Active discussions

Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Twin name help!

106 replies

TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 17:32

Hi! Our twin girls could make an appearance anyday now and we are still struggling on finalising their names! I've posted on a couple of other sites but we need all the help we can get lol.

We will be naming one of our girls Violet but we're still undecided on her sister's name. It will either be Darcey/Darcy or Penelope. Nicknames will be LettY (Violet), Cece (Darcey) and Penny or Poppy (Penelope)

We then have these full name options to chose from...

Violet Cecilia Terese & Penelope Margot Kate, Penelope Beatrix Kate or Penelope Winter Kate

Violet Cecilia Kate & Penelope Hazel Terese

Violet Penelope Kate & Darcey Ophelia Terese

Violet Penelope Terese & Darcey Aurora Kate or Darcey Aurora Caitlin

Which do you prefer; Darcey or Penelope? Also, which full names would you go with? We're not wanting matchy names for our girls but we would prefer for them to sound nice together and be similar in style.

A bit of background: We're using two middle names; one of our choice and our honor names, Kate and Terese. Using two middle names is set. Our surname is short, one syllable and begins with Y. Our surname has been very difficult to work with! We had settled on Violet and Aurora for first names since finding out we were having two girls, we then realised Aurora sounded awful with our surname. We then went through a very long list of potential names and decided on Cecilia to again have to give it up because of our surname. That left us with Penelope which we love and couldn't imagine not using somewhere now. Losing Cecilia, with the nickname Cece, was really tough however so we decided to play around with our other options and decided to either use it as Violet's middle name or debated using Felicity (Cici) or Darcey instead of Penelope. We recently gave up Felicity as it didn't work for us and with our other options. Ophelia is the middle name we always thought we'd use with Violet but bumped it for Cecilia when we couldn't use it as a first.

Sorry for that long winded post! Thank you so much for all your help.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
Original poster
TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 21:08

Length was something I was super focused on before so I do agree but it's very difficult to find names you love that are short, work with your first name choices, grandmas' names and an awkward surname lol. It slipped down on our priority list a bit lol.

I do think we'll end up keeping Penelope and Terese separate even if Cecilia Kate does flow a little better.

OP posts:
MikeUniformMike · 20/02/2018 21:05

Darcey is awful. Sounds like Arsey.
Cecilia - great makes me think of cess pits.
Margot - makes me think of Maggot
Winter - grey and dreary. It's a season not a name.
Ophelia - nice but sounds like Feel ya.
Aurora - lovely, but not if you can't say R
Penny is ok but quite funny if you are in France.
Violet looks like Violent and sounds like Vile-et.

MakeTodayAmazing · 20/02/2018 20:56

DD has 2 middles names. We decided to use baby's GM's name as her middle name (very luckily both GM's have the same name!). DH & I have said for about 10 years we'd one day have a daughter called DD's name. Her first name and GM's name are quite short & didn't look right with our short surname so we gave her another middle name we both loved. Lots of people have told us how lovely her name is so lots of people obviously don't mind the 2 middle names!

In saying that, in my opinion, if someone has 2 middle names, the names need to be quite short. If 3 names are all long I think it looks a bit much.

Violet & Penelope are my favourite together. If it was me, I'd choose shorter middle names to go with your set second middle names. Then all the focus is on the lovely first names rather than people focusing on the slightly unusual middle name. Congratulations on your girls! Smile

Original poster
TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 20:51

It won't be you living with them either so no need to worry :) As I've said THREE times now, I know people who have 2 and they've never had an issue. It's really not as much of a burden.

OP posts:
Original poster
TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 20:49

I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea but I've literally said that it's set 4 times now lol. If you don't like it, move along because it's not changing lol. As I've said people I know have had no issues with having two. If we go on to have anymore children they will also have two as we'd honor someone close to us on both sides. It's just we've given one honor name to each child this time.

I'd like opinions on Darcy and whether or not it would be a better fit than Penelope. I'd also be very grateful if you could give you favorite full name combo from our choices. Not the amount of names we're giving our children or how many options we have to chose from.

