The Baby Name Wizard

I'm also having problems with the 14 imaginary kids...I'm short on boy names, and I've run into logistical problems like rhyming names (Jane and Zane) and variations on the same name (Rose and Rosalie). I need to make a logic puzzle, I guess!

emilyrae - re your comment "who was it on here who had a daughter named minna and people insisted on calling her "mee-na"? so bizarre..." - I wonder if that is not fairly understandable in a way? I think of names like Milla that are pronounced "Mee-la" by some and "Mill-ah" by others, and "Mia" which some say as "Mee-ah" and others as "My-ah". "Mi" can be a hard letter combo to be sure of, in my opinion. (By the way, I promise I am well educated, even though I may not sound it, LOL! I have 2 university degrees, and English was my major in one of them!) I wonder if a big part of what your instinctive pronunciation of any word is, is what country you were brought up in or what country your family are from - eg in Mexico Lucia is usually "Loo-see-ah" and in Italy it is usually "Loo-chee-ah". Similarly, I know Americans tend to dislike Helena pronounced "Huh-lay-nah" but I know European people who would never even consider saying it any other way! I lived in France for a while and I simply can not pronounce "Jolie" as "Jol-ee", I automatically say "Sho-lee" (the "Sh" being pronounced like the "s" in "pleasure"). That funny French j has stuck with me! (At least, with French words - I still say my own name, Jane, in the traditional English way, despite it sounding so much prettier when the French say it!)

On the topic of whether the UK is ahead of the US - I think what has been said in the past by Laura and others is that the UK is ahead on general TRENDS, not on every single baby name!! Every country has its own idiosyncrasies when it comes to baby names, but the UK does seem to experience naming trends before they are experienced in the US.

Jenmn - I too love Arwen. How about Aven? Close, but without the LOTR associations! Or perhaps Arden? (I love Arwen, Aven and Arden - all fantastic names in my opinion.) Of all the names on your list, my personal favourite would be Vivienne. Good luck with that husband of yours!! He sounds like my husband!! :)

Oh dear, this is why you should read all the posts before posting! I just read pages 3 and 4 of comments, and have realised that half of what I've said above has been covered by others! Sorry! Still, great minds etc... ;)

Instead of Arwen, what about other Welsh 'wen' names like Anwen, Branwen, Olwen, Rhonwen, Carwen, Morwen/Morwenna, or Tanwen?

I couldn't do 14 names with all different letters (they don't match!), but wanted to play anyway. I'd rather have less varied cultures irl too.

1. Frederick Jude
2. Lucy Emmanuelle
3. Callum David Morrison
4. Salome Fairuza
5. Raphael Clark
6. Alasdair Carlisle
7. Clara Robin
8. Sasha Adelheid
9. Ezra Lachlan
10. Penelope Raven
11. Francisca Noor
12. Simon Corbett
13. Peter Lewin
14. Darcy Magdalene

Tirzah - as the mother of a Phoebe, we get Pheobe all the time, and occasionally Phobe and once Feebi.

Argh.

Keren, Tirzah,

I understand your frustration with Phoebe and Phoenix (lovely names, btw) getting constantly misspelled, but I don't think these misspellings are a result of "the shortcomings of the educational system" as we were also discussing (with different examples). The 'oe' is hard to get (guess!) right for those who learn aurally because |ˌfiːnɪks| and |ˌfiːbi| don't give any clue to the existence of an 'o'. On the other hand, if you encounter misspellings such as Phoennix and Phoebbe, then you're free to take a dig at "the shortcomings of the educational system" ;-)

I'm so glad others had trouble with 14 names! I had to stretch to the middle names a bit. I definitely follow the -a and -n endings for female and male, respectively. And I couldn't use all unique initials... Here are mine (but I had to look at my list to remember some...)

Gordon Douglas
Taran Michael
Vaughn (Donovan)
Gilbert Lewis
Niels (or Neil)Luuk
Camden Scott
Lincoln Gage
Nolan Miles

Vienna Siobhan
Colette Marijke
Tatiana Belle
Rania Laleh
Milana Jade
Kallista Aurora

Fun!

As the stodgy namer on the board, I want to stand up for Gienna. It's kind of a nice twist on Jenna or Gianna, and doesn't look forced. Sure, in a perfect world hubby would go for Geneva or Genevieve, but Gienna seems like a good compromise.

But I have to say no to Aspen. Too ready-for-teasing, with that first syllable.

