The Baby Name Wizard

MelissaBKB - Matilda?

Twin girls I knew in 5th grade (1995) - Tisha and Tasha

Matilda is a good choice. If it were me I would go with Camilla June. Esmerelda might be cute too.

Thanks Anna! I think it's a great combo for Armilda and Tillie and a cute name, but I'm wary of its (seemingly) current trendiness/hipster associations. I'll definitely keep it on my list though. Maybe she'll look like a Matilda :) I also have Tilda >nn Tillie on my list.

Regarding naming down the line, I know a III who has said that the name will stop with him. I also know two IVs who will keep it going.

My husband's family has a tradition of the first son being Charles (blank) and going by (blank). For now we've decided on Charles Henry (sigh), but we'll see how that popularity wave continues. I'm a francophile so I love that it can travel as Charles-Henri. Previous fave was Charles Nicholai for a looong time.

Now that I'm remembering, the twins might have been Natasha and Natisha, but went by Tasha and Tisha. I remember feeling sorry for Tisha because it seemed like her parents weren't planning on two girls and just gave up!

MelissaBKB-I also thought of Araminta which on one baby name site says its a smush of Arabelle and Aminta. So I looked up Aminta and it said Greek for defender. Also listed as similar names were Armand and Armando so if its a boy you might want to keep that on your list. Charles Armando would "travel well" but it makes me think of LHOTP with Charles and Almanzo.

MelissaBKB,
Not that I'm biased or anything, but what about Amelia? Pretty similar to Armilda and you could keep the nn Millie. I like Matilda too for the Millie/Tillie nn options.

I think it's weird to name your kid after yourself unless it's a real family tradition and can have different nicknames (like Great Grandma Margaret, Grandma Maggie, Mother Meg and new baby Daisy, all named Margaret). Or 4 generations of Roberts: Robert, Bert, Rob and Bobby or whatever.

When I hear that mom Amber Rose named her daughter Ambella Rose or Christina named her daughter Christina I'm like HUH. Or Dad insisting his son is Todd Jr. A bit narcissistic. Makes me think of Casey Anthony naming her own daughter Caylee after herself and brother Lee, and that did not end well. Though I keep hearing of new babies named Kaylee or Kayleigh all the time.

The newish baby trends I am noticing at the moment since trolling baby name boards and parks are:

The "O" ending keeps getting stronger. Lots of Milo, Theo, Marlo, Harlow, Willow, Juno, Shiloh, etc. being discussed.

The "music industry". Lennox, Kingston, Marley, Jaxson, Hendrix still on lots of lists. I recently heard somebody asking about Zeppelin for a boy.

"I have also seen it spelt Zoë - that's the French way of saying the vowels should be pronounced separately and not as a diphthong."

Actually, Zoë is the Dutch spelling. French does not use umlauts (the two dots over vowels) - they are used by Germanic languages.

By the way, I just watched a couple of interviews with Zooey Deschanel on YouTube and yes, it seems that her name is pronounced just like Zoe - "zo-ey" not "zoo-ey".

Rere is a Maori* name meaning flying or to fly. It is pronounced like "reh-reh" with a short "eh" sound, rather than "ree-ree" or "ray-ray", although it is hard to anglicize accurately as the Maori r and e are quite different.

*indigenous people of New Zealand

Interesting Leafy, I have learned something new today too. Do you have a website for NZ/Maori names?

