B. writes:<\/p>\n
We are expecting our second child in November and have just learned it is another little girl. We are super excited about this — but now are tasked with finding a name that blends with her sister’s.<\/p>\n
Our daughter, almost 3 now, is Molly — a name I have loved ever since I was young, and never thought I would get to use it for a daughter. I am so in love with the name, and it fits my daughter’s personality so much that I feel a lot of pressure to come up with something just as perfect for our baby girl on the way.<\/p>\n
Molly’s middle name is Aneen (pronounced uh- neen). Aneen is my and my mother’s middle name. Our last name is similar to Krevitz, but with an L. I would like to honor family again with the middle name this time around. For our middle names, those choices are Rana (pronounced Renee, after my husband’s sister who was killed in a car accident about 11 years ago); Beth (after my mother); Marie (my mother-in-law’s middle name) or Maria (after my grandmother). Our top choice is Rana for the meaningfulness of using this.<\/p>\n
For first names, we have it limited to two, the only two we have really felt drawn to — but I would love to hear other suggestions as well. We like names that are not overly popular or super trendy or sound like made up names. I also tend to like boy names for girls – and one consideration was to use Coty, another family name that would have significant meaning, as it would honor both my husband’s sister and her infant son who was also lost in the car accident.<\/p>\n
Right now this is our list, ranked in order of appeal:
\nMadison (nickname Maddie — we love the combo of Molly and Maddie, two little sweet girls running around)
\nReese<\/p>\nOthers that we discarded were:
\nMorgan
\nQuinn
\nPaige
\nShelby
\nLogan<\/p>\nThank you for your help –<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
That DOES seem hard. I think that because you loved the name Molly for so long, it could be helpful to give up the idea of finding anything you love as much. There might just not BE such a name. And of course by now you’ve come to love the name Molly even more, since it’s your daughter’s name—it would be hard for any name to measure up to that. My guess is that you will COME to love another name as much after you use it, but that unless you had a second name you’ve loved since you were young, you might not love it quite as much during the choosing stage.<\/p>\n
With a name like Molly, which is used exclusively for girls in the United States, I don’t think I’d go too boyish for a second girl. Reese is borderline; Coty crosses that line for me, if you mean you’re considering it as a first name. (It also seems like it could be a painful choice, considering the circumstances.) Coty might make a great middle name, though I think my first choice would still be Rana.<\/p>\n
Because you’d like to avoid popular and trendy, I’d cross Madison off the list. (Molly and Madison also makes me think of Dolley Madison<\/a>, as well as Dolly Madison<\/a>, though neither of those are negative associations.)<\/p>\n
If you’d like the nickname Maddie, you could get it from Madelyn\/Madeline\/Madeleine, though those names too have been very popular. There’s also Madigan: it’s similar to Morgan and Logan from your list; it has not been popular at all; it has a boyish sound; and it ties into Molly’s Celtic roots. Madigan Rana; Molly and Madigan; Molly and Maddie.<\/p>\n
Another option is Megan. Megan Rana; Molly and Megan; Molly and Meg.<\/p>\n
I find Molly and Reese a little bit of a surprising combination, style-wise. But I don’t think the combination is unpleasant, and both names have a similar energetic and friendly sound.<\/p>\n
I like several other names on your discard list, too. Molly and Paige sounds adorable to me. Molly and Quinn sounds similar, though more unisex. Molly and Morgan seems close to achieving the Molly and Maddie effect.<\/p>\n
Abigail is popular, but I think Molly and Abby gives you something like Molly and Maddie, while also matching the more old-fashioned\/feminine image I have of the name Molly. Abigail Rana; Molly and Abigail; Molly and Abby. Or maybe you’d like Molly and Mabel, or Molly and Maisie, or Molly and Mindy, or Molly and Mandy?<\/p>\n
Are you planning to have more children? If so, and if you went with a Molly\/Maddie or Molly\/Maisie type combination, would you feel like you had to find a third similar name? Perhaps something like Sadie would work well: it coordinates sweetly but without coordinating so well that a third name would stand out. Sadie Rana; Molly and Sadie.<\/p>\n
Is your mother’s given name Beth, or is that short for Elizabeth? Elizabeth is a name with a lot of nickname possibilities that could be adorable with Molly. Molly and Libby, Molly and Betsy, Molly and Lizzy, Molly and Bess.<\/p>\n
Molly seems to be a different style than the kinds of names you like now. What was it that got you hooked on the name Molly? Was there a Molly in a book or movie, or was it the name of someone you knew? I wonder if that would be a place to look for another name you like (nearly) as much.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Name update!<\/strong> B. writes:<\/p>\n
Thank you to Swistle and all of her readers. We were so excited when our question was chosen for a blog, and the feedback and suggestions from both Swistle and readers truly gave us a lot to consider — issues we would have never thought of ourselves. We actually put Paige back on our list for awhile, after reading all the feedback. It was tough decision, and we went round and round on our names. Our little girl decided to arrive 5 weeks early…5 lbs. 14 oz, and I am happy to report that she is healthy and beautiful and has stolen our hearts — including her big sister Molly’s. In the end, we ended up back at the beginning with our very first instinct. Madison Rana was born Oct. 8, 2013 and we are so completely in love. Hearing our 3-year-old say “I love you Maddie” in her sweet little voice is just about the sweetest thing in the world. Thank you again for all your help!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
B. writes: We are expecting our second child in November and have just learned it is another little girl. We are super excited about this — but now are tasked with finding a name that blends with her sister’s. Our daughter, almost 3 now, is Molly — a name I have loved ever since 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":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-23v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905","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=7905"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8405,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7905\/revisions\/8405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}