Just naming 2 children at the same time is so much harder and makes me second guess myself. Are we choosing the names because they "go" together or would we still choose them for individual children? Many of the names on our "list" (including both of our favorite girl names) from naming Charlotte were eliminated because we thought they didn't sound good as a "twin" name- like if you really liked the name Jill and everytime you said, "Our twins are named whatever and Jill even if the boy name didn't sound remotely like Jack people would still say, "Why didn't you go with Jack and Jill?" ha, ha. You see what I mean?
Should they "go" together- there are various degrees of this-
Rhyming- Polly and Molly etc. too cutsie for me and confusing
Same first letter- Madison and Mason- again a little confusing when you're labeling things- Matt is more willing to do this than me and I'm more willing to do it for boy/girl than boy/boy or girl/girl
Family names- often one from each side
References- to book characters, movies, people you know- these are the ones everyone suggests to you thinking they are SO funny- worst suggestions so far- Fern and Wilbur complements of Alyn, and Burton and Ernie complements of Kori, Luke and Leia, Mork and Mindy, Romeo and Juliet (gross)
Same first letter- Madison and Mason- again a little confusing when you're labeling things- Matt is more willing to do this than me and I'm more willing to do it for boy/girl than boy/boy or girl/girl
Family names- often one from each side
References- to book characters, movies, people you know- these are the ones everyone suggests to you thinking they are SO funny- worst suggestions so far- Fern and Wilbur complements of Alyn, and Burton and Ernie complements of Kori, Luke and Leia, Mork and Mindy, Romeo and Juliet (gross)
**The YA author Shannon Hale (Princess Academy, Goose Girl...) is also expecting twins and did a few very clever posts on her blog about having and naming twins- most clever name idea was "in" and "ex"- get it- her last name is Hale? Oh, to have her talent for writing... Here are the links to a few posts from her blog if you want to check it out-
http://oinks.squeetus.com/2010/05/names-that-make-you-weep.html
Same type of name- both trendy, both old fashioned, both unusual, both Biblical
Same length of name- 1 syllable, 2 syllable, # of letters etc.
Names that can be switched forward and backward (anagrams/palindromes)- the most popular of these is Heaven and Neveah- I think most people just choose these because of the cool factor and probably would not name 2 separate children those. I do like a few like Emma and Amme (said Amy) or Ella and Alle (said Allie) much harder for boy/girl combinations but here are a few Aidan/Nadia, Alan/Nala, Allan/Nalla, Allen/Nella, Arik/Kira, Aron/Nora, Axel/Lexa and Aydan/Nadya.
Same ending sound- Addison/Jackson this one bothers me less than same starting sound
Gender neutral names- Although I do like some boy names that can also be girl names like Riley (and my name, and all my siblings for that matter) I wouldn't choose those for boy/girl twins because that's the nice part of telling people the names and not having to tell them which name goes with which kid. For example I met boy/girl twins and the mom told me their names were Sammy and Jessie- based just on hearing- not spelling, I had no idea which one was which then I heard they were short for Samuel and Jessica but what if they had been named Jesse and Samatha? Confusing huh?
Try to have nothing in common whatsoever- many people like this route because they think being a twin is hard enough without having your names connected too. I tend to lean more to this but I want some connection. At the same time many families will have naming patterns on accident or on purpose even without twins because they tend to like similar names- all Bibilcal names, family names, same sort of sounds, same length etc. Why should we have to work so hard to make them not similiar? Sometimes names that are too unsimiliar sound bad together- because they will be said together for a good chunk of their lives.
Same type of name- both trendy, both old fashioned, both unusual, both Biblical
Same length of name- 1 syllable, 2 syllable, # of letters etc.
Names that can be switched forward and backward (anagrams/palindromes)- the most popular of these is Heaven and Neveah- I think most people just choose these because of the cool factor and probably would not name 2 separate children those. I do like a few like Emma and Amme (said Amy) or Ella and Alle (said Allie) much harder for boy/girl combinations but here are a few Aidan/Nadia, Alan/Nala, Allan/Nalla, Allen/Nella, Arik/Kira, Aron/Nora, Axel/Lexa and Aydan/Nadya.
Same ending sound- Addison/Jackson this one bothers me less than same starting sound
Gender neutral names- Although I do like some boy names that can also be girl names like Riley (and my name, and all my siblings for that matter) I wouldn't choose those for boy/girl twins because that's the nice part of telling people the names and not having to tell them which name goes with which kid. For example I met boy/girl twins and the mom told me their names were Sammy and Jessie- based just on hearing- not spelling, I had no idea which one was which then I heard they were short for Samuel and Jessica but what if they had been named Jesse and Samatha? Confusing huh?
Try to have nothing in common whatsoever- many people like this route because they think being a twin is hard enough without having your names connected too. I tend to lean more to this but I want some connection. At the same time many families will have naming patterns on accident or on purpose even without twins because they tend to like similar names- all Bibilcal names, family names, same sort of sounds, same length etc. Why should we have to work so hard to make them not similiar? Sometimes names that are too unsimiliar sound bad together- because they will be said together for a good chunk of their lives.
Take the survey to the right>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> and let me know what you think you'd do if you were naming twins (although actually naming them is a whole different story- so don't judge), just out of curiosity.
When I was a young girl, I thought it would be fun to have twin girls and name them Harmony and Melody. Now that I have a husband and know how hard it is to name a kid, I don't know what we would do. We have a hard enough time agreeing on one name.
ReplyDeleteI remember a person telling me that you chould call your twins Pete and Repeat and Kate and Duplicate. She thought it was funny. I did not. I feel like twins are individuals. So I don't think I would want names too close together. As twins of the same sex, you get mixed up often enough. Much easier with having a boy and a girl. Of course when I was growing up at church we were called Fife Twin and most of the people didn't even bother trying to tell us apart. We started wearing necklaces with a big B and M in them so that we could be called by our first name. Each person is unique and it is hard when all people think about them is that they are a twin.
ReplyDeleteI love how you analize everything! Well obviously we just picked two names we liked. Nate I think got Ethan from the actor Ethan Hawke, and i have always like Hannah.
ReplyDeleteOurs both have middle names- we decided nate would pick the boy and i would pick the girl middle name. Hannah's is Lee, which is mine, my mom and my dad's middle names. Nate has always disliked that he just has an L as his middle name/initial, but decided to give it to Ethan anyways. Go figure.