I stumbled on this article from the 80s about some research done on twins and inherited personality traits, and it has a picture of twin boys. The poor little guys are named Jón Birgir and Jón Bjarni. Like their parents could barely be bothered to come up with two names.
I’ve also met twins with slightly less common names that I won’t post, where one woman was named after their grandmother. The other woman was given names that rhymed with their grandmother’s name. Their first names and middle names rhymed, it was absurd, think [name_f]Holly[/name_f] [name_f]Anna[/name_f] and [name_f]Molly[/name_f] [name_f]Hannah[/name_f]. I felt bad for the woman who was ‘just the rhyme’ to go with her sister.
I really doubt the parents of these twins would have done that if they were siblings of different ages. [name_m]Don[/name_m]'t twins already have issues with individuality without being named like they’re basically one person?
Have you come across any dreadful examples of twin naming?
[name_f]Edit[/name_f]: I gather the two Jóns are known rather by their middle names (which practically they’d have to be!), but still.
[name_f]My[/name_f] husband’s great grandfather and his brother were twins, named [name_u]Vanny[/name_u] and [name_u]Danny[/name_u]. I know a set of twins who are elementary school aged now named [name_u]Cory[/name_u] and [name_u]Cody[/name_u], I always thought those were awful. The worst I have seen were a set I came across while working for social security- Danian and [name_m]Damian[/name_m]. These were so ridiculously close that their medical records and things were constantly getting mixed up.
I forget what show it was exactly but there was a true crime show with identical twin suspect brothers [name_m]Dante[/name_m] ([name_m]Dan[/name_m]-tay) and [name_m]Donte[/name_m] ([name_m]Don[/name_m]-tay).
I saw this show today (called Evil Twins) and they were talking about twins named [name_f]Darlene[/name_f] and [name_f]Charlene[/name_f]. They stole money from the US government during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. I’ll post the wikipedia link here if you’re interested: Charlene Corley - Wikipedia
It would appear that in generations past, twins were often given similar names. These days parents are more inclined to give them names that aren’t so alike. I personally like the idea of twin names that sound good together, but are different enough to be individual. For twin boys my pick would have been [name_u]Toby[/name_u] and [name_m]Jacob[/name_m] but since I now have a singular [name_u]Toby[/name_u] that’s not gonna happen!
I knew twins named [name_f]Jacqueline[/name_f] and [name_f]McKenzie[/name_f] when I was younger. Seems to be fine, until you know they were exclusively called [name_m]Jac[/name_m] and [name_m]Mac[/name_m] their whole lives. They did love it though.
The SSA compiles the most popular twin names, although I can’t seem to find it on their main site now…but here’s some I saw elsewhere:
I can’t say I approve of rhyming or starting with the same letter, in some cases it seems to be popular to pretty much give them the same name. [name_f]Jada[/name_f]/[name_u]Jaden[/name_u], [name_u]Taylor[/name_u]/[name_u]Tyler[/name_u], [name_u]Madison[/name_u]/[name_u]Mason[/name_u], [name_u]London[/name_u]/[name_m]Landon[/name_m], [name_u]Morgan[/name_u]/[name_u]Mason[/name_u], [name_f]Olivia[/name_f]/[name_m]Oliver[/name_m], [name_f]Zoey[/name_f]/[name_m]Zachary[/name_m], [name_m]Eli[/name_m]/[name_f]Ella[/name_f], [name_f]Heaven[/name_f]/[name_f]Nevaeh[/name_f], [name_f]Mia[/name_f]/[name_f]Mya[/name_f], [name_f]Jada[/name_f]/[name_f]Jade[/name_f], [name_f]Chloe[/name_f]/[name_f]Zoe[/name_f], [name_u]Jayden[/name_u]/[name_u]Jaylen[/name_u], [name_u]Jayden[/name_u]/[name_u]Kayden[/name_u]. What are parents thinking?
There was an article on the Yahoo! page here recently about a high school with like 4-6 sets of twins. One set of twins names were [name_m]DeShawn[/name_m] and JeShawn (I’m not sure about the second one, but I think that was his name)
I had friends in school who were twins named [name_f]Salima[/name_f] and [name_f]Samira[/name_f], which is pretty matchy, especially as they came to be known as [name_u]Sal[/name_u] and [name_u]Sam[/name_u].
The weirdest is my mom’s triplet cousins [name_m]Thomas[/name_m], [name_m]John[/name_m], and [name_m]Donald[/name_m], which works out to… [name_m]Tom[/name_m], [name_m]John[/name_m], and [name_m]Don[/name_m]. Very rhyme-y, and to make matters worse, their last name rhymes with [name_m]John[/name_m]. They are 70 now, so maybe in the 40s this was the in thing, but still, whyyyyy?
