My wife and I are looking at using “Reid” for a girl (we don’t know what we’re having but we have the boy named locked down). My middle name is Reid, which comes from my grandmother’s maiden name. We are struggling with a middle name to sandwich between Reid and our last name, Roney* (pronounced with a long O). We want it to identify that Reid is a girl’s name.

I think a clearly feminine middle is a great idea. Let’s see…how about:

I avoided R-names for obvious reasons, but I’m now wondering: would a middle containing an R sound nice? I’m kind of on the fence about it, but who knows–maybe one the following could work:

Do you guys like any of the above with the first name Reid? What other middle names would you suggest to Andy?

*The actual surname is not Roney, but it’s similar.

This is a very open-ended question, but here’s my take:

I find it interesting that Kelley’s boyfriend likes Megan, because I actually have the opposite view. I think a first name that has both the same rhythm and the same n-ending as Phelan would sound a bit odd, so I’d cross Megan and similar names (e.g. Erin, Helen, Lauren, Susan, Jordan) off my list.

I do like Eleanor with Phelan, on the other hand. They share some consonant and vowel sounds, but each has a distinct rhythm, so (to me) they are similar without being “matchy.” A nice balance, I think.

Other names I might throw out there? Let’s see…

Sticking with the “Eleanor” pattern, most of the above are have sounds in common with Phelan, but rhythms all their own.

What other names would you suggest to Kelley?

Update – The baby has arrived! Scroll down to the last comment to see what names they chose…