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!
Leah writes:
We have a sweet three year old named Eloise Rhiannon. Those were my top two favorite names, and I let my husband choose which one would be the first name. When she was just a few days old, we started using the nickname EllaRee. We didn’t plan to use a nickname, but she’s EllaRee 99% of the time now.
Now we’re expecting again, another girl. This is our second child together. My husband also has a son William Jr., called Will.
This time I really want to choose a name like EllaRee, but I’m having a hard time finding one.
We could use Kathryn – or Kate? – for my grandma. But if we give this daughter a family name, EllaRee will be the odd one out.
Every name I think of feels less special than EllaRee.
What do we name this girl?!
Please read on for my response, and leave your thoughtful suggestions in the comments.
Dear Leah –
Congratulations on your new daughter!
It’s often harder to name a second child. You’ve already used your favorite names, and that makes it tough. But it also sounds like lightning struck with EllaRee. You found two gorgeous names, as well as an adorable nickname that fits your daughter exactly right.
EllaRee is part-smoosh name and part-double name, but it’s also a real name formed from elements of your daughter’s first and middle. Ellery is cousin to Hilary, and traditionally masculine; meanwhile, Eleri comes from Welsh myth and is feminine.
I’m tempted to tell you that working so hard to duplicate the name causes needless stress. Maybe a name you just plain love makes the most sense here? And yet, combining names feels irresistible! I completely understand the impulse.
So with the caveat that you do not need to duplicate the structure of your older daughter’s name, let’s see what we can find.
EllaRee rules out most of the other names with strong -elle and -ee sounds, which often appear in smoosh names. For example, Kathryn Lee called Kaylee almost rhymes with EllaRee, and KatieLee definitely does.
Of course, KatieLee feels like a name a girl will outgrow. That’s not as true for EllaRee, so we’re looking for something with a high degree of wearability.
It’s also true that neither of your daughter’s names can be called “filler” – they’re not the familiar Lee/Leigh or similar names that easily combine with a first. So something like Anna Lee, called Annalee, feels rather spare compared to Eloise Rhiannon.
Let’s give this a try!
Emmeline Kathryn, Emilie Kathryn, Emilia Kathryn, called EmmaKay – EmmaKay and EllaRee sound like sisters, plus you’d use a family name in the middle spot. Emilia Kathryn might be my favorite combination, but they all work – along with nearly any other Em- name in the first spot, or any of the international variations of Kathryn. Emilie Katrina, maybe?
Louise Kathryn, called Louka or Luka – In most languages, Luka is used for boys; however, that’s not always the case. Using Kathryn’s ‘ka’ sound with Louise’s Lou seems like an option. But daughters named Eloise and Louise? That feels very close, so I’m not sure about this one.
Lucia Kathryn, called Luca – Eloise and Lucia seem like a better sister-set, so if you like the idea of Luca, Lucia Kathryn called Luca might be the more wearable choice.
Lilia Louise – One of my favorite smoosh nicknames is Lilou. It appears that Lilou started out in France, as a nickname for Liliane, but became an independent name thanks to the character in 1997’s The Fifth Element. (Though she spelled her name Leeloo.) Using Louise in the middle spot makes this nickname more obvious.
Amelie Louise, Ophelia Louise, called Lilou – You can go bolder to get to Lilou, of course. Amelie and other -lee ending first names work well, and names like Ophelia also have a clear “lee” sound. Amelie Louise, called Lilou, might just be my favorite so far …
Mae Eleanor, Marguerite Elodie – I know I said that most -elle names were off limits, but I can imagine sisters called EllaRee and Mariel. Mariel started out as an elaboration of Mary, or possibly a combination of Maria Isabel. But you could reach Mariel via nearly any Ma- first name, plus an El- middle.
Margaret Louise, Margaret Lorraine – Marlo Thomas started out life as Margaret “Margo” Thomas, but when she mispronounced her name as a child, it stuck. Thanks to the actress-turned-philanthropist’s fame, we sometimes find Marlo on the list of Margaret nicknames. But using a more obvious Lo- middle might make the nickname even more obvious.
Margaret Lux, Margaret Lucia, called Marilu – Marilu Henner was born Mary Lucy. Again, any Mar- name and Lu- name leads to Marilu as a short form. I can’t decide if Marilu feels delightfully retro or slightly dated. But I do think EllaRee and Marilu work together as sisters names.
