Baby names needed: “Whimsical, weird” names for quadruplets

Estelle wrote to me recently with a tall order:

I’m having quads (!!!) in 4 weeks and I need names! I’m having one boy and three girls. My 4 year old son’s name is Cosmo. My husband and I like spacey, whimsical and weird names.

In fact, they “don’t have any limits on how weird a name can be.”

One girl name they’re considering is Ione, which is a family name.

The combination of Cosmo and the adjective “spacey” made me think of star and constellation names right off the bat:

Adhara
Aldebaran
Altair
Aludra
Antares
Antlia
Aquarius
Aquila
Aries
Auriga
Azha
Carina
Corvus
Cygnus
Deneb
Denebola
Hamal
Kastra
Lacerta
Libra
Lyra
Meissa
Musca
Nashira
Norma
Orion
Pavo
Polaris
Rana
Rigel
Shaula
Sheratan
Sirius
Sirrah
Suhail
Taurus
Thuban
Vega
Vela

One nice thing about these is that several together probably wouldn’t scream “star names” to the average person. Unlike, say, a group of flower names. (Though I’m sure stargazers would catch on pretty quickly.)

And here’s what we have for non-galactic suggestions:

Allegra
Althea
Apollonia
Artemis
Aurora
Briony
Calypso
Clio
Danae
Demetria
Echo
Eulalia
Freya
Hestia
Imelda
Imogen
Isis
Lucasta
Luna
Jonquil
Minerva
Olympia
Rhea
Sapphira
Severina
Ursula
Vita
Xanthe
Zelda
Zenobia

Those were the girl names, these are the boy names:

Agni
Aldous
Barnaby
Casper
Cyril
Elan
Evander
Erasmus
Fabio
Gideon
Horatio
Ignatius
Isidore
Jethro
Leander
Loki
Magnus
Milo
Nigel
Odin
Pascal
Peregrine
Reuben
Rémy
Silas
Taliesin
Theron
Tycho
Ulysses
Zenon

What other whimsical names can you come up with for Estelle? And, can you put together any good combinations of 1 boy and 3 girl names?

Update: The babies have arrived! Scroll down to see what names Estelle selected.

15 thoughts on “Baby names needed: “Whimsical, weird” names for quadruplets

  1. Four stars or constellations with big brother Cosmo! awesome. cool but not completely whacky. drool.

    I’d pick Orion or Rigel for the boy and Cygnus, Lyra, and Vela for the girls.

    And isn’t Artemis a boy’s name?

    When I first read it, I thought Shakespearean characters might do nicely for whimsy. There are too many for me to pick through carefully. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.php?curid=3064546 .

  2. @Karen — Artemis was the Greek goddess of the moon, hunting, and childbirth. Definitely a female name. That said, I’m pretty sure I once read a book with a male character named “Artemas”, so maybe that’s what you’re thinking of.

    I’m sending some of my favorite names that I wouldn’t be brave enough to use:

    Girls:
    Acacia
    Amaryllis
    Azalea
    Azure
    Ellery
    Eulalie (prn. yoo-LAY-lee)
    Clover
    Isyemille (prn. Eez-yuh-MEE-lay)
    Lysandra
    Madeleva (prn. Mad-uh-LEE-vuh)
    Marieke (prn. muh-REE-kuh)
    Maylis (prn. may-LEES)
    Piper
    Scheherazade
    Serafina
    Zelda

    Boys:
    Archer
    Arden
    Duncan
    Eben
    Hadrian
    Lukan
    Lysander
    Orion
    Tarquin
    Theophilus (it means “book lover”, and it’s the party to whom the Gospel of Luke is addressed)
    Zebediah
    Zebulon

  3. Boys
    Leo
    Wyatt
    Magnus

    Girls
    Ilixi
    Villie
    Trexa
    (i was thinking of using some of these for my own kids names)

  4. There’s some unusual saints names that I think might suit you:

    Aithne
    Candida
    Eulalia
    Imelda
    Zinaida
    Zita

    Aurelius
    Diego
    Ignatius
    Myron
    Ninian
    Peregrine
    Sergei
    Wystan

  5. Good question! I haven’t heard from Estelle. (I imagine she’s pretty busy now!) I’ll e-mail her this week and ask.

  6. My mother and father had a set of quintuplets (5)
    My name is Poppy
    Sisters names are Octavia and Pippa
    Brothers names are Oxford and Ezra
    P.S. We all absolutely LOVE our names can’t go wrong with them especially poppy I love being named after a flower and a coach bag( my closet is filled with their line)

  7. You listed Calypso as a non-galactic name. I’d like to point out that Calypso is one Saturn’s 18 named moons.
    (:

  8. I love Greek mythology! So these are my favorite first names-
    Girls:
    Artemis
    Athena
    Aphrodite
    Andromeda
    Boys:
    Apollo

    They are the “A” theme.

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