My 14, but first names only (sorry so WASPY but that's who I am):

Caroline (my actual daughter)
Eleanor
Audrey
Samuel
Frances nn Frankie
Anne nn Annie
Jonathan
William
Lucy
Thomas
Edward nn Ned
Emily (popularity issues aside)
Cary (boy)
Arthur

Wow, adventurous, huh?

I don't think my 14 names are nearly as interesting as some of yours, but I made the attempt. The middle names are mostly family names, and I've discovered that apparently I have a huge thing for E names in addition to my love for V names, because I had to keep stopping myself from using them!

Eleanor Kathryn
Penelope Rae
Juliet Marie
Lucy Marguerite
Margaret Estelle
Annemarie Jane
Charlotte Noël

Graham Benjamin
Vaughn Douglas
Nathaniel James
Owen Edward
Bryson Paul
Rhys Elliot
Harrison Noel

Is anyone else surprised by the frequency with which Jade is suggested on this board? I mean no offense to anyone who likes the name (like knp above), as it has a lovely sound and the stone is so pretty, but I thought it was a name that had long been lost to the strip clubs. Of course, I would be happy to be wrong, but thought that Jade was a name that was sort of widely acknowledged as falling into that "Lady of the Night" category.

Anna - re Phoebe; I agree, can't really expect people to guess the spelling, everything is spelled in an unexpected way. Very hard to explain to her when she was learning to read by phonetics.

OK. Here are my 14...with consideration of our last name and with husband's input!

Elinor Wren
Juliet Blythe
Susannah Rose
Charlotte Ruth
Beatrix Mae
Elisabeth Hero
Madeleine Iris

Zane Edward
Owen Lindsey
William Jude
Blake Andrew
Simon Rhys
Wesley Grant
Adam Thomas

My husband did give me a crazy look over Elisabeth Hero, but I pointed out that we were most likely NOT going to have 7, or even 6, girls and that it would all be OK. :)

guest,
for the record, i don't have those impressions of jade, but perhaps that is in part because i know a jade?

@AK--we have a lot of names in common, it's kind of funny! You mentioned that your husband didn't like your number 7 girls list, and I realized that I kind of subconsciously put my girls list in order from 1 to 7, but I didn't with the boys list, where Vaughn and Rhys would top the list.

And if I had a 15th kid, it would most definitely be Simon! I figure if I ever had 15 kids I'd be old enough by the time Simon arrived that the awkward family taboo would probably be long gone! :) I also took our last name into consideration, but dh's out of town, I'll have to wait and see what he would change when he gets back!

I have thoughts (regarding the original post) as to why there's the recession-name change. It's all my uninformed opinion, so I might very well be wrong.

@PPP:

Sorry to hear about the difficulties with Aoibheann. It sounds like your husband worries about your daughter's opportunities by sticking with classic name choices. Perhaps he's seeing a "President Aoibheann Lastname" and it's not working for him. I'd spend some time learning about how he sees your daughter's life. What will her childhood be like? What interests might she have? Will she be popular in school? Or will she prefer the library? Or perhaps counterculture? Will she go on to college? Graduate school? What career(s) will she be in? What will her home life be like? By the way, how do you see her life turning out?

Then think--what names will give this life? I doubt he's dead set against an unusual name, and dead set for a usual one. He does, however, want to make sure she gets a name that doesn't hinder her opportunities. Do you feel that a name from his list would hinder your daughter in some way?

Blah, that was a bad post.

My thoughts on recession naming are based on trust. We all want our children to do well, and part of doing well is being trustworthy. It's why we all tend to gravitate to a certain group of names, and someone who isn't interested in names will hold fast to top-names lists--that way, the name will not arouse suspicion. Name styles change dramatically when big events occur: You don't trust bank president John anymore, but do trust Johnny, the struggling merchant on the corner.

I don't have stripper associations with the names Jade, Scarlett or Delilah (all of which have been mentionned as having harlot associations on this website at some point!) but maybe that's because I know people with those names and they are all very un-stripper-like!! I think of stripper names as being names like Crystal, Trixie, Coco, Lola, Bambi, Destiny, Candy, Cherry, Angel, etc! (Sorry, no offence to anyone with a child bearing these names!) Again, this is possibly because I don't know any people in real life with these names.

Bianca-You had such interesting mn choices for your 14 kids. Are they family names or just names you like?

It's also interesting to note that several of us have placed Rhys, Elliott, and Vaughn on our lists. Are these up and coming risers?

