Hi Duana,
We're due with our first girl in less than a month now and although we've been trying to be on top of it (picked out our first name within 3 months), I've suddenly been told "You should really have a middle name for the child!" And now it's panic all over again!!!
So here's the jist of it...
Our last name is a very short Vietnamese last name (Vu) and I am of Chinese descent maiden name Wong. Our daughter will be taking my husband's short last name. So Anabelle Vu, which is all right as is, but now I feel like she'll need a middle name.
My husband's parents will be giving her a Vietnamese name and my parents will be giving her a Chinese name. I've always grown up not liking my hyphenated two-named Chinese name and it's near impossible to find a Chinese name that would match with the Vietnamese "Thi" name, so I'm thinking on official documents, neither the Chinese name nor the Vietnamese name will appear.
Now how we got to the name "Anabelle". We both had lists of names we liked and didn't like. My husband doesn't like "nouveau" names or anything too hipster. I agreed. My two other criteria were girl names that didn't sound too girly by ending in a short "A" sound like Angela, Rebecca, Erica, etc. and names that didn't end in a long "E" sound like Stephanie, Tiffany, Amy, etc. So that cut out a lot of names for us. We wanted something simple yet not too common, a strong name that has a cute nickname and something that is easy to pronounce for families that are Asian.
Now husband doesn't think a middle name is necessary, but my thoughts and advice from others have been "Well how does she really know when you're REALLY mad at her?" and that since she will take his last name, it would be nice if the baby's middle name started with a C or a W to honour my first name (Crystal) or last name (Wong).
So far I've thought of Charlene or Caitlin, but husband's kind of indifferent with either. Can you suggest any C or W names that might fit with Dear Anabelle???
Thank you sosososo much!
___
...and then I received a note saying Crystal was in labour!!
I think, given that you’re going to have a three-syllable first name and many non-English middles, even if they’re not all used at the same time, that what you want here is utter simplicity. One syllable, two at the most.
So Anabelle Claire comes to mind. Or Annabelle Celine, which has the same requirement of not ending in ‘a’ or ‘ie’. Annabelle Cora or Annabelle Charis or Annabelle Cerise – I seem to be going on a French tip. Annabelle Cai, which is Vietnamese? Does that help or hinder things? Annabelle Caprice?
But I got really into the idea of a ‘W’ middle, too. Annabelle Wynn or Annabelle Willow or Annabelle Wren, even? For that matter, I really got excited about the idea of Annabelle Wong, which seems strong and lovely and I sort of hope you choose it. Annabelle Whitney? Annabelle Wallis, which should be too ‘L’-oriented but somehow isn’t? Annabelle Winifred, syllables be damned?
Hope it’s all going, you know, quickly over there, and that you let us know!
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