Estelle wrote to me recently with a tall order:
I’m having quads (!!!) in 4 weeks and I need names! I’m having one boy and three girls. My 4 year old son’s name is Cosmo. My husband and I like spacey, whimsical and weird names.
In fact, they “don’t have any limits on how weird a name can be.”
One girl name they’re considering is Ione, which is a family name.
The combination of Cosmo and the adjective “spacey” made me think of star and constellation names right off the bat:
| Adhara Aldebaran Altair Aludra Antares Antlia Aquarius Aquila Aries Auriga Azha Carina Corvus | Cygnus Deneb Denebola Hamal Kastra Lacerta Libra Lyra Meissa Musca Nashira Norma Orion | Pavo Polaris Rana Rigel Shaula Sheratan Sirius Sirrah Suhail Taurus Thuban Vega Vela |
One nice thing about these is that several together probably wouldn’t scream “star names” to the average person. Unlike, say, a group of flower names. (Though I’m sure stargazers would catch on pretty quickly.)
And here’s what we have for non-galactic suggestions:
| Allegra Althea Apollonia Artemis Aurora Briony Calypso Clio Danae Demetria | Echo Eulalia Freya Hestia Imelda Imogen Isis Lucasta Luna Jonquil | Minerva Olympia Rhea Sapphira Severina Ursula Vita Xanthe Zelda Zenobia |
Those were the girl names, these are the boy names:
| Agni Aldous Barnaby Casper Cyril Elan Evander Erasmus Fabio Gideon | Horatio Ignatius Isidore Jethro Leander Loki Magnus Milo Nigel Odin | Pascal Peregrine Reuben Rémy Silas Taliesin Theron Tycho Ulysses Zenon |
What other whimsical names can you come up with for Estelle? And, can you put together any good combinations of 1 boy and 3 girl names?
Update: The babies have arrived! Scroll down to see what names Estelle selected.
Four stars or constellations with big brother Cosmo! awesome. cool but not completely whacky. drool.
I’d pick Orion or Rigel for the boy and Cygnus, Lyra, and Vela for the girls.
And isn’t Artemis a boy’s name?
When I first read it, I thought Shakespearean characters might do nicely for whimsy. There are too many for me to pick through carefully. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.php?curid=3064546 .
@Karen — Artemis was the Greek goddess of the moon, hunting, and childbirth. Definitely a female name. That said, I’m pretty sure I once read a book with a male character named “Artemas”, so maybe that’s what you’re thinking of.
I’m sending some of my favorite names that I wouldn’t be brave enough to use:
Girls:
Acacia
Amaryllis
Azalea
Azure
Ellery
Eulalie (prn. yoo-LAY-lee)
Clover
Isyemille (prn. Eez-yuh-MEE-lay)
Lysandra
Madeleva (prn. Mad-uh-LEE-vuh)
Marieke (prn. muh-REE-kuh)
Maylis (prn. may-LEES)
Piper
Scheherazade
Serafina
Zelda
Boys:
Archer
Arden
Duncan
Eben
Hadrian
Lukan
Lysander
Orion
Tarquin
Theophilus (it means “book lover”, and it’s the party to whom the Gospel of Luke is addressed)
Zebediah
Zebulon
Back to the heavens again.
Draco for the boy.
Cassiopeia for a girl.
Karen & Angela – Thank you for all the ideas!
I’m enjoying the spacey theme for Estelle. How about some scientists?
Agrippa
Hypatia
Copernicus
Tesla
Turing
Ada
Augusta
Newton
Leibniz
Wendell
List of astronomers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_astronomers
Girls:
Saffron
Poppy
Hydra
Willow
Twila
Juniper
Boys:
Jasper
Cypress
Lucian
Boys
Leo
Wyatt
Magnus
Girls
Ilixi
Villie
Trexa
(i was thinking of using some of these for my own kids names)
There’s some unusual saints names that I think might suit you:
Aithne
Candida
Eulalia
Imelda
Zinaida
Zita
Aurelius
Diego
Ignatius
Myron
Ninian
Peregrine
Sergei
Wystan
So what were the names in the end?:D
Good question! I haven’t heard from Estelle. (I imagine she’s pretty busy now!) I’ll e-mail her this week and ask.
Just heard back. The names she chose are Samson, Surya, Ione and Vela.
Congrats, Estelle!
Great names. Was a nice choice. i love in particular Samson and Surya
My mother and father had a set of quintuplets (5)
My name is Poppy
Sisters names are Octavia and Pippa
Brothers names are Oxford and Ezra
P.S. We all absolutely LOVE our names can’t go wrong with them especially poppy I love being named after a flower and a coach bag( my closet is filled with their line)
You listed Calypso as a non-galactic name. I’d like to point out that Calypso is one Saturn’s 18 named moons.
(:
I love Greek mythology! So these are my favorite first names-
Girls:
Artemis
Athena
Aphrodite
Andromeda
Boys:
Apollo
They are the “A” theme.