Name Help is a series at Appellation Mountain. Every week, one reader’s name questions will be discussed.
We’re relying on thoughtful comments from the community to help expectant parents narrow down their name decisions. Thank you in advance for sharing your insight!
Cara writes:
My husband Ryan and I discovered a pattern with our family’s names after baby #2. We all have four-letter, two-syllable names. Maybe we’re slow but we didn’t notice until we were discussing Theo or Theodore for our third child. My best friend was the one who pointed out why it had to be Theo!
Hannah was our runner-up name for Nora. When our fourth was a girl, we changed the spelling to Hana so it fit.
Our kids’ full names are: Nora Kate, Liam James, Theo Gregory, and Hana Marie.
Now we are expecting our fifth and probably last baby. (Though we said that with Hana, too, so never say never!)
We want another four-letter, two-syllable name.
Repeating initials are out, so no C, H, L, N, R, or T.
Some names that we like don’t work because they rhyme/almost rhyme: Anna and Hana, Leah and Liam (initials anyway), Thea and Theo, Lara and Cara, Maya and Ryan.
For boys, we like Owen, but our neighbors have a baby Owen. My husbands says it’s fine, but I don’t want to be accused of name stealing.
This baby’s middle name will probably be either Joy for a girl and Andrew for a boy.
Please read on for my response and leave your thoughtful suggestions in the comments.
Abby responds:
Congratulations on baby five!
Let’s start with a truth of naming in bigger families: something has to give.
You can avoid repeating an initial. You can probably find another two-syllable, four-letter name.
But ruling out every name that belongs to another child you know? That’s gonna make this difficult. Like, instead of PhD-level difficult, we’re talking Nobel Prize-winning levels of complexity.
Which is a long way of saying that, if this baby is a boy, I think his name should be Owen Andrew.
IT’S NOT NAME STEALING BECAUSE …
Let me add this: it’s lovely to be thoughtful and considerate about repeating names.
After all, every parent knows how frustrating it can be to realize that The Name we spent nine months crafting is now at the top of every popularity list. Or worse, it’s still not that common, but a dear friend just gave the name to her new baby.
But here’s why I think Owen works for your family:
- You’ve described Owen’s parents’ as your neighbors. Not your BFFs. Do you make plans together? Or is this more of a run-into-each-other-at-the-playground level relationship? It sounds like they’re a perfectly nice family who happens to live nearby. But they’re not, say, candidates to serve as your baby’s godparents.
- Assuming I’m right about your relationship, it seems likely that one or both of you will move in the future. Maybe not for a few years. But by the time their Owen or your Owen is in high school? Odds are that something will change.
- Lastly, Owen is a well-established Top 100 name. It’s reasonable for such names to repeat, even among neighbors.
But even if you’re closer than I’m imagining, or less likely to move than I think, well … this is your fifth child. Avoiding all duplicates would be tough, even if you didn’t have specific rules for choosing a name.
I’ll suggest Alex, Ezra, and Milo for additional possibilities.
But I can imagine the following scenario: you name your son Ezra to avoid duplicating a name. Owen’s family moves away. Your new neighbors move in, and their son? He’s named Ezra, too.
A SISTER FOR NORA, LIAM, THEO, and HANA
We clearly need to do some work to find a sister name for Nora, Liam, Theo, and Hana. Would you consider …
ANYA
Strictly speaking, it’s a Slavic/Scandi form of Anna. I don’t think that’s obvious in American English. Instead, Anya sounds like a just slightly different name, with a similar old world quality to Nora and Hana.
EDEN
The Garden of Eden is, well, ancient. But it’s only been used a given name in recent generations, which gives it a mix of Old Testament backstory with modern sound.
EMMA
I’m guessing you may have considered Emma at some point. In any case, it’s very popular … but I only know two. (And they don’t know each other.) It’s a strong, classic name for a daughter, and sounds great with Nora and Hana.
ESME
Or maybe you’d rather try something a little more daring? Literary Esme has a long history of sparing use, a great meaning – beloved – and is just familiar enough to be wearable.
ISLA
A fast-rising favorite, Isla offers four letters, two syllables, and an all-new initial to consider.
MILA
Maya is a little close to Ryan. Would you consider Mila instead?
OPAL
A gemstone name that’s gently old-fashioned.
VERA
Like Nora and Hana, Vera is brief and complete. It also offers two appealing meanings: faith and truth.
Overall, my favorite is probably Vera.
Nora, Liam, Theo, Hana, and Vera.
But I wonder if Mila might be more your style?
I agree Owen doesn’t have to be off the table. You just have to love it.
As for girls, I love that both Nora and Hana have n and a -the ending of both you and your husband’s names. I was looking for name with the same.
Dana, Edna, Gina, Tina, Mena Mona, Anya, Luna, Oona, Iona
Not sure those are your style, so I looked for r and a. Vera works here!
Zara, Tara, Sara, Dora, Dara,
Personally I like Zara Joy. Best of luck!
For a daughter My favorite name is Amie or Aime. For a boy, some name I don’t think have been mentioned are:
Isak
Amos
EmilRory
Remy
Cato
Wyat
Abel
Axel
You’ve had a lot of input already, so I’ll only add a few for potential girl name combinations that stick out to me:
Aida Joy
Kira Joy
Opal Joy
As for potential boy names? I seriously support the name “Owen” since I knew an “Owen” and he was a great person. If you love everything about it go for it!
Best of luck on your naming adventure! x
Oops, that was supposed to be Oona!! Autocorrect knows my friends’ kids!
