The Baby Name Wizard

We were a D - but -

First - I'm just into this more, so while we were a D, we had more leanings of me coming up with names, him having veto power.

Second, we made a deal when we got married - all the boys would have his last name, all the girls mine. I can't help it that the two children we had have my last name :-)

Third, my husband is very fond of funny words and word play. So he often would throw in silliness like "Smegma" on the list of names. Then again, I'm a little prone to this myself. I'd say about 10% of my suggestions were of this quality - his, probably like 20%. It was also a sign that he was tired of the discussion when the quantity rose to more like 80% - time to change the topic!

Fourth, I don't know if he would have chosen our second daughter's name on his own, but both his mom and my mom did a lot of lobbying on my behalf for it. As it turned out, it was at the start of a meteoric rise, and has been in the top 10 for several years (back then, it wasn't even in the top 100). In retrospect, maybe we should have gone for a timeless classic, like "Anne".

Leafy--I like Theodora with Leaf, but if the nn is Thea then I just keep seeing Tea Leaf. I guess that's not a bad association though.

PPPhd--How about Mairead in the middle spot..I know it is only 2 syllables, but it seems to roll off the tongue a bit longer..Fionavar Mairead ln-ln.

@Guest, #199:

There is a strong possibility that she will spend at least part of her childhood in Ireland or Northern Ireland - my research sort of demands it. That said, she'll be born in Newfoundland, with a strong Celtic connection in the community but maybe one not totally familiar with our name choices.

I take the point that she won't necessarily share the same interests, but the place, the culture, the history are so much a part of us that it would be hard to find a more "geographically-neutral" name that still held meaning for us.

@Tess: Hmm. Mairead grows on me. The emphasis is right. I'm still trying to see if Aoibheann fits as a middle name, but hubby's trying to veto that, too.

Sigh.

This makes me think: How good of an idea is it to give your child a name that projects your personal interests explicitly? I realize that every name choice reflects the parents' tastes and interests, but what if what is meaningful to the parent is meaningless to the child? I know someone whose father was a well-known scholar of Romantic poetry and chose to name his son Byron. Byron, it turns out, hates Romantic poetry, and, for him, his name represents a florid, thoughtless fantasy that's more than a little misogynist. I know a number of people whose parents gave them explicitly religious names who are now atheists. (A cousin of mine just named a baby Calvary--which seems like asking for that to happen.) How do we strike a balance between our interests/values and our children's independence?

ouch.

ppp,
i don't think that guest was specifically trying to criticize you. i think they were just bringing up a general point, which is certainly a good point and important for parents to consider. however, the names mentioned seemed to convey a set of ideals (the ideas in romantic poetry, religious beliefs, etc) that the child ended up disagreeing with. i do not think your names really fall into this catagory. they don't portray ideals or beliefs that a child is likely to rebel against, simply a heritage (i do think of it as a heritage, even if it isn't a genetic lineage). regardless, i think the names you've chosen are lovely; i'm sure no one intended offense.

Anne with an E- you are right that that's why Mahendra (I am probably not spelling it right at this point) sounds feminine to me, since it's unknown to me. I just keep thinking "Kendra", and the way we perceive names is so much about past experiences/associations. Since I have none, I am associating it with something else - in my mind a feminine name. Not to say that if a Mahendra came into my classroom someday that perception wouldn't instantly change! :-)

Guest (#197) - Your post made me laugh, but I'm glad to see that someone agrees with my idea. Even more anglicanized Irish names - like Sean or Kelly - seem off-limits to me.

Zoerhenne - I like Bryce. I put it on a list that I'm going to ask him about once he's in a mindframe to discuss names.

Regarding Post #205 - I don't know. I think that naming a child an interest of yours is different from naming a child a name that reflects culture and history. When you name a child a cultural sounding name, you are expressing to them (and others), "This is where you come from and that's important to us." There doesn't seem, to me anyway, to be anything wrong with that. You are not asserting that they must live in that place or study literature from there or any such thing. If you go with an interest, "Byron", for example - you are telling the world in the same way what's important, but it does seem to imply that, as the parents, you'd like your child to have those interests, too. It does seem like doing that could go either way, the child embraces it for its meaning and good intentions, or completely rebels against it. I don't know. To me it seems like 2 different things.

BTW - A nn for "Cordelia" - I'm sorry I forget who is looking and there are too many posts to scroll through at this point. A little girl at my daughter's pre-school is Delia and they call her Dee. I don't think this once came up yet. Another kind of petname that came from this - at least by the kids in her class - is Deedle. That's all my daughter calls her, actually!

