{"id":7984,"date":"2013-08-18T08:42:50","date_gmt":"2013-08-18T12:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=7984"},"modified":"2013-12-01T10:59:35","modified_gmt":"2013-12-01T14:59:35","slug":"baby-girl-rice-sister-to-thomas-lila-and-audrey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2013\/08\/18\/baby-girl-rice-sister-to-thomas-lila-and-audrey\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl Rice, Sister to Thomas, Lila, and Audrey"},"content":{"rendered":"

C. writes:<\/p>\n

I’m wondering if you can help us name our precious wee baby girl. We
\nhave three kids (Thomas Peter, Lila Jean, and Audrey Claire) and
\ndespite endless searching and questioning after we named them, they are
\nSO their names! All three have honour names as middles. Our last name
\nstarts with a R and sounds like “Rice”.<\/p>\n

We really feel we need to find the perfect name for our next little
\ngirl. It has been a rough pregnancy with lots of complications and
\nthere’s a chance she might not make it to term and\/or need heart
\nsurgery as soon as she’s born. All the more reason to find the perfect
\nname now as whenever she is born she will be baptized right away.<\/p>\n

I want to avoid an uber common name and our preference is names that
\nare well established and somewhat traditional. Our style is
\nvintage\/classic\/timeless, something easy to say and spell and
\nunmistakably feminine.<\/p>\n

Our short list for our previous girls was:
\n– Jane (too “plain” or understated? It feels that way…)
\n– Georgia (husband not keen)
\n– Elizabeth (my husbands fav but is super popular in our area)
\n– Maeve
\n– Calla (unsure if we can have both a Lila and a Calla)
\n– Abigail (popularity held us back)<\/p>\n

…and that’s where we’re stuck…<\/p>\n

Is there a name out there we’re missing?<\/p>\n

The name Vivian keeps coming to mind but I’m not sure why. Not a name
\nwe’d ever discussed. Husband is lukewarm on it but I find myself
\nreferring to her as Vivian already. Is this name destined to become
\ntoo popular?<\/p>\n

Other names I’ve always liked are Adeline, Eloise, Nora, Cora, Natalie, Molly…<\/p>\n

I tried doing the “lets each make a list and compare notes for
\nsimilarities” exercise with my husband and he’s so stuck in the 80’s.
\nI believe his list included Danielle, Heather, Lindsay, etc. He is
\npretty open to most names I suggest, just doesn’t want common or “made
\nup” sounding.<\/p>\n

I just want so badly to find a name we LOVE as a way to convince
\nmyself everything will be ok with this little one…as silly as that
\nmight seem!<\/p>\n

Please help us?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Oxford Dictionary of First Names, to which I generally defer, says Vivian is “from an Old French form of the Latin name Vivianus<\/em> (probably a derivative of vivus<\/em> ‘alive’).” Because of “Viva la revolucion,” “Viva la vida loca,” and other similar phrases, the possible viv\/life connection stands out to me immediately. This meaning could be heartening and celebratory, if all goes well.<\/p>\n

Is Vivian destined to become too popular? Hard to say—and it depends on what you mean by too popular. Here’s what the last ten years have been like:<\/p>\n

\"(screen

(screen shot from SSA.gov)<\/p><\/div>\n

That doesn’t look too scary to me. The spelling Vivienne has had a more startling rise: not even in the Top 1000, and then suddenly appearing at #531 in 2009. Here’s how things have gone since then:<\/p>\n

\"Screen

(screen shot from SSA.gov)<\/p><\/div>\n

Again, that’s not too scary to me. If it had gone #500, #300, #100, #27, that would be another story. Instead, it’s made reasonable jumps as the sounds of the name have come into fashion.<\/p>\n

I do expect the name to continue its rise, especially as parents who love the name Evelyn look for less common alternatives. But with Lila and Audrey, I think the popularity of Vivian is perfectly placed: not too common, not too uncommon.<\/p>\n

I don’t find the name Jane too plain at all. We did a post<\/a> recently on that; if you want encouragement to use Jane, I suggest reading the enthusiastic comments. I love the sound of Thomas, Lila, Audrey, and Jane.<\/p>\n

If Jane still feels too plain, I wonder if you would like June? Thomas, Lila, Audrey, and June.<\/p>\n

If your husband likes Elizabeth but you find it too common in your area, I’d normally suggest Eliza—but in this case, that seems too close to Lila. In which case, I like Eloise from your list, if your husband could be brought around to it by how similar some of the sounds are to Elizabeth. Thomas, Lila, Audrey, and Eloise.<\/p>\n

The name Nadia means “hope,” and I think it works well with the sibling names. Thomas, Lila, Audrey, and Nadia.<\/p>\n

The name Valerie means “healthy, strong.” Thomas, Lila, Audrey, and Valerie. I am a little uncertain about the repeating R sound of Valerie Rice, but I think it’s fine.<\/p>\n

The name Felicity means “happy and lucky,” and I think it may have the unusual\/vintage sound you’re looking for. Thomas, Lila, Audrey, and Felicity.<\/p>\n

Or Cecily would be pretty: Thomas, Lila, Audrey, and Cecily.<\/p>\n

If you don’t mind the similarity to another daughter’s middle name (I don’t mind such things myself, but I know many people prefer to avoid it), Clara is similar to Cora and Calla. Thomas, Lila, Audrey, and Clara. As with Valerie, the -ra\/Rice makes me hesitate, but I don’t think it would make me cross it off the list.<\/p>\n

[Edited to add:<\/strong> After I wrote this and posted it, I was doing a final proof-read and the name Eve came to my mind. Eve Rice; Thomas, Lila, Audrey, and Eve.]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name update!<\/strong> C. writes:<\/p>\n

Just wanted to thank you and your readers for all the name feedback for our 4th baby. She arrived 7 weeks early and has already sailed through her first major surgery with flying colours. She truly is a little miracle. We had shelved any name discussions recently but top contenders were Jane and Vivian. A few days before she was born I suggested a name to my husband and surprisingly we instantly agreed. When she was born unexpectedly and we saw her, there was no doubt that was her name….introducing Eleanor Anne! We think she’s pretty awesome and her name flows so well with the other kids – Thomas, Lila, Audrey & Eleanor….family complete!<\/p>\n

\"photo\"<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

C. writes: I’m wondering if you can help us name our precious wee baby girl. We have three kids (Thomas Peter, Lila Jean, and Audrey Claire) and despite endless searching and questioning after we named them, they are SO their names! All three have honour names as middles. Our last name starts with a R […]<\/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-7984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-24M","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7984","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=7984"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8423,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7984\/revisions\/8423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}