Andrea writes:<\/p>\n
We are expecting our first baby in October and we know it is a wee gal. So far we have had a lot of fun picking out baby names and trying them out for weeks to see how they “fit” and roll off the tongue in our family. “You and ____ comfy over there?” “How are you and ___ today?” etc.<\/p>\n
So far we have three names narrowed:
\n1. Gwen (Gwyneth, but we will likely call her Gwen)
\n2. Esme (No, I have not seen or read Twilight…though every person I mention this name to asks that question. I didn’t even know it was in a movie\/story!)<\/p>\n…and the third, and probably our most favorite…also a family name = My grandpa’s:<\/p>\n
3. Harvey<\/p>\n
I love it. Harve.<\/p>\n
So these are my questions:
\n1. Can Harvey really be used for a girl? I sure think so! But I’m curious to get your thoughts.<\/p>\nAlso, my husband and I have different last names. I am Franzen, he is Goeppinger. Which combination do you like best?<\/p>\n
1. Harvey Lillian
\n2. Harvey Mae<\/p>\nAnd with which last name?<\/p>\n
If we choose Gwen or Esme it will be easy = Gwen Harvey and Esme Harvey. Easy!<\/p>\n
Ok, thanks for your input!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
Using the name Harvey for a girl would make a strong statement. Here are the questions I’d be considering very seriously before doing so:<\/p>\n
1. Is it a statement you want to make?<\/p>\n
2. Since your daughter will be the one carrying the name: is it a statement you want to make for someone else?<\/p>\n
3. Is it a name you would want for yourself: introducing yourself, filling out paperwork, making doctor appointments, sending resumes?<\/p>\n
4. What would your plan be for future sibling names to go with it?<\/p>\n
5. Would you rather save it for a possible future son? It’s underused and distinctive for boys.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If you use it, I like your idea of giving her a strongly and clearly feminine middle name. Both options you mention seem good to me. I would choose based on which name I would prefer her to be called if she decided later to go by her middle name.<\/p>\n
I like even better your idea of using Harvey as the middle name. There, it’s a fun, quirky honor name, and you could still use it as a family nickname to ask her if she’s comfy over there—but you and she can bring it out when you choose rather than having to deal with it in every situation.<\/p>\n
It ruins the honor name aspect of it, but another option is Harley. Or Stevie, which doesn’t sound like a girl’s name to me but I think it must be regional because there are hundreds of them born each year. Other options that share sounds:<\/p>\n
Avery
\nCharlotte\/Charlie
\nEvie
\nGenevieve
\nHarlow(e)
\nHarper
\nHarriet
\nIvy
\nLivia\/Livvie
\nMinerva
\nSylvie
\nVienna
\nVivian\/Vivvie<\/p>\nMy favorite is Minerva. I think it has the distinctive and unusual sound you’re looking for, but with far fewer issues. I would want to be named Minerva myself, even with the “Like Professor McGonagall?” issue. (Professor McGonagall is AWESOME.)<\/p>\n
The last name issue seems separate. Is your plan to take it on a child-by-child basis and use whichever surname works better with each name you choose? Or are you making the decision now for all the children? Surname decisions seem philosophical to me, rather than which-sounds-better—though “We’re going to use whichever one sounds better for each child” IS a philosophical decision, if that’s what you’re choosing to do.<\/p>\n
Let’s have two polls. The first will be about using Harvey for a girl. The second will let everyone choose among the three name candidates.<\/p>\n
[yop_poll id=”17″]<\/p>\n
[yop_poll id=”18″]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andrea writes: We are expecting our first baby in October and we know it is a wee gal. So far we have had a lot of fun picking out baby names and trying them out for weeks to see how they “fit” and roll off the tongue in our family. “You and ____ comfy over […]<\/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-7741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-20R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7741","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=7741"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7748,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7741\/revisions\/7748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}