Apologies, all - hormones and naming discussions are probably a bad combination for me at the moment! I realize I'm a bit over-sensitive to perceived criticism on my name choices, since I just got the double-veto from my husband.

Sorry, Guest! Forgive the cranky pregnant woman!

Guest-the first thing I am reminded of when I read your comment is the guy who named his kids after Hitler. Now this seems to be a couple who should've used a little restraint. Also, there was the guy who unbeknownst to his wife incorporated Sarah Palin into his new dd's name. I believe this was wrong as well.

We've had discussions before about the cruelness of names. While I definately agree with bestowing family names and heritage and meaning into your childrens names, I think political views should be left out. Literary connections is a tough one for me, as is the nature theme. Byron might be #1000 and a bit strange for some, or it might be the next Aiden. Shakespeare is probably not the best name for a child though Miranda or Juliet is fine and very accepted. Seashell or Tomato (as I remember one child of a poster wanting for their sibling) is not good but Ruby or Marin is very nice. So there are limits.

In a more objective mood, has anyone read the novel (or seen the movie) "The Namesake" (by Jumpa Lahiri?)

The plot centres on the son of Indian ex-pats who name him "Gogol" after dad's favourite author. Of course, he hates it, as it marks him out as "different" from both "American" and "Indian" communities. He changes his name several times throughout his life, looking for one that will fit him better, or at least allow him to fit in. In the end, after his father's death, he discovers a copy of Gogol's "The Overcoat", in which his father his written the story of why he got his name: the book literally saved his life, and allowed his son to be born.

So...while you can read a lot of pressure and expectation into this kind of naming, I think at a certain point a child (even as an adult) can recognize the history, the serendipity, and the intent behind the choice - i.e. my parents wanted to give me something that had meaning for them. So I can't stand Byron's poetry, or I hated Lord of the Rings, but Byron or Frodo or whatever gives me a connection to my parents in perhaps a different way a name chosen randomly from the name book.

I don't think that naming one's son Byron necessarily means that the parents are desperately hoping the child will love Romantic poetry. It seems more like a nice homage to me. If I spent all of my days writing about and teaching the Romantics, the names of the poets would naturally spring to mind when it came time to name a child. I don't see this as cruel at all.

Perhaps the son disliked his name so much because he felt his dad liked the poet more than him!

"Seashell or Tomato (as I remember one child of a poster wanting for their sibling) is not good but Ruby or Marin is very nice."

Tomato-- that's us! Tomato was my daughter's choice for our baby if he was a boy. The girl name she chose was Ocean. When the baby was born and we told dd that her little sister had been named Leah, the first thing she said was, "But I wanted to name her Ocean" with lots of tears. It was sweet and comical and a little sad, too. Since then she has come around to her sister's name and always refers to her by both fn and mn: Leah Josephine this, Leah Josephine, that. Cute!

(Sorry for straying so far from the topic but that comment reminded me of our dd's little naming "crisis" and I had to share.)

I agree with the above posters that heritage names seem alright and ideology names seem somehow inappropriate, but I also think that that can sometimes be a hard line to draw. For example, what if your ethnic heritage is really charged politically? And what about religion? Often that is heritage as much as personal belief. (Although naming your child an established Biblical name like Paul or Hannah or Daniel seems fine. Calvary, though...yikes.) Or what about military background? Some families really see military service as a part of their heritage, but a kid named Patton might grow up to be a pacifist. So is it just how conspicuous the association is? Or is there something else to it?

Some newborns in my Brooklyn nabe:

Hawkins
Banyan
Nile
Denali
Gemma
Lucia
Ruby
Augustus

To whoever was looking for nicknames for Catherine: I know a Cathe (KAY-tha), which I think is quite pretty. There's also the Russian Katya, and I like someone's suggestions of Kaz or Rin for a spunky alternative. Or if you're really looking for something different, what about Hera like the the goddess?

About last names: I know several families who have solved the problem by creating some form of new shared last name. It's still unusual, but definitely an option people I know are aware of and consider. I'd imagine that's less true in some circles, but I'm curious to see if it will really take off.

Among the variations I've seen, one woman is interested in genealogy. She looked through her and her husband's family trees and found a shared last name that had been used by both their ancestors, and they both adopted it as their new name. Another family simply merged their last names - ex. Felton + Warren became the Felrens. A third family already contained a hyphenated last name, so they decided to use initials. Susie Smith-Baker married Tommy Nelson, and they became the Sabans (SBN).

