The Baby Name Wizard

Thanks for the sighting, Aybee! Personally, I prefer Rebecca Rose and Tamara Tulip. Dolly and Charlie sound too cutesy for me (and Charlie sounds like a boy). Tulip is fun!

Wendolyn - I love the names! I would vote for the full Lorenzo. I think this would give him more options as he grows (even if he only ever goes by Enzo). Finally, to me, Enzo just seems like shortened version of Lorenzo.
I'll give the middle names some thought to see if I can come up with any others, but I like the sound of Esme Snow and Lorenzo Frost.

I agree Valerie-- Charlie and Dolly sound like a 1950's couple to me, not two newborn girls.
However, these kids will likely be gorgeous and change feelings about the names.

Prairie Dawn-- In various pieces and memoirs, the writer Dominick Dunne refers to his (now deceased?) wife, Ellen Griffin by her nickname, "Lenny".

This might get you to the sound without the "Leni"-Nazi association! But I wouldn't discard the spelling because of that one individual, if you like it.

Eek. I like "Charlie" as a boy's nickname for Charles, and agree that "Tulip" is fun, but the particular combination of all the names of those twins, to me is just egregious! A tin ear at work, I'm afraid. But the very best to those little girls!

Wendolyn - I like Lorenzo as well. Enzo is a very nice name, but I agree that Lorenzo allows for the adult to make a more involved choice in what he goes by.

Buttercup - I have an Aunt Cookie, too! She's married to Uncle Sonny (given names Catherine and John). They named their oldest girl Catherine and oldest son John as well, who go by Cathy and John (didn't continue the nns. I also have an Aunt PG (named Geraldine after a neighbor, who came up with the nn for her) who is married to Uncle Fuzz (named Gerald, but the nn is a shortened form of his difficult-to-pronounce hungarian last name). One of my cousins is Chip (given name John after his father). So my Trip fits in with the family by having a nn that isn't derived directly from his given name.

Well, I'd never heard of the Nazi Leni, but in looking at Wikipedia it ties in with an earlier conversation in that her given name was actually Helene Bertha Amalie.

Rebecca Romijn's Dolly and Charlie confuse me! I love Charlie on a girl, but then I would expect the twin to also have an androgynous name... or a late-20th century name maybe (I'm probably thinking of the perfume Charlie). They do have the end sound in common--kind of cutesy, but that's the only way I'm able to make sense of them. I wonder if she's thinking of Rebecca and Tamara as their "adult" names. The flowers are also cute... although Tulip reminds me of the joke What's better than roses on a piano? Tulips on an organ. *groan*

Wendolyn -- I think "just Enzo" is fine. Assuming you live in the US, which you may not, I don't know how many people would read Enzo as a nn if someone didn't tell them it was. It works for me on the same level that "just Jack" does.

I prefer Esme Winter to Esme Snow, though. Or, I don't know that it fits, but I once knew someone whose daughter's mn was Birch after Robert Frost's poem Birches. Esme Birch sounds lovely!

Re: The Romijn-O'Connell twins, the names are definitely nms. I agree with Aybee that it sounds like a 50s-era couple.

Apparently Rebecca Romijn named her daughter after Dolly Parton (have just googled her, must get a life...).
I love Tulip, because she is from a Dutch family. Very Dutch to have lots of first names.

Keren-
You have reminded me that Charlie is Jerry's brother.

The talk of Nelle Harper Lee got me thinking... I have never heard of Nelle as a given name before (as opposed to Nell as a nickname for Helen), but I quite like it. Thoughts on Nelle as a middle name for Margaret? (btw, she will be called Meg exclusively) I have been trying to think of one that is similar in style to Margaret, but sort of updates the name a bit (so, not the traditional Margaret Anne or Margaret Mary). Others I've thought of so far are Margaret Nora or Margaret Eve (although this would give her the initials MEN, which gives me pause). Thoughts? Other ideas?

Uppy Ears-LOL your post made me laugh. There are indeed now a plethora of combinations to sift through. My suggestion is to put each individual name on a index card. That way you could move them around and make as many combos as you wanted. You'd be able to move the names from FN to MN spot to see if you liked that too. You could also do this with a spreadsheet as well.
I took some time to type a few things up in a spreadsheet myself. I am vicariously loving naming your baby. (I hope you don't mind). So keeping in mind that many of us liked Donovan as a first name I concentrated on that to narrow down the list. However, when I thought of the two mn idea there were a few combos that just jumped out at me. Here is what I came up with:
Donovan Jack; Dunstin Gregory; Tucker Patrick
and Judston Gregory are a few new 1mn combos.

