How do people have a whole list of names?!

[Latenightanxiety]

I can’t even choose one name….and we are having twins!!!

We don’t know the genders yet, and in any case we’d like to be prepared in case they get it wrong but I’m panicking. We still have a long way to go but nothing even remotely takes our fancy.

It doesn’t help that our first child has an unusual name so we feel something top 50 would be out of the question.
So where does everyone find their children’s names?

This is very unimaginative but each myself and DH looked endlessly at those baby name websites; shortlisted any name we even remotely liked and put them in a shared doc.

We then went through our list together and either vetoed or each gave them a rating out of 3 to give a combined score out of 6.

I think if you're each selecting a lot of names it doesn't feel too precious, as you know there will be a editing step later on.

We had a separate column to record the worst possible nickname that we could think of too, just to make sure we could cope if our darling William was going to be known forever as "Wee Willie" for example.😅

Kelsey

Summer
Indi blu
River

Jaxon
Jenson

I tend to like classic names so not too difficult to come up with them, but for more unusual ones I would maybe download the full tables of ONS baby name data - there is a list in there of almost every baby name used in 2021

Would you be happy to share the name of your first child and see if we can get you started with some ideas you might like?

I just thought of nice names in my mind without reading any lists and then I suggested my fave 3 to my DH and we picked one.

You need at least four names, which isn't that many.
Look through the lists of names on the ONS site, and ignore the top 100 of each.

Pick names you like.

They don't need to be similar to the older sibling's name.
Try not to pick names that match e.g. Xavier and Xanthe - they're two individuals.
I'd avoid matching initials or twee pairings.
Give the elder twin the name that comes second alphabetically (e.g. Zoe is older than Anna)
Don't pick long names. You'll probably be calling their names a lot and 'Constantine and Angelica' or whatever is a lot longer than 'The Twins'

@Nicebloomers , that's not true, Summer has been replaced by Kelsey. They might be the very names OP might be looking for.
I think there is scope with the names suggested but I'd reinstate Summer.

Indi River has a good flow
Indi Summer has a sunny vibe
Indi Niall is the best though

Our first born is Ellaria (Ell-ar-ia) because we always liked the name aria and it grew from that. It wasn’t our aim to go unusual so we don’t need a set of two unusual names now but I don’t wanna go super normal either and the twins to wonder why their sibling got something unusual and they didn’t 😂

thanks for all the suggestions so far!

Ellaria is vowelly so I'd avoid vowelly names or names with 'El' in them (e.g Rafael/la, Elias/Elijah/Eliza, Oliver/Olivia)

I think it helps that I’m opinionated - lots of names I found twee or chavvy or too old fashioned or too popular - so I could instantly decide if it was a name I would consider using.

I’d only given names the vaguest thought (very busy during pregnancy) , but then one day DS’s name arrived in my head as I was on my way to work. I didn’t think ‘That’s a nice name, one to mention to DH’, I thought ‘Oh, so that’s what his name is’.

Boys I had a list of 5-6 names quite easily. Girls names were a nightmare, and obviously she was a girl. She was nameless for 2 full weeks, and the minute we found one we both said, oh, maybe too, she was called that name.

Maybe look at Italian baby name lists? Ellaria sounds close to Ilaria - a popular girls name in Italy. You might also want to check Spanish name lists too as they sometimes have similar styles.

Alternatively maybe look at your family tree for inspiration and see if there are any names you can tweak there.

if you stream/watch t.v. a lot, we used to avidly watch the credits roll for inspiration 😊

Your welcome…suggested a few names to you but unfortunately I got some horrible messages which I reported ..hope you find the names you like soon good luck

Hi OP.

Congratulations! Since the name is a combination of Ella and Aria - none of which are unique now - I’d think of the more common names you do both like by going through a top 500 lists for both sexes. Jot down any which sound pleasant to you and try to work out why eg which part of the word. I assume you’d be happy to combine again and even if you don’t want to, I’m sure you’ll stumble across a name which helps you realise letters or sounds or endings you both like and there are usually similar names.

Ellaria is lovely! I can see why it’s hard to find names to live up to it! A few names that came to mind in case they are useful -

Girls ideas -

Romilly
Selena
Samara
Jocelyn
Kiera
Lorelei
Genevieve
Penelope
Adeline
Annaliese
Lilibeth
Rosalie
Gabriella
Vivienne
Violet
Florence
Lilia
Cassia
Sienna
Miriam
Tabitha
Leonie
Isadora
Astrid
Lucia
Celestine

Boys ideas

Jasper
Rowan
Felix
Flynn
Finlay
Max
Rafael
Sebastian
Lucian
Gabriel
Nathaniel
Alistair
Ivan
Gilbert
Julian
Laurence
Patrick
Dominic
Callum
Dylan
Lachlan
Franklin
Caleb

I’d also look at fictional character names for inspiration since Ellaria is in Game of Thrones!

I don’t know why Saoirse came to mind as a sibling name…

Lysander too for a boy.

Both have a more common name sound with the ‘sha’ (eg Aisha or Sasha) and ‘ander’ (eg Alexander) but have a unique element added.

Horatio and Sheherazade

Kinder app!!bworked for us

ellaria and

tobias
silas
vincent
zachary
micah
tristan
nathaniel
xavier
dorian
rafferty
jenson
frederick

henrietta
indiana
luella
tallulah
rosanna
coralie
ottilie
lorelei
leilani
romilly
mariana
rosalie
adeline
clarissa

Also think what criteria is the most important to you. Based on Ellaria it sounds like you focused primarily on sounds you liked - so go through name lists and see if you are drawn to any other sounds you can mix/match again.

For me it was - Can you guess the age or background of a person with this name? (ie. Is it trendy?) Followed by - Is it easy to spell and pronounce? Followed by - Are there any nicknames for it, in case they don’t like the name?

So in my case I looked through years of historical popular name lists first (since I didn’t care about popularity as such as long as it was consistent) looking for timeless names - and what style peaked suddenly to avoid. Everyone has their own name priorities, figuring out yours can help you narrow things down.

Some people just like thinking about names!
What names they would have liked for themself, in a parallel universe, or names for possible future children, etc.
Names from books, TV, movies. Names from people you have met in your life.

Congratulations, and I am sure you find lovely names for your twins!