I'm Corinne, my husband is Vaughn, and we have two daughters at home, Gemma Evangeline Claire and Ivy Susannah Vivienne. Gemma is six, Ivy is three, and we're expecting identical twin daughters. We know for a FACT that their first names will be Abigail and Sophia, it's the middle names we're struggling with! Our surname is O'Neill, but we don't let it bother us that most -a names sound awkward with it, we're not about to restrict our full list because the vowels just so happen to sit next to each other!
We're going to be continuing the tradition of the double-middle-names with these girls too, and we're struggling to find combos which fit!
We would really like to use Genevieve somewhere, for his aunt, and Hilarie (like Hilary) for my best friend. We like Lorelai, Romilly, Dahlia, Brooke, Isabel/Isabelle, Elizabeth, and Penelope. Any insight you could provide would be much appreciated!
Gem and Ives were easy to name, Gemma's full name has been on my list for years and Ivy's came to us early in the pregnancy, but Abby & Soph's names are giving us more trouble than ever before!
I'm going to start by giving each girl one of the two names of honor. I prefer Genevieve with Sophia, since both have a French sound, and I prefer Hilarie with Abigail.
First I did some combinations with the name-of-honor in the first middle name slot:
Abigail Hilarie Brooke O'Neill (AHBO)
Abigail Hilarie Dahlia O'Neill (AHDO)
Abigail Hilarie Elizabeth O'Neill (AHEO)
Abigail Hilarie Penelope O'Neill (AHPO)
Sophia Genevieve Elizabeth O'Neill (SGEO)
Sophia Genevieve Isabel O'Neill (SGIO)
I also tried with the name-of-honor in the second middle name slot, but didn't like anything I came up with as well as the first list.
Then I made a second list, adding in some other names, and that's when I got a little...carried away:
Abigail Hilarie Adele O'Neill (AHAO)
Abigail Hilarie Britta O'Neill (AHBO)
Abigail Hilarie Carys O'Neill (AHCO)
Abigail Hilarie Celeste O'Neill (AHCO)
Abigail Hilarie Clarice O'Neill (AHCO)
Abigail Hilarie Constance O'Neill (AHCO)
Abigail Hilarie Eleanor O'Neill (AHEO)
Abigail Hilarie Elise O'Neill (AHEO)
Abigail Hilarie Eliza O'Neill (AHEO)
Abigail Hilarie Emmeline O'Neill (AHEO)
Abigail Hilarie Esme O'Neill (AHEO)
Abigail Hilarie Ida O'Neill (AHIO)
Abigail Hilarie Imogen O'Neill (AHIO)
Abigail Hilarie Iris O'Neill (AHIO)
Abigail Hilarie Jean O'Neill (AHJO)
Abigail Hilarie Laurel O'Neill (AHLO)
Abigail Hilarie Lucy O'Neill (AHLO)
Abigail Hilarie Madeline O'Neill (AHMO)
Abigail Hilarie Marianne O'Neill (AHMO)
Abigail Hilarie Matilda O'Neill (AHMO)
Abigail Hilarie Pearl O'Neill (AHPO)
Abigail Hilarie Violet O'Neill (AHVO)
Sophia Genevieve Amabel O'Neill (SGAO)
Sophia Genevieve Averil O'Neill (SGAO)
Sophia Genevieve Beatrice O'Neill (SGBO)
Sophia Genevieve Cora O'Neill (SGCO)
Sophia Genevieve Delilah O'Neill (SGDO)
Sophia Genevieve Ella O'Neill (SGEO)
Sophia Genevieve Elsa O'Neill (SGEO)
Sophia Genevieve Estelle O'Neill (SGEO)
Sophia Genevieve Flora O'Neill (SGFO)
Sophia Genevieve Harriet O'Neill (SGHO)
Sophia Genevieve Helene O'Neill (SGHO)
Sophia Genevieve Isadora O'Neill (SGIO)
Sophia Genevieve Joy O'Neill (SGJO)
Sophia Genevieve Romy O'Neill (SGRO)
Sophia Genevieve Rosalie O'Neill (SGRO)
Sophia Genevieve Sylvie O'Neill (SGSO)
And that's with me deciding to use both of the two names of honor, and also deciding which girl gets which name of honor, and also deciding that the names of honor go in the first of the two middle name slots. Imagine all the possibilities if we took out one or both name of honor, or switched them, or put them in the second slots, or put one in the first slot and the other in the second slot. No wonder you're having trouble! This is not just a baby-naming challenge, it's a MATH challenge.
So let's sic everyone else on it, too. Come up with your own combinations, everyone!
Name update 06-07-2009! Corinne writes:
Hello again!
Just wanted to update you on the birth of our twin girls! They arrived several days early on February 7th, 2009.
Abigail Genevieve Dahlia was born at 7:09PM, and
Sophia Madeleine Eilidh was born at 7:10PM.