I've always been curious about the use of hypenated last names for children, because it seems like it's just passing the problem on to the next generation. If Susie Smith-Baker married Tommy Nelson-Jones, are their kids known as Smith-Baker-Nelson-Jones? Or do they have to choose which of the grandparents to cut out of the new last name? It sounds like many of you have hyphenated names yourself - how have you handled this?

been following along with this post but haven't had much opportunity to post...
to chime in on the last name thing. when my husband's parents married they hyphenated their names so they we L and M F-M, had their only son who became G F-M, then they divorced and "took" their own names back. but my husband is still hyphenated. when we married three years ago, i was pretty adamant about keeping my own name and G was pretty adamant about keeping his own as well. besides the fact that i love my name, i *definitely* didn't want a hyphenated name, and he couldn't fathom being anything else that what he'd been his whole life. we talked about the issue as it pertains to future children and after much discussion we pretty much came to the decision that our children would have his paternal last name only (the "M"), with our first child having my last name as a middle name (H). if we have a second child, he or she will have his maternal last name (F) as a middle name. and in the unlikely event we end up with a third, he or she will have his step-mother's (D kept her own name when she married G's father) last name (P) as a middle name. i've been liking this plan for a while but then just the other day, G randomly said he wouldn't mind if our kids had my last name. that would be my preferred scenario, overall... but i'm not going to get my hopes up about it. :o)

speaking of hypenated names, check out this amusing story. how frustrating!

http://consumerist.com/5272744/sorry-you-cant-fly-because-your-name-is-h...

My husband and I both hyphenated and, although we don't have kids yet, we occasionally get the "Will they end up with four hyphenated last names?" question. (And, while I understand that it is a legitimate question, I have to say that it usually only gets asked by our crotchety-est relatives or by strangers in a fairly rude tone of voice. I think that well-mannered people who think of this question generally wonder to themselves or ask in in appropriate contexts--like this message board!--rather than, say, at our wedding reception.)

My husband's (sort of) joking response is always, "Our plan is to not raise kids dumb enough to do that!" but, really, that's kind of our plan. Hopefully any kids of ours don't think that a quadruple-barreled last name is a good idea--but, who knows? By then, maybe it will be totally acceptable. We decided between us when we chose to hyphenate that, whatever our kids decided to do when they married--even dropping one or both of the names we were giving them--would be fine by us, just so long as they were entering into relationships that were equal, even if their names weren't. We know that's the risk we run giving them a hyphenated name. But for us as a couple (and a family, when we choose to do that), it was the choice that worked best.

Yes, hyphenating our names is passing on the problem to our kids, but automatically giving them their father's surname would have been passing on the same problem--What do you do with your last name(s) when you marry?--as well. We're just giving them more options to work with.

PPP-I tried to be objective but your point about a parental connection is well taken. I think that falls into the family name category. Circe makes a good point in maybe its the conspicuousness(??) of the name.

Prairie Dawn-I'm glad dd came around to Leah's name. I'm sad for her that she didn't get Ocean but hopefully when she gets older it will be just another funny story for the baby book.

To me the question of switching my last name was not a question at all. I just assumed that this was the natural/expected/family history/way things have been done all along. Not until I started researching genealogy, did I even realize that there were other ways to approach this. I am happy with my name even though it has caused my maiden name to die out. My children have dh's LN so that we all have the same. I'm not sure that I would have done that differently either because then my dh's name would've died out as well.

Circe, I hope my question didn't come across as rude or critical - that wasn't my intention at all. You're right that this is one of those problems with no good solution. There are pros and cons to any approach, and I think it makes sense for each family to pick the one that works best for them. And in many cases hyphenated names really are the best option. What amuses me (and I do find it amusing, not annoying) is when people hold them up as the ideal way of keeping everyone happy and included, without even considering the long-term effects.

Sarah Smile: I didn't think your question was rude or critical at all! In fact, I had hoped to communicate that this was a good place to ask that very legitimate question (whereas, my grandma at our wedding or some random disapproving woman at the library? Not so much.) I agree with you that the suggestion that hyphenation is the perfect solution that makes all things equal is just silly. Sorry if I seemed a little defensive--I guess I'm just used to responding to my grandma.

