Strollerderby

We chose names we could actually agree on - no small feat, let me assure you. However, we had 'Nina' on our list of girls' names when we put it together with our son's name and imagined ourselves calling them in for dinner ("Finn 'n' Nina'!") and realised it sounded ridiculous.

Having said that, I always think it's odd when people give their children names all ending in the same sound and I assume that they didn't realize!

My first daughter's name is the only name my ex and I could agree on...my second is what I wanted to name my first...and the ex wasn't around anymore to argue with me.

i actually like the idea of the first letter being the same, especially if it's J. I like a lot of j names and our last name is Joyce, so Jakob Joyce (one of our choices) was really cute to me. however, what if I decided after the first 2 or 3 that I didnt like any other J names. then that kid would end up being left out. and I am not going to name my kid Jedidiah or jerimiah... sorry not gonna happen.

I feel that if you decide to name them all with J names, or L names, or whatever, you end up being limited in your choices. or if you decide to go with rhyming names, they end up sounding like a doctor suess book.

I will just go with names that we both enjoy, that seems like the best way to go.

I like your system better, Madeline.  And I like your name, too.  If we have another girl, it's one of my top picks. :)

Now, see, I insisted on different first initials for everyone in the family, so I can write "L-dentist" on the calendar and everyone will know what it means. And "similar theme"? Please.  I know a family whose kids are Max and Ruby, and no one I know thinks that's a good idea.

We're basically using names of the same origin (though this no more specific than "has biblical associations"), and by this fact, they tend to have sound-alike elements. Besides that, though, the list above represents to me "Don't follow this advice to name your babies"! I think #1 and #4 can get silly far too easily.

We just picked names we agreed on and then went from there. We have a Riley and a Grace. Boy and girl respectively. We used Riley back when no one would consider naming a girl that and now are a little upset to see a lot of people are naming girls Riley and ours is a boy. It means Valiant which is a trait I always associated with a boy for some reason.

So I think this is quite interesting. I'm not so sure about any of her suggestions though (Rhyming names - really?), but I do think it's nice (and makes sense) when all your kids' names have a similar feel to them (for lack of a better term) - classic, modern, biblical, whatnot.

I have two girls and their names are actually quite different - not by design, it just sort of happened that way. My older daughter has a very popular modern name, Zoe (a name I had loved since I was little, but had no idea how popular it was when she was born!) and then we ended up going with more of an 'old lady' name (named after a deceased relative) which is not that common at all these days, for my little one. Perhaps on some level trying to overcompensate for the commoness of my older daughter's name.

The funny thing is my mother must have gone through something similar b.c. my older sister had one of the most common names of our generation and I ended up with a much more unique name.

The funny thing is I think my

I'm having twins, and much of his advice is the opposite of the advice I've seen.  They suggest not using themes, alliteration or rhyming because with twins it makes them seem more like a set and less like individuals.  It is hard enough for them to be treated like individuals when people will treat them like they are the same.

I hate matching initials, but I do like the similar sounds within the names. Not as obvious as Ava and Sophia, but I like pairs like Ivy and Oliver, Katherine and Theodore. They have similar sounds and overall feels, but look and sound very distinct. In reality, it's more like, "hand my husband my top 100 list and a sharpie. Wait for him to cross off all but one or two. Argue over the two. Agree, then have him change his mind next week. Repeat until you put your foot down."

And oh, Madeline, my sister and I are Katherine and Amelia, and we're still "the Calder girls", even though I'm married and changed my name! My parents picked family names for us that sound nothing alike, we're five years apart, and we look and act nothing alike. I'm fairly sure we'll both be "The Calder girls" until the day we die!

I'm ashamed to admit that me and Mr. Lamby have Dante and Virgil lined up. Not because of the best story ever (The Inferno, anyone?) but, sadly, because of the Devil May Cry games (hey, it's a common theme!).

My siblings and I (all seven of us) have very different names, and only my two youngest brothers share their first inital.  

The thing with names that sound too similar is that they're confusing, not just for outsiders (because, really, who cares what they think?), but for the kids.  Athena is actually my second name, but I've gone by it since I was 8 weeks old - around the time my parents realized that my first name was way too close to my sister's.