Baby name consultant: A little brother for four big sisters!

sanctanomina Baby name consultant, ,

Kelly and her husband are expecting their fifth baby, a boy, after four daughters! Their girls are:

Cora Rose
Della Maria
Adelaide Katherine
Luisa Claire

This list just makes me sigh with happiness. So lovely! (And did you see how the middle names nearly exactly match the length of the first names? Wow!)

Some of the names they’re considering include:

Peter
George
Henry
John (“I’d like to use John as a middle name. Or possible first name.”)

Kelly writes,

“We like traditional names [and] names that aren’t super popular but that isn’t the number one concern. We are Catholic and like a tie-in to a Saint name if possible (middle or first) … names that end in -son don’t work well [with their last name].”

My first idea when I was reading Kelly’s email was whether she and her husband might like the name John Henry? I know a little John Henry who goes by John Henry (I’ve never heard it shortened to just John), and I thought that might be a nice option for them.

On that vein, because Kelly said they’d like to use John as a first or a middle name, I wonder if a different John+ name might appeal to them if John Henry doesn’t? John Paul is the most familiar I think, and I love it for this family, especially (as you’ll see below) Paul was a pretty big style match for them. (Also John and Paul have the same number of letters!) Or John Peter, or John George, drawing from the other boy names Kelly said they like — one of the fun things about a John+ double is that it takes two fairly “normal” or popular names and makes them much more unusual by combining them into a double name. (For the foodies out there, John George is fun because it reminds me of uber chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten.)

For additional ideas, as you all know, I almost always start a consultation by looking up the big siblings’ names and the names on the parents’ current list in the Baby Name Wizard book, which has the awesome feature of listing, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. Looking up all of the names for this family was so fun because it revealed that their style is really really consistent! I always look for “overlap names” — names that are listed as similar to more than one of their current names/ideas — and there were loads for Kelly and her husband! I’ve broken them down into three main ideas:

(1) Charles/Charlie/Charley/Carl
The Charles names were by far the biggest match for this family, appearing in one form or another in the lists for Rose, Della, Adelaide, Henry, John, and George! I’ve seen Charles used as an honor name for St. John Paul II (pre-papal name=Karol, which is Polish for Charles), as well as such saints as St. Charles Borromeo and St. Charles Garnier. Charles John is very handsome, and blogger Dwija at House Unseen, Life Unscripted has a little John Charles (who actually goes by Charlie) so that’s a nice idea too.

(2) Thomas, Samuel, or Hugh
I included these three together because they all tied for second place in terms of matching up with the big sisters’ names’ styles (whoa, apostrophes!) and the boy ideas.

Thomas is solid and traditional, and Thomas John is a great combo. John Thomas is great too (I have several relatives named John Thomas who go by various nicknames, including Jack and Tom).

Samuel is just a great name — there are few nicknames for boys that I like better than Sam! Samuel John is so handsome.

Hugh feels different to me than the others, even though it was as well matched for this family as Thomas and Samuel — it was listed as similar to Cora, Adelaide, and Louisa (the spelling Luisa wasn’t listed in the BNW). If Hugh isn’t quite right, maybe they’d like Hugo? It’s a variant of Hugh; Hugo John has a great rhythm, and there are saints variously known as Hugo and Hugh. The girls’ names strike me as having a little bit of a funky twist, a little unexpected, in the very best way possible, I love them — Hugh and Hugo strike me as similar.

(3) Stephen, Paul, Harry, Everett, Porter
Lastly, this group tied for third as a good match for Kelly and her husband’s style.

Stephen and Paul remind me of each other — New Testament martyrs and obviously saintly. I like Stephen John, and I’d mentioned the idea of John Paul earlier (I don’t think Paul John works as well).

Harry kind of reminds me of Hugh — kind of a Brit feel, which can be fun. Other names that have that feel for me are Simon and Oliver, which are great too. While Harry can stand alone, it’s a traditional nickname for Henry, so that’s a possibility too.

Everett and Porter both really surprised me — neither one are usually on my radar, so it was really interesting to see both Everett and Porter listed matches for Cora and Adelaide. Kind of a fun connection! I love Everett John and John Everett, and Porter John.

Those are my ideas! What do you all think? What names would you suggest for the little brother of Cora, Della, Adelaide, and Luisa?

37 thoughts on “Baby name consultant: A little brother for four big sisters!”

  1. Oh my gosh, I love that sibset. One of my best friends is Luisa and her daughter is Clare!

    I love your suggestion of Charles. I think Charles John would be terrific.

    Another thought I had was Jonathan in lieu of John.

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  2. Whoa! Before I got to your comments Kate, my first thought was John Henry! (Maybe it’s because I love John Henry Newman or maybe just because my son has been reading a picture book about the legend of John Henry, but very nice.) My next thought was any character from Downton Abbey: Matthew and Robert are the only ones off the top of my head that havent been mentioned.

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  3. I love all your suggestions! John Henry is perfect! Also Samuel, Thomas and Paul really strike a cord for me!

    I think what first came to mind for me for them was Edward or Edmund! I know a few John Edward/John Edmunds and a few Edward Johns! It’s just so classic, and handsome, and saintly and I think it really fits in with their girls names!

    Now because my dad and almost all of his brothers names have been mentioned somewhere in this post (Peter, Thomas, Edward), I’ll add the last one: Phillip! I think Phillip would fit in very well with their names. Phillip John or Phillip George are both extremely appealing to me.

    Mark for some reason also struck me for this family. It’s a little more simple than the girls names, but so is John and Paul, so I think it could still work 🙂 Mark Henry would be nice or even Mark John, or Mark Jonathan taking a little hint from JoAnna!

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  6. If Adelaide goes by her full name, I say the siblings’ names together and am drawn to an “ed” name for the next sibling… Edward, or Theodore with Ted as nn would be really cool to me (my Uncle Ted is actually named Edward, so an Edward John or Theodore John who goes by Ted would be cool. I also like Thomas Edward for Ted! )

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  7. I think of all those girl names as pretty unusual, and many of these boy suggestions are very common in comparison. Boy names so tend to be more standard but that’s what I noticed. I think Hugh goes best with the girl names of your options.

    What about Albert? Too similar to Adelaide? Clarence? Arthur? Percy? Leo?

    I’d look for boy names popular between 1900-1920’s but not popular now.

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  8. I like Maurice with your daughters’ names. Excellent saint to have as a patron, too!

    Since it is a longer name, maybe a double middle name for balance? Maurice John-Paul to keep John? Note:I am not pronouncing Maurice as Morris… I say it the French way (kindof like MOR-eese). If using the Morris pronounciation, Maurice John sounds quite handsome!

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  10. Kelly is a friend of mine! How exciting to see a consult for them here!
    All of Kelly’s boys’ names are ones I have loved and strongly considered over the years (or used! Our second boy is John Peter), so I’m very partial to Peter, Henry, George, and John in some combo. But I also just loved the suggestion of Leo above, as it seems to hit the right notes of early 20th century and not too common (even if it’s a rising star in Catholic circles). Along those lines, I’d also suggest Felix, Ezra, Sebastian, Theodore (“Theo” is a big favorite of mine), Oscar, Arthur, or (no surprises, coming from me) Jasper.

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  12. I love their daughters’ names! Ah! I also like all of their boy ideas, as well as yours, but especially Hugo. And the suggestion of Leo! Really, I think any sort of classic boy name that ends in an “o” would fit in awesome with the names of the girls, since they’re classic but kind of sparkly. Hugo, Leo, Milo, Otto, Theo. (Hugo is my favorite for the family, though.)

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