Ultimately, we hyphenated because it worked: I have a one-syllable three-letter birth name and my husband's had only two syllables and seven letters. Even counting the hyphen, our new last name is shorter than many people's. But we had fun conversations about other last names that might not have hyphenated so well. For instance, what if my last name had been Pierce and his last name had been Brosnan? Or what if my last name had been Black and his had been (however improbably) Panther? I absolutely would have loved to have sent those Christmas cards. "Happy Holidays from the Black-Panthers!"

I guess I'm curious about the prevelance of either hyphenated or multiple last name families where you all live. I just don't think it's that common around here - at least not in the circles I travel in. I don't know anyone who has hyphenated (this includes students I've had or known in the last 11 years). Actually, there was one girl when I student taught. Out of the 50 or so kids I had this past year, only four kids didn't have the same last name as both of their parents. I am guessing we must be in the minority, though - based on what I've been reading here. Just wondering about others' experiences.

Andrea-In my neck of the woods (Central PA) the prevalence of hyphenated or "other" LN's is not that much. There are some that are hyphenated, some where the mom uses her maiden name at work but the dh's LN elsewhere, some where she only uses her name and the kids have dad's LN. I don't know of anyone who has smushed their names.

Question: How would you all pronounce this name? Le-a Hint: It's not the obvious Lee-a or Lay-a.

Just a thought or two from a grandmother:I think that the varieties of naming styles and parenting styles also existed in the 70's and 80's. I am a boomer and I did not exercise absolute power in the naming of my children, although, I was the only one with a list and a passion. And my then-husband did change diapers and bring the baby to me to nurse at night. And we discussed which pre-school and what Halloween treat, etc.. I do have present day, peer grandmothers who tell me about unusual names that their children are considering for their children, such as Sophie, Abigail, Aiden and(horrors!) Sebastian. One told me this "crazy" tale of a child named William-nn'ed Liam!. I just figure they are not NE's.Those names are lovely, but not strange to me, at all.They do not know what names are in the wind, today. I adored Jennifer in 1965, but, by 1967 it was done for me. It has always been difficult to choose a name one can love forever. And Karen and Diane??They would be classmates of mine or older sisters---my non NE friends liked Jessica and Melissa, back in the day--and some still do. But styles change--even in classic name usage, I think.

Zoerhenne: My guess would be luh-Ay. (sort of like a French le).

Re: Naming based on interersts.
I have seriously (and I mean seriously) considered Anne Shirley b/c of the literary character (but I probably wouldn't do it!), but mostly literary names or names from other passions (my husband's aforementioned love of comic books, for instance) keep us from liking certain names rather than embracing those names.

Circe, good to hear. I didn't THINK you were including me in the rude strangers category, but I am basically a stranger, so I wanted to be sure. I just think it's an interesting topic, and I figured this would be a good place to ask. And I'll make a note for the future that weddings aren't ;)

Andrea, I think you're right that it probably varies by location, but in my 'circles' it's the opposite. I would say that among people in my generation, a majority do come from families in which all members have the father's last name. However, even when I was a kid there was a sizeable minority of my schoolmates who came from families who either hyphenated, mom kept her name, etc. Enough that it wasn't considered particularly unusual.

Now that my friends are marrying and having children, I would say that most of them are choosing either to have the woman keep her name, or to use a hyphenated name or some new version. I definitely wouldn't assume that family members all had the same name until I was told that they did, although I do respect that as a reasonable choice as well.

What I am particularly curious about is the lesbian couples I know, several of whom are settling down but none of whom have kids yet. In all cases they've each kept their own last names, but we'll have to see what they name their kids. Without going too far afield, I've found on other topics that have a traditional gendered solution, that couples who lack a default option often seem to start trends that are then adopted by heterosexual couples.

Rhanda-Good guess but sorry no. You'll never guess. I didn't.

sarah smile-If I were lesbian, I think I would do a hyphen to emphasize the shared aspect of the whole thing. Which then kind of makes the whole non-hyphenation of hetero couples something to think about.

zoerhenne - I think I've come across Le-a before, pronounced Ledasha.

Regarding hyphenated names, I think I've mentioned before a colleague whose parents had considered hyphenated their names, but neither Daley-Raper nor Raper-Daley seemed like a good idea. They went with Raper. I don't know whether this was originally the mother's or the father's name.

