[name_m]Hi[/name_m] Berries!
I’ve been lurking on this site for a good while now hoping and praying to make a post of my own someday and FINALLY, here I am! My husband and I are expecting our first (and very much wished for) blessing [name_f]May[/name_f]/[name_u]June[/name_u] of next year and we couldn’t be more excited. We’re planners so we’ve been talking about names since long before we received our good news but my oh my could we use some suggestions! We have a couple of very high contenders for a boy and only one current contender for a girl. We won’t know what we’re having until [name_u]Christmas[/name_u], but despite being planners, we’re a bit indecisive so I figured we better jump start on this sooner rather than later. We have a few things that are really important to us: The name cannot be in the top 100 (preferably 200), hubby doesn’t like names that are too “out there”, and unless the name is an honor name it needs to have a strong meaningful association; biblical association is great too. For a boy the middle name will definitely 100% be [name_m]Doyle[/name_m] after my maternal grandfather who does not yet have a namesake. I think having the middle name before the first name has really hindered us but it’s been decided for some time now and isn’t negotiable so we’re doing our best to work with it. We also like the idea of having a nickname possibility. We feel like if there isn’t a more obvious choice for a nickname, someone will make one up. I went through school being called [name_u]Ash[/name_u]-tray!
I really like the idea of an ‘R’ name for a boy because my paternal grandfather who passed just weeks after we were married was named [name_m]Robert[/name_m] [name_u]Ray[/name_u] and while I don’t want to use [name_m]Robert[/name_m] I just think an R name in general would be nice.
Other names within our family: [name_u]Rex[/name_u], [name_m]Richard[/name_m], [name_m]Andrew[/name_m], [name_f]Alice[/name_f], [name_f]Gail[/name_f], [name_u]Ray[/name_u]/[name_u]Rae[/name_u], [name_f]Sue[/name_f]/[name_f]Susan[/name_f], [name_f]Wilma[/name_f], [name_f]Wanda[/name_f], [name_f]Velma[/name_f], [name_m]Don[/name_m], Sentman, [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f], [name_m]Jeffrey[/name_m], [name_f]Callie[/name_f] … we don’t have much to work with!
And finally, our last name is [name_m]Henderson[/name_m]. It’s a strong surname that seems to be rhymey with a lot of the popular boy names ending in ‘son’.
So here are our contenders.
Boys
[name_m]Abram[/name_m] [name_m]Doyle[/name_m] (nickname potential [name_m]Abe[/name_m] or [name_m]Bram[/name_m]). We have no strong connection to this name other than it isn’t overly popular and it has a great biblical base to it. It feels modern without being trendy and sounds great with both the middle and last name.
[name_m]Bennett[/name_m] [name_m]Doyle[/name_m] (nickname potential [name_m]Ben[/name_m]). We love that [name_m]Bennett[/name_m] means blessed or little blessed one and we have a few influential [name_m]Ben[/name_m]'s in our life. Our biggest issue is that it seems to be rising in popularity and we aren’t sure if [name_m]Ben[/name_m] [name_m]Henderson[/name_m] is too much of a rhyme.
Girls
[name_f]Susannah[/name_f] [name_f]Grace[/name_f] (nickname potential [name_f]Annah[/name_f]/[name_f]Anna[/name_f]). We have a lot of connections to the name [name_f]Sue[/name_f]/[name_f]Susan[/name_f]. His mom and grandmother both share the middle name [name_f]Sue[/name_f] and my mom is [name_f]Susan[/name_f]. We love that [name_f]Susannah[/name_f] is classic but fear the obvious nickname of [name_f]Susie[/name_f] will follow her and we both really hate [name_f]Susie[/name_f]. We also like that [name_f]Susannah[/name_f] is Hebrew for [name_f]Lily[/name_f] which was a symbol for peace. [name_f]Grace[/name_f] is another family name and will more than likely be attached to any girl name we come up.
Thanks in advance for all of your help and advice! We’re so excited and can’t wait to start reading responses!