I just recently stumbled across this list of the 100 most popular twin names: 275 Popular Twin Baby Names Of course they are mostly very trendy, but I was curious about what you all thought of the combinations! Some of them are predictably themey (eg [name]Faith[/name] and [name]Hope[/name], [name]Heaven[/name] and [name]Nevaeh[/name], [name]London[/name] and [name]Paris[/name]), and I’m shocked (SHOCKED!) at how many pairs there are with very similar names (12 [name]Emily[/name] & Emmas, 9 [name]Haylee[/name] & Kaylees, 38(!) [name]Jaylen[/name] & Jaydens, 30 [name]Taylor[/name] & Tylers). This seems like it would be terribly confusing to me. What do you think? And what are your thoughts on twin names in general – how much theme is too much theme, how well should they flow, etc.?
They probably dress them the same too. If they were identical can you imagine how much more confusing it would be as they got older. The Parent Trap on a daily basis.
It seems too cutesy for my taste. I’d be curious to know whether they have similar middle names too. Otherwise maybe one or both twin would go by those if they wanted to separate out from the other growing up.
ETA: I’ve never met twins though in real life - only seen them on tv and read about them so I have no idea how twins feel about similar names etc.
My son went to preschool with two adorable little girls, [name]Lily[/name] and [name]Layla[/name]. Now [name]Lily[/name] and [name]Layla[/name] were identical twins, and were in the same classroom. They were dressed in matching outfits (colors different), had matching hair cuts, and generally looked like one little girl duplicated. Now, I feel it important to add that [name]Lily[/name] and [name]Layla[/name] had an older sister and a younger brother, were always clean and happy, and otherwise seemed to have a good life and family.
I liked to be active in my son’s school (still do), and I loved going in to volunteer in the classroom. [name]Every[/name] morning I had to figure out which twin was wearing which color (I am happy that they weren’t designated a color!). I also got to see the frustration that the girls experienced at being seen as two parts of a single unit. One day on the playground, one of the little kids told [name]Layla[/name] “[name]Lily[/name], watch this!”. When [name]Layla[/name] replied “I’m [name]Layla[/name]”, the boy just repeated “[name]Lily[/name], watch this!”. Now both girls were very patience when it came to telling anybody “who they were”, but after trying to tell this little boy that she was not [name]Lily[/name] about 3 or 4 times, [name]Layla[/name] was getting very frustrated. I tried to step in and tell the boy that he was talking to [name]Layla[/name], but he was just as frustrated and ran off to play at something else.
I should point out that there was another set of identical twins (? maybe not, but they sured looked identical to me!) in the same classroom. These two had names that were not similar in any way, different hairstyles, and usually dressed differently (I think that each girl dressed them-self and chose to not be matched to the other). I don’t recall nearly as much confusion from anybody over these two girls. They were still occasionally asked “who they were”, and they patiently would answer with their name. However, they were not seen as two parts of a single unit by the other children in the classroom.
While I don’t see anything wrong with the more matched set of [name]Lily[/name]/[name]Layla[/name] names for twins, I wouldn’t do the matched names along with the identical clothes. And personally, I would do my best to make sure that each of the twins had their own identity… and let’s face it, identity starts with your name 
I feel so bad for twins with names like [name]Hailey[/name] and [name]Kaylee[/name] or [name]Taylor[/name] and [name]Tyler[/name]. Twins are grouped together their whole lives, and I’d hate to have my chance at being a single individual taken from me. If I had twins, I’d give them names that didn’t sound anything alike, maybe even names that were totally different styles. I would want my children to think of themselves as complete, whole individuals and not half of a set, and I’d want their names to reflect that.
My identical twins are named [name]Jonathan[/name] and [name]Carlos[/name], and they still get called by the other name a lot. I think if their names were really similar, it would be a lot worse.
As for the matching clothes thing, at 3 1/2, my boys want their clothes to match most of the time. We buy things in different colors, but usually the same theme, and they received lots of matched sets as gifts. If one of them gets their clothes dirty and has to change, the other will usually go get the outfit that goes with the new one. They might grow out of this, but I’ve seen twins in their 40s that still dress the same! There are identical twin professors at my school that still have the same haircut! I think it really depends on the personalities of the individuals.
I actually feel kind of angry at the parents when I meet or hear of twins with rhyming names. Matching names like [name]Taylor[/name] and [name]Tyler[/name] or [name]Emma[/name] and [name]Ella[/name] are almost as bad. It sounds like they should have their own cheesy Nickelodeon sitcom. These are probably the same parents who force their twins to wear identical outfits and have identical haircuts. Ick.
I’m a big fan of alliterative names for twins, but that’s as far as I’d go in terms of similarity. I’d also like them to have the same sort of feel… for example, [name]Ambria[/name] and [name]Aveline[/name]. [name]Both[/name] unusual, soft, and feminine, and they have the same syllabic flow. I’d never pair an unusual name like [name]Ambria[/name] with a classic, simple name like [name]Anne[/name]. Also, I wouldn’t pair two of my favorites, [name]Charlotte[/name] and [name]Camille[/name] - technically alliterative, but I feel like the alliteration is ruined with the different “Ch” and “C” sounds. I’d even be wary of pairing another two favorites, [name]Logan[/name] and [name]Luca[/name], because they’re just a bit too similar for my taste.
Some of the duos stood out - not for good reasons! 
One of the worst twin pairings has to be NO#12 [name]Makayla[/name] & [name]Makenzie[/name]. If you going to choose these mismatched names for two girls, at least spell them correctly. :roll: And why would some parents call twins [name]Gabriella[/name] and [name]Isabella[/name]? For girls, [name]Abigail[/name] & [name]Emma[/name] or [name]Abigail[/name] & [name]Elizabeth[/name] are the best pairings in my opinion. For the boy twins, [name]Alexander[/name] & [name]Benjamin[/name] are well-matched but why would anyone like [name]Alexander[/name] & [name]Alexis[/name] together? [name]Abigail[/name] & [name]Benjamin[/name] and [name]Emma[/name] & [name]James[/name] are my fave girl/boy twin combos. Thanks for sharing!
I never even considered how having such matchy names would impact the twins identity! That’s a very good point. Actually I think this is why [name]Emily[/name] & [name]Emma[/name] astound me as a pair, because I always think of [name]Emma[/name] as a pet form of [name]Emily[/name] (behindthename tells me I’m wrong, but I doubt it’s unheard of for an [name]Emily[/name] to get nicknamed [name]Emma[/name]). I can easily visualize those parents being the type to default to matching clothing, etc, without the kid’s input (of course, if the kids want to match, it’s a different thing entirely!). [name]Makayla[/name] and [name]Makenzie[/name] did stand out to me as a strange match, but not as much as [name]Haylee[/name] and [name]Kaylee[/name] – and my handwritten Ks and Hs look very similar, so it would be hard to tell them apart even on paper.
I agree that [name]Alexander[/name] & [name]Benjamin[/name], [name]Emma[/name] & [name]James[/name], etc, make much better matches. I like the idea of twin alliteration too (though I think [name]Charlotte[/name] and [name]Camille[/name] look fine together as well, despite the different starting sound). I think if I had twins the extent of my themeyness would be giving them names from the same family (ie. nature names, literary names, etc), maybe with a subtle meaning match that wouldn’t be obvious without looking it up! And I couldn’t bear to dress them the same as well, I’d lose track of who was who in the span of a day, I’m sure. :lol: