{"id":7267,"date":"2008-03-20T14:22:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-20T18:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2008\/03\/20\/baby-girl-___-___-j\/"},"modified":"2015-03-11T10:28:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-11T14:28:59","slug":"baby-girl-___-___-j","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2008\/03\/20\/baby-girl-___-___-j\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl J________"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

My husband and I are expecting our first child (a girl) next month and we cannot decide on a name. The only name that we could really agree that we both love is Hannah, but we have both decided that it’s popularity bothers us. I like Lucy (he doesn’t), he likes Catherine (I don’t).<\/p>\n

The two names that we have it narrowed down to are Harper Eve or Mary ___. I don’t think either of us love these names and we can’t think of a middle name for Mary (we aren’t Catholic and I don’t want the name to sound too Catholic, no offense). I wish that we had a family name that we loved, but we don’t. Our grandmothers names are Merlyn, Doris, Levora, and Dianne, none of which we care for. Our great grandmothers names are Ila, Maude, Sarah, Laura, Mary Ellen, Elise, Ernastine, and Ellis, but we’re not sold on any of these. I like Ila (or Ayla or Isla), but my husband hates it.<\/p>\n

All of my sisters have names that start with a K sound and that is confusing enough that I don’t want to introduce another K (or hard C) name into the mix.<\/p>\n

Our last name starts with J and is two syllables. We would like a name that isn’t weird, that is easy to spell and easy to pronounce, but that isn’t too popular. We tend to like classic names, although Harper has been one of my favorites for a long time so there are exceptions to this. We have nieces named Mia Rose, Sydney Anne, Emma May, and Hailey Elizabeth, so all of these are off limits.<\/p>\n

Thanks so much :)<\/p>\n

Erica<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I like the name Harper VERY MUCH, and since you’ve liked it a long time, it’s tempting to just say, “Yes! Harper!,” make a poll with one choice on it, and dust off my hands after a job well done. I’m a huge fan of Eve, too—although I think a different middle name might work better with Harper.<\/p>\n

There was a little girl named Mary in my son’s kindergarten class, and I was surprised at how fresh and uncommon it sounded. I think of it as a Very Common Name, but of course it ISN’T common in the current crop of babies. I like the family tie-in if you use Mary Ellen, but what about Mary Harper? (I considered Mary Hannah, but when I said it out loud I added “little lamb”: “Mary Hannah little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.”)<\/p>\n

A name that catches my eye in your family name list is Laura. I think it’s beautiful. Laura Harper. Laura Eve. It’s easy to spell and pronounce, it’s classic, and according to the Social Security Administration it was only #172 in 2006. For comparison, that’s LESS COMMON than the names Genesis (#169) and Alondra (#170).<\/p>\n

If you both love the name Hannah, and you agree on it, I think you should reconsider using it. It’s a beautiful, classic name with long roots. But if its popularity continues to bother you, I’d go with Laura. That’s my top choice: Laura Harper J____ (LHJ). Family connection. Classic. Easy to pronounce and spell. Not too common and not too weird. And it incorporates the name Harper, which you’ve liked for a long time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, My husband and I are expecting our first child (a girl) next month and we cannot decide on a name. The only name that we could really agree that we both love is Hannah, but we have both decided that it’s popularity bothers us. I like Lucy (he doesn’t), he likes Catherine (I […]<\/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-7267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1Td","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7267","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=7267"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11097,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7267\/revisions\/11097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}