Twin name help!

[TillyLucille]

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.

Violet and Penelope are stunning together for twins. We loved Penelope too but went with a different name in the end, but we would have used Nell as a nn if that’s something you might consider. My daughter has two middles as well, although they’re both quite short, one was our second name choice that I couldn’t let go of altogether and one a grandmother’s name. Good luck choosing!

@Elmo303 Thanks! I do understand the length thing as it was a concern of mine and believe me I've been through 1001 different names to try and help it. The flow of the names and using ones we love just became more of a priority because we couldn't find anything that felt right.

I prefer Kate with both the Violet and Penelope options but we can obviously only go with one lol. Cecilia is staying no matter what even if it is 3 syllables lol. The only thing we could do is go with Tess instead of Terese or Teresa. I honestly just feel like we're not really honoring that grandma as she's never gone by Tess or Tessa in her life. I felt Terese was close enough to pass but not them. My mother in law chose to only go by Kate so that works.

I even thought about using their middle names instead but they don't work. One does not sound right with our surname at all and the other does not work with Cecilia and does nothing to shorten the length of Penelope's name.

One thing I have literally hair thought of as I type is maybe using Wren instead of Kate. Kath-Ren, does that work? That way Wren and Tess are still taken from their names but it doesn't seem so one sided. I'm not 100% though, I still feel like it's not really honoring them. I may just be over thinking it however.

I guess it we'd go with one of these if so...

Violet Cecilia Kate & Penelope Margot Tess
Violet Cecilia Wren & Penelope Margot Tess
Violet Cecilia Tess & Penelope Hazel Wren

I don't get showy or aspirational however from using two middle names however. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be putting on my daughters by giving them three names.

just thought of... Not sure where hair came from! That's not even a regular typo lol.

Violet Cecilia Kate and Penelope Hazel Wren get my vote! I really like Wren but I don't think I've ever heard it before. In my opinion the shorter middle names flow much better. When I see those written down, the focus is on the lovely first names which get lost a little bit with 2 longer middle names.

I think it's normal to consider nicknames- every name book/website I read said to consider nicknames other kids might use before finalising a name choice so I think you're doing the right thing! The problem is that if you pick a nickname, other people might not necessarily use the same one. My DH spent months trying to get the nickname he'd decided on for DD to catch on but it hasn't with anyone except him. I think he's on the verge of giving up..hopefully. If you love Poppy & would mind if people don't use it as a NN, what about using it as a first name instead of Penelope? Or a middle name for Violet?

Sorry, my mistake, I've just noticed it's either Kate or Wren rather than both to be used together

@MTA Violet and Poppy would be too matchy for our liking. We also have to watch out with Hazel and Wren actually, now I'm looking back at it. We also have to be careful with one syllable middles being placed directly before our very short, one syllable surname.

I'll have to see what I can come up with after yet another play around although I really have done nothing but that for 3 weeks. Even looking back at it now... Terese is 2 letters and 1 syllable longer than Tess. There's also only 1 letter difference in Margot and Hazel/Winter. I'm not sure if it really makes THAT much of a difference lol.

That is exactly my point with the nickname thing. People naturally shorten names especially with a longer one like Penelope. I don't understand why it's such a crime or labelled ridiculous to discuss your options/preference before they arrive.

Penelope Margot Tess gives you initials PMT.

Penelope Cecelia Tess (or Thérèse) might be nicer.
Then Violet Margot Katherine.

I like long names paired with short surnames, and I love two middle names.

Violet Penelope Terese & Darcey Aurora Kate

I strongly dislike the name Penelope.

I have twins.

It doesn’t matter about middle names, pick whatever you like (just make sure the initials are ok).

For the first names, stand at the back door and yell them together several times and check that it’s easy to do.

Check that they don’t merge or blur.

Check that the first name and surname reads well and sounds nice.

Best wishes for your babies. Twins are hard work but amazing.

I think the middle names are important to you and as such you shouldn’t mess with the family names too much as they will lose that important meaning. And ultimately you won’t be calling them by all three names everyday so as previous posters have said it doesn’t matter too much. You just need to find a way to incorporate all the names you like without losing the beauty of the first names. Just wondering if this combo might work for you as it keeps the names immediately after the first name short so they don’t crowd the first names, but enables you to include your family and favourite names:

Violet Hazel Terese
Penelope Kate Cecelia

By having the shorter, less syllabled (just made up a word!) names after Violet and Penelope, it lets them shine a bit more.

Penelope is not my cup of tea but I prefer it to Darcey. I think Violet is pretty.

Both my DH and my DF have two middle names and it's never caused them any issues, however the second middle name always gets dropped in daily life (such as on credit cards and letters etc.), so I would put the middle name that you prefer first in the order IYSWIM.

I wouldn't worry about nicknames just yet, they will likely develop over time once the babies arrive and you see what they look like (or you might find you use nicknames that aren't even diminutives of their names!).

I prefer Penelope nn Poppy, though I also like Nelle

I like Violet Cecilia Terese and Penelope Beatrix Late best

Violet Terese (Letty) and

Penelope Kate (Penny)

All the other completed names and nicknames are just a bit, well, much.

Don't get silly and showy.

Darcey is just awful now BTW

I'd calm down with all the middle name business. They rarely get used anyway. Focus on the first names.

Oh just saw your last post about a third middle name. Yeah right

My radar must be kaput. I don't usually get sucked in by these ridiculous baby names threads (and why is it always twins?)

Are you for real 😂 You may be the most pretentious person I've ever encountered on mumsnet, or anywhere else!

You don't get control over what nicknames your children end up with - kids at school will decide that. I bet my mum didn't envisage all the hundreds of sexual nickname possibilities I ended up with by the boys at school when she gave me my name!

@Catlin Oh honey, the three middle name thing was clearly a JOKE! You're right, your radar is kuput! 🙄

@egg Where have I said that? I believe I said that they will chose what they go by when they're older and that their opinions/wants outrank ours. Parents kind of choose what names and nicknames their children have when they're young because you know they can't tell you what they'd prefer.

The nickname thing really isn't that big of a deal. If you're losing sleep over it than you've got bigger problems than me being pretentious.

I'm not saying that can't do by anything other than those nicknames. What a ridiculous assumption 🙄 Honestly 😂

I didn't ask an opinion on nicknames or the FACT we are using two middle names. You can get your panties in a twist about things all you like. People use two middle names. People also discuss what nicknames naturally form from their children's first names. If that upsets and offends you then maybe you shouldn't be on a site like this. If you're going to call people pretentious and ridiculous while acting like a child who doesn't get their own way then you've got more than a problem than I have.

@Elmo Clearly it does matter a lot to some people 😂

@Penny and @Matha

I've literally been through everything in terms of what works and what doesn't; flow, initials, trying to shorten it, etc. Those examples above weren't thought out because they were off the top of my head. I'm looking back and seeing the faults of them myself.

Violet Cecelia and Penelope Beatrix is great.

And then whatever the third name is.

Just to let you know when you tag someone with the @ sign you need to do their full posting name or random people like me get messages from Mumsnet saying we’ve been tagged in a thread that we’ve not even been involved in.

I do have twins however, they were born at 37 weeks so I feel your pain. One of them even has TWO middle names. Good luck with everything.