Kyra Joy; Iona Joy! I love Iona with your kids’ names. Opal is another great one as Abby mentioned! As someone with close next door neighbors (it’d maybe be weird to call them close friends because we don’t share hopes and dreams or anything, but in reality our kids play with theirs every day), I can see why Owen feels off limits. I like Otto instead, or Evan, as others have suggested! If this baby comes out with a certain something, how about Iggy? Iggy Andrew is rad!
Rosa Joy
Lila Joy
I also like Alma and Iris, Jake, Paul and Zach. Like your style!
Abby, you only knowing two Emmas is hilarious to me for some reason.
To be fair, if I started listing Sophias/Sofias and Isabellas, it would be a LONNNNGGG list. But I don’t live in a very Emma world! (Also, I thought of a third little Emma after I wrote this, but she lives half the country away from us.) The year my daughter went to her first sleep-away camp, Emmas were EVERYWHERE, but not in her cabin/friend group. Name pockets are funny things …
This is fun,
Also Boys: Adam, Alec, Bard, Bram, Ezra, Jack, John, Kane, King, Nate, Nico, Noah, Thor, Trey
Girls:Alma, Asta, Azra, Elli, Elsa, Emme, Enya, Eris, Etta, Ezra, Ildi, Ilma, Ilsa, Kisa, Miri, Orla, Orli, Wren, Xena.
Maybe Odin or Otto instead of Owen?
Orla Joy for a girl would be great, as would be Alix, Alva or Alba. Lina?
May I suggest Evan Andrew or Ezra Andrew, and Macy Joy or Ella Joy.
Likely more than a few repeats here.
Abby
Bria
Elsa
Esme
Ilsa
Isla
Kera — KEER uh
Ruby
Tesa — pronounced TEE sa. Although phonetically correct, it would be easier if it could be spelled as Teesa, or if you could fudge and add a 5th letter for baby #5 and go with Tessa.
Vera
Zara
Arlo
Euan
Evan
Ewan
Joel — depending on how you pronounce it, this can be two syllables.
Milo
Owen — I agree that you should keep this in the mix. Maybe talk with your neighbors about it. They might know now that they will move away in the next five years or so or they might be thrilled for their son to have a name buddy.
Zion
I also think you should consider not vetoing Owen! Of course no one understands your exact situation better than you, but I also had very expansive no duplicate rules and now that I’ve been a parent for almost a decade, I know how often we’ve moved and neighbours have changed.
If you’re firm on that, I wonder if you’d consider repeating a parent initial? I know I often use intials for my kids so would never repeat, but it’s not often all the family’s initials are together, and besides a big C little c could work? Because I LOVE the idea of Coen or Rose for you! Ooh or Ross or Cole or Ruby or Cass!
You seem to like quite classic names so maybe these will be too much, but here you go:
Orla
Polly
Veda
Ivan
Earl
Flyn
Ella Joy
Zoey Joy
(I love Isla Joy!)
Axel Andrew
(but I think Owen Andrew is perfection, and it’s not like you’re naming your one-and-only child the very name chosen by your neighbours last year, it’s like you had already 4 kids with other names, and have used a lot of names you like, and have to name this kid something, and happen to like that name, too, so it’s not personal; and it’s not like the only way you could have come up with the name Owen is because it’s the neighbours’ kid, because it’s actually a common name, so I really don’t see the issue here)
I would continue the sisters names ending in the letter A.
Nora, Hana and Isla.
For the boys I like ….
Liam, Theo and Zack ( Zach)
Love the name Owen, but don’t like repeating the O in Owen after the ending O in Theo.
Liam, TheO and Owen.
Also Sela
Kira
Anni
Alma
Lela
Noah
Boys: Alan, Aron, Ashe, Axel, Bode, Bran, Dane, Dune, Eric, Evan, Ewan, Finn, Flyn, Gage, Glen, Gray, Iain (Scottish spelling), Jake, Jory, Kade, Kyle, Mark, Olav, Orin, Quin, Sage, Will, Zack, Zane, Zeke
Girls: Abbi, Adah, Addi, Adia, Aida, Alia, Alix, Alla, Alys, Amie, Aria, Asha, Arya, Aura, Avis, Ayla, Bela, Bell, Bess, Brea, Bree, Bria, Bryn, Dani, Dara, Dina, Dora, Drea, Ebba, Elin, Ella, Erin, Esti, Evie, Faye, Gala, Gina, Glyn, Indi, Iris, Isla, Jana, Jane, Jaxi, Jean, Jeni, Jill, Jori, Josi, Jovi, Juli, June, Kaia, Kati, Kaya, Kiki, Kira, Kitt, Koko, Kyla, Kyra, Mara, Mary, Mave, Maxi, Mina, Mira, Myra, Opal, Peri, Pola, Quin, Sage, Sara, Sofi, Suvi, Suzy, Vera, Vere, Vina, Wynn,
Owen is so nice but if it bothers you perhaps one of its “cousin” versions? Evan or Ewan?
Arlo
Adam
Hugo
Luka
Girls…
Lucy
Ruby
Elke
Cleo
Rosy
Macy
Myla
Zara
Lily
Kyla
Lyra
Emmy (yeah I had to add that one!)
I love Owen for a boy and agree that I think the neighbor sharing the name isn’t a big deal. I also love the suggestions of Isla and Vera for a girl. Another girl option that I keep thinking of is Bryn! It may not work with the middle name Joy, but I think it pairs nicely with all of the other kids’ names.
These all seemed like possibilities:
Adam
Alec
Davy
Elis
Ewan
Ivan
Kian
Oren
Otis
Abby
Aida
Etta
Mira
Miri
Suzy
Zoey
Mira Joy might be my favorite for a girl. I like a lot of the boys, but Adam, Alec, and Davy jump out more.
For a daughter I really love Suvi, but if you’re looking for something more common then I’d like to suggest Etta.