Name Updates!

Update (and photo!) on Baby Boy or Girl B_____ss, Sibling to Owen Albert!
Update (and photo!) on Baby Girl or Boy McD____, Sibling to Ronan!

Baby Boy Doorahzio: Italian Names

Carly writes:

We are due with our first baby, a boy, in April and my husband and I are having trouble finding a name.

To give some background information, I'm Irish and my husband is Italian, 1st generation. I've always been a fan of ethnic names so I'd like to find something Italian to match our very Italian last name pronounced door-ahz-io.

We were all set with girls name options (Luciana, Viviana, Valentina) with middle name Willa in honor of my lost little brother Ryan William. Our middle name for our son will be Ryan, even though it doesn't "match" with any of the Italian-ness going on.

Our names are Matthew and Carly and we have two dogs, Sugar and Gus, and a cat, Jasper. We do hope to have more children in the future.

After going through some extensive exercises of writing top 5 lists and comparing and then comparing some more, we've each narrowed our favorites down to 1. (Well I have 2, whoops!)

· My husbands favorite is Marcello (pronounced mar-chel-lo), and while I don't hate it, I also don't love it. We've discussed nicknames and none stand out to me as a good fit. Marc, Marco, Marcus, March, Cello, Lo?

· My favorite is Santino and we would call him Santi or Santos. (My runner up is Xavier, it's been on my list since I was in grade school, but the hubbie thinks it's "weird"?)


Anyway, can you give some insight on what you think of these two names, or perhaps some other names that might seem to fit?

Thank you so much!
Carly


PS: Here is a small list of names that one of us liked but was dismissed

Theo
Dominic (most likely still on the list, but not at the top)
Milo
Sebastian
Vincenzo
Mason
Lucas
Dante
Elias
Damian
Cruz

PPS: I absolutely promise to write back with an update on what we've chosen!

I know very little about Italian names, so I'm working here with the Italian sections of The Baby Name Wizard, The Best Baby Names in the World From Around the World, and The Oxford Dictionary of First Names. I'm trying to choose names that will sound good in the U.S., which could very well mean I'm choosing the names that in actual Italy would sound like Erwin and Dudley.

I have a long-running campaign to promote the name Karl, which I think is vastly underused. Recently a celebrity named a baby boy Carlo, which seemed like it had potential for helping to bring the name into use: the popular o-ending! Plus, while still being definitely Italian, it's recognized and easy to spell and pronounce. So that is my first suggestion: Carlo Ryan Doorahzio. It might be too close to Carly, or it might be a nice way to combine names: the father's surname and an Italian first name---but one that reflects the mother's name.

Matteo has been rising in popularity, perhaps also because of that o-ending. It gives the nicknames Matt and also Teo (TAY-o). As pointed out in the comments section, this might be too close to the name Matthew---or it might be a nice namesake name without being a junior, especially if he goes mostly by Teo.

Or Nico would be nice. Nico Ryan Doorahzio.

I'm also drawn to the Gian- names. I think those sound handsome. I like Giancarlo even more than Carlo. Gianluca would give him the nicknames Luca and Luke.

I like nicknames like Kip and Chip and Skip, so Cipriano appeals to me. On Forvo it sounds like a cross between a "sip" sound and a "chip" sound, and I think I'd use Chip as a nickname for anyone who had trouble with the full name.

Gus is a nickname trying to join Max and Sam and Jack; the main thing holding it back is the difficulty of choosing a longer version. Because you're specifically looking for an Italian name (and it sounds like you'd like a nickname), I suggest Augusto, nickname Gus. [It's pointed out in the comments section that Gus is already the dog's name. I'll leave this suggestion here anyway, for future reference for parents looking for Italian names.]

Baby Boy Smith, Brother to Carson Michael

S. writes:

I am due on March 24, so I have less than 10 weeks left. We currently have a two year old named Carson Michael. We are having another boy. Last name is Smith. I cannot for the life of me choose a name for this baby. I want a family name somewhere in the name, so Jackson, Jordan, Owen, and Britt are possibilities.

