the list as well. I don’t think everyone will always call her Gwen unless you establish it that way (nicknames are much less common\/assumed than they used to be), and I think the full name has the drama you’re looking for. It sounds refined\/dignified to me, but also fiery\/quirky and also sweet\/gentle—a very nice range of options for a child whose personality remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
I’d also suggest Genevieve and Georgia. Both have that same range of options, sweet to fiery, plus good nicknames for even more flexibility. I especially recommend Georgia because of your possible interest in boyish names for girls: Georgia lets you use Georgie and George as nicknames, while still giving an official name that is unmistakably girl. Georgia also has the ultra-sass nickname Gigi. But Genevieve has good ones too: Genna, Genny, Evie, Vee.<\/p>\n
My next choice from your list is Fiona. Tons of sass and spirit and energy, and yet I can also picture it on a quiet bookish girl.
And I suggest Francesca. Frannie and Chess are both great nicknames, and the name is full of personality and flair.<\/p>\nI think a decade ago, Penelope might have been more whimsical than what you were looking for. But its recent rapid rise in popularity should help considerably with that: according to the Social Security Administration, it appeared in the Top 1000 in 2001 at #946; just ten years later in 2011, it was already at #169. It still has an appealing whimsy, but I don’t think it’ll sound cutesy by the time all those Penelopes hit the workforce.<\/p>\n
Two of my own Shakespearean favorites are Bianca and Imogen.<\/p>\n
If you like boyish names for girls, I suggest putting one in the middle name slot. It gives your girl the option of using it if it suits her, without giving as much trouble with future sibling names. Gwendolyn Elliot, Georgia Dylan, Cecelia Grey, Francesca Quinn, Fiona Wesley, Bianca Riley, Imogen Sterling, Penelope August.<\/p>\n
If initials are important to you, I’ll point out that Jacqueline\/Juliet E. T@ylor both spell JET, and Gwendolyn\/Genevieve\/Georgia E. T@ylor gives you GET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
S. writes: Hey there, Swistle!I’m in need of help!!I’m due on LABOR DAY (good one, right?!) with my first born baby girl. My boyfriend and I are having trouble selecting a name despite a long list we’ve managed to narrow down. We love Shakespeare and intially were looking to tie in names with a meaning […]<\/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-6157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1Bj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6157","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=6157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}