Twins with very different names

[FirstTimeMumOfTwins]

DH and I have very different taste when it comes to baby names. Before I got pregnant we talked for years about what we might one day call a baby, and could never find one name we both liked! We ended up having identical twin girls and eventually found two names we both love, although they are certainly not matchy. One is very English and the other is an old Scottish name (I am half Scottish). The only thing is that they both have the same number of syllables. Everyone keeps commenting on how they don't match Does it matter? My response is usually that they are identical, so it's nice for them to have names that are very different. But it is starting to bother me and I kind of wish they had more similar names. What do you think?

Two of my children have names that “match”. When I was contemplating the second name over 10 years ago a poster on here told me that they would be “ridiculed at parties” as an absurdity.

So you can’t win

BTW I called my second DC and can confirm that neither they nor I have ever been ridiculed, although perhaps it all goes on behind my back

Lots of families have children with names which don't 'go' - perhaps because some are adopted, or they're a blended family, or some are half siblings.

My siblings names don't go with mine. They're all from my Dad's first marriage. My Mam is Welsh so I have a Welsh name. We've never had any comments about the difference.

Don't worry about it OP. It's good to ensure that twins aren't too matchy, so as long as you don't have Sheri and Teri, I think you're good.

Twins named Cerys and Rosie wouldn't strike me as odd at all. So if your girls have names with a similar style, I wouldn't even notice.

I think people are thinking matching as in Bill and Ben. I would have chosen the same type of name, e.g. both classic or modern, not two very different ones. I wouldn't want one of them to think she drew the short straw.

Twins with matching names? I don't know any. Why would you do it? Especially if they're identical twins? Bloody hell, let them have something that is theirs and theirs alone, without being linked to another person for once.

We chose our DT’s names because we liked them - not because they go together, have similarities (they don’t). They are siblings not joined at the hip. Being an individual was more important to us when deciding on their names - we had enough to consider ensuring the names worked in my mother tongue, DH’s and where we were living - the names had to be pronounceable in three languages.

Jusr compare the names of Elon Musks children and you'll feel much better. With you at least they're all human british names.

It's much more stupid to have an Ann and Dan or Eric and Derek.

Oh yes I definitely don't mean matching as in rhyming / one letter different etc! I just meant from the same "family" of names as PP have said. Be they twins or siblings of different ages really. It's just because they are twins that people make comments I think.

they don't have the same number of syllables or start with the same letter (so not Bill and Ben)

I have twins and really notice how they are portrayed on TV with matching names - I find it said they aren’t given equal individuality.

I think it’s weird with twins if they have very different styles of names. Sorry, but I do. Twins are more likely to be linked than just normal siblings, being exactly the same age.

Totally different names are better than Jerry and Kerry but not much imo.

I think the trend for matching twin names, or eve sibling names, is quite bizarre. Pick the names you want, OP, and ignore what anyone else thinks.

I think it's far more bizzare to give a child the same first name as a parent, so David Smith has a son and they name him....David Smith. Lots more d people justify this.

Ignore the idiots, @FirstTimeMumOfTwins. You are right to name them a) something you & your DP like and b) as individuals. As long as it's not like Pegasus & Brian I can't see why anyone feels the urge to comment.

I think it’s a good thing that your twins have divergent names, OP. Matchy-matchy twin names are very twee and it’s no bad thing to establish them as distinct individuals from an early age.

I think it’s weird with twins if they have very different styles of names. Sorry, but I do

Why?

Men have very different names, no one has ever commented and in their big high school teachers never link them together (even the one shared class they attend the teacher didn’t twig till parents evening)

They don’t get ‘lumped’ together like the other 8 pairs in their year.

It doesn’t matter, I prefer it when they don’t match, my sisters who are twins have very different names.

I remember reading on an old thread someone who'd gone to school with twin girls, one named by each parent. They described the names as being comparable to Seraphina Violetta and Lisa Louise. With something like that, you could expect a few questions.
But, no, it's perfectly normal to just choose two names you like, that's what I did with my twins.

Like a pp, we chose two names for our twins that we liked. One had a connection to my side of the family and the other to DH’s side. One friend did say it sounded like we’d named one after a Spanish princess and the other after a housemaid, but we really didn’t care. We never intended to dress them similarly or treat them as anything other than two individuals who happened to be born at the same time, so matchy names were never in the cards. They’re 17 now and their very different names still suit them perfectly. 😀

I think if the one name is really usual and one really normal say:
Jane and Evangelina
Or one "unique" and one not
Lenoxx and Oliver

Or viewed as posh or common
Quentin and Jayden

Then they might get fucked off when they are older that they got the boring/weird /posh/common name.

But Scottish and English sbould be fine.

Is it just me that is thinking of the twin aliens that work in the MIB HQ “completely unpronounceable and bob!”

Not matching names sound lovely for individual children

Beside the point but I think Cerys and Rosie are fab together!

I think it’s nice for them to be seen as separate individuals and not a unit.

I knew twin boys once, they were Michelle (sounding like the girls name, I don't know how it was spelled, I assumed it was French, maybe??) and George. All the Michelle's friends called him Shelly.
Weird.

Michel is the equivalent of Michael

@Thisismytimetoshine

I knew twin boys once, they were Michelle (sounding like the girls name, I don't know how it was spelled, I assumed it was French, maybe??) and George. All the Michelle's friends called him Shelly. Weird.

Michel, I imagine.

If u like the names just have them