We’re expecting our sixth child in March and I’m looking for a name that works well with our older children’s names. They are:
Max Eero
Sofie Charlotte
Lucy Madeleine
Heidi Cleo
Clara Wolf
Sometimes I wish I could have known in advance how many children we would have and whether they’d be girls or boys so we could chosen all of the names at the same time. Our background is German, British, and Scandinavian. It’s very important to my husband that the names have a somewhat German/Scandinavian feel. Eero is a Finnish name that is pronounced like the English word “arrow”. It’s the Finnish version of Erik/Eric, which is my husband’s name. We chose Sofie rather than Sophie because it’s the more common spelling in Germany and northern Europe. Cleo is just a name that my husband had always loved and I had vetoed it for our first two daughters so it ended up as Heidi’s middle name.
We’ve always liked the nicknames Emmy/Emmie/Emi and Mimi so we were considering Emilia for this baby. Does it fit with the others? If so, do you have any middle name suggestions? Our last name is hyphenated and the names begin with P and K. It is 4 syllables in total.
We also like Emma, though we’re not sure about using such a popular name. I know Emilia is becoming quite popular too. We like Phoebe, but it doesn’t have the German/Scandinavian vibe. I also quite like Isabel, but my husband isn’t as keen on it. My husband really loved Elfi when we were naming our last daughter, but I worried it was too cute/nicknamey and that she would be made fun of for the elf connection. My husband also had a great-aunt Elfrieda who his mother hated, and he was concerned that she’d think we’d taken naming inspiration from her.
[name_f]Emma[/name_f] and all forms are so popular. What about [name_f]Ida[/name_f]?
A thought of mine is that three of your kids have names that are also international superstars, not just German/Scandinavian (although I understand that being important to you dh). [name_u]Max[/name_u], [name_f]Sofie[/name_f], [name_f]Lucy[/name_f], and even now [name_f]Clara[/name_f] feel more worldly than cultural. [name_f]Phoebe[/name_f] does work for a fn, imo.
Yes, I was fine with my husband’s desire for a name that works with his cultural background, but it was important to me that they also be easy to spell and pronounce in [name_f]English[/name_f]. [name_f]Heidi[/name_f] is only first name that has a strong cultural association, I think, but it’s also a name that everyone here (Canada) recognizes and can spell.
Wow, your family is like mine, but in reverse! (I’m the only girl and I have five brothers )
Your kids’ names are so cute! [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] works, although I agree with the previous posters that it is a bit ‘frillier’ than your other kids’ names, but I don’t think it’s that big of a problem . Maybe [name_f]Emmeline[/name_f]? Although that may be a bit too close to [name_f]Madeleine[/name_f].
Some more ideas:
[name_f]Ada[/name_f]
[name_f]Alice[/name_f]
[name_f]Matilda[/name_f]
[name_f]Freya[/name_f]
[name_f]Linnea[/name_f]
[name_f]Greta[/name_f]
[name_f]Eleanor[/name_f]
[name_f]Liv[/name_f]
[name_f]Ingrid[/name_f]
[name_f]Thora[/name_f]
[name_m]Five[/name_m] brothers! That is really neat. People always feel sorry for my son when they hear he has 4 (soon to be 5) sisters, but he actually says he likes being the only boy and doesn’t mind not having a brother. He’s the oldest.
Thank you — I like a lot of your suggestions. I also love [name_f]Emmeline[/name_f] with [name_f]Emmy[/name_f] as a nickname. I like that it’s less common than [name_f]Emma[/name_f] and [name_f]Emilia[/name_f], but I worry that it sounds too formal somehow?
Having named 4 daughters already, we’ve had a lot of name discussions! I wanted to add a few other names we’ve considered in case anyone has strong feelings about one being a better fit. Some work better with our criteria than others. So here are some names we like:
Would [name_f]Emme[/name_f] as a stand-alone work? I feel it’s fits better with the sibset than [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] which has a much frillier feel.
I love [name_f]Emelia[/name_f] [name_f]Liv[/name_f] for you with any of the nicknames you mentioned. I don’t think it matters at all that it’s frillier than some of the other names because they all seem really distinct and individual to me.
I think [name_f]Emmy[/name_f] by itself would fit the set better but [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] works.
A few other ideas: [name_f]Embla[/name_f], Anya/Anja, [name_f]Ada[/name_f], [name_f]Dora[/name_f], [name_f]Eva[/name_f], [name_f]Oona[/name_f], [name_u]Alva[/name_u]
I think [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] fits so well with [name_u]Max[/name_u] , [name_f]Sofie[/name_f] , [name_f]Lucy[/name_f] , [name_f]Heidi[/name_f] and [name_f]Clara[/name_f] !!
Oh, I’m not sure how I would have changed the names if I could have named a 6-kid sibset all at once. I just think I could have made them a bit more cohesive. We used [name_f]Mimi[/name_f] as a nickname for our second baby while I was pregnant because we thought [name_u]Max[/name_u] and [name_f]Mimi[/name_f] sounded so sweet together. We ultimately went with [name_f]Sofie[/name_f]. I’m glad we did because I would have felt strange giving our third child a name that didn’t start with M and then I might have been stuck coming up with 6 M names! We struggled a bit with whether to use the name [name_f]Clara[/name_f] after having 3 daughters whose names all ended in an ‘ee’ sound. Now I kind of feel like this baby should end in an ‘a’ sound to go with [name_f]Clara[/name_f].
[name_f]My[/name_f] kids are spread quite far apart in age, and my taste in names has evolved over time. [name_f]My[/name_f] oldest is 17. I don’t regret the names I used for the older kids at all, but I might choose differently now.
Our background is German, British, and Scandinavian. It’s very important to my husband that the names have a somewhat German/Scandinavian feel. Eero is a Finnish name that is pronounced like the English word “arrow”. It’s the Finnish version of Erik/Eric, which is my husband’s name. We chose Sofie rather than Sophie because it’s the more common spelling in Germany and northern Europe. Cleo is just a name that my husband had always loved and I had vetoed it for our first two daughters so it ended up as Heidi’s middle name.
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. Maybe [name_f]Emmeline[/name_f]? Although that may be a bit too close to [name_f]Madeleine[/name_f]. 
but [name_f]Emilia[/name_f] works.