I had the great privilege of doing a consultation for Keri and her husband a couple of years ago for their fifth baby, and I’m delighted to post a consultation for their seventh baby today! They’re expecting a little girl who joins big sibs:

Keegan Thomas
Emma Claire (“and we do call her ‘Emma Claire’“)
Evan Jacob
Andrew Paul
John Paul Augustine (“John Paul”)
Mary Grace Elizabeth (“Mary Grace”)

I love all these names, and I have such a soft spot for double names! So fun that they have three kiddos with double names!

Keri writes,

“You did a consult for me with Baby #5 (a boy) and I so enjoyed it! Since then we have added another sweet baby girl to our family and are now expecting #7, another girl! These last two girls (this will be our third daughter) are really blowing our minds as we had come to think of ourselves as a mostly boy family!

Obviously (and as you may remember from our previous consult), our names have become more Catholic in style. Keegan was named to honor my favorite cousin who passed away at the age of 20. His name was ‘Kevin Thomas.’ Back when we named Keegan we were more concerned with our names being ‘unique.’ The more kids we have the less we seem to care about that!

For years we said that if we ever had another girl after Emma Claire she would be ‘Elizabeth’ and we would call her ‘Libby’ or ‘Libby Jane’ (my mom’s middle name) or ‘Libby Kate.’ And then Mary Grace was even born on St Elizabeth Ann Seton’s feast day! But through a series of circumstances it became clear that she was to have a Marian name so we put ‘Elizabeth’ in the second spot, believing that we would never have another girl. We deeply regret that now and have even toyed with the idea of using the name anyway. I think I am starting to come to terms with the idea of something different, however. But … sigh …

Names we are tossing around currently include:
-Caroline
-Catherine (but I think we are getting close to ruling it out)
-Annaliese (nn Annie) or Annaliese Catherine (nn Annie Cate) OR
-Anna Catherine (full double name but prob would call her Anna Cate, at least for a while)
*the only problem with this is that I am not in love with Anna on its own. I do like Annaliese, though)
-Genevieve (nn Vivi? I don’t particularly like Evie and don’t like Ginny, etc)
-Isabel (could we call her “Libby?”)
-Cecilia (though I do have at least one friend with a Cecilia)
-Lucy (though I don’t think it’s long enough on its own. I think Lucia (Lu—SEE-uh) is gorgeous but not sure it fits in our family. Definitely considering it as a middle name as we LOVE St Lucy here!)
-Eloise (nn Lucy?) too little girlish? How will it age?
-Abigail
-Josephine (hubby is lukewarm and also have a friend with a Josie)

Other potential middles-
-Zelie or Azelie or even Azelie-Marie
-Jane (my mom’s middle name, though she didn’t like it. Sadly, she has early onset Alzheimer’s and can’t tell me what she thinks of it now)
-June
-Joy

I also love Evelyn (but too similar to Evan) and Imogen (similar to Emma). I like Eleanor but hubby doesn’t. We considered Cordelia for a few days but it doesn’t seem to quite fit (but it’s a lovely name). Something like Madeline or Adeline has also crossed our minds although I ruled out the former 7 years ago when I was first pregnant with a girl because it seemed so incredibly popular.

-Also worth noting: Emma Claire is OBSESSED with naming the baby Margaret. I think she got it from “Daniel Tiger.” 😂 It has seemed a bit old lady to me in the past but I do see the charm in it now and what amazing patrons! We are still not sure we would use it but it’s not as jarring to us as it was initially. We can’t use “Maggie”, however, which I do think is adorable.

Whew! That’s where we are now! Feminine names with strong patrons and probably either a double or at least 3 syllable first name? Also, if it helps at all had this baby been a boy I was thinking ‘Becket Ignatius.’

