Let’s say you’re expecting twins. Do you look for baby names that sound alike? (How much alike?) Do you avoid names that sound alike?
Loading ...P.S. Former NBA player Fennis Dembo and his twin sister Fenise were the last of 11 children. They were named by their oldest sister, Zona, who thought the family had grown large enough at that point and (rather cleverly) suggested baby names based on the word finis. (Source: Rivals.com)
6 Comments
this vote is stupid what kind of question is that. but i picked dont sound similar
My mother has two (identical) twin sisters, with extremely similar names. Imagine Tonya and Tanya. She already felt like odd-man out and was reminded of it each and every time she needed to say or heard their names. It was a sore point with her to say the least. I would go out of my way to choose dissimilar names, though still names that would coordinate with each other and other siblings, too.
@ Karen – I’ve never even thought about it from that angle. Thanks!
I have to say, I haven’t come across too many twins with very similar sounding names (although I do remember when I was a kid knowing Indian twin girls called Nithi and Vithi – so it seems this naming convention goes across cultures)
If I had twins, I would probably give them different sounding names -
eg. Chrystal and Alicia (girls I used to teach), Robert and Alison (my cousins) – in exactly the same way I would choose names for other siblings, that sound different but still sound nice together.
I have also come across a lot of twins with names that are moderately similar – eg. Casey and Carley (girls I used to go to school with), Callum and Mason (boys I used to teach – although these names aren’t *as* similar as others are, I still would class them as similar because of the last syllable) and Kea and Loa (twins from Tonga who are actually named after Hawaiian mountains).
There are a lot of fraternal twins in my mother’s family and some of their names are very similar: Lonny and Donny, Chris and Chase, Juliet and Janet, Travis and Tianna. I think it is rather infantilizing, twins are individuals not a matched set.
I like it when there is something linking the twin names – similar styles or histories, perhaps. But I don’t think they should sound too alike. The babies will have to share birthdays, classmates and maybe even their appearance. Should they really have to share their names too?