Timothy James Aldon is my very favorite of all.
Then also I like:
Donovan James Gregory
Donovan James Oliver
Donovan James Patrick
Donovan Patrick Eugene
Donovan Judston Reed
Donovan Gregory Scott
Donovan Oliver Reed
Christopher James Aldon
Timothy James Elliott
Aldon Jeffery Reid

Let me know what you think!

Just looking for some input:

We have a son - Maxwell

We need to name our new baby, who should be here in a few weeks. We can't decide on a name.

We both love Malcolm but Max and Mal are too much alike. The dad likes Grady, I hate it. I like Jonas, dad hates it. We are not making much progress.

If it's a girl we are looking at Stella but that may sound too old for some ears. The other name is Miliana.

Any other suggestions?

I adore Beth the original's suggestion of Esme Frost and Enzo Blake. Those are ravishing names.

I also like Nora the best of all Eleanor nicknames. Though my Austen-loving heart inclines toward the spelling Elinor.

Re: the Romijn/O'Connell twins-- Dolly is cute in the Mad Men, retro, plain-Jane name trend kind of way, all those diner waitress names you never hear anymore. And I even like Charlie as a nickname for Charlotte. But not on its own.

Does anyone know if Dolly Pardon's given name was Dolly, or was that a nickname? Dolly is sometimes a nickname for Dorothy, right? Also for Margaret?

I think parents do their children a disservice by giving them nickname only names like Ellie, or Charlie or even Jack (popular as it is). Having an un-nicknameable name myself, I was always envious as a child of girls with names like Margaret but called Meg or Katharine but called Kate or Katie. I think giving your child the traditional form of the name and then providing them with nicknames appropriate to childhood and adulthood (as Patricia describes doing for her sons) is the best gift.

This is not to cast aspersions on any parents of little Jacks or Charlies or Kates. Just my personal naming philosophy.

Need a Name:

What about:

Boys:
August (seems popular with parents of Maxes).
Seth
Colin
Garrett
Gareth
Simon
Arlo
Trevor
Graham
Josiah

Girls:
Millie
Mariana
Luna
Lucia
Cora
Phoebe

Need a name - have to vote for Stella over Miliana. Miliana sounds too much like Frilliana and looks too much like military for me.

For a boy would suggest Leo, Milo - different enough from Max - Jonah rather than Jonas (beware the Jonas brothers) and Nathaniel.
Coll, your list includes three names that in the UK are real 50+ names - Colin, Graham and Trevor. I know they have a different vibe in the US!

Prairie Dawn - My daughter is insistent that her new brother be named Pizza Christopher! What do you do with that?!!

On another note, my mother's name is Orelyn and her father was named Orren. Can anyone tell me if Orelyn is a feminine version of Orren?

I'd like to get your feelings on using family names. I was all for it, using my family trees and thinking about using my father's name (if it's a boy). But I read on Nameberry that a few people think that it's unfair to burden a child with a family name. Maybe it makes the child feel that there are expectations to live up to? Our child will be adopted (we are 'waiting'). That adds an extra complications. I was thinking that it would be good to use a family name, to tie an adopted child even more into the family. To help him/her feel that they belong. What are your thoughts?
Thanks!

Need a Name: I also want to suggest Lucia. I know a family with a Jonas that considered Lucia for a girl. And courtesy of Nymbler: Nora, Ezra, Julian, Jonah, Walker, Eli, Victoria, Owen, Lydia, Amelia, Everett, Jackson, Julia, Ethan, Elias, Solomon, Lena, Theo, Eliza, Tobias, Caleb, Jasper, Gavin, Willa, Clara, Adrian, Georgia, Finn, Julius, Evan, Asher, Graham, Pierce, Colin, Leah, Grant, Reid, Liam, Fiona, Harrison, Vaughn, Rowan.

lovestorun: Is Orelyn pronounced with 2 or 3 syllables? I've never heard of it. It's interesting! Makes me think of ore, Oral... I would think that it may have been intended as a feminization of Orren whether or not using it that way is an established practice.

