Hi Duana,
Hoping you can help my husband and I out. We are expecting our first child in August and are keeping the gender a surprise. We're pretty set on our boy name, but the girl name is what's keeping us up at night. Although we don't necessarily disagree on names, we're having a hard time finding the ONE and making a decision (could also be because we're both super indecisive people and this is pretty much the biggest decision ever!). I have a few rules though when it comes to names:
1) Our last name is an Italian one that ends in -la so any name that ends with an A, and especially those that end in -la end up sounding way to rhymey for my liking
2) I know some people are the exact opposite, but I hate it when a name isn't able to produce a nickname...I need the nickname!
Here's what we've got as our top contenders so far...I'm hoping you can either help steer us in the right direction of one of these, or use your genius name-skills to help us find something new:
- Simone
- Aubrey
- Samara
- Dylan
- Avery
So what do you think?
Thanks!
___
It’s still August…!
And yeah, it is the biggest decision ever, no joke! You’re determining who a person is going to be for their entire lives. The word they will say more than any other, probably. There’s a joke to be made involving wine, chips, or “no”, depending on how your humor brain works.
Anyway, what’s clear here is that you’re not looking for the prettiest name, or the frilliest, I guess is what I mean. You want something that’s distinctive and feminine as opposed to masculine, but not Feminine to the point of a Barbie commercial. I get it.
So first of all, let me arbitrarily eliminate some options for you. You’ll either agree with me, or be so pissed off that you “can’t” use it anymore, that you’ll realize it was the right one after all.
So I’ll eliminate Avery based on how many of them there are, and Dylan because unlike your other choices, it’s 95% male and not likely to do an all-the-way crossover just yet.
That leaves us with Simone, Aubrey, and Samara. What do they all have in common? They’re really low on the popularity list but Aubrey (in addition to being the first name of one Drake) is piggybacking on the revival of little-girl Audreys right now, so it’s both on its own upswing and also likely to be misheard.
Okay. We’re at Simone and Samara. Are you mad at me yet?
They’re both gorgeous – names I wish were used more, but that I love in their relative obscurity. Samara is more traditional female rhythm, Simone is shorter and due to that long “o”, not like many other names.
Any ringing your bell yet?
Okay. So if neither of these sinks in for you, gets you excited, let’s see what’s in the “relatively obscure and starting with S, and also not all that “pretty-pretty” territory.
Sidonie? Sloane? Shea? That same long “o” in Shona?
