Marianne writes:<\/p>\n
I have been waiting for Valentine’s Day this year because it was the date of our anatomy ultrasound (my husband wondered what I would get him and I said “either a girl or a boy”!) and lo, we have our answer. It is a boy, the first of his generation and he is a total, complete foreign oddity in our family of sisters and nieces. Due in early July.<\/p>\n
We are super excited to have a boy and completely stumped on a name. Not just a name, but a naming universe where my husband and I could theoretically co-exist. So far the very best we can do is come up with one or two names that aren’t immediately rejected. Nothing remotely close to right for us.<\/p>\n
We have an almost 2 year old daughter named Beatrix Majel. It took approximately 8 seconds for us to choose her name. My husband’s fist name is Rob and his last name is our daughter’s second middle name and is Belletier with a P (pell-tee-ay). My name is Marianne and my last name (and the kids’ last name) is Bregoire with a G (greg-war). We didn’t hyphenate because that’s too much name! We like the idea of more kids but take it one at a time. Three is definitely plausible.<\/p>\n
If the baby had been a girl we were liking Magdalene or Nina Eloise. We tend to like names with nick-names, prefer older over newer varieties and prefer to stay away from classic standards like Michael and Thomas, and I seem to have a problem with last names as first names (Bennett, Conner, Parker etc which are all no-go’s for me). I prefer the name not to be too popular but honestly if we find a name we both like we will clutch it to our chests and never let it go.<\/p>\n
My husband seems to prefer names from things he likes (such as Emmett from Back to the Future. Solid films, I agree) and seems to be fine with conventional popular names, although will randomly reject something for an unexpected reason (Theodore is out because of the Chipmunks!).<\/p>\n
I know with Beatrix we are in danger of having a hipster name sub-set but I’d rather that over calling this kid “the boy” until he’s old enough to name himself which was our plan until we found out our first was a girl.<\/p>\n
Boy names that are on the reluctant maybe list:
\nArthur (mine) —>more than OK with the Bea Arthur reference\/homage
\nMartin (Rob’s)
\nAugustin\/Gus (emergency boy name for our daughter, I admit I had a panic the ultrasound tech was wrong when I went into labour)<\/p>\nTotally rejected by one of us: Donald, Theodore, Otto, Peter, Pierre, Jasper, Benjamin (already used)<\/p>\n
BONUS difficulty: If this makes it to the blog and there are any Franco-American or French Canadian readers a bilingual (French\/English) name would be amazing!<\/p>\n
I know I listed lots of preferred and not-preferred variables but we are wide open to suggestions! Nothing is really set in stone.<\/p>\n
Thanks very much for your time :-)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
I think I will just start flinging out names:<\/p>\n
1. Pascal. I feel like this name could be a huge success. It has math\/science\/computer-geek appeal, French appeal, and a cool sound overall. The main problem, I think, is pronunciation. I wasn’t even positive I KNEW how to pronounce it, and my perusal of an assortment of pronunciation sites showed me that it varies a bit. The most prevalent English pronunciation seems to be the one where you say the word “pass” and then you say “cal” as in California. The nickname Cal is available if wanted.<\/p>\n
2. Calvin. Great nickname.<\/p>\n
3. Claude. I am ready to hear this name again, and I think Claude Gregwar sounds handsome and literary. Or Claudius?<\/p>\n
4. Jeremy. Jerome.<\/p>\n
5. Ian. I like to say this with your daughter’s name: Beatrix and Ian.<\/p>\n
6. Leo.<\/p>\n
7. Barnaby.<\/p>\n
8. Eamon. I had to learn to pronounce this (AY-mun), but it didn’t take long.<\/p>\n
9. Kipling. It’s surnamey, I admit. But so literary with Beatrix! And the wonderful nickname Kip! [Edit:<\/strong> The white supremacist views of Rudyard Kipling have been brought to my attention, and I would no longer recommend this name.]<\/p>\n
10. Eliot. Surnamey but literary!<\/p>\n
11. Truman. Surnamey but literary!<\/p>\n
12. Wesley. I think Wes is my top favorite boy nickname.<\/p>\n
13. Oswald.<\/p>\n
14. Louis.<\/p>\n
15. Edmund.<\/p>\n
16. Frederick.<\/p>\n
17. Franklin.<\/p>\n
18. Harvey. I love this name and wish more people did too. Maybe it will be the next Henry.<\/p>\n
19. Malcolm.<\/p>\n
20. Sterling.<\/p>\n
21. Darius.<\/p>\n
22. Rufus.<\/p>\n
23. Ruben.<\/p>\n
24. Simon.<\/p>\n
25. Corin.<\/p>\n
26. Oliver.<\/p>\n
27. George.<\/p>\n
28. Charles.<\/p>\n
29. Dean.<\/p>\n
30. Paul. I think the eye could accidentally skip past this one in the name book. My eye did (despite it being my husband’s pseudonym on the blog), until my brother and sister-in-law mentioned it was on their name list for my nephew. Suddenly I saw the name in a new light: squeezy, cuddly, adorable little baby PAUL! Paul Gregwar; Beatrix and Paul.<\/p>\n
31. Russell.<\/p>\n
32. Stuart. I noticed Arthur and Martin both contained “art”. So does Stuart.<\/p>\n
33. Murray.<\/p>\n
34. Ira.<\/p>\n
35. Linus.<\/p>\n
26. Ivan.<\/p>\n
I am also drawn to Emmett and Augustin from your lists.<\/p>\n
I wonder, especially since a boy in this family tree is a relatively rare event, if there are any family men you’d like to honor?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marianne writes: I have been waiting for Valentine’s Day this year because it was the date of our anatomy ultrasound (my husband wondered what I would get him and I said “either a girl or a boy”!) and lo, we have our answer. It is a boy, the first of his generation and he is […]<\/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-8632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2fe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8632","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=8632"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14980,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8632\/revisions\/14980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}