You’ve used up all of your favorite girl names on your first daughter. Her first name is an elegant moniker you’ve adored since childhood, and her middle name is a smoosh of you and your partner's mother. Nothing can compare to the meaning and sentiment of this name. But then you find out you're expecting another girl. Now what? You have to find a name that equates to your first choices but also fits the style of the names of your other children and is just as meaningful and well thought out. That’s a lot of pressure, and it can eliminate all of your options if you corner yourself with patterns and styles. This is often the hardest part of naming any child after your firstborn, so I’ve decided that it deserves its own article in my “How To Name Your Baby” series.
How To Avoid Getting Trapped
One of the hardest parts of naming children as a set is trapping yourself with patterns and styles. If your first two are Emma and Liam, following those up with obscure biblical rarities Zipporah and Jericho may not be the wisest stylistically, even if those are your four favorite names. On the other hand, Presley as a sister to Dylan, Devin, Dallas and Daisy would stick out like a sore thumb amongst the uniform initials, despite sharing a similar style. Essentially, naming a child locks you into a certain type of name for future babies, whether that’s a style you can see yourself choosing again or not. In order to avoid trapping yourself into a style or pattern, you can choose names that don’t fit into only one style or category that appeals to you, or that fit into a category you see appealing to you in the future. If you do corner yourself with a pattern, you can end up choosing a name just because it fits the theme, and not because you love it, which is a reason that pales in comparison to the meaning and love behind your first child's name.
Helpful Resources
Magic Baby Names - Quickly find a baby name you love!- One of the best sites pertaining to this topic, “Magic Baby Names”, will let you put your children’s names into a search engine that finds the sibling names that most commonly appear with your child's name.
Name Generator for Boys & Girls- Nameberry has a feature on their website that you can enter up to 8 names you like and find names of a similar style. If you’re running dry on first name ideas, it will also randomly generate 8 names from their database.
How To Connect Sibling Names
If the matching endings of Chloe, Zoe, and Joey and the reverse Heaven and Neveah are deemed too tacky for siblings, then how are we supposed to properly connect sibling names? There are a few excellent ways you can link sibling names without going the obvious Kelsey/Chelsea Haylee/Kaylee way. Choosing names with complimentary meanings (Sarah “Princess” and Brandon “Prince”) provides a subtle but sweet connection between siblings that won’t have an effect on their lives as they get older and separate. Daisy and Maisy will forever be receiving each other's mail, but Margaret and Pearl (both meaning “pearl”) will never have any issues.
Creating, coordinating, and linking sibsets is a must for many parents, so I hope one of these shortcuts to navigating the world of matching names has helped you! If you have any issues with matching sibsets, or anything else, be sure to submit the form underneath the “About” tab!
Sincerely,
~Delphina Moon
Struggling with names? I will gladly help!