we keep flipflopping…
what do you think?
our older daughter’s name is hazel.
for a middle name we would love it to start with the letter r, d, a or l
any thoughts on that as well?
[name]Iris[/name]! [name]Ellery[/name] is masculine and surnamey and reminds me of celery. [name]Hazel[/name] and [name]Iris[/name] are very nice together, if a bit matchy with the nature theme.
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Ramona[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Louisa[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Lucille[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Rosalind[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Delia[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Diana[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Linnea[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Letitia[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Dorothea[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Annabel[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Amelia[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Alexandra[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Delilah[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Roxanna[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] goes better with [name]Hazel[/name].
I like [name]Ellery[/name] better, but [name]Iris[/name] goes better with [name]Hazel[/name] if it is important to you.
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Danielle[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Rose[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Rosalind[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Adrianne[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Aurelle[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Ann/name
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Lucille[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Lanae[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] Lorianne
ETA - I wrote my list without reading the pp’s list.
[name]Iris[/name] is a great pairing with [name]Hazel[/name]. A flower and a tree name! Perfection. I love the two previous suggestion of [name]Iris[/name] [name]Rosalind[/name] (so classy).
[name]Iris[/name]. It goes fantastically with [name]Hazel[/name] (which is gorgeous!) whilst I find [name]Ellery[/name] to be a little… clumsy to say. I love [name]Iris[/name], and it just goes so well with [name]Hazel[/name]… that’s all I can say! xD
I like [name]Iris[/name], plus it works with [name]Hazel[/name] much better than [name]Ellery[/name].
I had a bunch of names for you , but I lost it all. 
Anyway, the 2 that I loved were:
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Angelina[/name]
and
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Leilani[/name]
[name]Iris[/name] and [name]Hazel[/name]! Yay! Great together. And I love love love the suggestion above of [name]Iris[/name] [name]Rosalind[/name]. Perfection!
thanks for the thoughtful replies!
we are really leaning toward iris as well.
iris for a girl and rory for a boy.
my husband is actually pushing for iris ellery.
thoughts?
I don’t think that [name]Iris[/name] [name]Ellery[/name] has good flow. I said it quickly and came up with something like “I are celery”. [name]Iris[/name] [name]Rosalind[/name] would be a lovely name.
[name]Iris[/name] is rightly winning the day; [name]Ellery[/name], tho’ quite unique (and the [name]Ella[/name] NN is cute) DOES have a “celery” rhyme and (to me) sort of a connotation w/ scullery, like scullery maid.
If Dad is quite fond of it, using for MN seems like a good way to go…tho’ to be honest I’d have to know your surname to gauge.
I have a colleague whose son has two “blanket-y blank-y” “EE sound” names, like [name]Steven[/name] [name]Ellery[/name] Huckabee and the flow is a little too sing-song [name]IMO[/name].
some say alternate # of syllables, so if you were having [name]Iris[/name] [name]Ellery[/name] [name]Smith[/name], that is 2-3-1 which sounds really good, i think. the longness of ellery coming of the tongue “pads” the relative abruptness of, say, [name]Smith[/name]. if your last name is more complicated, or longer maybe it’s not as good a choice:
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Ellery[/name] Skandalowski for ex.
As for other middle suggestions, I was quite fond of the [name]Iris[/name] [name]Dorothea[/name], tho’ I would lean towards “[name]Iris[/name] [name]Dorthea[/name],” losing the extra O.
our last name is swedish and has two syllables.
the problem with iris rosalind is that our last name ends with that same ‘und’ sound.
hmmm…
is iris rose terrible? too many flowers?
i have a great aunt rose (roey) who i would love to honor…
ecky peck: my Gr. Gr. Grandfather was named [name]Sven[/name] Svenson and our last name is an anglicization from that. 
you can figure it out and if you can’t, just head to your grocer’s frozen dinner aisle.
annnnyhoo, [name]Iris[/name] [name]Rose[/name] isn’t too much flower, and IS pretty, but it sounds like Irish [name]Rose[/name], also pretty, Buuuuuut, be aware of this alcholic beverage!
just sayin’.
[name]Iris[/name]! I hear [name]Ellery[/name] ALL the time but they go by elle which is too pop.
ok…so now we are contemplating iris roey, iris ruby or iris rory…
i really want to honor my great aunt rose (who we called roey - which coincidentally means farmer - which we love!)
thoughts?
[name]Iris[/name] gets by vote! It’s lovely with [name]Hazel[/name].
Since [name]Iris[/name] Roey has such meaning to you, I would recommend that!
I also think [name]Iris[/name] [name]Ruby[/name] is a great option. Another way to honor a [name]Rose[/name] would be [name]Iris[/name] [name]Romy[/name] ([name]Romy[/name] being a common nn for [name]Rosemary[/name]).
[name]Iris[/name] [name]Rose[/name] is a bit much for me, but that’s just me. Maybe flowers are your thing.
I think [name]Iris[/name] [name]Rory[/name] has real possibility. The one thing to keep in mind is that even though we obsess about middle names, you very rarely say them out loud together. (I agreed to use one of my favorite names for DD’s middle name, and now I’m bummed because we never say it, and now it’s off the list for #2!) [name]Just[/name] something to keep in mind.
I love [name]Iris[/name] Roey!
I think [name]Iris[/name] is beautiful and will age very well. [name]Ellery[/name] sounds made up.
[name]Hi[/name]! I like [name]Iris[/name] over [name]Ellery[/name], and, because I like middle names to have personal meaning, Roey. Good luck!