Jennifer writes:<\/p>\n
I’d love your (and your readers!) help with figuring out a name for our second son. In theory, he’s due September 8, but I’m already having contractions, so who knows when he will actually arrive (my first was early). Our last name sounds like Poyer, and unfortunately, my husband and I don’t have a lot of overlap in our name tastes. I tend to like uncommon but familiar western names (think Graham, Alexander, or Dominic), whereas my husband likes even more unusual names (Ellis, Anders, or Cyrus).<\/p>\n
For our first son, we finessed the issue by naming our son after our fathers, giving him a very common, traditional first name (John) and a Chinese middle name which is essentially unheard of in the States. His nickname, Kue, (pronounced like the letter Q) is based on his middle name.<\/p>\n
There are a few characteristics that we do NOT want for a name:
* is currently very popular (e.g., any of the _aydens)
* does not have a good nickname (of course, this is a grey area)
* is not a “real” name (I know this is a grey area too)
* starts with the letter K or the letter Q (due to our first son’s name)
* has a strong religious connotation (e.g. Moses)
* is a variant of “John” (e.g. Ian)<\/p>\nThe only name we come close to agreeing on is Griffin, but neither of us loves it. My top contender is Graham, but my husband doesn’t like it. My husband’s top choice is Ellis, but I am not excited about people calling my son El (which makes me think Elle) for short. Other names we’ve considered but rejected include: Desmond, Everett, Nicolas, and Micah (mine, rejected by my husband) and Linnell, Malkmus, Munro, and Riven (my husband’s, rejected by me). Still on the consideration list are: Dominic, Alexander, Anders, Cyrus, but they are all just hanging on by a thread, as we are not too fond of the others’ picks.<\/p>\n
Help!<\/p>\n
Thanks!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The name Griffin makes me think of names like Finn, Finian, Flynn. Finian can be used with the nickname Finn, which sounds good with Kue.<\/p>\n
Ellis makes me think of Harris or Harrison, with the nickname Harry.<\/p>\n
Anders makes me think of Anderson—and now that we have Harrison and Anderson I’m thinking of Nicholson and Everson instead of Nicolas\/Everett.<\/p>\n
Griffin and Everett make me think of Garrett.<\/p>\n
Ellis and Everett make me think of Elliot. There’s still the potential “El” problem, especially since there aren’t any other good nicknames, but Li\/Lee might work as a nickname to fend off El.<\/p>\n
Micah and Malkmus make me think of Malcolm. Or Michael, which is so good with John, and perhaps repeat your idea of using a nickname from a middle name?<\/p>\n
Cyrus makes me think of Silas and Elias.<\/p>\n
Nothing makes me think of Corin, but I think it’s good. Or Corbin. Or Gibson. Or Ruben. Or Lennox.<\/p>\n
Alexander from your list is the #4 most popular boy name in the United States. Maybe Alec instead? Alistair? Albin? Alan?<\/p>\n
Name update<\/span> 09-09-2010! Jennifer writes:<\/p>\n
Lachlan Vincent was born earlier this week! Lachlan was unusual enough for my husband, but common enough (at least, in Australia and Canada) for me, and it sounds similar to my husband’s grandfather’s name. And Vincent is my grandfather’s name. Thanks again to everyone for their input!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jennifer writes: I’d love your (and your readers!) help with figuring out a name for our second son. In theory, he’s due September 8, but I’m already having contractions, so who knows when he will actually arrive (my first was early). Our last name sounds like Poyer, and unfortunately, my husband and I don’t have […]<\/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-6684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1JO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684","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=6684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}