To wonder why so many posts on baby name threads ask for names that match siblings

[Witchofzog]

I have always been baffled by this. If you like a child's name then does it really matter if it "goes" with a siblings name? After all the child, when it goes to school, will be known by its own name anyway. Does it matter if you have Freddy and Freya or Freddy and Imogen? Providing you like both names stand alone?

Sometimes it's nice to get others opinions if you don't want to let family or friends know of your choices.

I know twins called Isabel and Luna. Both lovely names, but one is modern and the other more common. They don't 'match'.

Its for advice on if you've used a 'family' name for the first and second child then any following children, do you continue doing it that way, will they feel they've missed out?
Do you use a family name, then for first or middle name? Advice on which is better, which goes better?
Also having middle names for one child then not for another?

That's true Sparklemummy. If you don't want to tell people then it is nice to seek opinions of others. It just surprises me how many posters stipulate that the names must match

I didn't even bother with middle names. I could not tell you anyone's middle name with the exception of very close family.

I used to know a family with 4 daughters, three of whom had beautiful French names - along the lines of Genevieve, Lucille, Celestine - while the fourth was called Joan.

I often wondered whether it made Joan feel rather left out. It did seem quite incongruous with the others.

Of course it matters. If you had a Jayden-Jai and an Octavia or a Lexii-Mae and a Ptolemy they’d sound ridiculous.

I really don't think other people care as much as you think what you name your children.

As long as I've known her an acquaintance has complained that her name was too matchy matchy to her brother think Paul and Paula

Yet now she has children their names are very matchy not masculine and feminine form of the same name but extremely close in both spelling and sound and i find it really strange given how angry she always was about her own name but its not a question you can ask without implying you don't like their choice; which i dont unfortunately so embarrassing for all concerned, i dislike both names individually and combined they are dire.

It can matter - I know a sibling trio of James, Frances and River.

They don't have to be matchy matchy but I think names that vaguely go together is preferable . Apart from anything else kids can be funny about their names, and I can totally see "why did you call me X when my siblings got normal/interesting/modern names"

My ex husband used to say 'children of a different dad' about the weirdly unmatched name-type family. The Octavia, Imogen and Tyler-Jo type names. It's never really bothered me.

But then I've got five, three girls with really unusual names, and two boys with good old 'Top ten' names...

I'm not entirely sure what counts as 'matched'.

My own kids have names from very different origins, one Old Testament, one Victorian but both are two syllables, five letters, 3 of which are the same. Is that matching? Who knows. We just liked the names and they go with my surname well enough.-

My daughter's have names not dissimilar to the Persephone and Jean combo mentioned above. They're different people, and they both suit their names!

Also the Persephone goes by Percy, and Percy and Jean feel like they go together

(Not their actual names, but very close! Although if DH hadn't vetoed it I would have had a Persephone)

(Gah not sure where the apostrophe came from!)

I.always thought it was more to.do with it you like classic names for example ,so.you have a Robert and Victoria than a third child called Kayleigh -May it wouldn't really go with their siblings names?

Could be x2boys but perceptions of what is a classic name in itself changes through time.

I've lost count of the number of people who've told me my girl's Victorian name is 'old fashioned' while my boy's 3,000 years older one is 'modern'.

Very true Arnold and of course names come in and out of fashion and what i.would have thought of as "an old persons" name in the 80,s are often quite fashionable now ,I had a school friend in the mid 80,s who had a very old fashioned name she was called Grace

Of course it matters. If you had a Jayden-Jai and an Octavia or a Lexii-Mae and a Ptolemy they’d sound ridiculous.

To be fair, they'd sound ridiculous with or without any siblings.

My children's names are definetly from different shelves. First DC got a very common name. DH realised this and so chose a name I'd never heard of before for DC2. I hadn't even considered how they sounded together.

I think it's more that eyebrows are likely to be raised at a group of siblings called Thomas, Victoria, Peter and Sparkle-Cushion. Or Tia, Lia, Mia and Persephone.

I think eyebrows will be raised at Sparkle-Cushion even if he/she is an only child :) Ditto Tsunami - really someone chose that for their DC? It seems a bit insensitive.

I don't think people are actually asking for matchy-matchy names, OP, rather they may want to avoid just that, or rhymes, or suggestions of a name they've already used, etc, as well as offering a guide to taste.

My DH’s first and middle names don’t go together at all, think Alexander Dwayne Smith, and I find it a bit weird, names sort of go together or they don’t.

Yes that's a bit of an odd mix Baby!