I love the sound of [name]Zoe[/name] Elorah, but I’m wondering… You mention that you don’t like the nicknames [name]Ben[/name] and [name]Joe[/name] because they’re very common, does the popularity of [name]Zoe[/name] not bother you? she’s very common as well, and only destined to become increasingly more used in the future… If you look at her graph, she’s zoomed up the list the last 15 years, and I don’t think she’s going to zoom down again any time soon… [name]Beatrice[/name]/[name]Beatrix[/name]/[name]Beatriz[/name] all mean voyager through life, and has the appealing [name]Bea[/name] nickname, [name]Chava[/name] is a Hebrew name meaning life along with [name]Eva[/name] and ALL her variants, Lieve ([name]LEE[/name]-veh) means “godly life”, [name]Liv[/name] means life, Maisha means life (she’s cute!), as does [name]Vica[/name] and [name]Vita[/name], Zeah ([name]Zea[/name]) means life giving, [name]Viva[/name], [name]Aisha[/name], [name]Chaya[/name], [name]Vianne[/name] (one of my favs) and any form of [name]Vivian[/name] all mean “Alive”… I’m not sure how you feel about [name]Zoe[/name]'s popularity, but I’ll just give you some options just in case… Since you mentioned it, it seems meaning is important to you ^^ And I’m sorry if I come off as advising you to not choose [name]Zoe[/name], I [name]LOVE[/name] [name]Zoe[/name], I just wanted to make sure you were aware of her popularity which seemed to be an issue with your boy names, that’s all…
As for your boys, I’ve never heard [name]Benaiah[/name] before, but my first thought was “it sounds a bit like “denial” in a way?”… I love the sound, but I get this irky feeling that it’s really something else only pronounced wrong, or with a heavy accent… I’m odd, I know, but I’ve never seen it before, so it was just my first thought… I might change my mind later, though ^^
I like [name]Josiah[/name], which is more common (top 100), and also very similar to a lot of well-used names like [name]Joshua[/name] and well, any J name really… I always group J names together, because it’s a really popular letter!! [name]James[/name], [name]John[/name], [name]Jacob[/name], [name]Joshua[/name], [name]Jack[/name], [name]Jason[/name], [name]Jonathan[/name], [name]Jordan[/name], [name]Jackson[/name], [name]Joseph[/name], [name]Justin[/name], [name]Jessica[/name] have all had their time of glory, and I just don’t see the attraction of the J!! My own J names are [name]Janos[/name] (YA-nush, not pronounced like a J) [name]Jericho[/name] and [name]Justus[/name], with [name]Justine[/name] and [name]Juno[/name] for girls, but have HEAPS of S, M, and L names!
I see you like the -iah ending! It’s a nice one, and my fav is [name]Tobiah[/name], who’s just way to underused because [name]Tobias[/name] gets all the glory, but I think [name]Tobiah[/name] is much better both sonically and in regards to how well a name ages… [name]Tobias[/name] is more cutesy to me…
Other -iah names you might like: (I’ll mark my favs with a )
[name]Abiah[/name]
[name]Obadiah[/name] (I actually considered [name]Bo[/name] as a nn, but I guess [name]Obi[/name]? or is that too [name]Star[/name] Wars?)
[name]Eliah[/name]
[name]Jedidiah[/name]
[name]Jeremiah[/name]*
[name]Zachariah[/name]* (nn [name]Zach[/name])
[name]Nehemiah[/name]
Zedekaiah
[name]Zephaniah[/name]* (nn Zeph)
[name]Yedaiah[/name]
[name]Uriah[/name]
And I realise I haven’t actually advised you on which of the names you posted to pick from, but being who I am (a collector of unusual names) I say go with [name]Benaiah[/name]… ^^
Best of luck, and I hope my (slightly lengthy) post can be of some help to you!