Nora Emmeline, called Noemi – In several European languages, Naomi becomes Noemi. It’s never short for a longer name, and yet, I can imagine shortening something like Nora Emmeline to Noemi.
Rose Millicent, called Romilly or RoMilly – Another favorite! Like Ellery, Romilly is a sometimes-heard surname, and very occasionally, a given name. It could easily come from Rose – or any Ro- name, plus any name with a strong Mil- sound. Other combinations like Rose Amelia and Rosalie Matilda come to mind, too.
Genevieve Anouk, called Gianna or Vienna – I feel like Genevieve ought to work, with all of those strong sounds – but I’m not quite sure about these combinations. Still, I can imagine sisters named Eloise and Genevieve, so I think it’s work considering if it works in some combination.
Anouk Genevieve called Annavieve – Really any Anna name works here. Annavieve feels nearly as unexpected as EllaRee. It’s another favorite.
Vivienne Odette, called Viviette – I keep feeling like there must be an opportunity to use an -ette ending here, but I’m not sure if Viviette is the best possible suggestion.
Lorelei Alice, Lorelei Arwen, called Lola – Lorelei could shorten to Lola on its own, but add an A middle name, and it feels more obvious. A bonus: Eloise and Lorelei seem equally romantic and elaborate, without being quite frilly. So I think they’re very well matched.
Oh, I could go on – and on! But I think my favorites so far are EllaRee and Annavieve (or AnnaVieve?), plus the Romilly, Lola, and Lilou combinations.
I know the community will have some amazing suggestions, so let’s turn it over to them.
What would you name a sister for Eloise Rhiannon “EllaRee” with a similar first + middle = nickname formula?
So I think Eloise Riahnon is such a beautiful name so I think why don’t we matcch it up with another classic name. Celine Emelie, Cassiopea Gabrielle, Celestine Roselle and one of my favorites Cassiara Ellianne Rose ( nickname: Cassy Anne Rose or Cassie Ellie Rose). Its a cute pattern as the first name is resembled in C as skip1 backward you have c and the uniqueness of it captures Riahnon, Ellianne and Eloise are cute together and having a third name makes it feel as special as Ella Ree!
Ellen Winona (Winifred, Winsome, Wynn or anything similar) = Elowyn.
There won’t be another one in school; she’ll be an original!
Katherine Mae (Katy Mae), Katia Mae, Lula, Lulu, Erin Eloise would give you an adorable way to keep an El sound for your second beautiful girl. She could go by Erilu, or whatever nickname you think would fir her best. I believe that since you loved both of EllaRee’s names so much, it led you to include both of them in your everyday life, and what you call her. I think it would be OK if you dont smoosh both girl’s names like you did for EllaRee.
Lysbelle, Esmebelle, Rosefaye, Roselys, Winterose, Winterlys, Roseden
Quelques idées de prénom smoosh inspiré puis réinventer
Amelie Belle “Amabel”
Oh, I LOVE that idea!
I don’t think you should worry about EllaRee feeling left out if she’s your only child without a family name. She was gifted your two! favorite girls names which will I’m sure make her feel special in her own right.
You could use the “kah-” initial sound from Kathryn with Millicent/Amelia/Emmeline/etc for a smoosh name “Camilla”. Appellation Mountain did a while post about formal names for Mille if you need inspiration there.
I loved commenter Josie’s mention of Liora for its similarity to Eloise. Kathryn Liora = Kaylie/Kayla/Kara/Cora
Or I wonder if you would consider Cloelia. Appellation Mountain did a post on this name too listing several pronunciations: klo-EL-ee-ah, klo-EL-yah, and my favorite klow-EE-lee-ah which shares the internal “low-ee” sound with Eloise.
Kathryn Cloelia = Kaycie.
Cloelia Liora = Coralie /Cora / Lily
Cloelia Everly = Clover/Lily
Marcheline/Marcella Liora/Shiloh = Marley/Marlo
Caroline Isabelle/Alyssa/Melissa= Carissa/ Cary
Ava Loren = Avalon
Evelyn/Eva/Everly + Jane/Jenelle/ Genevieve/Imogen/ Regina/ Genesis = Eugenie/ Virginie/Virginia
Everly Matilda = Everild
Everly Katie/Kathryn = Verity
Or Everly could be the smoosh name. But maybe too close too EllaRee’s sound.
Evelyn + Pearl/Pearline = Everly.
