Duana, help! I am pregnant with our second set of twins. (I have no idea what the actual odds are of this happening to someone, but here we are.) My fraternal boys are Rhys and Dylan. Similar, but not matchy-matchy - the boys are completely different people; we never dress them alike or anything like that, and we are planning a similar approach to our twin girls that are due in about six weeks.
The problem is I want a couple of names that "go" with the boys' names. My initial thought had been Carys and Bryn, but then I thought - maybe four Welsh names with a "y" is too many? I am okay with somewhat popular names but prefer less-used ones. Our last name is a one syllable, very boring, anglo-saxon name, and we are not tied to any kind of family tradition or particular ethnicity. And as much as we love the names we picked for our boys, we'd also love something we can shorten to a nickname. Finally, I am also trying to stay away from anything that's too feminine: no names that are also flowers.
Getting my husband to discuss this with me is like pulling teeth, so I need to present him with some options, or we are going to end up with "Twin A" and "Twin B" for the first 36 hours, again.
Can you throw some ideas our way? Thanks so much!!
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Like it’s really rare. Like when I was researching this, a lot of words like “Miracle” kept coming up. Your odds are up there in the thousands, for sure. There was an entire news cycle about Federer twins followed by twins.
And, not that it matters because they’re named, but I love Rhys and Dylan. They sound like a pair and not like a set, which is a distinction that can be hard to make. But I think you’ve done well. Having said that, you have your work cut out for you, because Welsh girls’ names are sometimes a little on the unisex side. There’s nothing wrong with that, but given that you have two boys with lovely names that are sweet but clearly male, you want something equally as lovely for your daughters.
I didn’t initially notice that you had all those Ys, but I have to say that Bryn is the kind of name that feels like a nickname even if it isn’t, which is sort of the opposite of what you want. So in my initial scan of Welsh names, I loved Dafina – an offshoot of Davina and one that could easily be Davey or Daff. How about Seren? I’ve trumpeted about it before, but it’s such a lovely take on the star thing. Seren and Dafina and Rhys and Dylan? I’d say that’s a bit much and go back to Seren and Carys – but they’re almost a little rhymey. What else can we come up with?
This seems like one of those situations when I can once again slip Drusilla into the mix to see who’s paying attention – not as a joke though, I really do love the name and it would be great to see it used.
But maybe it’s too frilly for your sleek foursome so what about going further afield (but keeping the Y) and going with Freya? Freya and Rhys and Dylan and Carys? Or Seren? Maybe then you feel like there’s one without a Y, but I doubt she’ll miss it. Or what about the gorgeous and so appropriate Zelda? Has your current feeling of familiar but not overused, nickname-available but not essential, and I love Zelda with Rhys and Dylan and a yet-unnamed sister.
Tegan? Wynn? Eleri? Bethan? God, Welsh names are underrated for fitting-in-yet-standing out. I love this post!
Anyway, I think you have a moral obligation not only to tell us what you chose, but when you go to one of those ‘twins plus twins’ support groups that Anne Blythe would have founded if she’d been around today, tell us what people name their twins on twins!
Hooray!
