Kristen writes:<\/p>\n
\nFinalist names:<\/span>
Gwen (our favorite)
Audrey (also a fave, but it’s my mom’s name – sort of feel weird about that)<\/p>\nOther kids:<\/span>
Quinlan Elise, Drew (boy), Margot Laine<\/p>\nSurname:<\/span>
One syllable and starts with a T, so first name shouldn’t start with a T. I don’t love names ending with a t either (other than the silent “t” in Margot). We liked Bridget but rejected it for that reason.<\/p>\nI lean towards older, traditional names that aren’t as popular – like Arwen, Blythe, etc. — all of which my husband hates. He likes stripper names. Heh. But seriously. They sound like strippers. We like Daria as an alternative for Margot but I wanted everyone to have their own letter, so I’m leaving that out as an option right now.
I love the name Gwen and was thinking Audrey Gwen and just calling her Gwen but I’m not sold on naming someone something as a middle name and then using it as a first name. Like, why not just make it her first name.<\/p>\nAnd I don’t really love Gwen Audrey.<\/p>\n
I’d really just like a cool middle name for Gwen. Our kids are not named for anyone in the family, so it doesn’t need to be something sentimental. We’ve been toying with Alexandra and Elizabeth – but I’ve got Elise already and I’m sort of “meh” about having another derivative of Elise.<\/p>\n
Help!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I’m with you: I’d rather not call a child by his or her middle name unless I have some super-compelling reason to do it, such as a naming tradition where it’s necessary to avoid mix-ups.<\/p>\n
So let’s look for a good middle name for Gwen. I THINK Quinlan Elise and Gwen Elizabeth are too similar. The “Quin” of Quinlan is already so close to the sounds of Gwen, it seems like adding a similar middle name is too much similarity.<\/p>\n
I might look first for names starting with D, M, and Q, since you don’t want to use any of those as first names for this or future babies.<\/p>\n
Gwen Daria
Gwen Madigan
Gwen Magnolia
Gwen Mallory
Gwen Marissa
Gwen Matilda
Gwen Melina
Gwen Meredith
Gwen Millicent<\/p>\nI find that with the one-syllable first name and one-syllable surname I like the longer middle names: Magnolia is my favorite from this list, and I like the way it has the same rhythm as the name Elizabeth. Others like that:<\/p>\n
Gwen Amelia
Gwen Cecelia
Gwen Cordelia
Gwen Felicity
Gwen Livinia
Gwen Olivia
Gwen Veronica
Gwen Victoria<\/p>\nAlso Gwen Penelope, but something about that sounds amusing to me.<\/p>\n
But before I act as if Gwen is The Choice, I think Audrey is a wonderful name, and I like the two syllables with your one-syllable surname, and I like how it’s not similar to any of the other kids’ names: Quinlan, Drew, Margot, and Audrey is a very nice assortment. One of my kids is named for my dad and it hasn’t been weird—but then, I also didn’t mind the idea that it might make my pinehole father-in-law wonder why we didn’t use HIS name. Some middle names for Audrey:<\/p>\n
Audrey Carissa
Audrey Corinne
Audrey Gwenyth
Audrey Helene
Audrey Isla
Audrey Jean
Audrey Jocasta
Audrey Joella
Audrey Laurel
Audrey Penelope
Audrey Piper<\/p>\nDo the rest of you want to vote? Not with a poll this time, but just say which of the two names is your favorite, and then list some middle names?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kristen writes: Finalist names:Gwen (our favorite)Audrey (also a fave, but it’s my mom’s name – sort of feel weird about that) Other kids:Quinlan Elise, Drew (boy), Margot Laine Surname:One syllable and starts with a T, so first name shouldn’t start with a T. I don’t love names ending with a t either (other than the […]<\/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-6671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1JB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6671","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=6671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}