I don’t have any rules - they don’t necessarily have to sound matchup. DH’s parents named all their kids with names ending in an/en (Brian, Kristen, Evan)... it just sounds kind of boring to me.
Well. Husband and I are both of French and English heritage and he is insistent on bilingual names. So our rules for our unborn are:
Must be easy to say in both languages Must like the way it sounds in both languages Must be a limited number of reasonable mispronunciations/misspellings Must not be very gender neutral (I get misgendered over email all the time) and therefore I think Emile is off the table for a boy as it could be mispronounced as Emily or misgendered as female Must not make funny initials Must not be rhymey or alliterative Must be longer than 3 characters in order to support a 14 character last name Must not be very long (again, 14 character last name) Must not be in the top 20 Must not be too trendy, like a silly made up name Must not be wildly misspelled Probably not popular in the 80s (no more Jennifers, please) Must not have a strong association with someone I already know Must not be a name that we associate with a certain type of person (ie. Jessicas are basic or Xaviers are weird lol) So many guidelines. Man. No wonder I have zero boy name ideas.
Re: Crazy Rules for Naming Your Baby
- each sibling has their own first initial (having unique middle initials is ideal but not mandatory)
- must lend itself to a nickname (even if we don't outright pick a nickname for them)
- must fit well with other siblings (we'll be sticking with biblical names, since boyfriend has a son with a biblical name already)
- no alliterative names, whether in first-last, first-middle, or middle-last combos
- can't be in top 100 (even better if it isn't in the top 1000)
- no "unique" spellings (can be a spelling variation if there are valid variants cross culturally/overtime)
- family/honor names cannot be used as first names (middle or second middles only)
- can't rhyme with last name (sorry -ell[e] names!)
I feel like I have more rules, but that's all I can think of at the moment.Must be easy to say in both languages
Must like the way it sounds in both languages
Must be a limited number of reasonable mispronunciations/misspellings
Must not be very gender neutral (I get misgendered over email all the time) and therefore I think Emile is off the table for a boy as it could be mispronounced as Emily or misgendered as female
Must not make funny initials
Must not be rhymey or alliterative
Must be longer than 3 characters in order to support a 14 character last name
Must not be very long (again, 14 character last name)
Must not be in the top 20
Must not be too trendy, like a silly made up name
Must not be wildly misspelled
Probably not popular in the 80s (no more Jennifers, please)
Must not have a strong association with someone I already know
Must not be a name that we associate with a certain type of person (ie. Jessicas are basic or Xaviers are weird lol)
So many guidelines. Man. No wonder I have zero boy name ideas.