Those who have been following the discussion about surname possibilities (for both heterosexual and same-sex couples) might be interested in this in-depth article from a 2007 issue of the University of Chicago Law Review. It's called "Changing Name Changing: Framing Rules and the Future of Marital Names": http://lawreview.uchicago.edu/issues/archive/v74/74_3/01.Emens.pdf

And zoerhenne, about "Le-a," I'll just point you here: http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/le-a.asp

Circe,

I had a college neighbour, Lena Sigtenberg Heteberg-Anderson* some years ago.

* Not her actual name, but sort-of. The double -berg and the hyphen is real.

She married an Anders Moshete and changed her name to Lena Moshete. Go figure...

Liz&Louka and HMF-Thanks for that info. I will now have to question my source as I thought this was a first-hand account. Btw, I quite like it as Rhanda has thought it to be pronounced.

As far as punctuation-heavy names go, I'm a fan of Ma~, myself.

HMF-Good one! and interesting article about naming. I only read about a third of it but it was very informative.

I've told this story before, but since the topic of hyphenated last names came up again. My husband went to school with someone with LN Berl1ner-K@valier. He married someone with LN W3iss-Johnson. They were going to both have all names, but only use certain ones... I can't remember all the details, but the point is that they gave up and went with Weiss cuz it was the shortest.

Leafy: T. Leaf is so cute!

PPP: I'm working with some long FN and hyphenated LN too; I find that two-syllable MN with emphasis on second syllable works well. Maybe it puts some air in after the longer FN?

Re: name reflecting parents' wishes/interests: Given that very very little is known about the child when it is named, I think there is not much the name could be based on besides parents' wishes/interests. And the only other option would be to try to give a "neutral" name, which I guess some try to do with the idea that a person with this name could be a judge or an artist or whatever. I like the idea of an atheist with a Bible name--it tells a story.

This is a little late, but I wanted to chime in with the names that I love that are totally off limits for my (Irish/German American) family:
Thierry; Javier; Ibrahim. Oh, and so many of the gorgeous Indian women's names, Paulomi, Ami, Rupal...sigh.

Also re: last names: I didn't change mine, and unfortunately a hypen wasn't a good choice as it was too cumbersome with our names (it would've been something like Bitiorff-McGlendon-ugh!)

Our kids are all First name, My Last Name, Husband's Last Name. The only bad thing about that arrangement for me is that I only get one name instead of two to bequeath...but otherwise it works well for us.

Some interesting ones from my local birth announcements:

Zerah Analise
Caroline Louise (this kind of name is very uncommon here)
Samya Mickell (g)
Cora Taliaferro (not mom's maiden name)
Xander Maddox
Rydyr Frank Ivan
Maddox Nolan
Sage Allison
Benjamin Orion
Teague Christopher

Lots and lots and LOTS of Addisons (and Addysons) and Isabellas. And lots of Jacksons (and Jaxons) on the boys side.

@ Zoerhenne:

Apologies, again, as I seem to be sticking feet in mouth a bit today - by "more objective", I meant, me being more objective than my previously tetchy self! I certainly thought your point (as usual) was well-thought and well-articulated, and no snarking was intended.

I promise by tomorrow I'll have my usual tact and delicacy ;p

PPP-Thank you, and no apologies were necessary. I wasn't sure if you meant me or not. Sometimes I get that foot affliction too! I'm sure tomorrow will be a different day for all of us.

PPP - sorry about losing Aiobheann. I was going to suggest it as a middle, but if it is off limits then maybe Eilidh? I like the Mairead suggestion too, although it's Scottish isn't it?

Leafy - I still like Theodora Violet Edith Leaf, even with the repeated sounds. It sounds distinguished to me, the type of name you remember. I have a 1 syllable surname (both married and maiden, both of which I use), my fn is 2 syllables but I go by a 1 syllable nn. End result is not nice using nn followed by surname. So, I tend to use my full fn when my surname follows. This is a long-winded way of saying that you can easily avoid the Thea Leaf problem by using the full Theodora when using the full name. It works for me!

Regarding using names with disparate cultural styles. Me and my DH are very white, anglo. We have a very Germanic surname that would be given to any children. I totally love names from many other cultures and quite like the style clash. I also don't think it's a problem using names from another culture even if I don't have recent heritage (there is pretty much everything available if you go back far enough on either side). I respect those that don't think this way, and understand why. For the record I think names that are very important in a certain culture/religion i.e. Cohen (which we have discussed previously at length) are not appropriate to use.