Penelope: I think family names put much less pressure on a child than naming after a celebrity or something. With a family name, it's not so important what the person did, just that they are family. And, while I don't have any personal experience with adoption myself, it makes sense to me to use a family name to strengthen family connection.

RobynT - It is Ore-lyn, pronounced with two syllables. I was thinking maybe it is a long forgotten English name? There is a strong English heritage in the family.
Mother - Charlotte Lillian
Father - Orren Leslie
Son - John Lloyd
Daughter - Priscilla Rose
Daughter - Orelyn Joy
Son - Philip Leslie
All strong English names. My grandmother was not one to be creative with names which makes me think Orelyn was not "made up" by her.

uppy: this will probably just broaden your choices but you can honor a Don with a D name and 2 middles starting with O and N, respectively. Unless the last name starts with E, G, K, T...

one syllable winter-related words (warning: palinesque)
Ski
Slick
Sleet
Sled
Sleigh (too christmasy?)
Fir (not really namey)
Pine
Freeze
Chill

longer ones
Blizzard
Evergreen
Slalom
Hypothermia

when i see Miliana i think miliary tuberculosis, so not a good association

Valerie -- i thought the same thing about the Romijn/O'Donnell twins. Rebecca Rose and Tamara Tulip are cute, but Charlie and Dolly are definitely nms. Dolly O'Donnell is really hard to say! Charlie is cute if it's a nn for Charlotte, but i don't like nicknames as given names. i have a friend whose given name is Katie and now that she's a 30 year old lawyer, she hates it and feels like no one takes a lawyer named Katie seriously. i think she is legally changing her name to Kate.

1. zoerhenne - Yup, already using a spreadsheet ;-) I do look forward to your posts and am happy you are enjoying this baby naming process as much as I, so I don't mind. I do like Donovan Jack, and that one wasn't on my list. Donovan Patrick Eugene sounds good, too.

I have:
Aldon James Patterson W*s
Dugan James Patterson W*s
Dugan James Tucker W*s
Dugan James Pattrick W*s
Donovan James Elliot W*s

I think I could actually replace Dugan with Aldon, Donovan, or Dunstin in all the above combos. I'm still working on combos for Dunn:

Dunn Alexander ________ W*s ? Jack, Eugene, Gene, Scott? It would have to be a family name from my husband's side. Any ideas for a boy form of Eleanor?

Patterson was my grandfather's middle name, BTW.

2. Penelope - Family names, IMHO, are wonderful! I prefer to modify a family name so it's more "inspired by" rather than a direct naming. For instance, my Talia Mikell was named for my husband's Great Grandma "Italia" and my mother "Michaelene". For me, this shows a close family tie, but doesn't have the specific expectations of living up to or being like the person named for. Makes things more challenging, though ;-)

bill - Any suggestions for O and N names? I have:

Odin/Odon
Ogdon (also a homage to my and my husband's Alma Mater)

That's it. So, what did you have in mind? I don't mind making this harder for myself ;-)

Need a Name:
for girls i prefer Stella to Milliana
How about also (not sure if these were listed above):
Ada/Adah
Alaina
Sadie
Ruby
Clara
Karina
Sylvia

Boys:
Nelson
Leo
Owen
Eli
Wyatt
Felix
Simon

Penelope-
My middle name would be plain, boring, and a lot dated if I didnt know I was named for a beloved relative. Because of that I like my middle name.

@Twins Dolly and Charlie-Eww! I do like Charlie as nn for Charlotte. Dolly is nms. Tulip just sounds weird to me, like the post we had about words being names.

@Wendolyn:I once knew a baby named Renzi. That was his name and it wasn't short for anything the parents liked it that way. I say do what you like.

@yetanotherkate-When I think of Nell I think Nell Carter. I don't know if that was HER given name or not. I think Margaret needs something like Claire or Renee or Louise maybe.

@Need a Name-The first thought I had was Griffin. Zachary might be another good choice.
I will also choose Stella over Miliana as the latter is a little foofy. Maybe Millicent to tone it down a notch.

@lovestorun-Pizza sounds like Peter to my ears so maybe you could convince your little one that pizza is not a "real" name. Sounds like you and our other poster, whose dd wanted to name the new baby Tomato, should get together. (Sorry for forgetting signatures-there's a lot of people on this board). It also seems like you have a lot of "L" heavy names in your family so maybe you could work with that. Lily or Olivia or something. My friend in hs's mn was Orly named after the airport.