I can’t wait to hear your ideas!“

Okay, so I’m totally with Keri on Libby Jane — I can see why she so regrets not having used it when they had the chance; I can see why she’s trying to let it go; and I too might also consider using Elizabeth again if I were in her shoes. It’s a pickle! But I had some ideas that I thought might be helpful regarding this particular dilemma:

• Isabel nicknamed Libby was the first idea I had when I was reading Keri’s email, so the fact that they already have it on their list of possibles is good!
• I was also surprised to see the fairly rare Lisbeth in my research for this family in the Baby Name Wizard — it’s a match for Annaliese! So that’s another Elizabeth variant that might interest them (you all know that I rely heavily on the BNW when doing consultations as it lists, for each entry, boy and girl names that are similar in terms of style/feel/popularity)
• I also wondered if they’d be interested in creating a nickname from the first+middle combo? Something like Lillian Bernadette could allow for the nickname Libby … even Lillian Bernadette Jane for Libby Jane, or Lillian Bernadette Kate … Or Lauren Abigail … Or Laura Beatrice/Beatrix … with Kate or Jane as a second middle (all those names (firsts and middles) were either on Keri’s list or were results of my research)
• In the same idea of making Libby out of an L first name and a B/B-heavy middle, I also thought maybe a first with a strong L that’s not necessarily the first letter could also do it? Like Zelie or Azelie as a first with Bernadette/Beatrice/Abigail as a middle. Or Olivia? Or Avila, which has “il” instead of “Li” contained in it, but I think something like Avila Beatrice would make Libby as a nickname very understandable

Some other thoughts about the names they’re considering:

• Caroline: I love it, beautiful name. And its nickname Callie is so cute!
• Catherine: Also wonderful, fits right in with their other kids
• Annaliese [Catherine] nicked Annie or Annie Cate: Love! Great idea!
• Anna Catherine nicked Anna Cate: Also beautiful!
• Genevieve nicked Vivi: Totally works!
• Cecilia: Such a pretty name
• Lucy: See below
• Eloise nicked Lucy: Definitely works (as does Louisa) … not sure what Keri means about Eloise not aging well though? I think it’s lovely and sophisticated for a woman!
• Abigail: Very nice
• Josephine: Also very nice

I think they have such great ideas! My favorite though is Lucy — Lucy is such a darling name, and it makes a double name so easily! Lucy Catherine can be Lucy Cate; Eloise Jane can be Lucy Jane. I don’t see any problem with Lucia in their family, but maybe Lucille is a better fit for them? I definitely love the Lucy idea!

Zelie/Azelie/Azelie-Marie are all beautiful. Regarding Jane, it seems to be meaningful to Keri, even if it wasn’t her mom’s favorite, and if using it makes Keri think of her mom in a positive way, I could see it being a really nice choice. The fact that her mom didn’t care for it could even be like a funny family story that gets told when they relate how their daughter got her name.

June and Joy are both lovely as well.

So funny that Evelyn and Imogen are both favorites, but so similar to names they’ve chosen already! I’m glad Keri included them in her email though, as it gave me extra data to work with. I’m amazed that they seriously considered Cordelia! It gets a lot of love on name boards, but I’ve rarely seen anyone seriously consider it. Such a fun addition to my list of names to research!

Madeline and Adeline are both beautiful, and interestingly, Madeline’s held steady in the 80s/90s for the past seven years (down from the 50s/60s before that), but Adeline’s jumped up like crazy recently! From 2011–2014 it was in the 200s, then 135 in 2015, then 63 in 2016! Wow!

And that’s too funny about Baby Margaret on Daniel! I’ve heard that from more than one parent! There are other nicknames for Margaret that they might like, since they can’t use Maggie: Maisie and Daisy are both traditional nicknames for it, and Meg/Megan, Greta, Marta, and Rita are all Margaret variants that can work nicely as nicknames.

Okay, so using the names Keri and her husband have already bestowed on their kids, as well as the names they like/are considering, as inspiration in my research, with a preference for double names and/or 3-syllable names, these are my ideas for Keri’s little girl:

(1) Stella, Stellamaris
Stella’s a match for Lucy and Claire, and the “el” sound showed up in a lot of names they like (Elizabeth, Isabel, Eloise, Eleanor, Zelie/Azelie), so I thought Stella was a good suggestion! Stella Jane, Stella Kate/Cate, Stella Joy, Stella June are all really sweet! Or, maybe they’d like to consider the confection Stellamaris?

