{"id":8369,"date":"2013-11-18T14:57:04","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T18:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=8369"},"modified":"2014-05-30T13:11:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-30T17:11:00","slug":"baby-girl-or-boy-shanever-sibling-to-gracyn-and-jmeson-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2013\/11\/18\/baby-girl-or-boy-shanever-sibling-to-gracyn-and-jmeson-lane\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Girl or Boy Shan!ever, Sibling to Gracyn and J@meson (Lane)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ashley writes:<\/p>\n

I am currently pregnant with baby #3. \u00a0Due late May 2014. \u00a0We have decided to keep the gender a delivery room surprise, and have also decided to keep our name choices a secret. \u00a0We have a 3 year old daughter, Gracyn Merr*tt (an i goes there), and a 1 year old son, J@meson Lane (he goes by Lane). \u00a0Our last name is Shan!ever.<\/p>\n

We decided to use Gracyn just because we liked it. \u00a0Though I have since realized that it is a combo of two different grandmother’s names (Grace and Carolyn). \u00a0Merr*tt is my husband’s middle name and was also his grandfather’s middle name.<\/p>\n

J@meson Lane was named after his grandfather James who passed away, and Lane is my maiden name.<\/p>\n

Our real dilemma is the girl name. \u00a0I am convinced this baby will be a girl. \u00a0My firstborn daughter and I almost share the same late May birthdate, and this baby is due to arrive the same week. \u00a0 Our problem is there’s just nothing we both love except for Merr*tt. \u00a0But, we have decided that using it for a first name seems like we are taking it from our firstborn and giving it to the baby. \u00a0Therefore, we have decided to use it as a middle name again. \u00a0It will be a family middle name that the girls will share with their daddy. \u00a0I still have no idea why we didn’t use it as a first name with our first born, but I guess we were swimming in a sea of names back then :)<\/p>\n

My name is Ashley, and I want a name that isn’t too popular. \u00a0I grew up being called by my last name, and with a last name like Shan!ever I don’t want that same fate for our kids. \u00a0I tend to like unisex names, but I’m not limited to those.<\/p>\n

We have picked a boy name -Knox. \u00a0It’s rich with meaning for us. \u00a0Our only dilemma is the middle name. \u00a0Is it weird to use Merr*tt for a boy after using it for our firstborn girl? \u00a0If the answer is yes, we have a list of other names waiting. \u00a0We just really don’t know the answer to this one.<\/p>\n

List of girl names we like ranked in order:
\nKeighley (Kee-Lee \u00a0We both really like it, but I’m just not sure if it’s THE ONE. \u00a0I am worried about people mispronouncing it, but simpler spellings like Keeley don’t appeal to my husband)
\nHarper (if our son would have been a girl this would have been the name we chose, but as an Ashley, I think it’s too popular for me now)
\nBlakely (another name we really like, but are unsure about)
\nIsley (great grandmother’s maiden name – pronounced eyes-lee, but our 3 year old pronounces it as Ashley.)
\nReese (husband hates it, and it’s gaining popularity)
\nBerkley (3 year old pronounces it as Broccoli)
\nLeighton (It’s very popular in our area, and I don’t think I want two different gender kids to share the letter L)<\/p>\n

We have always picked our baby names very early on, and so I have found myself worrying about this more and more. \u00a0I’m ready to pick a girl name and stop thinking about it so much!<\/p>\n

Thanks so much swistle! \u00a0I love reading your blog, and I can’t wait to hear your suggestions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you use Merr*tt as the middle name for a second daughter, that doesn’t seem strange to me: it seems like a fun tradition for the girls in the family. If you use it as the middle name for a second son, it does seem a little strange to me: suddenly it feels as if your first son is left out of the club. On the other hand, I don’t think it’s at a level of strangeness that means it needs to be ruled out, especially considering how infrequently middle names are used, and because your son has your maiden name as his middle name. If your son weren’t going by his middle name, I might suggest having all the girls use the middle name Merr*tt and all the boys use the middle name Lane.<\/p>\n