@Penelope-I think tying the adopted ones name to the family is nice but I also think if possible there should also be a connection to the country of origin. Didn't someone else on here adopt? I don't have any experince with that but I wish you the best.

Thanks to all of you who brought up the Leni/ Nazi association. I had no idea and may have inadvertently offended our loved ones. I do like Nora as a nn for Eleanor-- I'll need to roll it around in my head for a while and see what happens. Other current contenders for our baby if she's a girl (due end of March) are: Leia, Clara, Sylvie, Marina, Josephine and Anneliese.

Wendolyn-- Lorenzo, nn Enzo, is actually at the top of my list for boys' names. Unfortunately my husband finds it unacceptable. But I definitely prefer the formal given name with the shortened nn. To me, Lorenzo is an elegant, classic name that travels well-- I just love it. Of course, Enzo is also great on it's own. Either way, you can't lose IMO. Now if only I could convince my other half.

Need a name-- I second Willa and Cora. Beautiful, classic names. I like Stella; Miliana, not so much.

As for family names, I'm all for them. What a wonderful way to honor those you love! We gave our daughter her grandmothers' initials-- her first name begins with the letter L after my husband's mother and her middle name begins with a K after my mother. Both grandmas were very touched.

Uppy Ear-I'm glad you are having fun with this and are not too stressed out. I'm glad you like some of my suggestions. I agree that Aldon, Donovan, Dugan, and Dunstin sound very similar. I just couldn't find much I cared for with Dugan as a first name.

I had Dunstin Gregory; Tucker Dugan; Judston Dunn on my 1mn list. James Patrick Dunn was the only remaining 2mn combo after I said them all in my head.

I nixed Alexander in the mn spot because especially with 2mn I thought it made the name seem overly long. Maybe that's just me.
Dunn Alexander Eugene would be my choice of what you posted. I don't know of a boy form of Eleanor, I'll have to look it up. I do like Elliott quite a bit though.

As far as Bill's suggestion, that's an interesting thought as well. You already mentioned Oliver which I quite like. There is Nathan, Noel, Nigel, Ned, Nicholas, and so on for N names. Hit up Namipedia for more.

Let me know if you decide to take anything OUT of the running and will definately NOT use it in a certain position. I already removed Lindon from the running as Lindon W*s was too much short I for me. And I knew you didn't like the repeating S sounds so I didn't suggest James as the 2nd mn either.

"I'd like to get your feelings on using family names. I was all for it, using my family trees and thinking about using my father's name (if it's a boy). But I read on Nameberry that a few people think that it's unfair to burden a child with a family name. Maybe it makes the child feel that there are expectations to live up to? Our child will be adopted (we are 'waiting'). That adds an extra complications. I was thinking that it would be good to use a family name, to tie an adopted child even more into the family. To help him/her feel that they belong. What are your thoughts?"

Penelope, as a mother of 9 grown children, 7 of whom were adopted, all of whom have a family name as a first or middle name (or both), I disagree with those who say that having a family name is a burden and very much agree with you that giving an adopted child a family name can help him/her feel more connected to their family. We named our first two (birth) children names of people very special to us -- daughter after the aunt who helped raise my husband (also his sister's name) and my sister's name: Catherine Rebecca (she liked her name well enough to name her second daughter Catrina) and son after my dad and my husband's step-father: Edward "Ted" Anthony (Ted's first two sons were each given one of his names as a middle name). Thus, no burden having a a family name, but instead a desire to share those names with their own children.

Our third child, first adopted daughter has my first name as her middle name, and our first adopted son has my husband's first name as his middle name. Being very close in age to our "bio" kids, Julianne Patricia and John David always seemed to feel special that they had a name connection with us, their parents. John always planned to name his son David and asked his siblings who had children ahead of him not to use David as a first name. His son David is 2 years old.

We continued to use family names for the rest of our adopted children. Many of the names we chose -- family and non-family -- have been passed along to their children. My middle name was given to my first grandchild, Sarah Ellen, and now Sarah, who will marry later this year, says if she has a daughter someday she wants to name her Elena Catherine after me, herself and her mother.

So, yes, I would heartily recommend giving your child a family name, perhaps as his/her middle name. You might also want to include part of the child's birth name (he/she may need to have two middle names), as that can become special to some adopted children later on too.

Best wishes!

To all-Dolly Rebecca Parton was the given name.