I cannot limit myself to just 14 names because I am reflecting my childen's favorites, as well as mine. So, I have included no middle names -to save you time in perusal. Boys: Raphael, Gideon, Simon. Henry, August, Roman, Theodore, Barnaby, Lorenzo, Luciano. Girls:Allegra, Aurelie, Beatrix, Cecily,Delilah, Isla, Elodie, Loralie, Ramona,Roxanne,...........and Tess.

Ok, I'll give the 14 kids a go. It's actually quite hard! I know I love 'A' and 'C' names and similar endings (particularly for girls). I also like the male and female version of some names, so it's hard not to repeat. In no particular order and with no input from the other half, and taking into account surname:

Girls:
1. Cordelia Margeurite
2. Susannah Xanthe
3. Juliet Diane
4. Astrid Caroline
5. Clementine Amelie
6. Boronia Carys
7. Genevieve Delphine

Boys:
1. Alasdair Hamish
2. Theodore Caspian
3. Cormac Rafferty
4. Vaughn Llewellyn
5. August Piers John
6. Diarmuid Fletcher
7. Ambrose Sinclair

I left out so many I love, so maybe 3 names each (although nobody wants to read that here!). Some of the middles are family names, in reality it would be all family names of some sort I think as some with and some without would make me uncomfortable.

I notice quite a few similar names coming up in our picks!

chimu - Boronia does make a lovely name. I never thought of that.

Lorien: just remembered I know of mixed Korean girls named Tae and Sunhi, just for an idea of sounds that other Korean American kids have, that I think are considered easy for English speakers. I think the suggestion of Sam is a good one too; feel like I've known several Korean American Sams.

Qwen: I do have a little trouble with Gienna, but if you and your husband like it, I think the trouble that some have with it should not necessarily be a deal-breaker.For some reason, I kind of like the story of "it was the only thing my parents could agree on." I guess just b/c sometimes that's life! Sometimes it doesn't matter about the meaning or namesake or whatever; it's just about what the parents can agree on.

I've spent the past many hours compiling the names from my daughter's K-5 yearbook, which includes approx 800 students. My eyes are absolutely crossing!

I won't share the exhaustive list with you, but will say there are loads of kids with names that are unique to them.

I did try to group alternate spellings and usual nns with the more formal name, but I can understand entirely why the SSA decided to leave each unique spelling as a unique name. It's hard to know when to collapse a name into a more general grouping and when to leave it out. As an example, there were two girls named Mary and one each of Marie and Maria. I left all those separate, but maybe I shouldn't have because I grouped Joe, Joey, Joseph, Jozef, and Yoseph. Argh!

For those who are interested, here are the top 25 names (or groupings of names). Five or more kids share these names (total number of kids for either the name or the group in parentheses). Fascinating fact: 20 of the 25 names are boys' names.

1. Justin (11)
2. Alex/ Alexander/ Alexandre (10)
3. Catherine/ Cathy/ Katherine/ Kathryn/ Katie (10)
4. Jacob/ Jake/ Jakey/ Jakob (10)
5. Matt/ Matthew (10)
6. Emely/ Emily/ Emmalee (9)
7. Josh/ Joshua (9)
8. Michael/ Mike/ Mikey (9)
9. Samantha (9)
10. Sofia/ Sophea/ Sophia (8)
11. Ben/ Benjamin (7)
12. Ana/ Anna (6)
13. David (6)
14. Dylan/ Dylon (6)
15. Ethan (6)
16. Felipe/ Filip/ Philip/ Phillip (6)
17. Joe / Joey/ Joseph/ Jozef/ Yoseph (6)
18. John/ Jon/ John Justin/ John Paul/ John-Pierre (6)
19. Andrew/ Andy (5)
20. Christian/ Kristian (5)
21. Daniel (5)
22. Isaia/ Isaiah/ Issiah/ Iziah (5)
23. Noah (5)
24. Peter (5)
25. Sean/ Sean John/ Shawn (5)

Oh, and because top 5 for girls seems paltry, here's the top 20 for the girls:

