What's the best combination of names for twins?

[MerryMarigold]

Tamsin and James Emmanuel

Mirissa and Marco Emmanuel

(Mirissa is a beautiful beach in Sri Lanka where dh is from)

As a mother of twins I would say don't do the M&M thing! I think the names need to be and sound very different if not its confusing for them when they are small. Its also really annoying to have the same first initials as a sibling or parent even if you have middle names.

bob and gill are fab merry

I can confirm the same initial as a parent is a reet royal pita. It seemed to give my mum carte blanche to open my mail when I was growing up

Mind you, that can happen at any age.....I am Mrs J and DH is Mr SJ and depending on typefaces and how awake we are, we often open each other's mail. But that's OK as we have no secrets from each other, unlike the deeply guarded private life of the teenager!

I love sparkles suggestion to mix em all up a bit

they are all lovely names though, whichever way you choose to do it.

Mirissa and Marco. I like Mirissa and love the sentiment behind it!

Spelling ?
God my name is about as common as it gets.
I have to spell it constantly.
" No its not ael, its el,"
I thought el was the norm, but apparently not.
And I have to spell my surname all the time aswell. One of the most normal, well known, easily described surnames, based on a famous street. Those of you on Facebook who know what my name is, my god.
So spelling, is not a real issue to me.
Is it to most people ?

Obs I would say that these days, the standard of spelling in this country has declined massively since we were at school. So even if, (like you and I), you have a fairly normal name, people always misspell it. My DH is Jonathan. I believe there is only one form of this name. Yet you would not believe how many variations you see of it.

i think mirissa and marco is nice. i have b/g twins and i wanted them to have at least complimentary names as they will so often be said together, however, i completely unintentionally ended up with two names that both start with R and are both RU so i have ruby and rufus and it rolls together well and i used to be kind of embarrassed that they were both RU's like i had sought out two RU names but it just happened and the response is always "awwwwww, ruby and rufus" from people, everyone seems to go all gooey when they hear their names, its really funny. twins are a unit, i think that its nice to acknowledge it but yes agree on holly and molly being too over the top. also with two names that are very different, i know adult twins, chandra and andrew and they both felt ripped off for different reasons.

I would agree that misspelling is rife nowadays. Have learned that it is not just foreign names that get it since I married (but they were a bit funnier before)!

Pronunciation perplexes me sometimes tho, how on earth people can think my surname is 'Inns' as in pubs or 'Einz' as in beans is beyond me.... But still nothing compared to what I used to get called! Makes life more interesting I suppose and my maiden name was always a good talking point!

Anyway have you decided yet MerryMarigold???

Dh refuses Mirissa and Marco! Am worried about Mirissa and James even if I could persuade Dh to go for Mirissa. Spent ages looking at names last night, back to drawing board. Think am gonna have a list and just wait and see if inspiration strikes. Added Evelyn, Charis and Kirsten to girls! Mmmm...am liking Jonathan, MonkeyM now you mention it.

so come on then - give us your short list!!!

you have such an exotic surname MerryM that you can get away with lovely exotic sounding firstnames.

Our surname is so common, that a lot of our choices are famous people/slebs/historical figures and it kind of puts you off....one of the reasons why Samuel has dropped off our list!

I wouldn't give twins names with the same initial or a similar sounding syllable. It's twee and doesn't differentiate between two entirely separate siblings.

So Tamsin and James would be out, as would Mirissa and Marco Emmanuel.

LOL Lacka but he is soo cool!!!!!!!

that's waht DH said sparkles! The fact we are using a middle name beginning L makes it worse

As a twin I would also say don't have two Ms. My sister and I have names beginning with the same letter and we hate it.

My ds is a Jonathan, so obviously I'll vote for that. I also like Kirsten.

Really Lacks?!! Oh go on use it - that would be the coolest name!

I also like Kirsten/Kristen... MerryM

I would go for Mirissa and James or Tamsin and Marco (I like Tamsin and Marco better I think).

sparkletoes, I thought for a moment that you were proposing Kirsten and Kristen as a pair! Awful. I think twins need more individuation not less than siblings. I had twins at school who were both known as "twinny" which must have been really upsetting for them. My twin cousins were known as "the boys" by their dad, and that was not good for them either. Find two names you really like in their own right. They will go together as soon as your children are born. After all you don't worry about "matching" names with couples do you?

Lacks My cousin's eldest DS is called Samuel and has the same surname as you do...I don't think he has a middle name though! He is about 12 so I think it was before the person you're referring to made it big time.

oh HANA I love the suggestion of Sienna, especially with the obsession with the colour orange!!!

You could also go for clementine!

Lacks, had to at Samuel L! Guess you're not going for Latoya either ! I think it is good having a 'plain' surname,'exotic' names actually sound cooler with it. There was a midwife in the hospital the other day called: PRUDENCE JONES. I mean, what a fab name is that? I would love to have Prudence, but Prudence Emmanuel is just too much!

Liking the orange name idea, but Sienna Emmanuel is a bit of a tongue twister! Whoever pointed out about all the M's had a point I think...

Am TOTALLY at a loss.

By the by...On the subject of differentiating twins. I think you can also go too far the other way and try to totally deny they are twins (as a reaction to the days of Alec and Alex - I actually know id twins called this!!!). For example, I know many non twin siblings with names starting with same letter (dozy? ). In my opinion (and I am not a twin, but only a mother of twins), being a twin is something unique and special to be celebrated as well as doing your best to aid different, unique identities. The trick is finding the BALANCE in this. The fact mine are boy/ girl and non identical already differentiates them a fair bit.

Having said all that, it is proving hard enough to find 2 names dh and I both like, let alone 2 names that go well together (and our first ds).

Ooooh, you will all get a great surprise when we finally get round to naming these babies! I will take the baby name book to hospital.

I am still loving Mirissa...maybe I can name the girl and dh can name the boy whatever he likes .

similarly michael merryM

lol at prudence emmanuel...sounds like a porn star

Good luck with it. I'm sure the babies will be born and you will just go "hello X and hello Y" and names will be sorted.

and as a wee aside; some friends of ours, after a period of four weeks , finally came up with the name Tessa for their little girl.

Tessa Emmanuel has a nice ring to it I think

When I lived in Newcastle I quite fancied Jesmond and Jarrow (areas of Tyneside) for twins!