Naming woes the same ... or worse ... the second time around

Is it just me, or is it much harder to name your second child than it was your first? I wrote about it this week in my newspaper column, and as I wrote it, I thought Wow, this is kind of neurotic. But I can't be alone ... can I? I'd love to hear how you picked names for your children.


There must be something about the third trimester that makes me anxious about one thing ... baby names. 

At this point during my pregnancy with Evangeline, I wrote a column about the difficulty Jim and I were having in picking out a name for our firstborn. We wanted a special name, one that would grow with our child and suit his or her personality. We didn’t want a name that would be mocked easily or difficult to spell. And we didn’t want a name of any of Jim’s students, past or present.

All those criteria still apply, with an added caveat: The second name has to “go” with the first.

Evangeline is what I call a vintage name. It has religious undertones, it’s feminine and it’s multi-syllabic. I would like Baby #2’s name to share those qualities at least in some measure, so our children feel there’s cohesion in their name choices.

That rules out trendy, short or gender-neutral names. No Pats or Robins for us.

Having been through this once before, I know no amount of careful choosing will ensure our child’s name is said (or spelled) the way we intend. For the record, we pronounce Evangeline’s name to rhyme with “clean” or “queen.” In her 17 months of life, she’s been called Evangeline (rhymes with pine), Evangelina, Angelina, Angeline, Evie, Eva and E ... and I’m sure there are more incarnations to come in the future.

Surprisingly, Jim and I agree on a boy’s name. In fact, we had it picked out the first time around since we were so very sure we would have a son.

The bad news is we can’t concur on a girl’s name. That means, of course, that we will have another daughter.

If we do, I’m not too concerned she’s going to end up permanently as Baby Girl Kirk.

We didn’t have a girl’s name picked out ahead of time with Evangeline, either, but the first time we saw her, we knew exactly who she was.

On the Lighter Side

Published March 14, 2012

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I'm not ready to share our boy name, but his initials would be MRK. We DO have a middle name picked out for a potential daughter, so her partial monogram would be _EK. With that in mind, it's obvious her name canNOT start with an F ...