Amy writes:
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I could really use your help. We are expecting our second child on December 12 (scheduled c-section) and I can’t come to like the boys name my husband loves. We are not finding out whether this little one is a boy or a girl until birth so we have to have both a boy and a girl name chosen. <\/p>\n
My name is Amy and my husband is Troy and our last name is the oh so common Johnson. Our first child is Luke Edward and his first name is one I have always loved and his middle name is after my maternal grandfather who passed away while I was pregnant. We are sticking with the plan of using a family name as the middle name for this child but I feel like we need to include my husband’s family this time although the options are not very good (my mother-in-law has even told me not to worry about their side because she knows the options aren’t great). We don’t know yet if this will be our last child or not. Our styles from The Baby Name Wizard tend toward antique charm, timeless and biblical.<\/p>\n
We have decided on a girls name–Hannah Elizabeth. Hannah again because I really like it and Elizabeth is my middle name along with my mom and grandmother. Other top girl names we’ve considered: Molly, Brooke and Abigail.<\/p>\n
Okay, so on to the boys name. We have decided to use my husband’s middle name, Anthony, as a middle name because we feel this is the best option from the family list. I feel like it greatly limits what first names we can use. The current top choice and my husband’s favorite is Eric Anthony. There is something about two vowel names that is bugging me. I don’t feel like they flow very well. Of course you’ve said numerous times that full names aren’t used too often but I can’t imagine high school graduation with Eric Anthony Johnson. I like both names but just not together. I also think that Eric goes well with Luke. So, help please!<\/p>\n
Other top boy first names we both like:
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Grant (my top, hubby is okay with it)
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Ethan (we both like)
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Kent (his favorite but I don’t like at all)
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Tyler (okay for both of us)<\/p>\nOther family names for a middle name:
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Charles (my side)
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James (my side)
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Lyle (my side)
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Michael (his side but not great association for me)
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Hugo (his side)
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Alvin (his side)
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Walter (his side but not a favorite person in the family)<\/p>\nI welcome any and all suggestions! Thank you so very, very much!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I really like the sound of Eric and Anthony together. But such things are hugely subjective; if you don’t like the way the names sound together, let’s see if we can find something else.<\/p>\n
My main advice is to choose the first name first, get that completely settled, and then choose the middle name. Anthony may seem like the best choice when looking at a list of middle names by themselves, but a completely different favorite may emerge if you start with the first name you love. Right now, you’re being greatly limited in your first name choice by a restriction that doesn’t have to be there. (And this probably goes without saying, but of course you can also decide not to use a family name in the middle-name slot at all. Or, if you change the concept to “a name of significance,” then it can also be a friend’s name or a place name.)<\/p>\n
If Eric is the agreed-upon first-choice name, try it with the other middle names on your list. I’m scratching out Michael and Walter, because it seems like honor names work best when it’s someone you want to honor. Eric Charles Johnson. Eric James Johnson. Eric Lyle Johnson. Eric Hugo Johnson. Eric Alvin Johnson. Do any of those sound better to you? Or would Eric Troy Johnson work?<\/p>\n
Changing the middle name also frees up Ethan. Ethan Charles Johnson. Ethan James Johnson. Ethan Lyle Johnson. Ethan Hugo Johnson. Ethan Troy Johnson.<\/p>\n
You may have already tried this, but I find there are sometimes a lot of good family names to be found among the surnames. Mother-in-law’s maiden name? Grandmother-in-law’s maiden name? Your own maiden name? If it would be pleasing to honor your husband’s side, you could also look in the family tree for names such as the name of the first person in their family to emigrate, or any other family member with a good story.<\/p>\n
Another possibility is to use the family name as the first name. Luke and Charlie is a very cute combination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amy writes: I could really use your help. We are expecting our second child on December 12 (scheduled c-section) and I can’t come to like the boys name my husband loves. We are not finding out whether this little one is a boy or a girl until birth so we have to have both a […]<\/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-6282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1Dk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6282","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=6282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}