I'm due this summer and looking for help with naming our daughter. Our son is E@mon J@mes. We are thinking about the following:
Maeve Emmeline (pronounced Emma-leen)
August Maeve (yes I know this is traditionally a boy name, but it's been my guilty pleasure girl name for over a decade...and after what felt like a long time TTC for us, we finally got pregnant with a girl due in August, so it feels right. ....but I have a lot of reservations.)
Eliza Maeve
Quinn Alexandra
Other thoughts welcome. R-names and Biblical origins are no-go's.
Also interested in your thoughts on -- is Maeve really trendy/popular right now?? I see it's ranked in the 20's on Nameberry but I haven't seen it being used or even mentioned by anyone I know. I don't love it, but I like a lot of things about it and I feel like I could come to love it the way I came to love Eamon.
Re: A sister for E@mon J@mes
DD #2: May 2020
Baby #3: EDD May 2023; MC October 2022
You shouldn't use August for a girl, because there are already multiple feminine forms of Augustus.
Augusta
Augustine
Augustina
Eta: I was curious so I looked up popularity rankings for Quinn and Eliza
Quinn rank 97
Eliza rank 175
Maeve rank 450
Feminine forms of August do not break the top 1000
I have always found it interesting how much TB is against the boy-name-on-girl thing, but we'll also jump down anyone's throat if they misuse sex/gender or suggest a girl can't play with traditional "boy" toys. I guess it's the trendy aspect that grates on some people's nerves? And I guess that's my main issue with it, too. It sounds like I'm trying to be trendy or cutesy. I didn't even know it was a boy name when I fell in love with it, I thought I just made up a brilliant idea ("May, June, April -- all real girls' names -- why not use August! So beautiful!" was my thought process 15 yrs ago haha) -- and now I know that's completely inane, but I still love the name for a girl. Sigh. That said, I don't think I can do it.
My husband loves August EXCEPT I have a cat named Gus. Which I say is ridiculous because he'll die before she's in kindergarten, and no one will know her mom's dead cat's name!). (This is, however, why I was against naming our son August. He would be nicknamed Gus, I'm sure, and *I* can't forget that I had a cat named Gus!)
In your case though, I feel like naming your daughter August instead of one of it's feminine forms (Augustine has masculine usage in English, but has feminine usage in German and French) would be like naming her Stephen. Sure, you can do it and Stevie/Steffie is a cute nn, but why wouldn't you just name her Stephanie?
Eliza is a nice enough name, but I prefer Elizabeth. Quinn is NMS. I'm with @Bringmemylongswordho on August for a girl.
I think Eamon and Maeve make a lovely sibset!
I am NAF of August on a girl for reasons others have mentioned...and it just seems really kitschy to me to have that be her first name if she's born in August (I have a friend named April who is very sick of asking her if she was born in April - she was). I really love PPs suggestion of Maeve Augustina - I think it keeps the theme of your children's names consistent and gives you the extra meaning behind the middle name.
Edited for autocorrect fail.
Overall, I like Maeve. It's a strong, solid name, but I think it's more of a middle than a first.
Augusta Maeve
Augustine Maeve
Augustina Maeve
I think all three of those sound really beautiful together and fit well with your son's name. I think Augusta Maeve would definitely be at the top of my list, though.
I heart YNAB
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“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times,
if one only remembers to turn on the light."
- Albus Dumbledore
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Me 34 DH 34
PCOS
Baby number 2 due 4/11/20
What about Mabel? I only know 1 little girl with that name and I think it's really cute and goes nicely with Eamon.
Suggestion for the name Autumn instead?
All your other names are lovely. I especially love Maeve.
It is much more more popular in Irish areas like Massachusetts but even then I doubt there is likely to be more than one Maeve in a class.
To all -- thank you so much for your thoughts and honesty. I'm intrigued by the idea that using boy names on girls is sexist. Anyone care to elaborate? I guess it's true I wouldn't name a son Christina, and that I would do the opposite does kind of tip a hat to patriarchy... ?
Re: the eye roll to August born in August -- that makes sense, and it kind of does make it sound like I put approx 5 seconds thought into her name. Yet another thing to my list of reservations about using it -- so yeah, I don't think we'll end up using August in the FN spot. I'm only 20wk so lots of time to think!