Duana-
Twins are a crazy phenomenon in my family, (my dad, grandma, great-grandma- all twins) but I never thought of the trouble that comes with naming them. I'm 7 months along and I'm finally convincing my husband to veer away from traditional, one syllable names (Ben, Kate, James, Grace) but it's driving us crazy whether they 'match' or not! We don't know whether we're having 2 boys, 2 girls, or a mix so a second opinion would ease the burden, especially since our parents are not on the same name wavelength! What we're thinking for first names are:
Theon
Leander
Gabriel
Ioanna(as an option away from my family name Joanna, there's too many Jo's in the fam!)
Imogen
Romy
With middles of Ivo, James, Joy, Rose or Mae. We just can't narrow it down and our over-involved parents are scaring my hubby away from our long debated options. Another voice would help!
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This letter has so much going on I think I have to parse things out, like so:
Point the first:
Let’s hear it for this woman’s family and for what she’s facing down. Not just twins – but twins upon twins, all of whom know what’s best where raising twins is concerned. So good luck with that.
Point the second:
I have told you people: consulting parents is where madness lies. You don’t need to ask their opinion, because they will be genetically predisposed to love the kid even if you name it Gilly or, like, Hiram. (I bet Hiram’s coming back soon, right?) So you don’t need to ask, and it only confuses you, and you get annoyed when they don’t like what you like, so…you’re good to let them be surprised.
And now for your actual question -- these names are a delight! Honestly, I like them all. But for the purposes of what you’re trying to do, let me help eliminate a couple of combinations, maybe?
Gabriel is the most straightforward of all the names but I think it therefore goes with only the more straightforward of names. Gabriel and Leander, yes. Gabriel and Theon, OK. Gabriel and Ioanna seem too far from one another. So I’d eliminate that combination. And then Imogen and Ioanna I buy, Imogen and Gabriel I LOVE, but Imogen and Romy seem too far from one another so that’s another combo I might eliminate.
Oh, and I’ve realized Leander and Ioanna kind of sound a little too close together so that’s another combination that’s out.
Maybe I’ll choose my top combination and hope that, to oblige me, you’ll just happen to have the combination of genders that I want, cool?
Theon and Romy. Yes, yes, yes. How fun are these two? When I talk about gender-neutral names “matching”, this is what I mean. Romy’s a known girl name but a little on the androgynous side, and Theon is male but, of course, there’s a little Theon Greyjoy in there. This combination is spectacular.
Of the boy combos, I still like Theon best but think Leander and Gabriel match each other a little more, and of the girl combos, I think my avowed favourite is Imogen and Ioanna. Technically they could come off as being matchy because they start with the same letter, but the pronunciations are so different it almost doesn’t matter!
But overall? Honestly? Gold star. This was a blast.
