On September 26, California couple John and Meryl Ferraro welcomed a set of quintuplets (three girls, two boys).
The first letters of the quints’ names — Gabrielle, Riley, Addison, Cooper and Emerson — form the acronym G.R.A.C.E.
Why?
John told CBS2 and KCAL9 reporter Jeff Nguyen, “I love the song ‘Amazing Grace.'”
Quips Meryl, “We figured we would eventually forget their names, so if we yell ‘GRACE’ they’d all come running.”
That last part is good thinking, actually. Efficient. :)
I thought it was interesting that most of the quints’ names are unisex. Gabrielle is clearly a female name, but Riley, Addison, Cooper and Emerson are given to babies of both genders nowadays.
My hunch was that Addison and Emerson were female, and that Riley and Cooper were male. I checked the quints’ blog, Grace Plus One, and found out this was indeed the case. (I wouldn’t have been shocked if I’d been wrong, though.)
Here are the quints’ middle names and nicknames, and the order in which they were born:
- Gabrielle “Gabby” Ann
- Riley “Ry” Daniel
- Cooper “Coop” Elliott
- Emerson “Emmy” Joy
- Addison “Addy” Faith
Do you like this set of names? Do you like that the initials form a word?
P.S. The quints have one older sister named Gianna.
Source: “Oh Baby! Those 5 Ferraro Quintuplets Make It Home To Fullerton.” KCAL News 24 Oct. 2012.
Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus
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Of all the wacky things people do when naming multiples, I have to say, I LOVE this! It’s quirky and not embarrassing. Not everyone has to have a J name, etc. This is great.
While the names aren’t necessarily my style, I like that they paired the unisex names with mostly gender-decisive middles. (I would have guessed that Riley was a girl and Emerson a boy.)
P.S. Gabrielle is pretty close to being gender-neutral by sound, depending on how you pron. Gabrielle vs. Gabriel.
Cooper isn’t unisex, its a boys name too.