DP and I would really like to name our first child (due in 31 weeks) after two people who are very special to us. We call them surrogate parents, they officiated our wedding, and they are just super special to us. We like one of their last names as a first or middle name, but the other person’s name is not one we like very much at all. She’s [name]Andrea[/name] [name]Dee[/name]. [name]Dee[/name] does absolutely nothing for me, and while there may be some names similar to [name]Andrea[/name] that are passible, we definitely wouldn’t use [name]Andrea[/name] as-is.
[name]Andrea[/name] really couldn’t be any farther away from my naming style. I like uncommon but not made up names. I tend to like nature names and gender neutral names. DP’s style is similar but slightly more conservative (as in not quite as uncommon as what I like).
For boys, I could deal with [name]Leander[/name] or [name]Lysander[/name] or [name]Xander[/name] or [name]Anders[/name], but I don’t love any of them. For girls, I have no clue. I don’t hate the nickname [name]Andi[/name] for a girl, but I don’t like it as a full name.
DP and I have agreed that we won’t use a name that we don’t both like even if we like the namesake, but I’d like to give this a shot. Anybody have great ideas on names that could be in honor of [name]Andrea[/name]?
FirstName Merit [name]Greene[/name]-[name]Ferguson[/name] or Merit MiddleName [name]Greene[/name]-[name]Ferguson[/name]
The only other thing I could think of would be to use the letters from [name]Andrea[/name] and scramble them around to make a different name or maybe using a similar sound to [name]Andrea[/name]… for example:
[name]Rhea[/name]
[name]Arden[/name]
[name]Eden[/name] (this is more of a stretch…bu still)
You could keep playing with the sounds/letters to see if you could come up with anything else.
[name]Andromeda[/name]? Or any name that’s part of the ‘[name]Ann[/name]’ family. Alternatively, you could give the baby the initials “A.F.” and pick names you love that have the same initials!
I was also thinking [name]Arden[/name]. It has a nature link, it’s not made up, it’s literary, and it includes almost all the letters of [name]Andrea[/name].
[name]Adrian[/name]
[name]Calandra[/name]
[name]Zandra[/name]
[name]Drew[/name] ([name]Andrea[/name] is the feminine form of [name]Andrew[/name])
[name]Rhea[/name]/ [name]Ria[/name]/ [name]Rea[/name]
[name]Phaedra[/name] (kind of a combo between [name]Andrea[/name] and [name]Fay[/name]…kinda)
I love [name]Anders[/name], [name]Alexander[/name], and [name]Anderson[/name] for boys and [name]Alexandria[/name] or [name]Alexandra[/name] for a girl. I love nature names, though, so maybe you could go with an A nature-inspired name? Here’s a good thread for that: Nameberry - Welcome to the Nameberry Forums
It sounds a little trendy, but I like [name]Aspen[/name] (maybe because I love the town).
I think any variant of [name]Andrew[/name] could work. Here are some notable ones:
Anaru
[name]Anderson[/name]
[name]Andre/name
[name]Andreina[/name]
[name]Antero[/name]
[name]Drew[/name]
I like Andromeda, but DP thinks it’s “too weird.” We both like Auden and Arden, but DP thinks they are too far from the original name to count as a namesake. We also know a little Auden and wouldn’t “steal” her name. Anders, Xander, and Leander are still possibilities for boys, though. Thank you!
I was thinking [name]Andrine[/name] and [name]Sandrine[/name] popped into my head. Could that work? Merit [name]Sandrine[/name] has a nice ring to it. P.S. I love Merit.
Sorta echoing Daisy451, but:
What about plain old [name]Andrew[/name]? [name]Andrea[/name] is the equivalent of [name]Andrew[/name] in a few languages, and I think [name]Andrew[/name], especially in the middle with a more unusual first name, is really lovely, timeless, but not stuffy. I even like it for a girl, and think Merit [name]Andrew[/name] is kind of cool. I might add a second, girlier middle name, probably one syllable like [name]Rose[/name] (but not so over-used).
A brief search also turns up [name]Tandy[/name]/[name]Tandie[/name] as possibly related, though those don’t really work with Merit as a FN.
Maybe it’s just me but I think if you are going to name a child after someone you should use the person’s name or a very, very close variation of it ([name]Beth[/name] for [name]Elizabeth[/name] as an example). Names that mean the same thing or are the letters of the person’s name jumbled just lose the significance of a namesake.
I love the name [name]Andrea[/name] but if you don’t like it then you will regret putting it in the first name spot. I would use it as a middle name to honor the person who has been so good to you.
There are a lot of good A name ideas but it’s true, if the name is too different from the original, the namesake idea kind of loses its power. A couple of out-of-the-box ideas:
– Use [name]Andrea[/name] or something very close – [name]Andreas[/name], [name]Andrew[/name], [name]Andre[/name] – as a second middle name.
– Let [name]Andrea[/name] herself choose the baby’s middle name or at least the second middle.
– Name [name]Andrea[/name] as a godmother or guardian, if that’s something that’s relevant to your life.
I love the simple name [name]Drea[/name], or even [name]Dree[/name] (as seen on [name]Dree[/name] [name]Hemingway[/name], great (great?) granddaughter of [name]Ernest[/name]). Merit [name]Dree[/name] or Merit [name]Drea[/name] would both be beautiful choices!