L. writes:<\/p>\n
I’m expecting twin boys in 3 weeks time and we just can’t come up with a name for the 2nd baby…
\nMy husband and I have always liked the name Zack (although not 100% whether to spell it Zac, Zack or Zach?) – full name Zachary but we will call him Zack.<\/p>\nSo we’d like another boys’ name that ‘goes with’ Zack but not too matchy or rhymey – just something a little different from the common names but not too off the wall!<\/p>\n
Our surname is Smy so we’d love a longer first name (hence Zachary Smy) but that could possibly be shortened in the same way.<\/p>\n
Neither of us have middle names and we are finding first names so difficult we probably won’t give them middle names, but if you had any ideas for this too, I’d love to hear them!<\/p>\n
Many thanks!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
I started by seeing if I could guess which spelling of the nickname Zac\/Zack\/Zach was most common: we don’t have data on nicknames, but sometimes we can get a feel for it by looking at what people do when they give those nicknames as given names. Here’s the 2012 data from the Social Security Administration:<\/p>\n
Zac – 73
\nZach – 63
\nZack – 167<\/p>\nBut that doesn’t necessarily tell us anything at all about how people would nickname the name Zachary, because maybe people would think Zack looked more like a stand-alone name (similar to Jack) but would prefer Zach if the full name were Zachary. Well! Perhaps you could see what you prefer over time, rather than choosing in advance—but would it be helpful to have a poll to see what people in general seem to prefer?<\/p>\n
[yop_poll id=”32″]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Before leafing through any baby name books, I spent some time mulling, like this: “Zachary and ____? Zach and ___?”—to see if anything would spring to my mind. The first name that sprang was Benjamin. Benjamin Smy; Zachary and Benjamin; Zach and Ben.<\/p>\n
Then I got Zachary and Elliot, but Elliot lacks a coordinating nickname.<\/p>\n
Then I noticed that Zachary starts with a Z, and I DO love a little bit of twinniness to twin names, I just DO, and so what I wondered next is if we could find an A name that would work well, which is when I gave up on the mulling and took out the name books. The only A-name\/nickname I really liked with Zachary\/Zach was Alexander\/Alex, but I like it a lot. Alexander Smy; Alexander and Zachary; Alex and Zack.<\/p>\n
(I think Zack must be my own choice for nickname spelling:\u00a0 I couldn’t choose which I liked best when I was writing that section above, but I notice I keep selecting it whenever I have an option.)<\/p>\n
Then I turned to names from the category of “longer boy names with short nicknames” (which also includes the already-discussed Alexander and Benjamin):<\/p>\n
Christopher Smy; Zachary and Christopher; Zach and Chris
\nGabriel Smy; Zachary and Gabriel; Zack and Gabe
\nJonathan Smy; Zachary and Jonathan; Zack and Jon
\nNathaniel Smy; Zachary and Nathaniel; Zack and Nate
\nNicholas Smy; Zachary and Nicholas; Zack and Nick
\nTheodore Smy; Zachary and Theodore; Zack and Theo, or Zack and Ted<\/p>\nI love how Zach and Chris both have the -ch- at opposite ends of the nickname, but do the S-sounds of Chris Smy work okay?<\/p>\n
My favorite is probably Nicholas and Zachary: I like how they both have snappy sounds and equal syllables, with the matching -ch- in the middle that can turn into a matching -ck for the nicknames. And yet both the beginning and ending sounds of the full names are very different, giving them the extra coordination I like for twin names without falling into the Jayden-and-Hayden category.<\/p>\n
But if they’ll go by their nicknames almost exclusively, and if Nick and Zack are too close for your tastes, I like a lot of the other options: Zack and Theo, Zack and Nate, Zack and Gabe.<\/p>\n
For middle names, it would be fine to skip them if they’re not fun. It helps that neither you nor your husband have them, making it seem like a family thing. On the other hand, middle names can be so fun and low-pressure after the stress of the first names, especially when you know you can always fall back on the idea of skipping them if they don’t end up being low-pressure after all.<\/p>\n
One idea would be to give the twins the same middle name, perhaps their dad’s name or your maiden name.<\/p>\n
Another idea would be to give each twin the name of one grandfather, so both of your dads are honored at once. Same idea would apply if each of you has one brother or one uncle to honor. It would be fun to cover both sides of the family at once.<\/p>\n
Another idea would be to do an initials swap: if you chose Zachary and Nicholas, for example, you’d give Zachary a middle name starting with N, and Nicholas a middle name starting with Z. (I like this idea less when one initial has so few options, like Z.)<\/p>\n
Another idea would be to give them both the same middle initial.<\/p>\n
Or perhaps it would work for the middle names to be variations of the parents’ first names. For example, if your names were Michael and Stephanie, the middle names could be Micah and Stephen.<\/p>\n
The middle name is also a great place for a name you liked that didn’t work as a first name. For example, you mention wanting a longer name to balance the surname, but did this mean you had to cross off some excellent one- or two-syllable first name options? Those might be fun to salvage as middle names. Or maybe you didn’t like alliteration but wouldn’t mind it in a middle name.<\/p>\n
Or it’s a great place for a name that was a little too common for your tastes, or a little too bold.<\/p>\n
Or it’s a great place to refer to something of importance to you: a family surname, a special town\/street\/place, a college or dorm, a favorite writer or painter or musician or activist or historical figure. Perhaps one or both of you would like to make reference to your family’s country of origin.<\/p>\n
This would cost a bit in court fees and hassle, but another fun option would be to leave it for later. Maybe even let the twins help decide, when they’re older. Or make it an interesting thing to mull in the delivery room, since you’re okay with the possible “Well, nothing seems right so we’ll skip them after all” option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
L. writes: I’m expecting twin boys in 3 weeks time and we just can’t come up with a name for the 2nd baby… My husband and I have always liked the name Zack (although not 100% whether to spell it Zac, Zack or Zach?) – full name Zachary but we will call him Zack. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267","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=8267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8269,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267\/revisions\/8269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}