We REALLY appreciate your help choosing names for our girls, my husband's mother, Eilidh, died suddenly on the 3rd, so we decided to scrap the use of Hilarie for Eilidh. It's pronounced AY-lee, and it's Scottish. My friend Hilarie's okay with the decision, her middle name is Madeleine (which we went with so we wouldn't have two rhyming middle names--Hilarie Eilidh) and she's Sophie's godmother.
Thanks again,
Corinne, Vaughn, Gemma, Ivy, Abby, and Sophie
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15 comments:
i'm overwhelmed! for now i'll just say i like Abigail Hilarie Elizabeth O'Neill
Abigail Genevieve Hilarie
Sophia Penelope Isabel
Abigail Hilarie Elizabeth
Sophia Genevieve Isabel
I like having each of the honorifics as the first middle name and the subtle twinning of Elizabeth and Isabel as the second middle names.
Abigail Hilarie Delilah O'Neill
Sophie Genevieve Isabella O'Neill
Oh, I very much like Abigail Hilarie Pearl and Sophia Genevieve Harriet.
I agree with what Patricia said! (My brain hurts...)
Abigail Hilarie Olivia
Sophie Genevieve Rowan
Gemma, Ivy, Abigail, and Sophie - very sweet names.
What lovely choices! What strikes me with Swistle's combos is the rhythm, and the syllable emphases (and there are a lot of syllables in these beautiful names!) Because these names are longer, this is really jumping out at me as I play with them in my head.
Abigail Hilarie XXX O'Neill (stress on first syllable of first 2 names). I feel the next middle name should also have stress on that syllable, or just one syllable:
ABigail HILarie CArys O'NEILL, or
ABigail HILarie PEARL O'NEILL.
Similarly, the emphasis on Sophia Genevieve (I hear the French pronunciation here, zhuhn-viEVE)is on the second (or second last)syllable:
SophIa GeneviEVE HeLENE O'NEILL, or SophIa GeneviEVE IsaDORa O'NEILL.
Just a convoluted thought...
These names are overwhelming! but so fun!!!
My choices
Abigail Hilarie Adele O'Neill
Sophia Genevieve Estelle O'Neill
Sensing a pattern here...elle loving names. :o)
Personally, I like...
Abigail Hilarie Celeste O'Neill (AHCO)
Sophia Genevieve Elizabeth O'Neill (SGEO)
Best of luck!
I like:
Abigail Hilarie Iris
Abigail Hilarie Violet
Sophia Genevieve Beatrice
Sophia Genevieve Cora
Sophia Genevieve Deliah
Sophia Genevieve Flora
Sophia Genevieve Helene
Sophia Genevieve Rosalie
Well, I guess I didn't narrow down the Sophia Genevieve options much. I really like both names very much and feel many of Swistle's options go well with those names.
My favorites from Swistle's picks are:
Abigail Hilarie Imogen O'Neill
and
Sophia Genevieve Isabelle O'Neill
A few suggested Abigail Hilarie Pearl, which I like (or Abigail Hilarie Rose, Abigail Hilarie Grace - any other one syllable names work great), and then a two syllable name for Sophia Genevieve with accent on the second syllable would work great too (as the other poster noted) - and neither is too terribly long then.
I personally would try to stay away from -ille names though, because of the O'Neil sound. ie, love Sophia Genevieve Camille, but does Sophia Genevieve Camille O'Neil work or sound too rhymy?
Sophia Genevieve Cosette
Sophia Genevieve Helene
Sophia Genevieve Corinne (it would be cute to use your own name maybe to pass down as a middle?)
Sophia Genevieve Lizette
Sophia Genevieve Maureen/Colleen
Sophia Genevieve Kathleen
etc...
While Sophia Genevieve Elizabeth or Abigail Hilarie Isadora sounds nice, it is a really long name (think of all the bubbles on future tests to fill out) and since your first two have shorter first and second middle names, I was thinking shorter would work best.
Good luck!
It looks like your older two children have the parents' initials for their second middle name. ("C" for Corinne and Claire, and "V" for Vaughn and Vivienne). In keeping with that, would it make sense to put the special family names second for middle names?
e.g. Abigail Marie Hilarie
Sophia Anise Genevieve
A lovely blog you have here--I am a frequent lurker and first time poster. I just wanted to point out, as the mother of a Sophie, that Sophia is not really French, but more Italian/Spanish/Greek. Sophie (accent on the 2nd syllable) is the version of the name most French would use. Many people seem to think that Sophie is a nickname for Sophia, but they are actually two derivations of the same name (kind of like Julie and Julia). Also, using Sophie instead of Sophia might sound better with the initial O sound of your last name. Just a thought--enjoy all of your little girls!
We recently learned that we are expecting our own little bundle in October; I will be writing Swistle in a few months with my own middle name conundrum!
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