Short list for baby due mid-February (this post has been "cooking" for months!)

General Name Discussion
1

I’ve had a list of about a hundred names for almost 2 years, but it’s only now in my 3rd trimester that we’ve actually sat down to start discussing names! I’d love to hear your thoughts on our names, and any suggestions to add or favorite combinations.

Here’s a little bit about us/baby: This is our first baby. We are waiting to find out the sex. Our last name is 3 syllables, starts with WINE (terrible dipthong, ugh), and is R-heavy and [name_m]German[/name_m]-sounding. Since we don’t know the sex of the baby, we need to have at least one boy name and one girl name ready, but we’d kind of like to have a few back-ups just in case.

Here are our top names:

Boy:
[name_u]Morgan[/name_u]–I thought my husband would hate this, but it is actually his favorite for a boy. “It’s a strong name.”
[name_u]Reid[/name_u]/[name_u]Reed[/name_u]–either spelling, so far. [name_u]Reid[/name_u] is a family name on my mom’s side, but [name_u]Reed[/name_u] has some cool factor.
[name_m]Liam[/name_m]–we both like this, but worry about how popular it is.

Girl:
[name_f]Olive[/name_f]–our very favorite; in fact I think we kind of hope we have a girl just so we can use this name! It’s our top overall name out of boys or girls. Middle name will be [name_f]Louise[/name_f]. Sad about how it has shot up in popularity.
[name_f]Ivy[/name_f]–this was mid-low on my list, and husband suggested it independently of my list! He likes it a lot and I like that he likes it. It has a lot of the same attraction as [name_f]Olive[/name_f] (although we love [name_f]Olive[/name_f] a lot more).
[name_f]Ruth[/name_f]–a come-from-behind favorite.
[name_u]Ariel[/name_u]–husband has always loved this name, and curses Disney for “ruining” it. I think it is OK, but also think that The [name_m]Little[/name_m] Mermaid was, what, 20 years ago? Another one that concerns us with the popularity.

Runner-ups/middles options:
Boys: [name_m]Holden[/name_m], [name_m]Dresden[/name_m], [name_m]Shepherd[/name_m], other surname-type names.
Girls: [name_f]Clara[/name_f], [name_u]Sequoia[/name_u] (“can you name a person after a tree?” says husband), [name_f]Astra[/name_f], [name_f]Louise[/name_f] (love the name, tons of family connections), Maeve

I have a feeling the middles list will be a lot more fluid, and we might end up with something totally not on this list at all, I’m mostly including them so you can get a better idea of our joint style. See my signature for my personal naming style.

2

My favorites for you are [name_u]Morgan[/name_u], [name_f]Ivy[/name_f] and [name_f]Olive[/name_f]. From your current list, I like the combos of [name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Liam[/name_m], [name_f]Ivy[/name_f] [name_f]Louise[/name_f] and [name_f]Olive[/name_f] [name_f]Clara[/name_f] (I like [name_f]Olive[/name_f] [name_f]Louise[/name_f], too, but I think [name_f]Clara[/name_f] modernizes [name_f]Olive[/name_f] somewhat).

Other middle name ideas:

[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Alastair[/name_m]
[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Archer[/name_m]
[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Asher[/name_m]
[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Bennett[/name_m]
[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Henry[/name_m]
[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Leo[/name_m]
[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Lucas[/name_m]
[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Xavier[/name_m]

[name_f]Ivy[/name_f] [name_f]Bettina[/name_f]
[name_f]Ivy[/name_f] [name_f]Charlotte[/name_f]
[name_f]Ivy[/name_f] [name_f]Katherine[/name_f]

[name_f]Olive[/name_f] [name_f]Antonia[/name_f]
[name_f]Olive[/name_f] [name_f]Arielle[/name_f] (so that you can use [name_u]Ariel[/name_u], but I feel this combo flows better w/ accent on the “elle”)

Good luck! :slight_smile:

3

My top favorite for a girl is [name_f]Ruth[/name_f] [name_u]Ariel[/name_u] as it is a beautiful blend of strong and pretty with plenty of history.

I really like [name_u]Morgan[/name_u], but from your options I’m not finding a good flow, so I’ll say [name_m]Liam[/name_m] [name_m]Shepherd[/name_m] and that I don’t think you should worry about the popularity. (:

4

@esrever88, thanks for all the additional suggestions! I hadn’t thought about using [name_f]Arielle[/name_f] as an alternative to [name_u]Ariel[/name_u]–I agree it flows much better with [name_f]Olive[/name_f] than [name_u]Ariel[/name_u].

@ruolan, [name_f]Ruth[/name_f] [name_u]Ariel[/name_u] is awesome. It kind of sounds to me like “ethereal”…but that’s not a bad thing! I agree with you however that the “flow” is off for a lot of the names on our list so far, which is why I think we’ll need to be adding to our middles list a lot. [name_m]Liam[/name_m] [name_m]Shepherd[/name_m] is a seriously cool combo, love it.