No sorry Zoerhenne, and I can't find any either!
By the way, I thought your name was Zoe Rhenne - rhenne being a surname pronounced "ren", LOL! Nice to know how to say it now :)

I agree that part of the problem with juniors and thirds is finding good nicknames. It's one thing if you're passing along a name that has at least 3-4 reasonable choices to share amongst the generations, but some names really just don't. I've can only think of three men I've known who were thirds, and all of them got shafted in my opinion. One of them was just called Trey (as in third); I have no idea what his real name was. That's a whole step further toward not actually giving the kid a name of his own. The other two were
Woodrow/Woody/Rowie and Bertram(Bert)/Buzz/Bean
(grandpa/dad/son). I'm sure Rowie was cute when he was a toddler, but when I knew him in high school it was already hard to take seriously. And Bean was an adorable 2 year old, but who wants to be known by a name that means 'small' as an adult? But given those two first names, what choices did they really have? Although in theory, the middle names are an option too. No idea what came after Bertram, but it was Woodrow Wilson (historical, at least), and I always wondered why they didn't just call him Will.

My father is something like the 14th Benjamin in his family - the first male born in every generation was called Benjamin. Yes, seriously - it goes back centuries, and my family-tree-obsessed aunt has all the research to prove it. Crazy I know. My father's oldest sister was named Benita - in case they didn't have any boys, obviously. It's a strange thing to do, in my opinion. Both her and my dad were called Benny as kids - so bizarre.
My brother is the first break in this tradition. My mother put her foot down and absolutely refused to name him Benjamin as a first name - although she did relent to having it as his middle name. She just thought it was ridiculous to have a father-in-law, husband, son, grandson, etc with the same name. My father was really disappointed. He loved being part of a long family line in such an obvious way. And he has been disappointed that my brother has not given any of his sons the first name or middle name Benjamin. I am really close to my father, and since my brother doesn't want to use the name, my husband and I are going to use it if we have a boy (baby due in September). We haven't told Dad as we thought it would be a great surprise. Our child won't have the same surname as my father, but we are not trying to re-start the tradition, we just want to honour my dad simply because he has been a great dad.

I think that part of my resistance to name recycling has to do with my dads family's usage of names. For example, my dad had an uncle named Chester, who was known to take things apart and work on them whether he knew how to fix them or not. Now when someone starts tinkering with an item someone shouts "Stop that, Chester!" or "Stop Chestering with that!" or if someone was being particulaly lazy they were called by one of my grandmother's sisters names. Being called the name of one of my grandmother's siblings was always an insult comparing the person being called the name to the original person's so called defect.
And then there was a point in time I was dating a man that had the same name as his dad and grandfather and expected to carry on the tradition and I just could not picture myself being happy to saddle a child with a name that did not relfect the child and just giving it a name because that was the name chosen by previous generations. However, I can understand Leafy's desire to use the name Benjamin since she is very close to her father and I like the name Benjamin, so it is a good name to use- not like the one I would have been expected to carry on.

Leafy-wow i can't believe your family history, but it is sweet that if you have a boy he will get the mn of Benjamin.

In my family we have John James going back a ways. Gpa was Johnny, dad was Jim and bro was John. Don't know what else I would've done with that! Maybe JJ but probably not.

Oh and my cuz and I have the same mn after an aunt who died young-forgot that earlier (I so seldom use my mn for things).

Funny blog I just came across that mentions Laura-wasn't sure how many had seen it. We talked about stadium naming a little while back too!

http://www.pbs.org/parents/supersisters/archives/2009/02/whats-in-a-baby...

zoerhenne - my dad is a John James (not part of a tradition afaik) and he was nicknamed Jesse at school. So that's another option. Oh, and while we were in France he was called JJ (pronounced zhee-zhee) by some.

So I'm new here...can I pick the brains of this wonderful community for naming my daughter-to-be?

Our current list is:
Sophia-our favorite for a long time but now maybe too popular
Charlotte-which looks great on paper but for some reason I'm not wild about it; also might get nicknamed in a way I don't like (Char, Lottie)
Mira-pretty but is a common Spanish word meaning "Look at that!" which might make the name look silly as more kids learn Spanish here (West Coast)
Anna-which I like but DH finds too plain

Anybody have any suggestions for us? Last name is Asian and three syllables.