1. Catherine/ Cathy/ Katherine/ Kathryn/ Katie (10)
2. Emely/ Emily/ Emmalee (9)
3. Samantha (9)
4. Sofia/ Sophea/ Sophia (8)
5. Ana/ Anna (6)
6. Julia (4)
7. Maya (4)
8. Olivia (4)
9. Rachel (4)
10. Aaliyah/ Aliya (3)
11. Caroline/ Carolyne (3)
12. Christina/ Kristina (3)
13. Diana (3)
14. Gabi/ Gabriella/ Gaby (3)
15. Isabel/ Isabelle (3)
16. Lauren/ Lauryn (3)
17. Melanie (3)
18. Mia (3)
19. Michaela/ Mikaela/ Mikayla (3)
20. Natalie/ Natalie Ann (3)

Liz & Louka - thanks, I love Boronia. It never gets a mention with the botanical names. I used to do some volunteer work with teenagers and knew a girl called Boronia, who was lovely. I have been a fan of the name ever since.

zoerhenne - Only one is a family name, and I would also never use Arabic names in real life unless my child had ancestry. (ooh, that would be fun, it's my current exotic name interest). It's just, while I like traditional/real names, I often like styles that are interesting or striking to me rather than pretty and elegant, if that makes sense.

I'm still shocked by the Issiahs and Dylons and Emelys. Do their parents seriously envision a future where people will stop in their tracks and say "Wow. Forget Vaughn, Diarmuid, and Boronia, Emely with an E is absolutely STUNNING!!"

For the person who asked about the distinction between the origins of Audrey and Aubrey, here is a page with some info on both: http://legitnames.blogspot.com/search/label/English%20Names

I could not resist the 14 name challenge. I am nak the newest name in our house and loving every decision we made about his name...
Did I post it here after he was born? Can't remember. Gilead Michael Alan was born 16 days ago - on my dads birthday. Some of you may remember my queries about names to honor a Jerry wihtout using the JER sound. I solved it and just used his mn, Alan.
Amazingly (for me and many peopl who know me) he was "nameless" for about 8 - 10 hours bc DH and I both had a hard time calling him by the chosen name once he was actually in arms. But nothing we tried out felt any better so we decided to stick with it. Now? I have no regrets!

Catherine Maria Claire
Margaret Anne Marie
Vivian Marguerite
Elizabeth ??? Elle
Susan Jane
Beatrix
Charlotte

George Oliver Lloyd (my real life boy)
Arthur
Charles
William
Edmund
Graham
Alisdair

Agh! that was harder than I thought. I did not go get my recently worn out list of name though so I know that would have helped.
Yes, I have 3 C names, however, they each have a different sound (K, CH and SH). As for Arthur and Alisdair, Elizabeth and Edmund... they just have to live with it. :D

I too can not resist the 14 Names challenge!! I decided to have some fun with it though, and pretend I don't have a surname to work with. I hope you don't consider this to be awful cheating - it's just that I am soooooo tired of being so restricted by the surname Leaf! I also only did one middle name for each child - we will have 2 middle names for all our real children, as it's a family tradition in both my family and hubby's family, and we find it a good way to honour parents/grandparents etc. But to heck with all that, if I were free to choose names that I just love for their own sake:

Violet Isobel
Theodora Lily
Delilah Grace
Sophia Pearl
Scarlett Alice
Ella Rose
Ophelia Clementine

Benjamin
Augustus
Oscar
Hugo
Noah
Sebastian
William

Oh dear, I am totally stuck on the boys' middle names. Think I could be here for HOURS if I had to come up with those. I find girls' names so much more interesting and inspiring to dream of. I found it hard to select only 7 girls' names, but I was scraping the barrel to find 7 for boys - there are very few boys' names that I even like, let alone love! (So, knowing my luck, I'll only have boys, LOL!)

I know it would bother some of you having 2 daughters with names ending in "a" or "ia" but this wouldn't bother me in a family of 14! If there were only 2 of them, then sure...

Hmmm...my 14 kids...this isn't easy! I started with my two actual sons' names, since obviously we liked them enough to use them.

Isaac
Liam
Edward ("Teddy")
Sebastian
Xavier
Neil
Samuel

Girls:
Eliza
Lucy
Nora
Theresa ("Tess")
Amelia ("Millie")
Frances
Beatrice

I have a file in my computer with a list of names that appeal to me for some reason or other, but it's funny, a lot of the names on it are nice to think about, but got nixed because they were too flowery or fancy to imagine on an actual child...it's fun to think about them, but when I see them against our first two kids' names, they look as though they're trying too hard.

For this reason I nixed "Alistair," "Imogen" and a few others-neat names, but they're a little too much for our brood.