Now to talk about what we have considered. Actually at this point I don't think there is a name that I haven't considered.

My favorite names are Jackson, Hudson, and Silas. Jackson and Hudson don't work because they end in -son like my first son's name. Silas ends how my last name begins, and is too hissy sounding with all the s's.

My husbands favorite name is Levi. It just doesn't click with me. It feels very religious to me.

We have seriously considered a number of names in addition to the ones above, but I find something wrong with each. Here goes:

Jordan- worried about the unisex aspect, too many girls using it now?
Brady- my family names don't go with it for the middle (I refuse to give him the initials BJ)
Owen-too old sounding it was a great grandparents name, so I picture a 95 year old
Brody-same issue as Brady
Trevor-people say it sound "snobby" and pretentious
Noah- No, Noah sounds like a stutter and we are afraid our two year old will be confused with all the "No" sounds
Parker-i never liked it until recently, but I think the strong R sounds makes it hard to say especially with Carson

Husband had vetoed:
Ryan
Kyle
Connor
Tanner
Grant

Please tell me you will help!!!! I honestly have been crying for the last two days every time I try to settle on something. I hate this! I find something wrong with every name. I feel alot of pressure especially since my first son was born a month early! I may not have much time left!!

I don't think the "No" sound in Noah is going to be confusing to your older child, any more than it will confuse your second child that his older brother's name has the words "car" and "son" in it. If it really did turn out to be an issue, it wouldn't be an issue for very long. And if I think back to the Noah I had in my daycare class, I don't remember the no-no issue being a problem at all: the pause for the comma, and the W-sound in the middle of Noah, keep it from sounding stuttery. Perhaps some parents of Noahs can weigh in on whether this has been a problem for them.

A name with some similar sounds (but no "no") is Rohan. Rohan Smith; Carson and Rohan.

I might in general prefer to avoid having two sibling names ending with -son, but there's no rule against it. If you and your husband can agree on the name Jackson or Hudson, and you both love the name, there is nothing wrong with naming two brothers Carson and Jackson, or Carson and Hudson.

I can see how having an elderly relative named Owen would affect the sound of the name for you. Does it help at all that it's in the top 50 for boys right now? As with many names, it has cycled around again: names first sound too elderly to use, then sound vintage and appealing, then sound totally current. Owen is already sounding current, with only a hint of vintage remaining. It fits in beautifully with other revived no-longer-elderly-sounding names such as Ava, Henry, and Emma.

I like the sound of Carson and Parker together. I think the R sound ties them together. Maybe it ties them together a little too well, since it's more of a matching ar-sound than just an r-sound. Maybe Porter would be better? Porter Smith; Carson and Porter.

Jordan is one of the few truly unisex names. Even though it's used for many baby girls, it hasn't dropped at all out of the running for boys---especially since many girls use feminized spellings such as Jordyn and Jordynn.

Another good unisex name is Riley. It has the il-sound from Silas, but without the s-ending problem. Riley Smith; Carson and Riley.

If you like Silas but the ending S is a problem, do you like Simon instead?

If not Levi, would you prefer Leo?

If Trevor isn't quite right, would Truman do? Or Everett? Or Evan?

If you like Brady but the initials are a problem, do you like Grady instead? Grady Owen Smith; Carson and Grady.

Baby Boy Detwiler: Issues of Twilight and Beer

Katie writes:

I am a longtime reader and thought I would be more than prepared for my own baby name experience once it arrived. Well, here it is... I am due on March 30th with a baby boy and i am anything BUT well prepared! I have 3 different issues going on; not wanting a top ten name, Twilight, and initials I don't know if I can use. To give you some background, my name is Katie, my husband's name is Jon, and our last name is Detwiler. I grew up in Amish Country, and we have an Amish sounding last name, so that's a factor for me as well, so I guess that's a fourth issue for me! I would like to avoid some of the typical Amish names. Jon has given me 2 top five lists, "Unusual Names" (that I don't think are actually that unusual) and "Normal Names."

