My husband and I will have our 3rd and last baby with a planned c-section on tues, May 21. In the past, we have decided on the baby’s name in recovery (partly because we did not find out baby’s sex before their birth). But we know this will be a girl. Our surname is like Hellger.<\/p>\n
Our 2 older kids are Samuel David and Amelia Belle (4 and 2). Both first names are traditional names that we liked, and MN are family names. We are struggling a bit to finalize our name options, it is hard for me to make a final decision. We will most likely wait to see her in recovery and decide then again. But I thought I would still seek any advice and suggestions that I can in these final weeks.<\/p>\n
On my mother’s side, my great-gramma was Olive Belle (the Belle used as a MN already). I like Olive as an option this time. Olive’s daughter (my gramma, who passed before I was born) was Mary Elizabeth. My MN is Beth. On my father’s side, my grandpa’s mother was Elizabeth. So Elizabeth or some form of it (Elise we like) is a very high consideration for this baby’s MN. We do not have any other family girl names that are suitable, unless we simply choose something not family-related (I have always liked the name Louise). Worried I will feel guilty if we do that, since our other 2 kids have family MN’s.<\/p>\n
When our daughter Amelia was born, we were mulling Amelia or Emerson. I find a lot of negative feedback about Emerson, and it does not flow well with Elizabeth (or Beth). So we have pretty much ruled it out. I have also in the past loved Madeline, but it runs the risk of misspelling, and the common NN Maddy, and there is a Madeline in our fam now. My husband liked Sophia, but I do not want Top 10 names, too common. He also liked Natalie, but I am not fond of it. We have also mulled Lillian, Abigail, Evangeline, and Olivia. Many other names are out, due to family members or friends’ kids (Charlotte, Lily, Hannah, Grace, anything with Belle – ie. Annabelle, Isabelle, etc, Claire, Lydia). We are avoiding the first letters A, B, D, H, J, R, S, T. I also suggested Corinne, but he had never heard it. We don’t want something too out there…<\/p>\n
So after lots of suggestions, my husband and I have narrowed it down. Here are the names we have:
\nViolet Elise or Violet Elizabeth
\nCaroline Elise or Caroline Elizabeth
\nOlive Elizabeth<\/p>\n
I don’t know if Elise is refined enough to honor the multiple Elizabeth’s in our family tree, but it does seem more unique and short and pretty. But worried that Violet Elizabeth or Caroline Elizabeth is a mouthful! MN Beth, like mine is a bit dull. Is Olive Elizabeth too many vowels, too mushy to say? We also call Samuel “Sam”, and occasionally we call Amelia “Millie” – Millie Belle is easy and fun to say. My day’s mother was Mildred, so it is a subtle honor to her. But we do not like any NN’s for Caroline – Caro, Carol, Liney, etc. maybe we shouldn’t worry about NN options.<\/p>\n
Any help is appreciated!!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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I prefer Elizabeth to Elise, mostly for the namesake reason but also because I slightly prefer the flow of it—but I think either one works. I don’t think Elizabeth is too long or too mushy with the first name candidates, unless you plan on saying them all the time as part of your usual name for her. If you’d like to make a nickname parallel to Millie Belle, Elizabeth shortens easily to Beth or Bette or Bess.<\/p>\n
If you decide to go with something else as the middle name, I don’t see any reason for guilt. It’s quite common for parents to run out of good family names after a child or two. And while it’s nice to have a meaningful middle name, “I’ve always liked that name” is a good meaning too.<\/p>\n
Because I only recently learned of them myself and in case you hadn’t heard of them yet either, I’ll mention the nicknames Rory and Callie for Caroline. I love Millie Belle and Callie Bess, or Millie Belle and Rory Beth.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t seem like a good idea to add to the name list at this point, and I like your plan of making the final decision in recovery as you did with the first two. But perhaps it would be helpful to have a poll, to see if it brings you closer to one name or another beforehand.<\/p>\n
My own vote is for Violet. I like the way it has the same number of letters as the other two names, even though I don’t think that matters at all; and I like the way all three names have an L and an E, even though ditto. I like the sound of it with your surname, and I like Amelia and Violet as sister names. I voted for Violet Elizabeth to get the family honor name and because I prefer the sound, but I think Violet Elise is very nice too (and mirrors the number of letters in her sister’s middle name, even though that doesn’t matter at all, it’s just fun).<\/p>\n
[yop_poll id=”12″]<\/p>\n
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Name update!<\/strong> Barb writes:<\/p>\n I wanted to give an update on our new baby and the name we chose! Your feedback and poll helped tremendously, and I appreciate all of the suggestions to help us with such a big responsibility. We were debating between Violet and Caroline for first names (and Olive – but my husband couldn’t get past Olive Oyl); and either Elizabeth or Elise for a middle name.<\/p>\n Our daughter was born last Thursday, May 16th at 1:09pm, weighing 9 lbs, 13 oz and 20-1\/2 inches long. We decided to name her Violet Elise. We were scheduled for a C-section yesterday on May 21, but my water broke (unbeknownst to me, since that had never happened before!), so we had a crazy day of figuring out care for our other two kids (thank goodness for good neighbors!) and only 3 hours from realizing what was going to happen until her birth. But we are all healthy and adjusting well.<\/p>\n We truly loved the name Violet, and it seemed like the right fit to go with our other kids’ names, Samuel and Amelia. We actually didn’t decide on which MN until the following afternoon — it was still hard for me to decide. In the end, we liked the sound and shorter version Elise over Elizabeth, and we realize that Elise still honors our family members named Elizabeth, but it flows better. The poll you set up for me actually had about 40% of nearly 500 votes for Violet Elizabeth, and that weighed heavy on me. All names take time to grow on me! She’s a beautiful girl, so I hope her name does her proud. Here’s a pic or two of Violet and our family.<\/p>\n Thank you again!<\/p>\n
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