New Baby Alert: Amber Erin.
Ugh, the flow is so wrong with that one! Luckily, the mom's not in my circle so I don't have to think about it a lot.

My 14:
Isabel Skye (DD)- Izzy
Amelia Blue- Milly
Claudia Marin- Cloud
Cecelia Heaven- Cece
Piper Aven
Briony Lark- Brie
Priscilla Wren- Cilla

Jasper Talon- Jax
Leopold Noble- Leo
Eliott Thaden- E or Eli (Thaden is the LN of an aviatrix)
Asher Hawk- Ash
Simon Wright
Mateo Jett- Mat
Declan Mars- Dec

This was really hard. The MNs are very matchy matchy, but I was trying to honor DH's aviation theme we started with DD. I also tried to take into account our 3 syllable last name. I know I have a couple of same letters, but the sounds are a bit different. I do like nn's so I don't know what I'd do about Piper or Simon. WDYT?

Kim in Philly: I love your pattern of more classic first names and more fanciful middles.

14 names, oh dear! It's easy at first - you pick your favourites(*) and it's great you don't even have to choose between them. But then you have to choose a few of your "second" favourites, and you have to consider similarity, initials etc. It's hard to pick 7 names that has a somewhat similar feel (I like that) without being obviously theme-y (don't like that). And then there's the feeling that if I'm gonna have 14 children, the least I deserve is to get to name one of them my secret favourite [X] despite [X] being a complete misfit, style- and otherwise, with the other names.

Bryony*
Charlotte*
Adelaide*
Odessa*
Paige
Venus[X]
Joni

Mark*
Anders*
Walter*
Gabriel
Hudson
Henry
Philip

If the kids want middle names they're free to choose one themselves, because mommy is out of ideas ;-)

Love everyone's name lists and the unique styles we all have! Leafy-you DO have special considerations and I love your name list because of it. Kim in Philly-you have a good group of names too. Weren't you just asking for ideas a bit ago? I might do Pippa for nn for Piper, not sure about Simon.

My relative who is named Simon goes by "Simes" as a family nn. I've also seen Sim/Sym in older books.

Given my current state of name confusion, I wasn't sure if I could manage the "14 Names Challenge". But surprizingly, I got some constructive input from my hubby and we managed a list. They do seem a bit disparate - the obviousness of his list vs mine, but I think with 14 kids any cohesion (naming or not) would be a triumph.

Some of these we are considering (perhaps in different combinations) for baby girl to be, and some are firm choices for a boy next time around!

Boys:
Callum Reade*
Ronan Baird
Declan Miller
Emmett Rogan
Bowen Duff
Faolan Malone
Ichigo Pax (doesn't mesh, but DH insisted!)

Girls:
Fionavar Saoirse*
Verity Alethea
Sorcha Firinne*
Acadia Vrai
Orlaith Aisling
Aoibheann Razzell*

Funny enough, there was more agreement than we thought - and at least half of the Irish names are his suggestions! Perhaps this bodes well?

I finally did it! Well, almost. I decided at the last minute that I didn't really want Althea on there, so I'm at 13...Oh well. I DID do middle names, though.

I can't have Olivia in real life, of course, but I won't have 13 or 14 kids in real life, so...

Anya Pascale
Sylvie Camille
Ursula Rose
Natalya Cate
Olivia Violet
Clara Louise

Nathaniel Walker
Simon Everett
David Archer
Zachary Michael
Quentin August
Elliot William
Caleb Edison

Okay, I thought I could resist, but I can't. Here are my fourteen:

Silas Lincoln
Whitman Levi
Theodore (Theo) Jude
August Luke
Jasper Henry
Clement William
Emil Everett

Amelia Harper
June Stanton
Ivy Evangeline
Nora Rosemarie
Stella Flannery
Beatrice Jane
Elizabeth (Eliza) Selah

Okay this looks like fun. Let me take a swing at 14 children. I couldn't think of a middle name for all of the names. sorry...

Nazareth Burl Avery
Gardener
McGavin
Aaron
Conan (as in Conan O'Brien)
Alexander
Matteo

Hope Jessica Brooke
Nina-Jane
Selah Marie
Odette Tilda
Jaynie
Oceana Peyton
Katriel

I'll try my hand at the fourteen names, but I can't do the different letter thing... its just not happening. And I hear you on the rhyming names-- I had to rule several out, I never realized how many of my top picks were so similar sounding (or how many C's and J's, and floral middles based on namesakes)! Most of the middle names (and some of the first names) are family names.

