My due date is imminent, and my husband and I are struggling with naming our daughter. I thought we had found one that we could both embrace, but no. We are, it turns out, extremely finicky, and apparently have a lot of emotional baggage around names. Which means that I have a rather extensive set of parameters for you to work with, if you are interested in coming up with ideas and are willing to hang in through the explanation. I would love some ideas from someone with a little more distance from all this.
The facts/preferences/parameters:
Sibling name: [name]William[/name] [name]Palmer[/name] ([name]Will[/name]). I remain pleased with this name, but it creates an interesting problem, mentioned below.
Last name: Two syllables, starts with T.
My great grandmother’s name: [name]Grace[/name]. We were very close. I want to honor her, and I want it to be part of the name that my daughter is called (i.e., not just an unused middle name), but there’s a rather entertaining problem with the sibling set [name]Will[/name] and [name]Grace[/name], don’t you think? Sitcoms aside, my husband thinks that [name]Grace[/name] on its own is too plain.
Other hang-ups: It’s important to me that my child have a full name that’s a “resume name.” The full name must be something that absolutely sounds like she could be a CEO, senator, or supreme court justice.
Style: I like classic names (read “boring”). [name]Prior[/name] to arriving at our current idea (described below), names under consideration were things like [name]Katherine[/name], [name]Margaret[/name], and [name]Charlotte[/name]. My favorite girl name is [name]Caroline[/name], but my husband’s cousin had a girl named [name]Caroline[/name] about a month ago - same last name. (Oh, the frustration!)
Our current solution, with which we could use your help: give her a formal name with [name]Grace[/name] as a middle name and call her either by the full double name or by a double name nickname.
We started with [name]Louisa[/name] [name]Grace[/name] (call her [name]Louisa[/name] [name]Grace[/name]) but have gotten a number of visceral negative reactions to that, largely associated with the diminutive “Weezie.” I actually think that
that Weezie is very cute, but I’m allergic to [name]Lulu[/name] or [name]LouLou[/name]. People also seem to think that [name]Louisa[/name] [name]Grace[/name] is a mouthful.
Our next attempt: [name]Elizabeth[/name] [name]Grace[/name], call her [name]Ella[/name] [name]Grace[/name]. [name]Love[/name] the formality, love the rhythm of “[name]Ella[/name] [name]Grace[/name],” love having [name]Grace[/name] in the name we would call her. In another world, it would be perfect for me, but… my [name]MIL[/name] is [name]Elizabeth[/name], and my husband is really struggling with that. It seems like I would be the one who is bothered, but that’s just not how it has worked out. Also, my brother’s new wife’s dog is named [name]Ella[/name] (I say “new” simply because they got married a few months ago, so this is a recent problem for me, in the sense that the dog married into my family. I realize that the name is very popular, but that’s not a big issue for us, at least compared to our other assorted issues). I am prepared to ignore the dog-in-law, but it is a wrinkle to consider. The dog is 8 and lives 3,000 miles away, so it’s not like they would grow up together.
Anyway: [name]Elizabeth[/name] [name]Grace[/name]/[name]Ella[/name] [name]Grace[/name]: so close. I really want it to work, but I’m just not sure that it does. I am beginning to believe that I am destined to be [name]Shel[/name] Silverstein’s [name]Mary[/name] [name]Hume[/name].
So here’s my plea: can you come up with more names in the same vein? Formal full name with [name]Grace[/name] as a middle name plus double-name nickname with [name]Grace[/name].
Thank you!