Sara writes:<\/p>\n
I am due December 3rd. We have chosen not to find out the gender ahead of time. Our 2-year-old son is Jonah Daniel, a name that we quickly agreed upon and never had a list of runner-up names. Our girl name (which we still like from last time) is Nora Josephine. We just liked Nora, and Josephine was my husband\u2019s mother\u2019s middle name. I like the family connection there.<\/p>\n
I worry that I may have too many \u2018rules\u2019 \u2013 even though I can\u2019t really figure out which ones I\u2019d give up. My sister thought it was kind of a fun \u2018word puzzle\u2019, but I think even she has tired of it. So here it goes.<\/p>\n
1) Our last name is an actual word, close to \u2018Stark\u2019, so let\u2019s pretend that\u2019s it. I\u2019m Sara and my husband is Sean, so that\u2019s a lot of S\u2019s already. I\u2019m not at all interested in any other names starting with an \u2018S\u2019. Also, if it ends with an \u2018s\u2019, it runs into the last name and sounds bad. So that knocks out a ton of good names.<\/p>\n
2) Nothing with an \u2018-ar-\u2018 in it because it sounds weird with the last name. Also shows up in lots of names.<\/p>\n
3) Because our last name is short and kind of abrupt, I want at least a 2-syllable first name.<\/p>\n
4) I also prefer names that don\u2019t have obvious, kind of automatic nicknames, so no Benjamin, Alexander, Nicholas, etc. Although I know people can get nicknames for tons of reasons, I like the name to just be the name.<\/p>\n
5) Not another J name.<\/p>\n
6) I want a boy name that does not appear to be getting taken over by girls.<\/p>\n
7) Not a name that is also an actual word. Since our last name is a word, that would be odd.<\/p>\n
8) No \u2018\u2013son\u2019 names.<\/p>\n
9) Nothing totally unfamiliar or spelled \u2018creatively\u2019.<\/p>\n
10) We\u2019re not religious, and when Jonah is paired with some more biblically-associated names, it makes it seem like we are. Those types of names tend to be more the style I like, but it seems uncomfortable like we\u2019re trying to pass ourselves off as something we\u2019re not.<\/p>\n
11) My husband and I have both been teachers for a combined 15 years or so, so a lot of names get vetoed just because of the strong associations. I can never have a Tyler, Dylan, Brandon, Levi, Dustin, Ben, Evan\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve looked at so many names and lists and haven\u2019t had anything that jumps out at me. It makes me a little sad to think that I\u2019ve probably already seen the name we\u2019ll end up choosing and that we were just like \u201cEh\u2026 that\u2019s ok… I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
So\u2026 help??<\/p>\n
We are totally open to new suggestions! Names that we maybe kind of like include:<\/p>\n
Aaron -probably our top option right now, but I wonder if people\u2019s pronunciations will bother me, saying it more (to my ears) like Erin, a girl name<\/p>\n
Adrian – another name I think I like better on paper than when I say it out loud<\/p>\n
Julian – even though it\u2019s a J<\/p>\n
Isaac<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve thought maybe Leo, Milo, Nolan, Ezra, but Sean doesn\u2019t really like them. He likes Owen, but me, not so much. He\u2019s also said he likes names that sound \u2018smart\u2019, for what that\u2019s worth. Neither of us are into the \u2018tough\u2019 sounding boy names.<\/p>\n
And then (as if this hasn\u2019t been long enough \u2013 feel free to disregard if it has), I really like the idea of middle names as a family name spot, and my dad comes to mind as one to name after. His first name is also my brother\u2019s name, so I kind of feel like that\u2019s \u2018his\u2019 to use in the future if he wants. But my dad\u2019s (and his dad\u2019s) middle name is Orville. Yikes. I go back and forth thinking \u201cMy dad\u2019s a good guy, and lots of people have crazy middle names.\u201d and \u201cHow can I slap an Orville on a baby?\u201d Thoughts on that from you or your readers?<\/p>\n
Thank you so much for ANY help, guidance, and suggestions!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Let’s start with the Orville question, because that has grabbed my imagination. Have you already talked to your brother about the first name that belongs to him and to your dad? He might not care one whit if you use it as a middle name, even if he has the full intention of using it for a future child himself, and maybe he will even be flattered that you want to use it, especially if you spin it to include him in the namesakeness. That would solve the Orville issue in one swoop, and that would be nice because otherwise I am conflicted. I agree with you exactly: on one hand, lots of people have unusual middle names; on the other hand, Orville.<\/p>\n
The very first name that occurs to me for the first-name slot is out: Simon. It sounds smart to me, and I like it with both Jonah and a potential future Nora. You were very clear on NO S NAMES so I shouldn’t even be mentioning it—but here I am, mentioning it anyway. Cheeky!<\/p>\n
The second name that occurs to me is ALSO out: Karl. It has the “ar” sound but otherwise would qualify, and I think the repeating “ar” is good here. I would like to take a moment to highlight the name Karl, in fact, because it is SO UNDERUSED. I was out and about and heard a mother talking to her adorable, pumpkin-sweater-wearing, rosy-cheeks-having, 1-year-old boy and calling him Karl, and I thought “!!!” It’s great. Timeless! Smart! Girls are not stealing it! ALMOST NO ONE IS USING IT. It’s one of the few names I thought of where I didn’t think, “Oh, but they’ve probably had a bunch of students with that name already. Karl! Consider Karl!<\/p>\n
Some QUALIFYING possibilities:<\/p>\n
Caleb Stark; Jonah and Caleb
Elliot Stark; Jonah and Elliot
Emmett Stark; Jonah and Emmett
Ethan Stark; Jonah and Ethan
Henry Stark; Jonah and Henry
Ian Stark; Jonah and Ian
Malcolm Stark; Jonah and Malcolm<\/p>\nI also had Everett and Oliver in the list originally, but are those too much like an “ar” sound? Anyway, I like them both: Everett Stark, Oliver Stark.<\/p>\n
Name update<\/span> 12-07-2009! Sara writes:<\/p>\n
I just wanted to let you know that we had a baby girl, Nora Josephine, on December 3 (her due date, no less!) so all my worrying about boy names and rules ended up just being for fun, I guess. :) I really appreciated all the feedback and suggestions from your readers, and we went into the birth thinking that we’d probably go with Aaron or Simon (gasp – breaking my #1 rule). We realized that if I set aside my ‘no more S names,’ that really was the name we liked best. And I also talked with my brother about his name, and he was totally fine with us using it if we wanted, so we had our two options for middle names there, too. But in the end, little Nora made the decision easy for us. Thanks so much!! :)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sara writes: I am due December 3rd. We have chosen not to find out the gender ahead of time. Our 2-year-old son is Jonah Daniel, a name that we quickly agreed upon and never had a list of runner-up names. Our girl name (which we still like from last time) is Nora Josephine. We just […]<\/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-6895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1Nd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6895","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=6895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}