Baby names needed: Boy and girl names for Beatrix’s twin siblings

A reader named Marissa, who has a daughter named Beatrix Penelope (nn Bea), is expecting twins–one boy, one girl. She’s got their middle names narrowed down (Anthony or Alexander for the baby boy, Daphne or Jillian for the baby girl) but she’d like some help with their first names.

Here’s what she’s looking for in a boy name:

For the boy I’d like names that are two syllables long and start and end in a consonant. So far I like Robert, Patrick, Daniel and Fabian. The only one he likes is Fabian, but we’re still not sure.

And here’s what she’s looking for in a girl name:

For the girl I’d like names that are three or four syllables long, and start and end in a vowel. So far I like Anastasia, Ophelia, Elena and Ursula, but he likes none of them.

The babies’ last name will sound something like Thisbe.

Here are some of the boy names I came up with:

Calvin
Clement
Chester
Conrad
Curtis
David
Declan
Dexter
Duncan
Felix
Franklin
Holden
Howard
Jasper
Kenneth
Lincoln
Linus
Lucas
Malcolm
Martin
Maxwell
Miles
Mitchell
Nathan
Nelson
Nigel
Nolan
Philip
Raymond
Reuben
Roland
Roman
Silas
Simon
Stuart
Thomas
Victor
Vincent
William
Winston

And here are some ideas for the girl name:

Acantha
Adela
Adelina
Adriana
Agatha
Alexandra
Alexina
Alicia
Allegra
Althea
Amelia
Annabella
Andrea
Angela
Antonia
Arabella
Araminta
Athena
Augusta
Aurelia
Aurora
Azalea
Eleanora
Eliana
Elisa
Eloisa
Estella
Eugenia
Eulalia
Imelda
Iona
Irena/Irina
Isabella
Isidora
Octavia
Odelia
Odessa
Olivia
Olympia
Ottilia

Which of the above do you like best with Beatrix? (And which ones make the best boy/girl pairings, do you think?)

What other names would you suggest to Marissa?

15 thoughts on “Baby names needed: Boy and girl names for Beatrix’s twin siblings

  1. It strikes me that she likes Greek names for girls, and Beatrix made me think of historic royal names, so:

    Amalia, Aspasia, Annamaria, Annelise, Anne-Sophie, Alexandrine/a, Elisabetta, Irena, Alexia, Ariane/a, Eloise, Emmaline, Adela, Isabella/Isabeau, Alberta, Adelaide, Eudora, Eugenie,

    Stretching the definition of “vowel” a bit: Johanna (Yo-ha-na), Juliana, Joaquina, Wilhemina, Helena, Honora, Yvetta

    Others: Ingrid, Matilda, Carlotta

    She might try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_queens

  2. Adina
    Acacia (AH-kay-sha)
    Amira
    Annelie
    Elodia
    Eliora
    Emmanuelle
    Erica
    Evangeline
    Evanna
    Idabelle
    Ilana
    Ilona
    Ondina
    Onora
    Orianna
    Ulrika

  3. Boys – Lucian, Francis, Samuel, Declan

    Girls – Amara, Isolda, Alicia, Ottilie

  4. On Nancy’s list, what stands out to me are

    Duncan, Kenneth, Malcolm, Thomas, Roman

    Agatha, Alexandra, Athena, and Aurora.

    But Kenneth, Agatha and Athena may have too much TH if the last name does start with TH. Agatha Thisbe may also start sounding like Agatha Christie.

    I’d also suggest Angelica Daphne. And Garrett Alexander.

  5. Karen, that’s a great point about the possible th overload. I don’t know if the actual surname starts with th, but if it does, I agree–Kenneth and Agatha would probably not be great ideas. (I still think Athena could work, though. I think there’s enough separation there.)

  6. More:
    Isabelle, Angelina, Esmeralda, Annarose, Eleanore/Eleonore, Augustina, Yelena, Eustacia, Eusebia, Aelia, Emilia…

    Other:
    Constance, Charlotte, Diana, Dorothy/ea, Fabiola, Judith, Leonora, Magdalena/Magdalene, Madeleine/Madalena, Pauline, Sylvia, Therese.

  7. Hello!
    Thank you so much!
    My husband and I have skimmed through the lists. Here are the ones I like. The starred ones are the ones he liked too:
    David
    Duncan*
    Howard
    Malcolm
    Thomas*
    Victor
    William*
    Althea*
    Amelia/Amalia
    Amira
    Annabella
    Antonia*
    Arabella
    Araminta
    Aurelia *
    Ariadne (well, there was Ariane/a, but we assumed it was Ariadne since we both don’t like Ariana)*
    Elisabetta
    Emmaline*
    Olympia

    So now our problem is to find which ones we like most and if there are any other ones we like.

  8. Oh! I didn’t see Anya’s list. I like:
    Annarose, Augustina, Emilia and Esmeralda. Doesn’t Esmeralda mean emerald in Spanish?

  9. Yes–and if you like the sound of Esmeralda, you might also like the sound of Esperanza, Spanish for “hope.”

    (Anya’s comment got caught in my spam filter, so I approved it a little later than the other comments. Not sure why that happened.)

  10. I like both Esmeralda and Esperanza, but I’m not Hispanic and neither is my husband. Maybe if we decide to play the two middle names game we could do ??????Esperanza/Esmeralda Daphne/Jillian.

  11. Ooh! Of the ones you both like, I vote Antonia and Ariadne, Thomas (means “twin”) and Duncan. I also have a Beatrix, so I have a vested interest in what you choose. :-)

    Not sure if these have been suggested:

    Elodie
    Alodia
    Isolde
    Euphemia
    Indira
    India
    Artemisia
    Apollonia
    Otillia

    Tobias
    Raphael
    Silas
    Hugo
    Frederick
    Lawrence
    Lorenzo
    Sebastian

    …sorry, I just saw your boy criteria. I didn’t pay much attention to that here, but I think these are all great names.

  12. Marissa has made a decision! Here’s what she says:

    Thank you for all your help, Nancy and others! We decided on the name Thomas Alexander for the boy, mainly because we both like the name Thomas, but also because ‘Thomas’ means twin, so it’s a nice addition.

    For the girl name we had a harder time deciding because we had more ideas of names but so many to choose from. So we decided to do two middle names. I tried changing his mind to name her either Anastasia, Elena, Ursula or Ophelia, but he wouldn’t budge. Then we compromised: he’d choose one of the girl names both of us liked for the fn, and I’ll choose the first mn. We actually tried two names out: Emilia Anastasia Daphne and Emmaline Ophelia Jillian. I think what we’ll do is name her Emilia Anastasia Daphne, Emmy for short, unless she doesn’t look like one, then she’ll be Emmeline Ophelia Jillian.

    Terrific choices, methinks. How do you guys like them?

  13. Well, she wrote Emmaline once and then Emmeline the second time- so which is the one she’s using?

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