Uppy Ears-To continue Wendolyn's theme of poet names you could do Ogden Nash. LOL! Frederick Ogden Nash was his given name. Other N names:
Neil, Nolan, Noah, and Norman. I could not find a male counterpart to Eleanor which I found to mean "foreign or stranger". However, Neville means "new town" if that is close enough.

Thanks all for comments and thoughts on more than 1 middle names... :) helpful!

"I could not find a male counterpart to Eleanor which I found to mean "foreign or stranger".

Zoerhenne, where did you get this information? The meaning of Eleanor is vexed. Some feel that it is a form of Helen, and others that it is derived from Aenor. In fact, there is no definitive meaning that can be assigned to it. It is sometimes said to mean The Other, on the basis that Eleanor of Aquitaine was said to have been named after her mother Aenor with the prefix Alia, so that the whole name meant "the other Aenor," but this is conjecture. I have seen nothing which would indicate a meaning of foreigner or stranger.

However, one male name that does mean foreigner is Erlend (Scandinavian), and another is Gershom/Gershon (Hebrew, biblical).

My daughter's name is Tamsin! Anyhow i agree Tammis is also a great name. The name I have tied to the holidays is Carry (after the main character of a little known Christmas special that i never miss).

Eleanor as a given name was thought to have started with Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was named after her monther Aenor. Al-Aenor, reflecting the jumble of cultural influences in Provence at the time, roughly meant "the other Aenor," to distinguish her from her mother.

So it would be quite difficult to derive a boy's name from Eleanor, given its etymology. You could perhaps play around with "stranger" as a root (think Greek: Xeno), but a better bet would be to go off sound alone. Eli, Elian, Ilya, Lenard, Lenny, Lanier, and perhaps Lennox sound vaguely related.

I'm sure many people will disagree, but since afaik Aenor is no longer in common use as a name, you could easily get away with giving it to a boy. In fact, when Miriam first mentioned it, before going into detail, I took it to be a male name. And it would buck the annoying trend of boys' names going over to the girls.

Liz & Louka, I think if I met a little boy today named Aenor, my first thought would be "in a galaxy far away...." Definitely would have an SF vibe for me.

Please be aware that the story of the "other Aenor" is just that, a story, not a documented fact. It sounds like the sort of popular and folk etymology which was so common in the Middle Ages and has remained common to this day. The safest thing is simply to say Eleanor is of unknown origin. Like Elaine, Eleanor could be a form of Helen, but that is not definitive either.

I am exceedingly fond of Eleanor. It was my mother's middle name, and if I had had a daughter it would have been her name as well. And Eleanor of Aquitaine is one of my favorite medieval women. Had I had a little Eleanor, I probably would have nicknamed her Nell or possibly Ellie since Ellie was my father's family nickname (from his Hebrew name Eliyahu). That way my daughter would have been named for both my parents in one go.

Another nickname for Eleanor might be Lena, which avoids the remote possibility of people thinking that one is honoring Leni Riefenstahl (heaven forfend). Lenni/e would also avoid the Leni associations. Also Lea (pronounced with either one or two syllables)....

Miriam, I agree, Aenor does sound rather SF. My comment was a bit tongue-in-cheek, based on my "hearing" the name as male, and the frequent complaints about boys' names going to the girls. Still, I do think it would be as valid a way of naming a boy for an Eleanor as any other, given the uncertainties of the origin of that name.

I think I know why Aenor struck me as male (and Greek, before Miriam suggested the SF vibe). It's that -or ending, like Mentor, Hector, Agenor, Antenor, Nestor.

Penelope, our adopted boy has nothing BUT a mix of family given names and surnames. The pattern is similar to this:

"Alexander George Norris Montgomery Howlett"

In other words, two given names (who belonged to remote ancestors), and two family surnames (my mother's maiden name and my maiden) plus our surname of course.

He seems to have enjoyed having them, and hearing the stories attached to them.

(Few of them are that exciting-- we didn't give them to him because they are "illustrious", or anything.) We did it to tie him in to the ongoing "story" of a coming together of families over time and through all kinds of means-- birth, adoption, marriage, etc. Far from burdensome, I believe he sees it as interesting and fun!

I should add that we had more than one reason for bestowing some of them. For example, the fictional second name "George", might be for a great-great-great uncle, but also because we simply like the name, admire George Washington, etc. etc. So he hears all that too.

