Imaginary triplets

sanctanomina Naming nitty gritty, , , ,

Charlotte at the blog To Harriet Louise (which is actually named after a name she loves for a future child!) posted in a really namey post yesterday (in which I got a shout-out! Woo!) her ideas for triplets, inspired by a forum on Nameberry (which I would link to except every time I’ve popped over there in the recent past I get a big scary “Viruses! Malware!” notice — anyone else? I’ve emailed them, they’re looking into it …).

Anyway, I loved Charlotte’s ideas (she used the archangels as inspiration, awesome!), and I thought it was a fun challenge, so I thought I’d give it a whirl here (for mixed-gender trips, they’re listed in fave order):

Girls

Faith Immaculata
Christiana Hope
Josefa Caritas

(nods to the Holy Family and the three theological virtues! Woo!)

(one of our readers has a daughter named Faith Immaculata 🙂 When I first heard it, I was blown away by its gorgeousness and significance, and I continue to be so)

(nicknames are difficult here … Faith doesn’t need one, but Faithy’s cute … I love Christiana and I love the idea of Christi being Latin for “of/belonging to Christ” — what are your best nicks for the Chris- names? Or maybe Ana instead? Josefa could be Josie, or maybe even Seffy? Sef? Or Fa? Hahaha jk!!) (I mean, just kidding about Fa — Seffy/Sef are kinda cute)

Boys

Joachim Patrick
Benedict Leo
Ambrose Edward

(just some of my fave heavy-hitting saintly boy names)

(nicks: Jake, Ben, and Sam, easy peasy)

How about you all? If you were naming triplets, what might you choose?

38 thoughts on “Imaginary triplets”

  1. Iris Therese
    Edith Maria
    Alice Marigold

    Middle names on those three were a struggle, because it’s remarkably hard to find a good middle name for Alice. I think Alice flows really well into a name beginning with a vowel, but couldn’t think of one I liked enough to use (since I already have an Elisabeth, plus these three vowel names). I like Alice Mary a little better than Alice Marigold, but Marigold is such a favorite, and ties together the floral Marian first name for Iris and the traditional Marian middle name for Edith. Ultimately I decided it didn’t matter if Edith & Alice had the same middle initial.

    George Xavier
    Henry Ignatius
    Edmund Jude

    So, I struggle mightily with boys’ names, but I already plan to use Xavier as a middle name if I have another boy (first name undecided), and we know another family who used Ignatius as a middle name, which I loved. So I figured I’d go with a Jesuit theme here, and used Edmund to tie together the Jesuit and English theme. Jude is because we have honored the apostles with our other sons’ names, but didn’t use it as a first name because I feel J first names are overdone in our family.

    If these names didn’t have to go with our mildly awful last name, I’d have chosen Gabriel Edmund for the third boy.

    Like

    Reply

  2. Whoa… I’ll have to give this one a thought. I’ve honestly never thought about triplets! For twin boys I always wanted Lucas and Liam…. and for girls I wanted Melody and Harmony. In all reality, I probably wouldn’t do the girls’ because they’re too cliche, but I still like to joke about it. Ha!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. For added difficulty I’ve tried not to repeat any first initials with my current six children. I did let our current boy New Testament theme.

    Lucy Caroline
    Grace Elizabeth
    Stella Maris

    Lucy Caroline
    Grace Elizabeth
    Henry Thomas

    Grace Elizabeth
    Henry Thomas
    Louis Gregory

    Henry Thomas
    Louis Gregory
    William Timothy

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. No idea — we’re struggling to come up with 1 solid girl name and 1 solid boy name for GenderlessInUtero babyG as it is.

    That said… I laugh whenever I see “Joachim”. I love it. But growing up – and I mean I discovered my error *in high school* – I thought it was pronounced “Wah-KEEM”. You know, like Joaquin Phoenix? Yeah. Mom found that hilarious.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  5. Love your ideas!! (And all of the ones in the comments – especially George Xavier, Lucas and Liam, and Lucy Caroline.) Of the more obscure saint names, Ambrose is one of my favorites. Sam is a great nickname for it – I also like the idea of Bram.

    I think Cara would work as a nickname for Christiana (though I’d likely go Anna -> Annie). Fifi could probably be a nickname for Josefa, but with all the Hunger Games hype lately I think Effie would be really cute and definitely wearable.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  6. I have way more fun thinking of imaginary b/g twins. Some of my favorites:

    Jude Thaddeus and Stella Maris

    Gabriel and Elizabeth (Gabe and Libby)

    Peter and Lucy

    John and Grace

    Thomas and Theresa

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  7. Ooooooh! I’ll use leftover names from our last babies!