Overheard in the park yesterday - three mothers with new babies. The babies were called Yasmin, Tomas ('without an h') and Simone. Simone's mum said:'It's not really the name I wanted. It was the only name my husband and I could agree on.'

Oh and just to say about T.Leaf - in Cockney rhyming slang tealeaf=thief.

Keren - yep, we heard that one many a time when we were living in London! :)

Robyn T - I fully agree with you re names reflecting parents' wishes/interests. As you point out, "Given that very very little is known about the child when it is named, I think there is not much the name could be based on besides parents' wishes/interests." So true!

And re your comment, "I like the idea of an atheist with a Bible name--it tells a story." - I'm sure I'm not the only one who has read this research, but it still amazes me that an agnostic or atheist person is MORE likely to give their child a Biblical name!!! Incredible how counter-intuitive human nature can be sometimes, isn't it?

Chimu - yes, I agree. This is what my husband does too when he has to say his surname - he uses his whole first name rather than his nn, as HIS nn does not work with Leaf, either.

Today I have been looking at little girls around me and imagining them called Theodora nn Thea. And I've been doing the same with adult women, too. There's not one person so far who I can't imagine having that name and wearing it well. I am loving it more and more!

To add to my bliss, not one person I know has ever mentionned/suggested this name for my baby - or their own baby. This bodes well! (My previous 2 favourite names fell by the wayside after #1 became a Top 20 name, and #2 was "stolen" (her word, not mine) by my best friend, who has used it for her newborn daughter!) Now I am just hoping that Theodora continues to stay under the radar! (Same with the name Augustus - I am very scared that it will become popular, as I am continually hearing it mentionned on baby name websites. Perish the thought!)

I definitely agree with this post. We thought it was really important to find names we both really loved, and we were able to do that. Our twin girls were born last Friday and their names are Cordelia Marjorie and Eleanor Madeleine. Both their middle names are in honor of our grandmothers, and both their first names are just names we really love.

One thing we're finding interesting is that there seems to be a generation gap in terms of who likes the names and who doesn't. We hadn't told our families ahead of time because we didn't want to hear anything negative about the names before they were official. But both grandmothers (ages: mid-50s, early 60s) seem to have a hard time getting used to their names. They both have already taken to calling the girls by nicknames, which bothers us. My grandmothers love the names, and all the ladies in my grandmother's bridge group think they're just lovely, which isn't surprising, I guess, since they're names from that generation (ish). And then a lot of people our age have said they love the names. I guess the baby boomers aren't into the old-fashioned trend?

Also, I don't know if this is a potential topic for a post, but it is striking me as interesting. I find it very odd that other people have already started calling our children by nicknames, when we have made it clear that we're calling them by their actual names. They have such pretty names ... why call them something else if we don't need to? They're too young to have earned actual nicknames yet. Also, it is bothering me that everyone seems to misspell Cordelia's nickname. We had thought it might be Corrie, but people seem to think she's a boy and spell it Corey. What is up with that?

These are just the thoughts of a hormonal new mother. :)

Anonymous--Congrats on your girls! Cordelia and Eleanor are both beautiful names, and they complement each other so well. My husband and I aren't big nicknamers, and we call our daughter by her full name (it doesn't shorten easily anyway--and her personal quest for a nn seems to have petered out) so I can relate to preferring to use the full names.

I think esp calling your Eleanor by her full name will differentiate her from the Elles, Ellas, and Ellies.

Anonymous: I agree that Corrie is cuter than Corey. The only Corey I've known has been a boy but idk if I would necessarily assume it is a boys' spelling.

Anyway, I usually would try to respect what parents want their child to be called; I tend to feel uncomfortable using NNs with folks I've just met even, but family (and others) will often do what they want! We've talked on here about how there are those chronic nicknamers who will insist on nicknaming your child. I heard of a friend of a friend who was trying to find un-nicknameable names. First boy was named Drew, which works I think. Second was named Cameron... I wish them luck with that!

Anonymous-Cordelia and Eleanor are lovely and do complement each other as Amy3 said above. Of course I can't speak for Gma's and others but maybe they think those are big names on such little babies. Or maybe they do that with everyone. I might (if I were close to the babies) meet them and say "Aww how are you today Ellie and Deedee" as more of an endearment term. But conversely, if I didn't know you that well (like met you on playground) I would say "Cordelia and Eleanor what lovely names".

Anonymous-
I love your daughters' names! We have an Eloise and plan on naming our next little girl (due Nov) Cordelia. We too only would call them by their first names. Great minds think alike!