The poor, forebearing children of we name enthusiasts have a lot to put up with, including listening perhaps to long convoluted stories of how their moniker was arrived at!

Re: Eleanor. I've always liked one of the many medieval variants "Alianore". So were I coming up with a vaguely compatible name to Eleanor, I might go in the direction of "Al-", instead of "El", and name a boy "Alban" which I've always liked.

Of course it is entirely unrelated, meaning something like "fair" or "white" I believe, but "Alban and Eleanor" to me has a rather pleasing Camelot-ish ring!

Sorry Miriam-In my previous post, I did not look past the first site I have in my saved file. Today, I searched a bit further. I did find your reference to the French name Alienor and the meaning referenced as unknown. I also found some different meanings at these other sites. (The first one is the one I referenced in my first post.)
http://www.20000-names.com/female_e_names.htm
http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect.com/meaning_of_Eleanor.html
http://baby-names.familyeducation.com/name-meaning/eleanor

So I guess it is unknown as no one can agree.

yetanotherkate- I really like all of the names you suggested! Margaret Nelle, Margaret Nora or Margaret Eve. The initials MEN struck me as very funny, but I'm not sure you would want to do that to a real person:)

Re: Eleanor, how would you pronounce Alianore versus Alienor? I would say just from reading them Al-(sounds like the boys name "you can call me Al")-ee-ah-nore for the first and ay-nore for the second, is that right? Also should the beginning sound like the word all? That just sounds odd to me, but I wonder if I'm wrong...

Eo, I thought of you over Christmas. My niece Campbell told me that several of her friends have started calling her Camby. I thought of you and your love of whimsical nicknames immediately!

Do you really think a girl named Lenni/ie/y would avoid being associated with Riefenstahl? I feel like in conversation it would read exactly the same. (I'm very interested in this b/c one of my friends is considering using the name.)

Prairie Dawn, how hilarious about Tomato! I know a real life Ocean, only it's a boy. Apparently most people think this is a girls name, as all the other ones I've heard of are girls.

When baby #3 was due, our oldest made some suggestions. Her girl selection was Clarice (out of the question! Way too Hannibal Lecter for me, but she is/was too young to know) and Jonathan. We liked Jonathan so we had it as our mn for a boy. Alas we had two more girls instead...

One more thing, I was surprised to read that Tammis would be a MALE name, though the reasons behind it (a form of Thomas) are completely ... reasonable, and rather obvious when I thought of it that way. I guess the my mind remembers the Tammi/Tami/Tammy's of life.

Joni- interesting about the name Clarice, I have the exact same feeling about it and could never use it. I've never even seen the movie and I can't get past the connection. Anyone else, thoughts on Clarice? I just think it's an interesting one...

Miliana reminds me of Melania, Donald Trump's current wife.

My 5 year old has a girl in her class named Wynter.

The baby twin Charlie was explicitly named after the Daddy's twin Charlie. I read an article about how thrilled big Charlie was to hold his little namesake.

Regarding multiple middle names, if it is a first child, it often makes me think they they are only planning to have one child. I have a friend who gave her son 4 names plus the surname for that very reason.

I am so grateful to those of you who wrote to encourage me to use family names for our future adopted child(ren). It is what I wanted to do and I'm glad that you all think that it isn't a burden upon the child.

I would particularly like to thank Patricia and Eo who shared their own adoption and naming stories. I was very inspired by the concept of naming being another way to recognize the coming together of families.

Here is another concern of mine that I'd like to share. There is a chance that the adopted child will be full or part-Hispanic (we are hoping). I'm half-Mexican and my DH is Caucasian. I felt that it seems more appropriate to name a Hispanic child with a Hispanic name, as a way to celebrate their culture/ethnicity. What are your views? Should I be coming up with a Hispanic option (from my family tree) in addition to our other choices for both sexes? Or does it matter?

Somehow, in my mind, a full Hispanic child with a name like 'Oliver' or 'Elliot' seems weird to me.

My Hispanic relatives, including my mother, all have Hispanic names.

Thank you again for taking the time to consider my particular case.

Romijn's daughter being named Charlie after a family member makes so much more sense to me. Not that their names need to make sense to me. But you know.

Penelope: Interesting question! I think that if I were you I would study Hispanic name lists and probably go for a name that crosses cultures. I think there is a list in Laura's book for starters.