    All boys:

    The “T” theme:
    Teague Simeon
    Trent Maximilian
    Thane Gideon

    OR

    Pierce Gideon
    Teague Simeon
    Seth Maximilian

    All girls:

    Martina Celeste
    Simone Gianna
    Lorna Camille

    I could make a million combinations. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. I’m not sure exactly what I would pick, but I love a lot of the above suggestions! I would NOT choose same first letter or rhyming names for any multiples! My husband, Kris is a twin and all of their sibs have K first names to go with Krueger — Kathleen, Kurt, twin Karl and Kris. People (neighbors, teachers, etc.) just didn’t bother trying to call the brothers by their correct names, especially the twins. My husband is really laid back and it even cheesed him off. We agreed to none of the matchy matchy (and his mom’s 2 siblings also stuck with the trend Barry/Brian/Bethany, Jake/Jill). Sorry for the mini-rant, but that’s why we won’t even double up on first initials among our several kids :o)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I have boys born seven years apart (with a sister in between!) named James & John and I frequently regret it. Just today I said, “Is John watching James?” when I meant it the other way around. That said, James was born & named first, and given our favorite boys name. Later, when I’d nearly despaired of having another baby, the name John was “given” to me in adoration, so I knew I had to use it. He’s two now, and it’s only just starting to grow on me. When we named him, I did it out of gratitude and duty, not because I loved the name! Lol!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I love that John was given to you in Adoration! I’m with you — I wouldn’t have questioned it. Gratitude and duty — those are two of the best reasons to use a name in my mind, especially when intertwined like that, and in the context of Adoration. How lovely!

        Like

      • Ooh, that’s interesting. I have a 4 year old named James (sometimes Jay) and have often wondered if John would be too close for a future sibling. We considered John for my 1 year old son but did decide a James and a John 3 years apart with no sibling in between would be pretty confusing, but it remains on my list.

        Of course, I do mix up my older 3 boys anyways even though their names don’t sound anything alike.

        Liked by 3 people

    • Amen. I have a twin sister. It’s hard enough getting people to try to call you by your name instead of, “Hey… you… “.(avoid eye contact, avoid eye contact).. alliteration or rhyming guarantees people will forever be confused. We are identical, so we really, really, really don’t need anything else to be too similar as having a literal mirror image of yourself walking around is quite profound on its own, haha. That said, my mom did do an awesome job connecting our names in subtle ways, and I love so many of these names listed! And now, there are probably a set of twins out there who thinks I am nuts and loves having names that are similar! So feel free to ignore me. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • Haha! I’ve done it to other sets of identical twins, too, even knowing how it feels on their end, but ack, they were IDENTICAL and dressed almost the same too (not fair! Parents-of-twins, I am looking at you!! :)) I did redeem myself by becoming good, lifelong friends with a guy who has an identical twin, and I can tell them apart. Most of the time.

        Liked by 1 person

  9. I don’t have that much of an idea of what exactly I would name triplets. I tend to just have vague ideas of names I wish to use in the future, not exact combos. I know though that they will not have match-y names. I babysat a few times for twins named Emma and Ella and 99% of the time when I was trying to say their names it would come out as Emmala instead of Emma and Ella 😦

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. I didn’t think I had any ideas, but last night they started rolling in. (Disclaimer: if I actually had multiples, I’m sure I would just give them each unique, tasteful, unrelated names.)

    I was thinking how fun brothers Felix and Clement would be, so let’s add a sister: either Joy or Merry.

    Lourdes Marita
    Fatima Mary
    Guadalupe Marie

    Ida Irene
    Iris Imelda
    Imogene Inez

    And I have no boy ideas, due to boy naming overload IRL.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. Oooh! I’m a little late to the party, but still want to play. My ideal twin names have always been Benedict and Beatrice. Matchy, but the literary connections are just too geeky and good for me. ( also, love Ben and Bea.)
    Lets see what I can come up with for triplets:
    Anastasia Joy
    Juniper Marie
    Rosalind Therese

    Annie, Junie, and Rosie
    Too tired to think of boys right now. Probably from racking my brain for boy names for 8 months!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a comment