We are having a little boy in September. I’ve loved the name Finn for as long as I can remember, and we’re pretty set on using that. The only thing I’m slightly concerned about is that I’ve been told that for a odd-numbered-syllable last name, you should use an even-numbered first name. So, our last name is Milligan, it would sound best with a two syllable first name. What is your opinion on that? Other first names we’re considering are Callum, Conor, and Brendan.<\/p>\n
Secondly, we are having a hard time deciding on a middle name. I want to use my maiden name for his middle, so he would be Finn Ricker Milligan. My husband wants his middle name to be Cougar. Part of me thinks Finn Cougar Milligan sounds pretty cool, but a larger part thinks it is a little too weird.<\/p>\n
What do you think? Is Cougar cute and unique or just dumb and weird?<\/p>\n
If it matters we already have two girls, Teresa Brigid and Nora Merian.<\/p>\n
Thank you!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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There are no naming rules. I am going to repeat this, because it comes up a lot: There are NO NAMING RULES. There is no such thing as a real rule that says anything about the number of syllables a first name and last name should have. Different names with the same number of syllables sound completely different depending on the particular names—and those completely different sounds will seem great to some people and not-great to others. There is no rule that if your surname has an odd number of syllables, the first name has to have an even number. Pick what sounds good to you.<\/p>\n
I would be more concerned with the rhyminess of Finn Milligan and Brendan Milligan. But that too is subjective: some people love when a sound repeats, and some people don’t, and for most people it depends on the particular name. Callum Milligan seems too heavy on L’s and M’s to me, but to someone else that exact same thing will make the name sound like it holds together beautifully.<\/p>\n
One of my few almost-regrets in naming is that I didn’t go a little more daring with the kids’ middle names. The reason it’s an almost-regret rather than a regret is that in the long run, I prefer the significance of the names we DID use—but oh, it would have been such a great opportunity to use names like Dutch and Marigold and Fern! Well, but there it is: instead of Dutch, we used my grandfather’s name; instead of Fern, we used a name Paul couldn’t bear not to use.<\/p>\n
I do think Cougar makes a very cool middle name—though its current popular usage as a term for an older woman on the prowl somewhat ruins it for me, to the point where it no longer passes the “Is this a name I’d want for myself?” test. Also, I think cool middle names work best with less-cool first names: Finn and Milligan are already so cool, the complete name ends up feeling like it’s trying very hard for coolness. In this particular case, the similarity in sound and rhythm of Finn Cougar Milligan to John Cougar Mellancamp is an additional strike against the idea.<\/p>\n
And in any case, I think the significance of the use of your maiden name greatly trumps any coolness factor. The child will have your husband’s family surname, and it seems completely reasonable and appealing for him to also have your family surname. Ricker is quite a cool-sounding name too—and yet, because it’s your maiden name, it doesn’t come across as trying to be cool on purpose.<\/p>\n
So my vote would be for Finn Ricker Milligan: there’s no such thing as a rule about syllables; I think the slight rhyminess of Finn\/-igan pales in comparison with parental agreement and a long-term love of a name; and I think your family surname is better than Cougar in several ways.<\/p>\n
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Name update!<\/strong> T. writes:<\/p>\n I just wanted to send in my name update! I asked the question about using Cougar as a middle name. Thanks to you and your readers for all the input. My husband was a bit bummed to see how overwhelmingly negative the opinion was towards using Cougar, and agreed that it was best to use something else. We were excited to welcome Finn Ricker Milligan on September 13th. As most of my siblings seem to use names from my mother’s side of the family for honor names, my dad was quite chuffed to have his last name in there as the middle. Thanks again for answering my question!<\/p>\n T. writes: We are having a little boy in September. I’ve loved the name Finn for as long as I can remember, and we’re pretty set on using that. The only thing I’m slightly concerned about is that I’ve been told that for a odd-numbered-syllable last name, you should use an even-numbered first name. So, […]<\/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-7749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-20Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7749","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=7749"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8518,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7749\/revisions\/8518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"DSC_0629\"](\"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/DSC_0629.jpg\")
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