Hi berries! I’m not expecting, just collecting. My S/O and I have agreed on several names already but we always like having backups and other options. I am Italian and my S/O is Puerto Rican and his entire family speaks Spanish, so we tend to lean toward names that work well in Spanish. I’ll give you some background on each name and why we chose it, but all of the middle names are honor names or variants of them.
Girls:
Luna Patrizia - Luna is a name my S/O actually picked and, as night owls and lovers of the moon, we fell in love. I was surprised to love his choice so much! He is particularly fond of it. Patrizia is for my late Aunt Patsy and late family friend Patty. Both passed too young and were some of the hardest deaths of my life so far.
Isadora Grazia “Isa” - I’m big on honor names with a twist. Dora is my S/O’s abuelita’s name and his mother is Doris and I love strong “I“ names like Isabella and Imogen. When I saw Isadora I fell in love immediately and it wasn’t hard to sell because of the obvious connections. Grazia is for my mother, Grace.
Elena Caterina - Elaine is one of two common middle names for the women in my family and I’ve always LOVED it, but I prefer the softer Elena. I considered Elaina with the nn Lainey, but I prefer the traditional spelling due to our Spanish and Italian backgrounds. Caterina is a variant of my name, Catherine.
Valentina Teresa - Valentina is a name I suggested randomly one afternoon in the car and my S/O took to it immediately. He loves strong V names for women (Veronica and Valerie were on his short list), so I threw him a bone with Valentina. He said it was beautiful and appealed to his romantic side. Teresa is his mother’s middle name (her name is Doris Teresa but she goes by Teresa) and a favorite of my dad’s, so I thought it would be a great choice. My mom will HATE it, but I don’t care! Lol my baby, my name.
Boys: (we REALLY struggled with choosing any boy names!)
Eduardo Antonio “Tito” - Eduardo is my S/O’s name and it’s common practice in his family (as is many families) to name the first boy after his father, but for some reason it took us months to ever reach this conclusion! It was Tito that sold us though. Once I realized Tito, one of my S/O’s favorite names, was a nickname similar to “junior” in Puerto Rican culture, we knew it would be perfect to name him Eduardo and call him Tito, though we expect he’ll be Eduardo/Ed/Eddy outside of our family. Antonio is not only a popular middle name in my S/O’s family, but is also for my dad, Anthony.
Santiago José “Santi” - Santiago was another that was my choice, as I worked with a Santiago nn Santi at a beach resort several summers ago and fell in love (with the name, not the man! Haha) I thought it would be great for us, as my S/O’s second last name, Santos, won’t be passed down to the children, so it’ll be a way to honor his mom’s side again while also giving us a name we both love. My brother’s middle name is also Thomas, so the meaning, Saint Thomas, works really well for us as well. José is a popular middle name in my S/O’s family.
Valentino Rolando/Ronaldo/Oscar/?? - When we agreed on Valentino, we estimated that we wouldn’t be likely to have all four girls AND three boys, so we added the masculine and feminine version to our list. We’re still out on a middle name for this one, but my S/O likes Rolando best, followed by Ronaldo. I personally like Oscar, which is my grandfather on my mom’s side, but I’m not sure he likes it. We’re definitely open to suggestions! I’m also willing to make Valentino a middle name spot if a first name works better.
Orlando “Lando” - I love this name and my S/O has expressed interest, but he says he has a few things he doesn’t like: 1.) that it’s a place name, especially in Florida 2.) that, to him, it feels like a name for a dog. I tried to sell him on Orlando Bloom, who he loves in Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Carribbean specifically, and Lando Calrissian from Star Wars, but he still wasn’t sure. He seems to WANT to love it, but just doesn’t, so I’d love to find something else he feels more confident on and perhaps someday in the future have a pup named Lando! lol
So what did you think of our current choices? And what other names, if any, would you add to our list? Names we cannot use: Carolina, Catalina, and Lola for girls and Lauriano, Juan, and Mario for boys. TIA!