I feel fairly strongly about this issue, being a twin myself. Thankfully, my twin and I have totally different names ([name_f]Jemima[/name_f] and Gret3l). I knew of twins around my age (so about 20) called [name_f]Anne[/name_f] and [name_f]Anna[/name_f]. I almost fell over. It was SO cruel!
Thankfully, most of the twins I know have distinctly separate names.
SSA mentions [name_f]Emma[/name_f] and [name_f]Ella[/name_f] and [name_f]Olivia[/name_f] and [name_m]Oliver[/name_m] as one of the most popular…Why, people? Being a twin myself, I know how irritating it is to have your name confused, so why make it worse?
I’ve always liked the idea of twin names having a link.
Having the same meaning… [name_f]Eve[/name_f] and [name_f]Zoe[/name_f]
both being a flower… [name_f]Holly[/name_f] and [name_f]Daisy[/name_f]
both being a gem… [name_f]Pearl[/name_f] and [name_u]Ruby[/name_u]
having similar origins… [name_f]Daphne[/name_f] and [name_f]Phoebe[/name_f]
or from the same story… [name_m]Caleb[/name_m] and [name_m]Joshua[/name_m]
I think the only combo I like that’s pretty “matchy” is [name_m]Zane[/name_m] and [name_f]Zara[/name_f], but since it’s for B/G twins I think it’s less problematic since they aren’t going to get confused.
But I definitely agree that only having a couple letters different is not in the kids best interest; socially, legally, personally, or anything really. Of course, there will always be some twins who really embrace their similarity and want to be as much alike as they can, but from my experience they’re more the exception than the rule.
I knew some older (80+) twins named [name_m]Louis[/name_m] (b- pronounced [name_m]Lewis[/name_m]) and [name_f]Lois[/name_f] (g - pronounced Lowis). Personally, I like seeing twins with their “own” names. I don’t like when names are too similar, but I’d rather see similar sounding names on twins than “themed” names.
I was just talking about this with someone at work the other day. He has twin nephews named [name_u]Jody[/name_u] and [name_m]Josiah[/name_m].
It really irks my nerves when people name twins so similarly…I know sets named:
[name_u]Stacy[/name_u] and [name_u]Tracy[/name_u] (unsure of spellings but…)
[name_f]Teri[/name_f] and [name_f]Sheri[/name_f]
[name_m]Ronald[/name_m] and [name_m]Donald[/name_m] ([name_u]Ronnie[/name_u] and [name_m]Donnie[/name_m])
[name_f]Darlene[/name_f] and [name_f]Charlene[/name_f]
Having their names mean similar things or start with the same letter is one thing…but to have one letter separating them…smh.
I know a set named [name_u]Shawn[/name_u] and [name_f]Sarah[/name_f] (I probably wouldn’t use the same letter unless it was seriously two names I loved…but at least they are distinctly different in sound)
I know a set that’s about a year old named [name_u]Shane[/name_u] and [name_m]Cole[/name_m]. And newborns [name_u]Saylor[/name_u] (g) and [name_m]Jaxon/name_m.
Horribly matchy twin names drive me INSANE. [name_f]My[/name_f] baby brothers are twins, twins run in my family, and I feel kind of defensive of twins in general. To me, choosing names like [name_m]Sean[/name_m] and [name_f]Shauna[/name_f] or [name_f]Hayley[/name_f] and [name_f]Kaylee[/name_f] is just broadcasting, to both your children and the world, that no, they are not individuals with distinct personalities and yes, it is okay to treat them like one person and never make an effort to tell them apart.
Luckily, most of the twins I know have nice, complementary-but-not-matchy names ([name_m]Lucian[/name_m] and O.rion, [name_f]Chloe[/name_f] and [name_f]Kira[/name_f], [name_m]Sean[/name_m] and [name_m]Eric[/name_m].) The matchiest sets I’ve encountered are my own cousins, Aub.rey and [name_u]Ashley[/name_u], elementary school classmates called [name_f]Kathy[/name_f] and [name_f]Karen[/name_f], and high school classmates called [name_f]Kathryn[/name_f] and [name_u]Kai[/name_u].lyn.
M i k k e l a (pronounced [name_f]Michaela[/name_f]) and M i c h e l l a. I have always though that those two names are waaay too mismatchy for twins. And then the yooneek spelling of [name_f]Michaela[/name_f] sigh