Leafy,

The French really do use the diaeresis (Citroën, Anaïs, Noël...). The umlaut (Müller, Dänemark...) is a different diacritic (different function) even though it looks the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis

Leafy, (again)

Wow, that's a lot of Benjamins! But how is your mother going to feel about another Benjamin, will she like it this time around??

Marie,
Of those listed, I like Sophia the best. It's a beautiful and sophisticated name. (I wish DH liked it). If you both have liked it for a long time, you should go with it even if it is popular. Plus I think 3-syllable Asian last names are less common than 1-syllable names so you could probably handle having a more popular name. Charlotte is my 2nd fave but I'm having the same reservations about Charlotte--don't like the nicknames. Mira is great too--more of an energetic Indian vibe to me than Spanish. If you like Anna but DH thinks it's too plain, maybe you could dress it up a little, like Annabelle, Annika or Anneliese? Here's some other suggestions from Nymbler: Josephine, Lucy, Mika, Julia/Juliet, Penelope, Ophelia, Daphne, Talia. What do you think?

Guest11, I like Karena too. What about Kara, Karenna or Karenina (if you don't mind the Anna reference) as other options?

Peony, I like Oona, it's quirky. Reminds me of Uma. I think my sister also had a Korean friend named Euna.

OK, I've taken everyone's suggestions and played with Nymbler and here is my new working list:
Boy
Jonah Alexander Lee
Jonah Kilohana Lee
Harrison Christopher Lee
Harrison Kilohana Lee
Zachary Alexander Lee
Noah Alexander Lee
Jacob Augustus Lee
Jeremiah Thomas Lee
Julian Dexter Lee
Owen Spencer Lee
Abraham Jasper Lee
Henry Benjamin Lee
Alexander Kilohana Lee
Grant Kilohana Lee
James Kilohana Lee

Girl
Violet Juniper Lee
Charlotte Noelani Lee
Clara Juliet Lee
Clara Josephine Lee
Mirabelle Celeste Lee
Audrey Noelani Lee
Noelani Jane Lee
Clementine Poppy Lee
Matilda Celeste Lee
Cordelia Kate Lee
Juliet Delphine Lee
Delilah Jane Lee
Juliana Catherine Lee
Catherine Juliet Lee
Catherine Noelani Lee

What do you think? I kind of like that some of them have fun initial nicknames (JT, JD, AJ, CJ, DJ etc), but that's not a requirement. About half of them have the Hawaiian middle name. Which ones do you like/dislike and what would go best with Amelia K@il@ni ("sea and sky or heavenly seas")? Right now I think my favorites are Violet Juniper and Julian Dexter, and Charlotte Noelani and Jonah Kilohana for the Hawaiian names. But I haven't run this list past the DH gauntlet yet. I'm trying to keep the "weirder" names in the middle name position so they might be more palatable to him. He has mentioned he likes Harrison and Abraham, but isn't as keen on Jacob or Henry.

By the way, here are some more interesting Hawaiian names I came across:
Girls
Noelani-mist of heaven
Aolani-heavenly cloud
Leilani-heavenly lei, royal child
Nalani-serenity of the skies
Haunani-beautiful snow
Hokulani-heavenly star
Lokelani-heavenly rose
Momilani-heavenly pearl
Wailani-heavenly water
Naia-dolphin

Boys
Kilohana-unsurpassed
Ehukai-sea spray
Hoku-star
Makana-gift

Marie,

Sophia - if you add the spellings Sophia and Sofia then this is the most popular name of 2008. Sophia itself is #7. I like the name but I wouldn't use it because of the popularity.
http://www.babynames.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-132007.html

Charlotte - one of my favourites. I don't think it needs a nickname. Of course, you can't control what her classmates call her, but you never can...

Mira - I wouldn't worry about the Spanish meaning, it's harmless. I'm not sure how to pronounce it though, do you want Meera or Myra? I think I prefer Mia instead, byt Mira ain't bad.

Anna - well, that's just a fabulous choice!

goldenpig,

The Hawaiian names make excellent middle names - there's something about the flow that smoothly glues it all together.