Unusual Names:

Aksel
Soren
Maximus
Zander
Riddick

Normal Names:

Jakeb (yes, that's with an -eb at the end... Not going to happen)
Mason
Evan
Zeke
Finn

I seem to be having some mental block and can't even think of any names I think I like or are right for this poor little man, so we settled on Jakob Soren or Maximus Grey as our top two finalists.

These two finalists have produced all 4 of my issues. Jakob/Jacob is Jon's #1 name out of all 10... It has been in the top five names for what seems like a hundred years, it's Amish, and my sister in law is due a month before me and their girl name is Bella. Really. Maximus Grey gives us the initials MGD. I think we might have been ok a few years ago with these initials but then out came MGD 64... Does that even matter?

So I need to know if I should just get over any of these issues, or if you think any of them are actually legit. My pick is definitely Max, but those initials are bothering me. Also, if we were having a girl, we both like Ellie, but Jon preferred Eleanor and I preferred Eloise for her full name.

If you take a look at our style and have any new name suggestions as well, we're still definitely open to a change! Thank you!

I had to Google MGD 64 to see what the issue was. But I'm not a beer-drinker; if you were considering the name Smirnoff or even GNT I would have known what was what. And Jacob Detwiler wouldn't have made me think Amish.

But I think it can be tempting to dismiss anything as silly if it's not a familiar association: I haven't seen Titanic so Jack and Rose seems like a dismissible thing to worry about---but ask me about siblings Max and Ruby and I'm completely opposed: the associations I recognize seem shocking, while the associations someone ELSE recognizes seem barely worth considering---only because they're not important TO ME, which is not the question when we're talking about the societal impact of a name. With the polls I always want to separate out the opinions of the people who HAVE the association from the people who don't. Let's have a poll over to the right and see if we can do that even though it makes the response options kind of LONG.

It seems too that the MGD issue would be a simple problem to fix, unless you're totally set on Grey as the only middle name you want to consider. Even if you think the initials are a deal-breaker, that doesn't rule out the name Max.

While I might not name siblings Edward and Bella, I don't see a problem with Jacob and Bella for cousins. The name Bella is fairly strongly associated with Twilight (though all the Bellas, as well as all the Isabellas going by Bella, help to reduce that), but Jacob is common enough to have an even more diluted set of associations. And Bella and Jacob don't end up together romantically, right? So it's not a connection that would bother me. But again, we have the personal associations factoring in: I skimmed the first Twilight book and that's it, so of course the association would seem insignificant to me. What we want is SOCIETY'S reaction. Let's have a second poll over to the right about this issue.

Between Jacob and Maximum, my own favorite is Jacob. Jacob Detwiler seems like a nice boy, and handsome. And J.D. makes a cute initial nickname, if you want it.

From the entire list, my favorite is Soren Jacob. It lets your husband have his favorite name but without the Jacob/Bella issue, the Top Ten issue, or the Amish Name issue.

We recently discussed Maxon/Maxton, if you'd want to consider a different long form for Max.

Because you have Zander and Zeke, I wonder if you would like Xavier?

Evan from your list makes me think of Ian. But it gives the initials I.D., if you want to avoid that. (A D-surname sure is hard to work with for those of us who prefer not to spell anything with initials! 2012 A.D., CD, double-D, ED, fire dept, g-d, high definition, show your I.D., M.D., O.D., police dept, Rd., etc.)


Be sure to vote in both polls to the right (er, I mean if you WANT to); it's common when we do two polls for the first of the two polls to get significantly more votes than the second. Heck, let's throw in one more poll: Jacob or Maximus? And be sure to leave other suggestions in the comments section.

Name Updates!

