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?