big brother Richard<\/a> was featured sometime before his birth in August 08).<\/p>\nBig brothers are Soren Kyle (Soren is, according to my husband, the greatest philosopher as well as the greatest name on earth; Kyle after my brother and so that Soren would have a K initial to match said great philosopher) and Richard Alan, named for a great-grandfather who died during my pregnancy.<\/p>\n
We’ve had a TERRIBLE time trying to come up with a name that “fits” with our first sons’ names, which are light-years apart stylistically. Here’s what we’ve thought of and why we can’t decide on either:<\/p>\n
Judah, probably nicknamed Jude, middle name unknown:
\npros:<\/p>\n
* We were scanning a baby name book the night after the big ultrasound, saw it at the same time, looked at each other and said “I like Judah” This is definitely the most we’ve ever both liked something immediately, and it’s fun that we chose it together.
\n* It’s uncommon, but it has a history.
\n* I think that Jude is a really cool, tough nickname.
\n* I’m not sure why, but it seems to me like it doesn’t make either Soren or Richard too much of the odd one out, namewise.<\/p>\n
cons:<\/p>\n
* It doesn’t flow well with our last name, which is very much like “Edison”
\n* I’m guessing that while people who are familiar with the Old Testament know Judah, many more people are familiar with the New Testament Judas, who wasn’t so great.
\n* The “a” ending could make it seem feminine? I don’t worry so much about this because of other Old Testament names, like Isaiah, Noah, Jonah, Jeremiah, etc, which share the same ending and are more familiar, but it crosses my mind when I’m feeling nervous about choosing Judah.
\n* Though I’ve sworn never to reveal a name before the birth after the horrible experience I had with Soren, my husband has mentioned it three times in different groups and it has received a cold reception (polite smiles, no comment, expressions of disgust) each time. This does not sway him, as he is the big fan of unusual names, but I think that it is nice for people to like a child’s name.
\n* I really like not having to spell or repeat or explain Richard’s name. I spell Soren’s name constantly. My husband’s name was #1 for the decade in which he was born, so he does not understand how annoying this can be.
\n* We cannot come up with a middle name to go with Judah.<\/p>\n
Our other candidate right now is William George, after my husband’s other grandfather:<\/p>\n
pros:<\/p>\n
* It is a very nice name, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, clearly well-liked
\n* At least two people would cry at the announcement.
\n* It has meaning for us. We’ve considered names like Joshua, Daniel, Jonathan, Timothy, Seth, etc. which are much more common than our first two choices, but since our first two son’s names had significance to us, it seems odd to choose a common name just because “it’s a nice name”.<\/p>\n
cons<\/p>\n
* It makes Soren the odd one out, both because he doesn’t have a grandfather’s name and because he doesn’t have a British monarch’s name
\n* That’s two of my husband’s grandfathers honored with namesakes, neither of mine. It doesn’t bother me, but might offend my family?
\n* William is quite common, which doesn’t bother me except that I am used to uncommon. It probably bothers my husband, who likes uncommon.<\/p>\n
I’m dying for the opinions of people whose faces I don’t have to see after the kid is born and named. I’m open to other suggestions too, if someone can come up with a semi-uncommon name that goes with Soren & Richard and magically appeals to my husband. (I’d be paging frantically through The Baby Name Wizard myself right now if I wasn’t away from home and my copy of the book.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nI have carefully read all the pros and cons (I especially like the pro about making at least two people cry—I consider that a big pro too!), and I have come through it thinking Judah is the best choice for your family. You’re right: somehow it aligns itself neither with Soren nor with Richard, and in fact seems to be the magical middle ground that brings the names closer together.<\/p>\n
I think using Jude as the full name rather than as the nickname would fix many of the cons you’ve got for Judah: it’s farther from Judas, it would receive a better public reaction, it’s easier to spell, and it flows better with your surname.<\/p>\n
Another possibility is Judd. Judd Edison. Maybe Judd Henry Edison.<\/p>\n
If you use Judah, I suggest William as the middle name: Judah William Edison. Con: it uses up William, if you wanted to use it for another boy later. Do either of your own grandfathers have names that you don’t want to use as first names? Daniel has a nice rhythm too: Judah Daniel Edison.<\/p>\n
If you use Jude, I suggest Isaac as the middle name if you still like it from last time: Jude Isaac Edison.<\/p>\n
What do the rest of you think about Judah vs. William vs. third possibility, and do you have any third possibility ideas? Any more middle name suggestions for either Judah or Jude?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oh, how fun, a repeat customer! Christy writes: I didn’t expect to be back again so soon, but here I am, due in early March with my 3rd boy (big brother Richard was featured sometime before his birth in August 08). Big brothers are Soren Kyle (Soren is, according to my husband, the greatest philosopher […]<\/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-6821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1M1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6821","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=6821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10262,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6821\/revisions\/10262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}