On the other hand, Everly/Eva/Evelyn + Xanthe = Evanthe which shares the same cadence as EllaRee as well as the same first and last sounds without sounding too matchy matchy for sisters. This is my personal favorite.
proofreading: Appellation Mountain did a WHOLE post about formal names for MILLIE
also: Caroline Isabelle/Alyssa/Melissa= Carissa/ CARYS
Oh my, I agree you have a complete winner with Eloise Rhiannon, EllaRee. I can see where it will be hard to find anything that compares. It was your two favourite names to begin with and the adorable, legit name nickname came organically. I don’t know if it will work quite so beautiful the second time.
I do agre with pps who say focus more on finding names you love then the perfect nickname Is there any one name you particularly love? Even if you have one name you love you could play around with it and possibly come up with middle names and nicknames you love also based on that. These feel a bit random, out of the blue, but here goes-
Amelie Bellatrix -AmaBell
Amalia Bellamy -AmaBell
Aveline Maelys -AvaMae
Lilias Bethan/Elizabeth -LillaBet
Marigold Solenne -MaraSol
Maribel Solana -MaraSol
Marina Soleil -MaraSol
Marceline Luella/Lumina/Luna/Luneth -MaraLou
Milana Rhea -MillaRay
Rosalind Leona -RosaLee
Rosamund Liora -RosaLee
Tallulah Phaedra -TulaFae or LulaFae
All the best!
These are brilliant, Star!
Namespotted a real-life GenniVee this week…made me think of this post.
Matilda Zoe – “Mayzie”
Margaret Leah – “Magali”
Odette Matilda – “Ottilie”
I would just pick your two favorite names and let a nickname evolve naturally. If you really want a smoosh, I would just use a nickname of the given name and the initial of the middle (like “Katie O” or “Maddie L”) instead of reverse engineering a distinctive name like Genevieve or Ottilie. It works for EllaRee, but duplicating it for another child seems really forced and unlikely to work out as well. Also I think Louise is way too similar to Eloise to use at all.
Kinley/KinLee= Kathryn Emily (Kathryn Cecily; Kathryn Leora/Leonie)
Kinsey= Kathryn Chelsea (Kathryn Zara= KinZee)
Adelaide Matilda…Adamae?
Ooh … or Adelaide Kathryn – Adalyn
Rose Millicent “Romilly” is brilliant! Definitely my favorite, followed by Lily Louise “Lilou”.
I seem to like the Ann names in the middles spot – so many options so I’ll mix them up a bit:
Elizabeth Anastasia – BethAnnie
Genevieve Antoinette – ViviAnn
I’m sure there’s more!
Michaela/Millicent Kathryn/Kate -> “Mika” (could pronounce the first vowel sound like “eye” or like “ee”)
Use Kathryn as a middle to get you to ____Kat, which might be too playful compared to EllaRee, but might work!
Lily Kathryn -> LilyKat
Tallulah Kathryn -> LulaKat
Adelaide Kathryn -> AddieKat
Good luck! If all else fails, just pick two great names again and see how the chips fall!
Maybe something like Rosalind Maria — RoseMia. Or Josephine Elinor — Joselle.
So many great suggestions from Abby and commenters! I love them all, ESPECIALLY Marlo! Maybe you would like Beatrice/Beatrix or Bridget with Kathryn to get to Bryn (Bryn feels to me like a style match with Rhiannon). I also feel like maybe Tallulah would be up your alley as a first or a middle. It would also get you that easy for nicknames “Lu” sound. Maybe Tallulah Kathryn to get to Luka? Or frankly I just love Tallulah Kate. As someone with an Eloise, I would personally feel like Louise in the first or middle spot would be way too close for immediate family.
Or maybe Tallulah Brynn with Tabby as a nickname? Is there a middle name that could get you to the lovely nickname Lumen?
Kathryn Lucinda – Katelyn
Evelyn Annabel – Evanna
Love the suggestion of Mariel
I like Leeloo/Lilou/Lilu. But I know so many women with the middle name Louise that doesn’t compare to Rhiannon for me as an unexpected middle. Options I like: Coralie Lucinda, Thessaly Luscinia.
I have always liked Leocadie, so part of me thinks LeoKaty? Leona Kathryn? I like Leora and Liora – LioKaty is cute too. Eloise and Liora share a lot of letters but the sounds don’t cross too much IMO.
