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?
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
Adina
Acacia (AH-kay-sha)
Amira
Annelie
Elodia
Eliora
Emmanuelle
Erica
Evangeline
Evanna
Idabelle
Ilana
Ilona
Ondina
Onora
Orianna
Ulrika
Boys – Lucian, Francis, Samuel, Declan
Girls – Amara, Isolda, Alicia, Ottilie
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.
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.)
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.
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.
Oh! I didn’t see Anya’s list. I like:
Annarose, Augustina, Emilia and Esmeralda. Doesn’t Esmeralda mean emerald in Spanish?
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.)
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.
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.
Oh! Elodie is so cute!
Marissa has made a decision! Here’s what she says:
Terrific choices, methinks. How do you guys like them?
Well, she wrote Emmaline once and then Emmeline the second time- so which is the one she’s using?
Whoops, that was supposed to be EmmEline not EmmAline… Emmeline.