Baby name needed, part 2: Middle name for Ivan

Back in March, a reader named Pam wrote to me regarding the names of her twins. Several days ago, she sent me an update.

She still likes the names Alexander, Ivan and William…but not in the same order as before. One twin will now be Alexander William, the other will have the first name Ivan, and Pam would appreciate some middle name suggestions for Ivan.

Pam writes:

We would like something “strong” like Ivan Alexander, but don’t want to use Alex for a first name and a middle name.

Makes sense. :)

One thing that struck me about Alexander William was its length (6 syllables). I feel like the boys’ full names should be on par with one another, so I focused on finding longish middles for Ivan.

I still like these options from the original post:

Dominic
Gregory
Joseph
Lawrence
Oliver
Patrick
Sebastian
Sylvester
Thomas

And I also think these names could work:

Abraham
Anthony
Benjamin
Broderick
Christopher
Demetrius
Emmanuel
Gabriel
Gregory
Jeremiah
Matthias
Raphael
Roderick
Samuel
Solomon
Theodore
Timothy
Tobias
Xavier
Zachary

What other names would you suggest to Pam as a middle for Ivan?

7 thoughts on “Baby name needed, part 2: Middle name for Ivan

  1. One thing to ask–is she going to pronounce it like Americans do: EYE-vuhn; or like Russians do: ee-VAHN (to rhyme with Yvonne)?

  2. Good question. Pam hasn’t mentioned anything to me about the pronunciation of Ivan, so I’m assuming she’ll use the American version, but I don’t know for certain.

  3. We would mostly pronounce it the “American” way. However, my husband is Puerto Rican and Ivan can also be pronounced ee-bahn (?)the “v” sounds like a “b”. Sooo…

  4. Ivan Timothy is nice with Alexander William

    Ivan Evander
    Ivan Frederick
    Ivan Joseph
    Ivan Leopold
    Ivan Oliver
    Ivan Sullivan
    Ivan Benedict
    Ivan Tennyson
    Ivan Barnabas
    Ivan Ambrose
    Ivan Bartholomew
    Ivan Rupert
    Ivan Atticus

  5. Even though it is shorter than 3 syllables I would use Ivan Victor. It is the name I would have liked to use for our son.

  6. I was going to suggest Ivan Benedict but Anna beat me to it. I don’t know what sort of last names you might have in your genealogy that might work as middle names–like Anna’s Tennyson or Sullivan….sometimes an Irish or English surname is nice and strong sounding.

  7. ivan zeus, a rather strong name

    iván zeús

    but that’s gonna be my baby boy’s name.

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