For boys, I think you can get away with almost anything with Kilohana in the middle. I like Jonah Kilohana Lee, Henry Kilohana Lee, Jacob Kilohana Lee...

Girls, well it's hard to choose! I like Charlotte Noelani Lee, Charlotte Aolani Lee, Charlotte Wailani Lee, Audrey Noelani Lee etc etc. I don't mean this in an offensive way, but suddenly the "English English" combinations seem very plain compared to "English Hawaiian".

Anna,
Thanks for your input. What do you think about the first/middle names that end in similar sounds, like Jonah Kilohana or Audrey Noelani? Too rhymey/sing-songy or is that OK?

goldenpig,

I *like* a subtle repetition of a sound/syllable because it gives the names a connection in sounds(*). I think it makes the combination flow really well. But others always seem to say "too rhymey" when I think it flows well, so...

*When there are no common sounds, e.g. Phoebe Amanda, the combinations often sound choppy or unrelated to me.

goldenpig,

I agree with Anna about really liking the Hawaiian middle names, especially considering your daughter's name.

My favorites are two of your favorites:

Charlotte Noelani and Jonah Kilohana

So cute! Good luck.

Although I don't love namesakes, I think being in a line of 14 Benjamins would be great. It's really historical and appeals to me in the sense of lineage. Assuming you like the name!

Marie - I like Mira best out of your choices, but I'm not in a Spanish speaking area so I wouldn't know how big an issue it would be. I also like Anna. Sophia and Charlotte, while solid names, are too flowery for my taste, and I do feel like Sophia in particular is so popular it's lost it's zing.

For other ideas.. Adele, Alice, Clara, Leona, Violette, Mirabella, Mirela, Marin..

goldenpig - I like Catherine/Charlotte/Audrey Noelani (although I don't love Charlotte or Catherine, I prefer Clara). For boys l like (really like!) Jonah Kilohana best (ordinarily 2 'ah' names would bother me, like Asa Jonah or something, but I like it here, maybe because there is a big syllable difference), Noah Alexander (Noah has a bit of the vowelly Hawaiian feel to match with your daughter's name without having to use a Hawaiian one), or maybe Harrison Christopher.

Anna - re: post #172.. How do you figure out with the different spellings of Sophia how popular it really is? I feel like it must be some fairly easy equation to determine names like that which are spelled a couple different ways, but I can't quite wrap my head around what to do to come up with the right number. I have several names I've been curious about in that sense... Like Madeline/Madeleine and Annalise/aleise/elise/eleise, and want to make sure that even though they don't appear as high on the popularity charts that they're not secretly just as popular because of other spellings.

A family I know that has many first sons named the same, does the nickname of the number order. So number 5 is Quint and number 6 is Shay. Shay's only 12, but I think he enjoys the family line... who knows what his future wife will do with 7!

Betsy, It is Dr. Cleveland Kent Evans who did the math - he has added the numbers of Sophia's and Sofia's born in 2008 and compared it to the (combined) numbers of other names:

1. Sophia 21,783
2. Isabella 20,398
3. Emily 19,807
4. Madison 19,563
5. Emma 18,587
(Most frequent spelling, i.e. Sophia = Sophia, Sofia, Sophea...)

You can find the rest here: http://www.babynames.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-132007.html
And the boys: http://www.babynames.com/boards/archive/index.php/t-131953.html

maria,
i actually like all of your choices. charlotte is by far my favorite. i love this name--and the nickname lottie, though i agree with anna that it doesn't need a nickname.

i also like sophia and anna (probably tied for second). sophia is popular, which doesn't bother me, but it may matter to you. anna was ranked 26 in 2008.

mira is my least favorite, but i don't dislike it; i just like it less than the others.

