Nora writes:<\/p>\n
my husband and i have…an issue. our baby isn’t due til halloween (and i hope she comes that day, how great would that be!) but we are a little freaked out about the whole thing. for lots of reasons, but one of them is the name!<\/p>\n
this will be our first child. we want to have at least 3, maybe 4. the names that we BOTH like and also would both be willing to actually use are:<\/p>\n
girls<\/p>\n
Anna
\nAmelia
\nCatherine
\nCaroline
\nCharlotte
\nElizabeth
\nHannah
\nIsabelle
\nMargaret
\nSophie
\nVictoria<\/p>\nboys<\/p>\n
Andrew
\nAdam
\nEdward
\nGeorge
\nHenry
\nIsaac
\nNoah
\nOliver
\nSamuel<\/p>\nso you can see, fairly classic names. Our names are Nora and Thomas, so we fit in with that kind of pattern as well. the thing is, hubs and i grew up together, and we’ve always wanted to honor a family that was very important to us growing up with our first child. their surname was Malone. well, it still is. we can’t overestimate what this family did for us–every last one of them which is why we want to use their surname not one first name. the trouble is, Malone doesn’t go with the other names that we like, and it isn’t our style generally. If we have 4 kids and we name them Malone, Hannah, Edward and Oliver isnt that going to feel weird for Malone? and are we dooming her to a life of being called Baloney?<\/p>\n
We really, really want to honor this family, though. and we don’t want to use it as a middle–there is a tradition in my family that the firstborn girl always has the middle name Rose, so that will be her middle.<\/p>\n
oh–surname is like bells but with a W (kids will have my surname).<\/p>\n
thank you!!!!!!!!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nConsidering sibling names from the very first child is one of the best ways to make the naming process smoother later on. Because many people DON’T consider it ahead of time, AND because many people have naming traditions in their families that result in using a name for their first child that would not be their usual choice, I think it’s relatively common to have the first child’s name not quite line up with the others. I think it can even be a bit of a point of pride for the first child.<\/p>\nAnd of course, it can also be a bit of a burden. So. It comes down to this, I think: do you love the name? Do you want to use it? Do you love it and want to use it enough to take it with its complete assortment of upsides and downsides? (It’s like a marriage, isn’t it? Do you take this name for better and for worse?) There are other ways to thank and honor a family that meant so much to you, if you decide not to do this particular one—though of course, this is an especially spectacular way!<\/p>\n