Erika writes:<\/p>\n
My husband and I are expecting our second baby very soon (3 weeks) and we don’t know the gender so we’ve been having a difficult time picking out two names.<\/p>\n
Our 2 year old daughter is Lucia Mae, sometimes called Lulu. Our surname is short and sweet – Coyne – pronounced “coin.”<\/p>\n
My father passed away a few months ago and I would really like to honor him my naming the baby after him. His name was Michael, a classic name, but perhaps too simple or popular for our taste. My husband really likes the name Anderson, so I suggested Michael Anderson Coyne, in which case we would call him Mac as a nickname (from his initials). In many ways it’s perfect because Max was a front runner \u00a0for baby#1, so it’s clearly our style.<\/p>\n
My question is: is it weird to name our baby something that we never intend to call him? I would plan to introduce him as Mac not Michael.<\/p>\n
Would we be better off picking another name and using Michael as a middle name? Other choice is Samson Michael (nn Sam).<\/p>\n
As far as girl’s names go, our top choices to go with big sis Lucia Mae are:<\/p>\n
Macie Jane (my dad’s initials are MJ, like it for sentimental reason, but worry that Macie sounds like a nickname)<\/p>\n
Ruby Jane<\/p>\n
Cecelia\/Celia Jane (love, but wonder if Cecelia and Lucia are too similar)<\/p>\n
Hope to hear from you!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
Sometimes I think it’s a little weird to give a person a name that will never be used, and other times I don’t. My own favorite place for an honor name you don’t want to use is the middle name position: it’s definitely an honor-name place, but it doesn’t come into everyday life, and it doesn’t make a daily issue out of not liking the name enough to call the child by it. It also avoids the confusion and hassle and corrections, as well as avoiding any feeling that future children also need to be given honor first names. So a name like Samson Michael would generally be my own first choice.<\/p>\n
However, I think the idea you came up with is a good one—good enough that I think I prefer it to Samson Michael in this case. Mac sounds quite a bit like Michael, so it doesn’t seem as confusing as, say, if you named him Michael but wanted him called Gus or Xavier. And I do have a soft spot for initial names. Furthermore, in this case every correction\/explanation is an opportunity to tell the naming story, which is a sentimental one: “Oh—no, his first name is Michael after my dad, but we all him Mac.” Everyone is familiar with the concept of using a different name to tell namesakes apart. Mac Coyne runs together a bit, but I think you’d get used to a little half-pause between them.<\/p>\n
Plus, the important thing is do YOU think it’s weird to name him something you don’t call him? If you’re worried about what other people think, the good news is that none of them truly deep-down care. That is, if you took a national survey you might find tons of people who think it’s weird to name him something you don’t call him—but they will think it only for a moment, and after that it will leave their minds because it doesn’t really matter to them what someone else names a baby. And this will be balanced anyway by all the people who don’t think it’s at all weird to name him something you don’t call him, since people do that all the time.<\/p>\n
A third possibility would be to name him Anderson Michael Coyne. Anderson seems like a great fit with the other names on your list.<\/p>\n
If you pronounce it loo-SEE-ah, then Lucia, Macie, Cecelia, and Celia all have very similar sounds. I’m not sure if they’d be too similar to put together or not. Celia is definitely too similar to me: it seems like it just rearranges the sounds of Lucia, and the two names are almost anagrams. Cecelia’s extra syllable helps reduce this issue. Lucia and Macie don’t necessarily feel too close in sound, but Macie seems so much less formal than Lucia: it fits well with Lulu, but feels as if it ought to also have a coordinating long form. But I do think of it as a stand-alone name, not a nickname, and I can’t think of a long form for it—it’s just that it suddenly seems nicknamey next to Lucia.<\/p>\n
Michaela is probably too common for your tastes, but would be a nice honor name for your dad. It might make a nice middle name if you don’t like it as a first name. Ruby Michaela is pretty. Do you mind the repeating -oo- sound with Lucia\/Lulu and Ruby?<\/p>\n
There’s a Marguerite in one of my children’s classrooms this year, and I’ve been surprised how well it works: I would have thought it would make me think of margaritas, and it did, but only slightly, and not for long. I like it with Lucia.<\/p>\n
Or maybe Margo would work better.<\/p>\n
Or I love Maribel. Lucia Mae and Maribel Jane; Lulu and Bella.<\/p>\n
Or I like Mariella almost as much. Lucia Mae and Mariella Jane.<\/p>\n
Lucia and Matilda; Lulu and Tilly.<\/p>\n
Lucia and Mattea; Lulu and Mattie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Erika writes: My husband and I are expecting our second baby very soon (3 weeks) and we don’t know the gender so we’ve been having a difficult time picking out two names. Our 2 year old daughter is Lucia Mae, sometimes called Lulu. Our surname is short and sweet – Coyne – pronounced “coin.” My […]<\/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-8298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-29Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8298","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=8298"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8303,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8298\/revisions\/8303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}