Michelle writes:<\/p>\n
hello! a friend of mine sent me a link to your blog knowing that we’re still trying to figure out a name for baby #3. we’d love your help! we found out that we’re having a girl and can’t seem to settle on something we both like. i’m due in three weeks!<\/p>\n
our other children’s names are michael and allison. we call them mikey and allie. the “t” is silent in our last name, and is pronounced “sigh”. so here’s where we’re at:<\/p>\n
* my husband’s top pick is lauren kara tsai. i like it too, EXCEPT that lauren doesn’t really shorten into a nickname (besides laurie, which i don’t think we’d use since saying it and spelling it wouldn’t be any shorter than lauren itself), and i would like to have a cute nickname for this baby since both her siblings go by nicknames. the other reason i’m not thrilled about lauren is because her siblings (ages 4 and 2) will be calling her “warren” since their “l’s” sound like “w’s”.
* we’d like to have the middle name start with a “k” since both her siblings have “k” middle names. just something to link them all together. i do like cara, but kara looks a little weird to me. so we’re also stuck on middle names as well.
* prefer not to have the name begin with a P, M, or A since those already in our family and we’d like each child to have their own letter.
* we’d like a clearly girl’s name that is easy to pronounce and is spelled traditionally. this is because my husband has a name he really hated growing up and wants to spare his children the angst, and also because our last name is a little tricky– no need to make it even more complicated for the poor kid.
* cannot begin with an “s” since something like “sophie tsai” sounds too cutesy and\/or silly.
* husband doesn’t like names that sound too “harsh”.
* i tend to like “j” names, but haven’t found one that isn’t too common– like jennifer or jessica.<\/p>\nsome names we’ve tossed around:<\/p>\n
* emily
* olivia (husband doesn’t like)
* cara
* julie<\/p>\nnames we can’t use due to close friends or family already using them:<\/p>\n
* joanna
* jenna
* naomi
* megan
* kaitlyn
* kayla<\/p>\nlooking forward to hearing your suggestions! thanks!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My friend Mairzy and I both like these kinds of names, so I immediately called her in on it. Mairzy writes:<\/p>\n
As fun as the exotic names are, sometimes it’s nice to slip back into comfortable basic names. I enjoyed hanging out with Allison and Lauren this time around.<\/p>\n
My top choice would be your husband’s: Lauren is a good name. I have a sister named Lauren, and we (the family) call her La. It’s not a nickname that would carry a girl through her life, but it is short and cute. I don’t know if “Wa” is any improvement over “Warren,” but at least they grow out of it.<\/p>\n
I, too, love J names. Here are a few others to consider:<\/p>\n
* Jillian (or Gillian)
* Julianna
* Jessie
* Janae
* Jane<\/p>\nFor middle names, K is a versatile letter. Kate is pretty much the denim middle name: it goes with everything. Kayla is another easily-matched one. Other K possibilities:<\/p>\n
* Kathleen
* Kay (nice and short, although still rather middle-aged in style)
* Kelly
* Kimberly? If you used a short first name like Jane?<\/p>\nMy favorite choice would be Lauren Kate. Best wishes on #3! <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Thanks, Mairzy! And I agree: Lauren is a great choice. It’s true that Laurie isn’t shorter than Lauren, but a lot of nicknames are like that: Jimmy for James, Annie for Ann, etc. And it’s great with the sibling names. And the “Warren” thing will be short-lived.<\/p>\n
I love the name Emily even more. Love love love. It’s been high on my girl list with every pregnancy. Michael, Allison, and Emily. Mikey, Allie, and Emmie. Emily Kay Tsai. Love.<\/p>\n
For J names, how about Jacqueline? Jacqueline Kay Tsai. Michael, Allison, and Jacqueline. Mikey, Allie, Jackie.<\/p>\n
And I like Jillian. Jillian Kay Tsai. Michael, Allison, and Jillian. Mikey, Allie, Jill.<\/p>\n
Or Josephine. Josephine Kay Tsai. Michael, Allison, and Josephine. Mikey, Allie, and Josie.<\/p>\n
My top two choices (tied) are Emily and Jillian.<\/p>\n
Let’s take a vote!
Poll over to the right!<\/strike> [poll closed; see below] (I like Cara and Julie, but am leaving them off because they don’t have nicknames; I’m leaving Olivia off because one parent doesn’t like it.)<\/p>\n[Poll results:<\/span>
Lauren\/Laurie: 23 votes, roughly 14%
Emily\/Emmie: 72 votes, roughly 43%
Jacqueline\/Jackie: 7 votes, roughly 4%
Jillian\/Jill: 39 votes, roughly 23%
Josephine\/Josie: 27 votes, roughly 16%]<\/p>\n[Update!<\/span> (08-29-2008) Michelle writes:<\/p>\n
hello again!<\/p>\n
so sorry for the belated update– but baby lauren kara tsai is now here! caught us by surprise by coming 16 days early, but we’ve been enjoying every minute of her. yes, even the 4 am minutes. :)<\/p>\n
we did end up going with our original name, though i DID make a valiant effort to sway him toward “emily” on the ride to the hospital since i’ve fallen in love with the nickname “emi”. but no dice. but now that she’s here, she just *looks* like a lauren to us. still no nickname for her, but maybe she’ll come up with one herself if she decides she wants one!<\/p>\n
thanks again for all the suggestions! emily will definitely be high on the list should #4 be coming along someday…<\/p>\n
michelle]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michelle writes: hello! a friend of mine sent me a link to your blog knowing that we’re still trying to figure out a name for baby #3. we’d love your help! we found out that we’re having a girl and can’t seem to settle on something we both like. i’m due in three weeks! our […]<\/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-7220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1Ss","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7220","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=7220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}