To consider if sibling names "match"

[CassandraBarrett]

I commented on a baby name that I had heard to my DH. Not in a negative way, I liked the name.
I said "X's new baby is called Ethan. I like it. The older children are Lucy and Roberta*. I think Roberta doesn't really match the other two" (not real names)

DH said I'm the only person in the world that thinks that way and what does it matter if names match anyway. I disagree. I think a lot of people consider if there children's names match.

Eg Alex, Stephen, Bobby - yes.
Apollo, Chase and Stephen - no

So YABU nobody notices if names match
YANBU people think about it

My uncles' names (dad's brothers) are Matthew, Mark and Luke. My dad's name is... Kenneth. It always tickles me.

It's not BAD if they don't match, but I would notice it and probably find it odd for 5 min.
And then move on and eat cheese.

I've got three children, the first two are boys and both have traditional, quite obviously Scottish names (we live in Scotland).

When we came to have the third child who is a girl, I just didn't love any of the traditional Scottish girls names at all. We went through every single one. So she has a totally different name - think Fergus, Angus and Louise.

I love her name, I love all of them, but it still irks me a bit that they don't match! No idea why at all, it's not like they will be talked about as a set beyond childhood really, but still...

Judging by the number of posts that say something like 'What is Sebastian/Tallulah/Kayleigh's sibling called?' you clearly aren't alone in caring, but I personally think that the kind of people who want a matching sibling name set are probably the same kind of people who like 'pops' of colour and matching kettles and toasters.

I know families where all kids have the same first letter.
I also know a family where the kids name spell out the name of the first child (although they are one letter short).
It's a bit of fun but I don't think it really matters.
What does matter is that their names don't make them subject to ridicule/bullying
What initials spell out also matters a bit in my opinion. You probably wouldn't want DUD or TIT, or DIM or RIP, etc

They don't have to be especially matchy..too much would be naff bit they shouldn't clash too much.

So Matt and Max wouldn't work for example.

They should be of a similar theme. So Robert and Wolf would sound ridiculous as would Horatio and Jayden.

It was fairly important to me when choosing DD2s name that it went well with DD1s name. It wasn't the only consideration, obviously, but it was definitely something I thought about.

As others have said, if someone has children called Thomas and Elizabeth and calls the third Hunter (for example) I would notice that it is a different category of name. I wouldn't spend a long time thinking about it but I would notice.

We didn't plan it but our three DC have the same 'type', ie Royal names / flowers / book characters etc.

I didn't even realise until DC3 was a few months old!

It doesn't matter if names don't match, the only thing that matters in my view, is that that their names flow nicely into their surnames,

My uncles' names (dad's brothers) are Matthew, Mark and Luke. My dad's name is... Kenneth. It always tickles me.

That's brilliant Did your grandparents not notice what they'd done, or did they notice but just not mind?

I think names that "go" are nice - but not necessarily too matchy.
We are fairly fixed on Naomi for our baby, and I am a little sad as I think this rules out my favourite boy's name, Nathan, if she ever has a brother! (and second-favourite, Nicholas!)

We are trying to chose a name for DC2. The one we like starts with the same letter as DC1. I'm now worried people are going to think it's too matchy matchy...

When we came to name DC3 we realised that DC1&2 had a syllable pattern to their first/middle/last names (3, 2, 1). Once known I had to carry on as no other names sounded right, DC3 has a lovely name we'd never considered before but matches siblings and suits him.

I don’t judge as such but I do find it interesting. I know a trio of siblings where babies 1 and 2 were planned and baby 3 was a surprise after a 10 year gap with a very different (much less traditional) name, I love the idea that at 35 as opposed to 25 they went ‘fuck it lets go rogue’

I also find it interesting when half siblings have very different names, it makes me wonder if the former and current partners were very different

@mistermagpie the names do match as they are traditional.

If the names were Fergus, Angus and Sharon I think people would scratch their heads for a minute then continue their day.

I've got friends where their name and their siblings names don't match. In a few cases all the siblings names are completely unmatching something like Fergus, Gary and Omar but there is only something like 6 years between all the siblings.

Well, maybe you should consider how it will sound when you’re yelling all the names across the park. The parents of Sam an’ Ella didn’t think that one through.

Oh and for me DD has a name ending in an ‘ee’ sound and if I had a DD2 I’d avoid another ‘ee’ ending so it didn’t seem to twee.

@AndcalloffChristmas if I heard of John and Paul I’d probably assume parents were catholic

Made me think of this meme!!

I think is you have four children and call them James, Henry, Elizabeth and Starchild, you should expect raised eyebrows.

I can't even see how the names matches or not in your examples

Unless you are talking about the Kardashian, or someone calling their sons Tom, Dick and Harry, I would never notice.

My kids name don't "match".

Also there are some parents where one parent names all the sons while the other names all the daughters e.g. Noah, Mathew, Georgia, Benjamin, Florence. So the boys and girls names are from different groupings.

Our boys have traditional names, we said if we had a girl we might be a bit more creative. Not a lot, but a bit.

YANBU. My partner’s Granny gave all her children very normal typical 60s/70s names- think Andrew, Sharon etc- and then made one up for his mum, a totally unique name. Always thought it looked funny as a combo!

@notdaddycool I get that. I think there’s a lot more of a spectrum on girls’ names. According to ONS stats there were only 22 girls named my daughters name last year but it’s a well known and recognisable name I’ve seen raised on here a few times. With boys I always think it’s a choice between William and Xenon. Very little in the comparative middle ‘space’

I get accused of peddling an urban myth, but I have genuinely come across a family of boys called T-Jay, C-Jay, D-Jay and a little girl who will one day thank her stars she was born female called Sian.

I also knew two boys with perfectly normal names that grew up to be a hellish combination - Anthony and Declan.