golden pig,
as julian is my favorite name for a boy, it's my top pick. it's a such gentlemanly name (to me). and i like julian dexter (though i think it would also fit with a hawaiian middle name if your husband really wants that). i also like (in no particular order): jonah, harrison, henry, noah, owen, and abraham. i think the hawaiian middle names are a fun tradition.

as for girls (as i said above, for maria), i love charlotte. to me it's a female equivalent of julian. to me they're both refined and elegant and dignified while still being really warm. and the nn lottie is sweet, if you're a nickname sort of person. i also like (in no particular order): violet, clara, juliet, juliana. i love the middle name juniper, but it's a little to out there for some people.

oh, and i have been meaning to throw out some girl names for you too(i never got around to it earlier), though i think you've already hit on most of my would-be suggestions. however, i'll go ahead and note:
caroline
eleanor
lucy/lucia
nora
lily
alice
eva
ella
camilla
adelaide

(obviously some of these stand out more than others, but they're all pretty in their own right, but maybe not your style)

oh, and for me it depends on the repetition of sounds in names. sometimes i love it and sometimes it is too rhymey. for example: amanda miranda is not so great (that's a bit of an extreme example).

ha, bianca, i like charlotte precisely because i think it sounds NOT flowery. interesting difference of opinion. :] (however, i agree that sophia is flowery)

Oh! Man, I thought there was just an equation. That Dr. CKE is pretty awesome to compile that sucker.

Hi all,

We're in the process of narrowing down some name choices for our daughter-to-be (due in November).

For those of you who have been following my name drama (melodrama?) the current compromise is that I can keep Aoibheann in the running, but I need to be open-minded about finding an alternative. My point was that I didn't want to "trade down" on the name, as it were, by choosing something that didn't "fit" as well for both of us. His part of the agreement is that he will stop suggesting Gwendolyn, and that the first name will be Irish (for those of you unsettled by the ungainly spellings/ pronunciations, this was never the issue).

So...
For first names:

Fionavar (Fiona-varr)
Sorcha (Sor-a-kha)
Saoirse (Seer-sha)
Aoibheann

For middle names:
Sinead (a play on my mom's name, Janet) or Seannin (Shawn-een a diminutive of Sean/Sinead)
Verity &/or Serenity (DH's faves)
Firinne (Irish for "truth" - Feer-innya)
Avalon (arthurian reference and place where she'll be born)
Orlaith (Or-la) or Olwen (after his mother, Olive)
Rukia (a Bleach reference, for DH).

Any thoughts on combos that work better than others? I'm struggling a bit because of so many similar sounds repeated throughout the names (which maybe goes to show what sounds we're drawn to!), but I could be over-stressing it.

Our last name is hyphenated, sounds very similar Grant-McKay.

Thanks as always for taking on a challenge!

ppp,
which is it again that is a bit politically charged? is it saoirse?

emilyrae -

yes, that's the one. Sigh, bc it's quite pretty.

PPP, quick input here..

My personal pick for a FN from your list would be Fionavar (nice sound, intuitive pronunciation, has the pleasant and familiar Fiona, plus the letter V, which I like).

So, with MNs, I think what sounds best are:
Fionavar Sinead
Fionavar Firinne (I know, 2 Fs, but I like it)
Fionavar Avalon
Fionavar Olwen

Other combos I like:
Saoirse Verity
Saoirse Avalon
Saoirse Olwen

Aoibheann Verity
Aoibheann Firinne
Aoibheann Orlaith

Glad to hear the process is moving forward!

emilyrae,

Your names in my preferred order:

adelaide - love it, sounds so classy
nora - love the simplicity, yet it has a strong sound
lucia
eleanor
eva
caroline
alice - prefer Alyssa
camilla - have nothing against it, but it was the Scandinavian equivalent of Jessica in the 90'es, so there are just too many...
ella, lucy, lily - these are not to my taste because I'm an anti-cute and anti-flower person. If you are none of the above I'm sure those are fine names.