Samuel Richard
Isaac James
Benjamin Charles
Jeremy Joseph
Wesley Aaron
Joshua Levi
Jacob August

Julia Rose
Cassandra Penelope
Tessa Violet
Cecilia Elizabeth
Adele Miranda
Charlotte Laurel
Lucia Eleanor

Here are my 14. My general taste in names is not quite as esoteric as some of yours, but they are names that I would seriously consider using. Middle names are all family names.

Juliet Isabelle
Gwendolyn Piroska
Francesca Jane
Caroline Valerie
Anna Claudia
Silvia Giselle
Eleanor Lucia

Lorenzo Joseph
Jonathan Robert
Daniel Milton
Christopher William
Evan Dominic
Charles Alfred
Nathaniel David

If one may play, here's my 14:

Catharina
Margaret
Adeline
Rosanna
Lavinia
Diana
Lenore

Valdemar
Amos
Evan
Christian
Joshua
Abram
Paul

Coranell-- I have a great-aunt named Lavinia--sister to Theodore..Nice.

Kim in Philly - I see what you mean about nicknames for Piper and Simon. I guess the default nicknames for those would be Pip (even though it doesn't have the same i sound as Piper) and Si. You could go for something completely different though, like how my friend's daughter Scarlett has the nickname Pixie - totally unrelated to her name, but they just hated all the obvious nicknames likes Scar, Lettie, etc.
It's interesting to see people's style come out when you see a group of names they love. Anna surprised me the most, as I would never expect the same person to love Bryony, Charlotte, Adelaide and Odessa AS WELL AS Paige, Venus and Joni. Gotta love that unpredictability!
PPPhd I love your girls' names especially. I would never use any of them myself, but would be memsmerized if I met anyone with any of those names! Seriously, every single one is very special. So lovely. If your husband chose some of them then I am impressed - there is no way my husband would have picked anything like those!
Mirnada I am voting for Sylvie Camille Fontenot and Ursula Rose Fontenot for your real-life daughters! :)
I really loved reading EVERYONE's lists!! I think I'm going to go back and read them all again - very inspiring and interesting. All of you had at least one name that I practically salivated over :)

Qwen - Good for you for not letting a few "nms"s get you down! I wouldn't let the lack of a good mn get you down, either. It's not like the mn is all-important or anything. I lived without a mn most of my life, and I did fine.

PPP - I agree with others that it sounds like cold feet. Maybe he got bashed about his Irish name choices that day and he felt discouraged. If that's the case, build his confidence back up: that he would know better than those doubters out there what's best for his child (yes, I know it's both of your children, but it's important to focus on his confidence to help him recover from any bashing he got from friends/authority figures that day. If he starts pulling rank on *you*, then you stand your ground and emphasize that you are not his inferior.). I wish you the best in communicating with your DH and in solving this issue to both of your satisfaction

Jenmn - That's a real shame about your husband vetoing Arwen over LOTRs. Personally, I don't think that's a bad association in the least, but oh well. What about a name like Arlen? Arlenna? Arlia? Gwendolen?

It seems like everyone's doing 14 names ... I guess I could try. This is with DH's agreement:

Big sister: H@zel D@wn
Girls:
Gwendolen Eve
Georgia Helen
Willow Anne
Arletta Sage
Moriah Hunt
Dorothea Ruth
Sophia Christina

Big Brother: @ugust Lee
Boys:
Arthur Danel
Luther Edwin
Lucian Garret
Silas Baden
Abram Clark
Grant Simon
Byron DeWitt

zoerhenne- yes, I was the one looking for aviation names. I used a bunch of them inspiration- especially the bird ones.

DH had a chance to look over my names. He liked almost all my boys names! I was so surprised. He especially liked Simon Wright, Eli Thaden, Leo (not Leopold)Noble, and Asher. He hated Jasper and Mars. :( For the girls it was the opposite, h(especially the middle names) He didn't like Marin! I'll have to work on that one. He also hated Blue, he thought it was too similar to Blew. (men!) He loved Piper (unsurprisingly). I also showed my mom the list who scoffed at most of them, but thought I could use Piper and the "P" regardless of what my SIL thought. She said I could just do the Hebrew name for a deceased family member and use whatever American I want. I am probably going to do that anyway if we have a girl next as I am in love with "C" names and there are no other "C" names in the family.