Thank you for those who have already. You've been very helpful. Sorry if I sound cranky but well I'm almost 37 weeks pregnant with twins and struggling to do just about anything, I ache, am hardly sleeping and have had to completely rename my girls in the past few weeks after having names set for ages so yeah, I am a bit cranky lol.

OP posts:
SoFancy · 20/02/2018 20:49

Violet and Penelope.

Just choose whatever middle names you like best, and wait and see what sticks on the nickname front when they're born.

Sugarpiehoneyeye · 20/02/2018 20:42

Violet Cecelia Kate and Darcey Ophelia Terese.

MikeUniformMike · 20/02/2018 20:42

No, but it won't be you living with the names.
Call them whatever you like.

HotCrossBunFight · 20/02/2018 20:41

I don't get all the middle name hate!

Original poster
TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 20:41

We can't use Cecilia as a first name as it doesn't work with our surname. It would be first name if it did.

My mind would have never gone there with Darcy/Darcey. I think we're likely to stick with Penelop. I was more so looking for opinions on Darcey so that's something to consider. These are relatively new combos that we've thought of. They allow us to use more of our favorite names, it's a brainstorm more than anything.

OP posts:
Original poster
TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 20:35

Again, we're using two middle names. This is set and not what I'm looking for opinions on. Looking pretty when written down isn't a priority for us.

OP posts:
mathanxiety · 20/02/2018 20:33

I hate Darcey. It's got 'arse' in the middle. Arsey is a much more likely nn than Cece.

I thought when I read your first paragraph that Violet and Cecelia would be a lovely twin set, especially as you intend to use the nn Cece.

If you don't want to use Cecelia as a first name then I would choose Penelope.

MikeUniformMike · 20/02/2018 20:27

Penelope and Violet. aka Penny and Letty. Ditch the third middle names.
Darcey/Darcy/Darcie is awful.

Use Kate and Terese as middle names.
Penelope Kate Surname and Violet Terese Surname look much prettier than the other strings of long middle names.

KnockMeDown · 20/02/2018 18:32

I also think that using their grandmother's names as middle names is a lovely thing. The other middle names are a matter of personal preference.

KnockMeDown · 20/02/2018 18:29

I think Violet nn Letty and Penelope nn Poppy are fab - cute for when they are little and great grown-up names to.

Original poster
TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 18:23

As I've said two middles is a set decision. It's fine if people wouldn't personally do it but we are. Kate and Terese are their grandmas' names, well variants of.

OP posts:
LoveB · 20/02/2018 18:22

Violet Penelope Kate and Darcey Ophelia Terese

Lovely!

Pittcuecothecookbook · 20/02/2018 18:16

Scratch that, 13 names! Also, what's an honor name?

They all seem a little OTT to me but then I have a shortened name as my first name and no middle name to speak of at all!

Original poster
TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 18:16

Gorgeous name! I think we have had Violet Ophelia Terese and Penelope Cecilia Kate as option along the way lol.

OP posts:
Pittcuecothecookbook · 20/02/2018 18:15

Wow, I'm struggling to name my 1 baby girl and you've 6 names!

HotCrossBunFight · 20/02/2018 18:12

She's actually Penelope Cecelia so I very much approve of your taste in names!

Original poster
TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 18:11

Thank you.

Those two have been options but we want to keep Cecilia and use it somewhere . If we went with Darcy/Darcey then we wouldn't because it feels too matchy. It's one of the reasons why I included what nicknames we'd use in my post lol.

OP posts:
userabcname · 20/02/2018 18:08

I prefer Darcey to Penelope.
I would go with Darcey Aurora Kate and Violet Penelope Terese.
Violet is a lovely choice!

Original poster
TillyLucille · 20/02/2018 18:07

We're happy with 2 middles. Our surname is very short and it's very rare that all 4 names will be said out loud together. I know people who have 2 or have given their children to who haven't had any issue. If we were just having one, they'd have 2 to honor both sides of the family, we just decided to stick with that decision and spilt to honor names to one each.

OP posts:
HotCrossBunFight · 20/02/2018 18:05

One of my twins in Penelope. I call her Pops. Its a lovely, lovely name!

Swipe left for the next trending thread