Duana,
My husband and I are expecting our first child together-a girl-in a couple of months. I have a son, Cyrus William, from a previous relationship. We both love the name Sybil (LOVE), but the big concern is the matchiness of Cyrus/Sybil. Other names on our list include Cecily, Josephine, Sylvie (Sy again...do I have a condition?), and Cordelia. As you can see, we swing towards turn-of-the-century/early 20th century names. The middle name will be a family name -Mary, Eleanor, Violet, Diana, Eve, or Catherine- and the last name is three-syllables ending in -ston. Can Sybil be Cyrus's little sister without inducing cutesy headaches, or should we let it go while there's still time to adjust? Please help!
Amy
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I like the name Cyrus so much that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t already addressed this article. And then, when I searched to make sure, I turned up so many references to Scandal and – and! – to Gossip Girl, that my heart began to beat a little faster.
So I am biased a little here. I want to make this work for you. Sybil is a great name, a little-girl and grownup name, and I don’t really have a problem with Sybil and Cyrus. The inevitable nicknames Cy and Syb sound like a Nickelodeon sitcom together, yes, but they do suit each other, and I have less trouble with them spoken than I do written, where two ‘y’s in 5 letters can, OK, be a little exhausting.
So from that perspective, yes. There are going to be people who think it’s cute to give you children’s books as gifts with mice wearing tweed and monocles and drinking microbrew tea all “hahaha it’s your kids!”
But I bet he’ll always go by his nickname or she never will, and they won’t match so much. Plus you love them!
Now if you just can’t do it, or you realize you want a third but the only names you can think of are Sylvie or Wyatt (no on both counts in this scenario), then I would head towards other unusual ‘S’ names that strike your fancy. Seren. Sidra. The gorgeous Sybil variant “Seble” that I repeated with wonder all night after I met one. Or Clemency. Cerys. (Those Ys again!) Circe?
I’m pulling for you. You can make this happen.