The rhyming thing: It has a lot to do with the number of syllables and the specific sound/syllable. The double -da in Amanda Miranda is way too much for me, but I don't mind a double -na nearly as much (Ana Cristina). I often think a double -a ending gives the name a coherent Spanish feel (I like coherent). Another example I can think of is Ava Victoria where I like the repeated v-sound. I usually don't like the flow when both names are two-syllable (eg Kayla Janet) because it sounds staccato-like. It helps if the second syllable is long (eg Lily Marleen), but generally I prefer the flow of names with different syllables (Edith Theodora, Mary Louise).

Goldenpig,
It's funny-- i commented earlier that our perceptions of names were wildly different (Mark = jock etc.) our taste in names seems to be strikingly similar ( I even had Jacob August on one of my lists of 14 kids earlier...)
For you, to match your daughter's name, here are my top picks:

Jonah Kilohana Lee
Julian Dexter Lee (I think Kilohana could work here as well)
Alexander Kilohana Lee

Girl
Violet Juniper Lee ( I would change the middle..so not a violet and a juniper)
Charlotte Noelani Lee
Clara Juliet Lee
Audrey Noelani Lee
Juliana Catherine Lee

I agree with the previous poster who said a Hawaiian name in the middle spot-- I think many would work with Violet, Clara, Juliana and Julian.

Beautiful choices!

oh! anna, i am not sure if i made it clear that those names were not for myself (i am definitely not expecting a child), but rather suggestions for golden pig, as i asked her a couple pages back if she was looking for girl and boy names or only for boy names. when she said she was looking for girl names, i intended to post some suggestions (i'd already posted boy suggestions) and i'd only just now gotten around to it. however, that being said, i enjoy your feedback! i (and most of us, obviously) just enjoy sitting around discussing names and hearing what people think, regardless of whether or not i'm having children. several of the names i posted for golden pig are not particularly my style (but i thought she might like them). for example, i would probably never use camilla. i, like you, am not generally in favor of "cute" names, as i think they often don't carry well into adulthood, however i really like lucy.
i find i generally like englishy names (or at least names that i perceive as english): julian, oliver, simon, maxwell, alistair, eleanor, charlotte, lucy, adelaide, etc. (that pretty much encompasses all my favorites except nora (is nora english? eleanor strikes me as english and nora is often short for that...? such a wonderful name regardless) anyway, thank you so much for your feedback, even though i am not having children right now. i loved hearing your thoughts. here is a question though:

what do you guys think of alliteration between first and middle names? could i do something (hypothetically!)like julian joel or julian james?

PPP,

Do you want both names to be Irish, or one Irish, one English?

First names in my order of preference:
Saoirse - sounds pretty
Aoibheann - I guess I'm warming up to it. Now it's beginning to look familiar...
Sorcha - unsure of the -kha sound?
Fionavar - Fiona + var?

Middle names comments:
Sinead - OK
Verity &/or Serenity - These are a little too much for me - how about some derivatives: Vera, Serena..?
Firinne - OK
Avalon - pretty cool reference
Orlaith - prefer Olive (because it's familiar to me)
Rukia - bleech?! Oh, Bleach. Well, sounds cool.

Combinations:
Saoirse Serana/Avalon/Rukia/Firinne
Aoibheann Serana/Firinne
Sorcha Serana/Avalon/Olive/Firinne

emilyrae, Oh well... ;-)

emilyrae - That's funny about Charlotte. Thinking about it now, I can see where the 'lot' sound on the end is really quite plain. I wonder what I really meant when I chose the term flowery? (I also think of Adelaide or Eleanor as flowery) Maybe I mean romantic? pretty? elegant? On the other hand, I also get a kick out of people's differing ideas of a 'spunky' name, as they often include names I would think of as more classy and graceful!

PPP - Is Fionavar like Fionnbharr/Fionnabhair? I can't keep the Irish names straight (maybe if I could sort Irish from Scottish:S). I'd love to have it worked out to a tidy Gaelic/anglicized list.

