Baby name consultant: Baby girl No. 2 with JR initials or … ?

sanctanomina Baby name consultant, , ,

Betsy and her husband Chas are expecting their second little one — a second daughter! Their first sweet little girl has the beautiful name:

Claire Eleanore

Betsy tells her name story thusly:

“When we were considering names, we just threw out ideas and both liked Claire early on. I don’t think we ever came across a girl’s name that either of us liked better. We decided to choose a middle name that started with “E” so that she would have my husband’s initials. In the end, we just really liked Eleanore, but it also had some loose connections for us. My sister is Ellen and Chas had a teacher that was a big influence on him who is named Eleanore (we took her spelling of the name). We did not know if Claire was going to be a boy or a girl, so if she had been a boy, she would have been Lewis Frank.”

For this baby girl, Betsy writes,

“I really like Julia Rose after my dad. (Yes, my dad! I have to give your posts credit for convincing me that it is ok to honor someone indirectly using a variant of their name, or in this case initials.) My dad is James Robert but my husband has an uncle James and a cousin Robert (on his dad’s side — so they share our last name). We have pretty much ruled out either of those names for a boy because I don’t like the idea of having the same first/last combo as another living relative. I think if we do decide to use JR initials for a girl, we will go with Julia Rose, however, I am interested in any suggestions you might have for us.”

I’m so delighted that something I wrote has been helpful! 😀

For further inspiration, names they like for boys include:

Joseph
Theodore
Connor (“[but] I don’t want to use another “C” name“)
William/Liam
Lewis

Okay, first up are my ideas for initials JR. I love Julia Rose! Other J names that are great include:

  • Juliet (I know, it’s basically Julia, but it’s one of my very very favorites, so I had to list it! I spotlighted it here, and this mom nearly chose Juliet as the name for her Clara’s sister)
  • Jacinta (I know, Jacinta probably isn’t their style, but it’s another of my very favorites, and Bl. Jacinta is the sweetest patron. If it helps, I think Jess(ie) is my favorite nickname for it. I spotlighted Jacinta here)
  • Judith (yup, I did a spotlight on Judith too! Haha!  What an amazing name! I also did one on unusual nicknames for it)
  • Josephine (they have Joseph on their boy list, but Josephine is such an amazing style match for Claire and so many other names on their list!)
  • Johanna (Johanna-with-an-H was really calling to me as a name Betsy might like. Joanna’s nice too, but the H really seems more their style to me, for inexplicable gut reasons)
  • Jane (Claire and Jane would make the most amazing pair of sisters! I love the nickname Janie)
  • Joy (I’ve been digging Joy recently, what a sweet name!)
  • June or Juniper (Junie could be a nickname for either of these, which I just die over! So sweet!)

And R names:

  • Ruth (Ruth in the Bible is one of my very favorite women, and I think it makes a smashing middle name) (or first name, for that matter, mostly because of Ruthie! Love it!)
  • Ruby (I looove the name Ruby—I spotlighted here, with all the faithy connections I could think of)
  • Rosa, Rosalie (I know they already have Rose in consideration as a middle for Julia, but Rosa and Rosalie are great options if they’d like to consider something longer than one syllable)
  • Roma (this makes me think of Rome and the Pope and the Vatican and Roman Catholic, a fun and unusual option!)
  • Rosemary/Rosemarie (another great option if you need a longer middle name to go with a very short first name, for example)
  • Rosary (I know! So unexpected! This mom named her daughter Rosary!)
  • Rebecca (Ditto the longer middle for a shorter first idea)
  • Regina (gorgeous Marian name, and so great for the middle)
  • Rosanna (so beautiful!)

Some first+middle combos that come to mind right away include:

  • Juliet Rebecca
  • Juliet Regina
  • Juliet Rosanna
  • Jacinta Rose
  • Jacinta Rosemarie
  • Jacinta Rosalie
  • Jacinta Rosanna
  • Jacinta Ruth
  • Judith Rosalie
  • Judith Rosanna
  • Josephine Rose
  • Josephine Ruby
  • Josephine Regina (Mary and Joseph in one name!)
  • Johanna Rose
  • Johanna Ruby
  • [NOT Johanna Rosanna! Haha!]
  • Jane Rosalie
  • Jane Rebecca
  • Jane Rosanna
  • Joy Regina
  • Joy Rebecca
  • Joy Rosanna
  • June Rebecca
  • June Regina
  • June Rosanna

Whew! 😀

Okay! On to my other suggestions for Betsy and her hubs. You all know that I almost always start a consultation by looking up in the Baby Name Wizard the names the parents have used and like/are considering as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity. Based on that research and my own mental files, these are my ideas:

(1) Violet
Violet has that same sweet, sort of vintage-y charm that I get from Claire Eleanore. I love that a Violet could go by Vi or Lettie or the full Violet, and it can also be considered a Marian name!

(2) Josephine
I mentioned Josephine above—I just love it as a sister to Claire!