For a boy, would you want to consider the same pattern as your first son’s name? ______ Knox Shan!ever, called Knox.<\/p>\n

When I saw Keighley, I read it as if it were Kiley (rhymes with Riley). I don’t know why, since -eigh is usually pronounced “ee” (Leigh, Ryleigh, Kayleigh) or “ay” (sleigh, weigh, neigh, eight, deign, reign, freight, Leighton). I think it might be a visual confusion with the surname Knightley. In fact, I’m going to go put up a poll<\/a> right now to get a more accurate survey—I can’t even THINK of another example where “eigh” would be pronounced like long-I [oh, good, Rachel mentioned the word “height”—but I think for me it was the Knightley thing].<\/p>\n

I would advise against this spelling, even if it means ruling out the name. I looked through the Social Security database with the search term “eigh,” and here are the times those letters are used for United States baby names:<\/p>\n

1. After an L and at the end of the name, to sound like ee (Hayleigh, Marleigh)<\/p>\n

2. After a letter at the beginning of a name, to sound like ay (Leighton, Peighton)<\/p>\n

3. In ways that make the pronunciation unclear to me even though I know what the parents must have intended (Aubreigh, which makes me think “Aubray—no wait, it must be Aubrey”)<\/p>\n

With the name pronounced Keeley, I might expect to see the -eigh on the END, but not in the middle: Keeleigh is clear to me, but Keighley doesn’t feel right. I feel like I can’t remember how to pronounce it OR how to spell it.<\/p>\n

Harper doesn’t seem too common to me. There were 7,154 new baby girls named Harper in 2012; I’m comparing that to the 54,831 new baby girls named Ashley in 1987. (I wish I could compare as percentages of the number of babies born in those years, but that feature of the Social Security site hasn’t been working for me. [It’s working again! The name Ashley was given to 2.93% of baby girls in 1987; the name Harper was given to .37% of baby girls in 2012.]) Would you prefer Piper (3,038 new baby girls in 2012) or Juniper (296 new baby girls in 2012)? Or wait—I’m not sure I like the repeated -er with the surname.<\/p>\n

Blakely Shan!ever is a bit of a tongue-tangler for me.<\/p>\n

Isley appeals to me, but has spelling and pronunciation issues: I had to scroll up twice to get the spelling for this paragraph (though it clicked as soon as I noticed it’s the word isle with a Y), and the word isle and the popularity of Isla (no S-sound) may confuse things. I’m not concerned with the three-year-old’s pronunciation: that’s a temporary situation, and seems like it results in nothing but cute stories and affectionate nicknames.<\/p>\n

I notice the first two children share an end-sound; it’s less of an issue since J@meson goes by Lane, but it’s something I’d take into account. For some, “taking it into account” would mean avoiding a third matched ending; for others, it would mean finding a third matched ending.<\/p>\n

More possibilities:<\/p>\n

Braelyn
\nBrinley\/Brynleigh
\nCampbell
\nDevany
\nEllery
\nEllison
\nEmery
\nEvanie
\nEverly\/Everleigh
\nFinley
\nHadley\/Hadleigh
\nHolland
\nKeelyn
\nKinley\/Kinleigh
\nKinsley (I wouldn’t do Kinsleigh, because of sleigh)
\nMaelyn
\nMarley
\nMerrin (instead of using middle name Merr*tt)
\nMirren (instead of using middle name Merr*tt)
\nTeagan<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

It’s a girl!<\/p>\n

Meet Finley Merr*tt Shan!ever<\/p>\n

\"image\"<\/p>\n

(My husband and I had our first date at an NC State football game at Carter-Finley stadium.\u00a0 We loved that we could tie that in with Finley!)<\/p>\n

Thanks for the naming help and suggestions!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ashley writes: I am currently pregnant with baby #3. \u00a0Due late May 2014. \u00a0We have decided to keep the gender a delivery room surprise, and have also decided to keep our name choices a secret. \u00a0We have a 3 year old daughter, Gracyn Merr*tt (an i goes there), and a 1 year old son, J@meson […]<\/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-8369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2aZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369","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=8369"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8988,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8369\/revisions\/8988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}