I really like Olwen and Firinne. I might choose Fionavar Olwen, Aoibheann Firinne, Saoirse Fionavar, or Saoirse Firinne. I actually like just Olive as well as Orlaith! (Fionavar Olive?) Excited to hear what you choose in the end:)

PPPhd- So glad to hear you and DH are feeling better about the process again! I like a lot of the combinations already mentioned but wanted to add:
Sorcha (Sor-a-kha) Verity (or Vera as someone else mentioned)
Sorcha Avalon
Sorcha Olwen

I think any of your choices will be wonderful though!

emilyrae- I don't mind the kind of alliteration you mentioned at all, I think a connection between the two names as long as they're not too close can be nice!

bianca -

Actually, yes, Fionavar is "related" to Fionnabhair (or Fionnuir), meaning "white/fair ghost" but not to Fionnbarr/Finnbarr, which means "Fair head". Technically, you could look at Fionavar as a kind of "anglophone-friendly" spelling. I'm not usually partial to those (as all who post here know!) but this one happens to also be the title of my favourite book trilogy. So it works.

As per the etymology, we though Fionn would make a great nickname (alas, I can't quite fall in love with Fiona. Shrek, how you ruined this!!!)

Btw, I know Olive is increasing in popularity among the hipster set, but we've decided not to use it in original form, as my MIL really dislikes her name! (see previous post on honouring/namesakes).

Marie, I'd go for Sophia -- your "favorite for a long time" -- even though you think it may be too popular now. When parents really love a name, I think they should use it and not worry about possibly having another child by the same name in their son's/daughter's class some year(s). And besides, kids don't seem to care: my 6-year-old grandson Andrew is happy he is called "Andrew C." for the first time in day camp this summer and thinks his twin brother who is still "just James" isn't as fortunate. I have a 13-yer-old granddaughter named Sophia, mostly called Sophie. She loves her name -- both forms -- and so do I. One of the best girls names ever! :-)

Our 2-year-old granddaughter is named Miranda, but is usually called Mira. It turned out to be a perfect name for her because Mira is part-Korean and Mira is a named used in Korea. Like you, our Mira lives on the West Coast, but I've not heard any concern about the Spanish meaning of the name from her parents.

Mira's mother also liked Anna, but her husband said exactly the same thing as yours, "too plain".

I think you have two excellent choices with Sophia and Mira!

So, has anyone bought the ebook yet? I am contemplating buying it and printing it just to read it, I can't wait a month or two since Baby #2 might be here by then!

Emilyrae,
Alliteration: I usually like it. I often notice and remember a lot more alliterate names (from discussions etc) than non-alliterate names. They have that punch-line like feel that makes them stand out from the rest.

Eleanor: It is originally from Helen and thereby a distant cousin of
Eileen/Elaine/Elena/Eleonora/Elinor/Ella/Ellen/Helena/Helene/
Lena/Lenora/Lina/Nell/Nora/Norah (and like 60 more).

Betsy and others interested in name rankings when all spellings are combined:

http://www.namenerds.com/uucn/pop.html

I think these lists may be more extensive than Cleveland Evans' lists and also the various spellings of a name are included, with the number of each in the top 1000.

So for Sophia, the top name with combined spellings:

1 21,783 Sophia 15,887 Sofia 5,896

(rank 1; total 21,783; Sophia 15887, Sofia 5896)

Marie, a consideration that has come up on this blog several times is that the high ranking names are not being used as frequently now as they were some years ago. For example, 30 years ago in 1978 the #1 name was Jennifer, with 56,292 baby girls given that name -- or 3.4268% of all girls born that year. In 2008 it took only 18,587 baby girls named Emma (.9043% of the total) for that name to rank #1.

Sophia ranked #7 in the SSA top 1000 names for 2008, with 15,887 girls given that name. But had there been the same number of baby girls named Sophia in 1978, the name would have ranked 17.

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/