If the issue with Kathryn is that its too family and then EllaRee is left out, I think I might strongly consider a Kathryn-adjacent name. Katia, Katerina, etc. plus various C forms. Even Katriela, which isn’t related to Kathryn at all really and is an obscure angel name.
Katibelle/Katybel – Katia Mirabel, Catriona Maybelle, Katharine Belisent? Could go on with Kate-forms forever.
Juniper Opal, Juniper Octavia – Juno. For whatever reason EllaRee and Juno as sisters works easily for me. Octavia and Rhiannon remind me of each other too – rich, historic, grounded with some ground consonant sounds.
Some thoughts —
Kathryn Simone (Kaysie)
Noelle Vera (Nova)
Miriam Renata (Mira)
Beatrice Morwenna (Brenna)
Cassia Delphine (Cassadie)
Though this feels a bit like the tail wagging the dog without knowing more about which first names you love — if you have a list people can brainstorm middle-name combos for you!
I think Marlo would be just about perfect!
Here are some ideas, trying to keep them pretty simple, and using names I love with Eloise.
Adelaide Josephine–Delphine or Delphi (would also work with Adeline. And with Fiona as a middle!)
Clementine Olivia–Cleo
Estelle Margaret–Esme
Penelope Rose–Posy
Philippa Erin–Piper
Vera Felicity–Verity
Vivienne Alice–Vienna
Vivienne Delphine–Vida
I really love the Romilly and Lilou ideas!!
Great suggestions by Abby! I LOVE Dani’s suggestions too!
I would add-
Miriam Lucille “MiriLou”
Lillian Belle “lilibelle”
Kathryn Marielle “Katie Mae”
Violet Avery “Viola”
Penelope “Penny” not a middle combo but cute with Eloise / EllaRee 🙂
I don’t think EllaRee should feel left out if you use a family name because her names were your favorites and that’s special too. 🙂
Good luck and congrats!
As a mama of 7, I can tell you that the nickname that “sticks” is completely unpredictable. I would focus on finding names that you truly love.
Yes – This. I have 5, and only two of them will even answer to nicknames I picked out before they were born. And one of those two, the nickname came organically while I was in labor, not as part of choosing the name. The other one is still a baby and it remains to be seen if my nickname for her will last or not. All of our kids have multiple nicknames, but the ones that stick the most aren’t related to their given names at all.
Overall, I agree that you should just focus on finding a name you love. EllaRee happened naturally and now it could seem a bit forced.
That being said, i love a lot of Abby’s suggestions! So creative! My faves are
— Amelie Louise, Lilou (Amelie & Eloise are so perf for sisters! They have the same number of letters and are pretty vowel heavy and I love that)
–Nora Emmeline, Noemi (You could also do Nora Emilia/na)
— Genevieve Anouk (Vienna) — Hmm maybe Genevieve Endellion, Elowen, Bronwen, Seren, Mairwen, Morwenna, Gweneth to get the “en”. Love that some of these of these are Welsh like Rhiannon!
— Rose Millicent – Romilly. This is my second favorite after Amelie Louise. You can do many versions of it, Rose Milena/Milana/Melisandre/Melody. And then of course the many variations of Rose.
Overall, my favorites for you are Amelie Louise (Lilou) and Genevieve Seren (Vienna)
Find a name you love for the first name, then use Kathryn for the middle. Our DD is Evangeline Kathryn, and her double nn came naturally also and took us by surprise. (Evie Kate– long E at the beginning)
My favorite suggestion is by far Romilly, either on its own or as a smoosh of Rose Millicent or Rose Matilda. As others have said, it’s tough to come up with usable ‘smooshes’ when EllaRee happened to organically! A few other suggestions:
Olive Matilda, “Ottilly/Ottilie”
Josephine Renee, “Jory”
Rosalie Rita, “Rory”
Anna Maeve nn AnnaMae
Anna Leigh nn AnnaLeigh
Anna Maewyn nn AnnaMae
(Note: Rhiannon and Maewyn are both Welsh names.)
If I repeated any suggestions below, I apologize. Trying to offer suggestions without any influence. : )
I think what is hard is that you loved both of EllaRee’s original names and her smoosh was organic. So making smooshes felt like I was stealing your fun. The only thing I came up with that I really wanted to share was Makenna Delphine, aka “Makadie”, which sounds like Katie and sounds great with EllaRee!