(2) Adelaide
Adeline made me think of Adelaide, which is such a beautiful name! I looked it up in the BNW to see what names are style matches for it, and loved seeing Anneliese, Genevieve, Josephine, and Louisa (like Eloise on their list) listed! There are a couple Sts. Adelaide. I also think they could maybe make Libby work with the right middle name?

(3) Clementine
Eleanor, Eloise, and Genevieve yielded Clementine, which I thought was sort of similar to Cordelia, Catherine, Caroline, Madeline, and Adeline sound-wise. Although … now that I think about it … Emma Claire and Clementine are sort of like mirrors of each other? Both have prominent “Em” and “Cl” sounds … gah! Well, I’ll leave it on here anyway in case it sparks something. It’s a Marian name, and can also be for the Divine Mercy, since it means “merciful.”

(4) Audrey
Audrey! I hardly ever think of the lovely Audrey! So it was fun to see it matching up with Evan, Claire, Evelyn, and Abigail! I love the ideas of Audrey Jane and Audrey Kate! There is a St. Audrey, though for this one I think I like the idea of her patron saint coming from her middle name instead (St. Jane de Chantal and St. Catherine of Siena or Laboure are all wonderful!).

(5) Charlotte
Charlotte showed up too many times in my research to ignore! It’s a match for Claire, Annaliese, Evelyn, Madeline, Eleanor, Genevieve, and Josephine! It’s a Charles variant like Caroline is, so using Charlotte now would knock out Caroline for the future, but I thought I needed to mention it. Lottie is a sweet nickname that has a similar feel to me as Lucy, and I love Lottie Jane and Lottie Kate/Cate! There are some great patrons.

(6) Julia
Between Julia and Juliet, this name family was quite a hit for this family. Of the two, I thought maybe Julia was more their speed, and while Jane/June/Joy don’t work so well with it, Julia Catherine is gorgeous, and Julia Cate or Julie Cate are great nicknames. There are lots of holy Julias.

(7) Lydia
This was actually inspired by the previous consultation I did for Keri and her hubs! Keri had said that “Alexander has been a runner-up for every boy we have,” so I looked it up and was pleased to see Catherine, Charlotte, and Abigail listed as matches, and Lydia was included as well. So then I looked Lydia up, just to be sure of its style, and Cecilia, Grace, Clara, Eliza, and Julia were all matches, all of which are either exactly their style or swirling around it! Since Liddy is so close in sound to Libby, I wonder what they’d think of Lydia Catherine or Lydia Jane nicknamed Liddy Cate or Liddy Jane? I’ve always loved that Lydia in the bible sold purple cloth — all the little Lydias I know have taken purple as their own color! There’s also another St. Lydia besides the biblical one.

(8) Magdalen(e)
Madeline is actually a variant of Magdalene, and since they like Maggie and are thinking about Margaret, I thought maybe Magdalen/Magdalene might be a great compromise! Maggie’s the most obvious nickname, but since they can’t use it, I think Maddy, Molly, and Lena (they could do the full Magdalena if they prefer, to get to Lena) are all fine as nicknames. And they all could double up with Cate/Jane nicely I think!

(9) Tessa
I know this idea probably won’t work since, as noted in Keri’s previous consultation, they’re considering adding Therese as Emma Claire’s second middle name, but Tessa seemed so perfect to use in a double name that I thought I’d add it here just in case. And they do have Paul twice in their boys’ names (though I know they’re for different men), and they’re considering using Elizabeth again or a variant, so maybe another Teresa name is okay? Teresa would be a perfect given name, since it’s different from Therese, and Teresa Catherine/Teresa Jane to result in Tessa Cate/Tessa Jane are amazing.

And those are my ideas for Keri and her husband! What do you all think? What name(s) would you suggest for the little sister of Keegan, Emma Claire, Evan, Andrew, John Paul, and Mary Grace?