5

Oh I forgot! [name_f]Maeve[/name_f] is a runner-up/middle option as well =)

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[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] - I really like this on a boy. [name_f]Morrigan[/name_f] is an alternative spelling.
[name_u]Reed[/name_u] - I’m just okay with most musical names, but this one is a bit better.
[name_m]Liam[/name_m] - My sister has regrets with using this extremely popular name. It is nice though.

[name_f]Olive[/name_f] - I definitely love this more than [name_f]Olivia[/name_f]. My favorite of your girl names.
[name_f]Ivy[/name_f] - Poison ivy jokes / song come to mind.
[name_f]Ruth[/name_f] - My least favorite. [name_m]Just[/name_m] unattractive.
[name_u]Ariel[/name_u] - More on the cute side. I had a friend who loved having this as her middle name.

[name_m]Rhodes[/name_m]
[name_m]Magnus[/name_m]
[name_u]Stanley[/name_u]
[name_m]Malcolm[/name_m]
[name_m]Linus[/name_m]

[name_f]Hazel[/name_f]
[name_f]Lydia[/name_f]
[name_f]Johanna[/name_f]
[name_f]Fern[/name_f]
[name_u]Ever[/name_u]
[name_f]Muriel[/name_f]
[name_f]Alice[/name_f]
[name_f]Vera[/name_f]
[name_f]Winnifred[/name_f]

7

Thanks for the suggestions, @lerenard! Several of your names are on our “long list” as well. We especially paused on Linus, and might bring it back…although I’m not sure how it sounds with our last name.

Morrigan is a gorgeous spelling!! I think I like it better for a girl though (although I prefer the name for a boy…does that make sense?)

8

Congratulations!

My favorites for you:

[name_m]Liam[/name_m] [name_m]Dresden[/name_m]
[name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_u]Reid[/name_u], [name_u]Morgan[/name_u] [name_m]Shepherd[/name_m]
[name_u]Reid[/name_u] [name_u]Morgan[/name_u]

[name_f]Olive[/name_f] [name_f]Ruth[/name_f]
[name_f]Ruth[/name_f] [name_f]Louise[/name_f]

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[name_f]Love[/name_f] [name_u]Reid[/name_u]/[name_u]Reed[/name_u], [name_f]Ivy[/name_f] and [name_f]Olive[/name_f] x

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I love your girl names. [name_f]Olive[/name_f] is amazing, and we are leaning towards [name_f]Ruth[/name_f] if my current bump is a girl. I actually posted asking if people thought [name_f]Ruth[/name_f] was too much of an old lady name a few days ago. (They don’t, generally.)

I’m really not a fan of [name_u]Morgan[/name_u]. It sounds like morgue to me. Of your list, I love [name_u]Reid[/name_u], either spelling.

Unless you are a [name_m]German[/name_m] citizen with special ties to the city, do NOT name your kid [name_m]Dresden[/name_m]. It is the site of a horribly deadly and extremely controversial attack during WWII. Everybody with an ounce of knowledge about world history would shudder when they heard it. It would be like naming your kid Auschwitz. I actually can’t believe it’s listed as a name on here.

11

Thanks for your input, @nameweary! I didn’t even think of the history behind [name_m]Dresden[/name_m]…honestly it came up because of one of my husband’s favorite series, The [name_m]Dresden[/name_m] Files by [name_m]Jim[/name_m] [name_m]Butcher[/name_m] ([name_m]Holden[/name_m] also has a nerdy inspiration, The Expanse series by [name_u]James[/name_u] S.A. [name_u]Corey[/name_u]). Since that one was on our “fluid” middles list, I think we’ll be OK with letting it go.

I was also wondering about the ORG sound of [name_u]Morgan[/name_u], but I don’t know if it bothers me enough to take it off the list. I really like it for a boy, and it was the only name that I suggested that my husband was able to say right away, with no hesitations, clarifications, or silliness, “I like this one.” And that means a lot to me!

And I think [name_f]Ruth[/name_f] is totally ready for a resurgence! We both like the name as a name, but we also have a kinda ridiculous but kind of fun association with it as well–it’s the name of one of the cashiers at our grocery store who we’ve always been intrigued with. She’s college-aged, and doesn’t wear her name like an old lady at all.

12

LOL, I love your [name_f]Ruth[/name_f] story!! And I’m totally jealous your husband is a name nerd as well :slight_smile:

Good luck!! :slight_smile:

13

Oh he’s not a name nerd, he just knows that I am so he’s doing this to be nice =)

Yes our [name_f]Ruth[/name_f] story is fun, and we’ve been going there for years, so we’ve seen her grow up from a sullen, scrawny teenager to the cheerful, beautiful young lady that she is now. Once she thought my husband (then boyfriend) was hitting on her because he was chatting her up so hard trying to get her to crack a smile.