(3) Katherine, Zoe
K/Catherine is a style match for Julia, Joseph, and William, and is a great, classic, saintly name that goes great with Claire imo. But if Betsy and her hubs don’t like the alliteration (or even if they don’t mind it but are interested in unusual nicknames), I love that St. Catherine Laboure’s birth name was Zoe! Wow! I’ve heard of one little Catherine going by Zoe as a nickname, and another little Zoe named in honor of St. Catherine. Zoe was listed as a style match for Liam, so I thought it was fun to add in all this K/Catherine + Zoe info (and I’m suggesting the Katherine spelling since Betsy said they don’t want another C name).

(4) Grace
Grace is such a sweet, simple, gorgeous, Marian name. It’s a style match for Claire, Julia, and Rose, and has the awesome nickname Gracie.

(5) Amelia/Emilia
Amelia is similar in style to Eleanor and Julia, and when I saw Emily listed as similar to William, I thought of the spelling Emilia, which is the spelling of JP2’s mom and some other saints as well.

(6) Eve/Eva/Evelyn
Eva’s a match for Julia and Rose, and Evelyn for Eleanor and Theodore, and Eve just seemed like a great sister for Claire, that I thought I should suggest them all! They’re all gorgeous in their own way!

 

And those are my ideas for Betsy and her husband! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for Claire’s little sister?

30 thoughts on “Baby name consultant: Baby girl No. 2 with JR initials or … ?”

  2. Claire is classic and saintly, so I would choose a name as classic and as saintly as it, so maybe Anne or Madeline? Or Rose as a first name instead of in the middle spot? Because sisters Claire and Rose sound lovely!

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  3. I love that the name Roma was given a nod. My grandmother Ramona’s nickname was Roma, but I have never heard it anywhere else. Excellent suggestions!

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  4. I love that you suggested the name Jane as a sister to Claire! I have a Jane (Janie) and a Claire, with a Benjamin (Ben) in between. I love the nn Janie but you just don’t hear it too much these days.

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  5. My completely biased opinion favors Claire and Katherine! Those are (basically) my girls’ names. Their choice of Julia also seems very well matched with Claire. I also think Jane, Grace, Lucy and Anna or Anne are perfect sisters for Claire. The disadvantage of Anne, Grace, Jane and Rose is it could start an unintentional pattern of 1-syllable names.

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  7. I think Julia Rose sounds very nice.

    Just for the fun of it, other JR names I can think of:

    Jeanne

    Jemima

    Jennet

    Jessamyn

    Jillian

    Jocasta

    Jocelyn

    Jordana

    Juliana

    Rachel

    Raisa

    Remy

    Romy

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  9. Love so many of your suggestions! And the suggestions in the comments! Jane is one of my favorite names, but I think I like Josephine better for this family (OR Jane with a longer middle than Rose). Claire Eleanore and Julia Rose are beautiful together, but I like Claire Eleanore and Josephine Rose or Claire Eleanore and Jane Rosemary even better. (Or, if they definitely want to stick with one of the originals, Julia Rosemary sounds great to me!) It’s almost odd because Claire Eleanore and Julia Rose have the same number of syllables, but for whatever reason I prefer one of the longer options!! No matter what they decide though, all of the options here are beautiful!!

    For some reason the e at the end of Eleanore adds a little fun and spunk to the name to me! (Am I just crazy..?!) And because of that I’d probably want to include something a little unexpected and fun in this baby’s name as well. Which makes me think of Jane Romilly. Or J_____ Romilly. It’s kind of fun and surprising (to my ears, anyway)! One last suggestion: Robyn. I’ve seen Robyn twice in the last few months, once on a woman in her early 30’s and once on a little girl! It was so surprising! Before seeing it on a little kid (around 5 or 6, I’d guess) I would have assumed it’s not wearable for a baby today, but gosh, I would have been totally wrong!! I think Robyn is great, especially since they’re honoring a Robert!! Jane Robyn, Josephine Robyn, Julia Robyn. Or switch the initials – Robyn Juliet, Robyn Josephine, etc. I know Robyn isn’t seen much today, but I really think it could work! Especially in the middle! (And like Romilly, I think it adds that extra something that the e at the end of Eleanore does!)

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  10. First off, Claire Eleanore is one of the most gorgeous names I’ve ever heard! Gosh, I just love the name Claire and Eleanore is the perfect middle name for it.

    I also love Julia Rose, and think that Claire and Julia would be lovely and classic together 🙂

    A random suggestion that came to mind for them is Bridget. Claire and Bridget just seem like awesome, saintly sister names. I wonder how they feel about the name Roberta as a middle name to honor her dad? Bridget Roberta might be nice

    Margaret was another saintly name that came mind. Claire and Margaret sound so classic together.

    Lastly I thought of Emma! I kind of really like Emma Roberta as a combo.

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  11. OH! I almost forgot! As I am commenting it is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi so I need to suggest Frances as a middle name. I think Claire and Frances as first names might be a little much but I love the idea of using it as a middle name.

    I think there might be the fear of future siblings feeling left out, but there are so many awesome Italian saints I think they could make it work in the future.

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