Pippa is a great nn for Piper, I like that one. There is always Sy for Simon. Sims is nice, too. Thanks for the suggestions!

Ack! So many people to respond to! Here goes nothing:

Hyz – I do love Geneva (for all the reasons you listed, great place name, beautiful sound etc.) but my husband’s revolt against it has tainted for me. :( We did consider Ginevra (because of HP actually, Circe). But in the end it just didn’t seem to flow right.

Leafy – I’m not offended at all. My husband is big on sounds and personal meaning more than he is on what the name actually means. I think for him the ‘meaning’ for the name is coming from the fact that she’s being named to honor his mother (who passed away in 06). That’s also why we imposed the literary reference rule because reading is so important to us both and we want to pass that on to our child. And to answer your other question, no, I haven’t been able to find a literary name that starts with a ‘G’. Or at least not one that husband and I have any familiarity with.

Zoerhenne – I’m glad our name is growing on you! To answer your question; our last name starts with an M. It’s Muno, pronounced MYOU-no. It adds its own difficulties to naming since its Belgian and a little hard for people to pronounce (plus a little choppy sounding which has ruled out a lot of shorter or stoccatto sounding names).

Chimu – Thanks for the advice and the opinion! In all honesty, we have every intention of calling her “Gigi” from Day 1 so perhaps some of the pronunciation and spelling issues won’t be as relevant? Also re: your 14 names, I LOVE Cordelia. For awhile we had considered Cordelia Gigi but decided it was a waste to use it for a first name (literary reference being Anne of Green Gables’ desired FN) if we planned to call her by her mn.

Bianca – Thanks for the encouragement. At this point I don’t think we’re settling for it. I really think we both like it.

Lorien – Thank you. I actually really liked the name Vienna too, so it came into play when we were having our discussion. :). I also agree with you 100% about names completely lacking in phonetic reason. Katline is a great example.

Elizabeth T – I actually read your response out loud to my husband. Thanks for the encouragement!

Jenmn – What’s funny is my husband actually had Arwen (and Aowen) on his list because of LOTR! I also like Arden and Bronwyn.

Slk34 – Ooh. I do kinda like mn George. I’m going to run that past my husband! We’ve been throwing around Emerson (as in Ralph Waldo) as a girl’s mn so it’s not that weird for us.

Miranda – I like Tayla F0nt3n0t a lot but have a harder time with the longer version.

EVie – Regarding your cat… When I was a kid we named ALL of our cats Tigger. Our first one really was an orange tabby but after that it was just because my little brother was very insistent that it was the only name a cat should have.

Beth the original – I loved how you started your post. Thanks for standing up for me!

AK – I like Elizabeth Hero. What a great mix of traditional fn with unique mn.

RobynT – LOL that would be a funny story.

Jessica – Congrats on your new bundle of joy. I’m sorry to have to ask but how do you pronounce Gilead? I love the way it looks but don’t want to butcher it with a wrong guess.

Kim in Phily – I like all your MNs. I didn’t even NOTICE the theme until you mentioned it though. Then I felt a little silly. :).

Thanks to everybody for sharing their lists! I'm amazed you can come up with 14 names plus middle names and have the whole bunch sound like a manifestation of style. (Uhm, 'cause I ran out after 4 names and didn't do middles...).

Ok and now, because my other post was already so very long, I’ll go ahead and try my hand at imagining 14 children’s names. The ones listed with (*) are our set in stone names. The ones with (~) are the backups. After that it’s all fantasy:

Girls
Marcail Echo *
Gienna Charlotte ~
Scarlett Rose
Ophelia Eve
Portia Audrey
Cordelia Leslea
Sha Emerson

Boys
Lincoln Jesse James *
Maddox Jeremiah ~
Tyrel Josiah
Justice Apollo
Luca Chandler
Hensen Alber
Vaughn Holliday

I did stick with our theme for the girls (Each girl’s name has a literary and a family reference) but the boys names (they should have a man husband or I admire and a family reference) really just devolved into ‘names I like’. I even got Husband’s input on most of them. Though for #7 on each list we disregarded our last name for a few seconds.

One more thing, when I was doing the 14 names I realised many of my favourites are quite similar. They are different names, but not different enough once they are going to be in a sibset of 14.

E.g. Audrey, Adelaide, Adèle,...

Charlotte, Scarlett, Arrietta, ...

(I also have a thing for A's and C's apparently.)

Was it the same for you?

Anna, I am another A and C lover.