Update (and photo!) on Baby Boy Moncla, Brother to Lucy and Eli!
Update on Baby Boy/Girl Twins Hoffman!
Update (and photo!) on Baby Twin Girls Lavender, Sisters to Cohen Fox!
Update (and photo!) on Baby Boy or Girl Phillips: Namesake Issues!

Baby Name to Consider: Maxon

Beth writes:

As I was driving to my daughter's class today, a sign I drive by often caught my attention as a name to consider. Maxon. I've never heard of a baby named this, but it sounds like so many popular names--Max! Jackson! Mason! that I wondered if someone who didn't have this name in their family tree would consider it. What do you think?

Oh, interesting! It adds another way to get the nickname Max, and it ties in with the name Jaxon. Or it could be spelled Mackson, if someone preferred the nickname Mac/Mack.

I see in 2010 there were 55 baby boys named Maxon, plus another 14 named Maxen, 9 named Maxxon, and 7 named Maxin. It looks like it appeared in the Social Security database in 1997, but hasn't really caught on yet.

I wonder why it HASN'T risen more rapidly, considering it fits so well with Max and Jaxon and Jackson? The similarity in sound to the men's magazine Maxim might help it or might hurt it (312 boys named Maxim were born in 2010). Associations with maxi pads seem like they'd be damaging, but then they should be equally damaging to all the Max names. It makes me think of "Wax on, wax off" from The Karate Kid---but that ought to be just as damaging to Jaxon and Jackson. I wondered if it might be a reluctance to branch out into rhyming names, but that didn't stop Caden/Braden/Jaden/Greydon.

Let's have a poll over to the right to see what we think of the name, but let's also discuss in the comments section why we think it HASN'T taken off.

Harris or Harrison Hamilton?

L. writes:

We are expecting our first baby, a surprise, February 22, 2012. My husband was very close to his grandfather, Harry, and my last name is Harris, so we think something in that vein would be meaningful. We have decided on Harriet for a girl, and both love it. (Her middle name would be Perrine, my mother's maiden name.) For a boy we had settled on Harrison, nickname Harry, but I am having doubts. (His middle name would be Matthew, after my husband.) Here are some concerns:

The baby's last name will be Hamilton, my husband's last name. I worry that Harrison Hamilton is too singsongy, and the two last names are too interchangeable (sounds very similar to Hamilton Harrison). My husband points out that Harry Hamilton, what our son will go by, doesn't come off that way (although he is a bit worried about the alliteration).

I am also worried that, although the name isn't overly popular at the moment (consistently in the 200s in the Social Security database for the last couple of decades), the -son ending for boys is pretty trendy right now (Jackson, Mason, Grayson, Hudson, etc.) and Harrison has recently become very popular in Australia and England, which might suggest it's about to catch on here in the U.S. Because my husband and I both went through school sharing our names with lots of classmates, we're hoping to avoid putting our kid in the same situation.

I do think it's a solid, sweet name with lots of significance for our family. It would be cute on a little boy and respectable on a man. And as an Indiana Jones/Beatles fan, my husband is happy with those associations.

The alternative is Harris, which doesn't end with -son and isn't even in the top 1000, popularity-wise. It also seems to flow better with Hamilton. But it is my last name--is that weird?--and my husband likes it less, although he is open to it. It also sounds less "name-y" in this day and age than Harrison.

Your advice would be appreciated!

I vastly prefer Harris Hamilton to Harrison Hamilton, for all the reasons you mention. Furthermore, I have a huge soft spot for the mother's maiden name (whether or not the mother is still using it) used as a child's name: I think it's a meaningful and touching choice, especially when the child will be receiving his father's first name as his middle name, as well as his father's surname.

Or there's the option of just naming him Harry. It's not so nicknamey that it can't stand on its own. This is particularly appealing if your husband's grandfather's given name was Harry.

Let's have a poll over to the right, to see what everyone else thinks. [Poll closed; see results below.]