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Baby names

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

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Original poster

Siblings names that go together, Is it important to you?

32 replies

Underachieving · 07/02/2011 20:23

I've been noticing that as well as names to go with middle names that some MNers are asking for names that go with thier older childrens names.

Before joining MN I'd never heard of picking childrens names to go with thier other childrens names so I'm wondering if it's quite a common thing parents do or if I've just been reading co-incidental threads?

I'm curious to know, is picking a baby name to go with your other children important to you and why/ why not?

OP posts:

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PorkChopSter · 07/02/2011 20:26

Yes, they need to have a 'feel' or you end up with Edward and Shaniia-Sheevan and it's wrong

lockets · 07/02/2011 20:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LyraBelaqua · 07/02/2011 21:03

Definately important to me to have a kind of flow. I have a Lyra and if I then had a Jane it just wouldn't sound or feel right. Does that make sense?

HildegardVonBlingen · 07/02/2011 21:08

Not important per se. But I think it tends to happen naturally - if you like poncey names (as I do), your children are likely to have names with a similar ponce-factor to one another's. Ditto traditional names, modish names and so on. But as for choosing names that "match" : no.

DesertOrchid · 07/02/2011 21:10

I think they have to at least sound reasonable together.

For example if your first two babies had very classic names eg Rebecca and Kate, having something more outlandish like Nimue or Merope might sound a little odd.

onimolap · 07/02/2011 21:13

I think they need to "go" together (or perhaps that should be "not actively fight each other"), simply because you'll be saying (and yelling) them one after the other so many, many times. But I have a horror of "matchy matchy" names too.

Sarsaparilllla · 07/02/2011 21:16

It isn't something I'd ever thought about tbh, surely if you like a certain 'type' of names then you'll pick similar types for all your DCs anyway

If you like traditional names for your first child it'd be a bit odd if you suddenly decided you preferred outlandish unusual names by your second so surely it's just down to personal preference

tigana · 07/02/2011 21:20

I think it matters, in that I would want to avoid rhyming or matchy names.

Go to the trouble to make sure the firstname and surname sound ok together, don't lead to unfortunate initials etc so same with sibling name.

SameOldJollster · 07/02/2011 21:22

yes am unreasonably obsessive fairly focused on this... just think it sounds odd otherwise. Although too matchy match is odd too. Where's the "stop over-thinking things and get a life" emoticon....

Rhubarbgarden · 07/02/2011 22:00

I don't think it matters at all. As long as they don't rhyme, as someone else mentioned.

nancythenaughtyfairy · 07/02/2011 22:37

I think most parents set out to treat their children fairly and may be that starts with the choice of name. It would seem cruel to give one a completely run-of-the mill name whilst the other had something outlandish and potentially embarassing.

At the end of the day though, we chose two names that I we liked, that may not be the best combination of two names ever selected (both ending in same letter), but they are similar tyoe, classic type names and we have two reasonably satisfied customers.

mathanxiety · 07/02/2011 23:17

Mine don't really go together but they're all family names so they sound like a set to me.

AllieW · 07/02/2011 23:20

I do attempt to make them go well together. Partly for the calling out reason that some have mentioned and also because if you're signing off a family card/whathaveyou it can look a bit odd if there isn't a flow to the names (if that makes sense). So far we've managed to choose two names with both Celtic and literary connections but which seem to be roughly the same era. Hopefully we will manage to maintain this should any further siblings be added.

Lonnie · 07/02/2011 23:51

They have to go togehter and y9u have to not have a clash situation

(think Emma and Dale for example)

BluddyMoFo · 07/02/2011 23:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsGruffalo · 09/02/2011 09:54

I have a DS, named Leo - and our favourite girl name is Emmeline. Do these flow, do you think, or do they sound silly together?
Leo & Ivy, for example, match in length, but I've always loved Emmeline...
Interesting thread.

notskiving · 09/02/2011 10:01

i made a mistake and gave 4th dc a name that didnt match the others (and is potentially embarrassing but i was depressed at the time and a bit loopy and unfortunately dh gave me my own way) and he hates it (unsuprisingly)! so probably a better idea to match in retrospect.

thefurryone · 09/02/2011 12:17

For me it would be a case of them not clashing rather than going together, so no rhyming or names that sound very like each other (i.e. anything that would make other people snigger0, but other than that I don't think I'd get overly hung up about it. Agree with others that both are likely to be reflective of your taste and therefore a "match" without you having to go to major amounts of effort.

*MrsGruffalo" I don't see any reason why Emmeline and Leo can't go together just because one is short and one is long. Think they sound fine.

5DollarShake · 09/02/2011 12:29

It's not a concept I'd come across either, until coming on here. I guess it's not so much about ensuring they 'go together' but rather ensuring they don't not go.

After all, our children will spend more of their lives away from their family as independent adults, as opposed to being part of a sibling set.

Do my two's names go? Dunno. They don't not go.

Blatherskite · 09/02/2011 13:22

I know a man who's parents named him after a Magic Roundabout character (time for bed said...) His siblings have very "normal" names, think James and Emma.

I always assume that his parents must have regretted giving him his unusal name for them to change tack so drastically for his siblings.

My Mum went to the extent of choosing me and my 2 sisters names which all end in the same two letters. The first inital of our middle names is the same too!! Good job DC4 was a boy as she was getting a bit desperate by then and the girls option was awful

cowboylover · 09/02/2011 18:38

I had never thought of it before MN either!

HildegardVonBlingen: I agree, if you like that a modern/old/different name for one you prop will be drawn to that sort of name for others.

JamieLeeCurtis · 09/02/2011 18:40

ish

I don't think it's an over-riding consideration. There's some you might want to avoid, though

Like Evan and Elle

ValiumSandwichTime · 09/02/2011 18:41

it was to me, but i've been told that that was stupid (on this board).

However, I once guessed that sisters weren't actually sisters because of their names if that makes sense. The naming styles were so different, to me it was obvious that one's mum had married the other's dad.

not that that mattered that I guessed that! they didn't mind, but when they told me they were surprised I'd worked it out. Names were mis matched along the lines of Casey and Alice.

JamieLeeCurtis · 09/02/2011 18:42

Lyra - I love Lyra

ValiumSandwichTime · 09/02/2011 18:43

ps, my children's names go like Marcus and Juliet. Not like Basil and Rosemary or Millie and Willie. So it's not matchy matchy.

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