[name]Hi[/name] all!
So our baby has turned out to be … babies! We just found out we’re having twins.
We’ll find out the sexes soon, but until we do I’m indulging in coming up with names for all the possibilities. (My gut says it’ll be two boys. But I would love a girl! Or two!)
Can I get opinions on these combos? Harsh and honest is okay! These kiddos will be little sibs to [name]Henry[/name] [name]Francis[/name], and the last name is a three-syllable Swedish monster that starts with a G and ends with “son.”
Shakespearean girl-girl:
[name]Rosalind[/name] [name]Esther[/name] and [name]Beatrice[/name] [name]Justina[/name]
- I’m [name]Shakespeare[/name]-mad, our son has a Shakespearean name, would kind of like to carry on that as a tradition. And [name]Beatrice[/name] and [name]Rosalind[/name] are as awesome as heroines get. Middle names are family names, my grandmother and my husband’s grandmother.
All-family-names girl-girl:
[name]Rosalind[/name] [name]Esther[/name] and [name]Josephine[/name] [name]Justina[/name]
- [name]Esther[/name], [name]Josephine[/name] and [name]Justina[/name] are our grandmothers, and [name]Rosalind[/name] is an Anglicized version of my grandfather’s name, Rossolino. Also there’s a literary tie: [name]Rosalind[/name] is Shakespearean, and [name]Louisa[/name] [name]May[/name] [name]Alcott[/name]'s [name]Jo[/name] [name]March[/name] is a childhood heroine.
[name]Just[/name] names I adore girl-girl:
[name]Agnes[/name] [name]Esther[/name] and [name]Phoebe[/name] [name]Justine[/name]
- I love-love-love [name]Agnes[/name] and [name]Phoebe[/name]. Always have. I think they’d be adorable on little girls, and dignified on grown women, and have sweet nicknames. They have no particular family or other meaning, though. And the meaning thing is increasingly important to me.
Shakespearean boy-girl:
[name]Sebastian[/name] [name]Paul[/name] and [name]Viola[/name] [name]Justine[/name]
- For the devoted twins in “Twelfth [name]Night[/name],” one of my absolute favorite plays. [name]Love[/name] the meaning; not sure if I love [name]Viola[/name] enough. ([name]Sebastian[/name], I love!) Middle names, again, are our grandparents.
All-family-names boy-boy
[name]Robert[/name] [name]Lauri[/name] nn [name]Robbie[/name] and [name]Charles[/name] [name]Lyn[/name] nn [name]Charlie[/name]
- This one’s a departure: My parents’ first names, and my husband’s, mixed together and a little gender-bent. (Our mothers are [name]Charlotte[/name] and [name]Lynda[/name].) [name]Lauri[/name] is a Finnish boys name. Ambivalent about this: [name]One[/name] the one hand, I love [name]Robbie[/name] and [name]Charlie[/name] as little boy names! And they’d grow up well, too. And I think our parents would all be thrilled. On the other hand, not sure how I feel about naming kids after our parents who are very much around and part of our daily lives. Too odd? And would our older son feel bad because he’s the only one not named after a beloved grandparent? (He’s named after a Shakespearean hero and a beloved great-grandparent who, alas, didn’t live long enough to meet him. It means a lot to me that my son carries that name; I don’t know what it will mean to him, if anything, down the road.)
So…what do you guys think? Any suggestions, amendments, objections?
It’s very strange, picking a name for two babies at once – and making sure they “go” with our already-here son’s name – is much different and much harder than it was picking a name for just one first baby! 
Thanks for any help,
[name]Jen[/name]