Kate writes:<\/p>\n
We are about to have baby number 4 but are unaware of the gender as yet. We both have Irish heritage and have used Irish middle names for our first 3 children. They are Eliza Bernadette, Thomas Patrick and Charlotte Mary. Our surname is a bit tricky…starts with an O and is a bit like elephant.<\/p>\n
My husband and I are having real trouble with a boy’s name for this baby, but have managed to agree on Isabelle (although I quite like Maggie) for a girl. My husband only likes 3 boy’s names:<\/p>\n
1) Henry. I don’t like the way this name is said in our country…very nasal and almost a ‘HInry’. He says we can name him Henry but call him Harry, an English tradition. I am not so keen on this idea, as I think it will require constant explanations for the child. Think I would prefer the name Harry itself but he is not so keen.<\/p>\n
2) Joseph. He would probably be Joe at our place (Thomas is Tom or Tommy unless he is in trouble!), which is okay but I don’t love it.<\/p>\n
3) James. Every second boy we know is called James and once again i don’t particularly like the way it is pronounced here..the ‘a’ is really dragged out.<\/p>\n
Personally, I prefer names like:<\/p>\n
Patrick (already used as a second name, but not sure this is a huge issue)
Hamish (Scottish form of James which is fine as my husband’s family also originates there).
Jack
Sam
Max<\/p>\nMy father was Michael which we would consider as an Irish middle name but it is not a necessity.<\/p>\n
I would love your advice here! Thanks for your time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh, it is so tricky to choose a name with another parent, isn’t it? Paul and I would sometimes go almost crazy: he’d choose a name I thought of as “total 1980s” and then I’d choose a name that would make him say, “Is that even a NAME?”<\/p>\n
So. The only three boy names your husband will consider are Henry, Joseph, and James. My favorite from the list, given the details you provide, is Joseph: I love the nickname Joe, and wish I could use it (another of our kid’s names is too similar). I think the nickname Joe is similar to the names you like, like Sam and Max and Jack: boyish and short and a guy’s-guy name. Cute for a little boy, but grown-up enough for a man.<\/p>\n
Then I’d use Michael as the middle name: Irish AND grandfather-honoring is perfect. Joseph Michael is a terrific name, solid and manly with a great nickname. I suspect it’s the kind of name you might feel a little “meh” about using, but with time would love more and more. I’m getting a little sentimental just thinking about a cute little toddler boy named Joe!<\/p>\n
It’s also very good with your other children’s names: Charlotte and Eliza, Thomas and Joseph. Very, very good. You don’t need us at all! Great work!<\/p>\n
Anyone have any other comments or suggestions for the upcoming cutie? (Awww, JOE!) (Or Isabelle!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kate writes: We are about to have baby number 4 but are unaware of the gender as yet. We both have Irish heritage and have used Irish middle names for our first 3 children. They are Eliza Bernadette, Thomas Patrick and Charlotte Mary. Our surname is a bit tricky…starts with an O and is a […]<\/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-7251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1SX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7251","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=7251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}