Question

[barelyshocking.livejournal.com]

I've been a member of this community for a while, and I've noticed something that baffles me.

Some people worry that if they give two of their kids an A name, and the third kid a B name (for example), then the third kid will feel left out/unloved/awful.

I just don't get it! I think that you should name each child individually and not worry about whether or not it rhymes or matches with other names in the family. My name starts with A, my mum's name starts with S and my father and siblings have T names. I don't feel a thing! I've never thought "Hm why don't I have a T name" - it just seems so unimportant!

I respect that everyone has different opinions and ideas, which is why I'm bringing this up. Is it really that important?

ETA: I think I worded this a bit wrong. When I say you shouldn't worry about whether your children's names rhyme or not, I mean you shouldn't deliberately choose names that rhyme (think Cayden and Brayden). This drives me nuts. If you happen to like Cayden and Brayden, fine but if you're trying to create a rhyming sibset, why?

Comments

[sarahrose.livejournal.com]

I agree with you!

My sister and I (there are only two of us) had the same exact initials until she got married, but it was never "intentional." I mean, it wasn't exactly an accident either, but... Somewhere in the middle.

[dustkitty.livejournal.com]

I generally agree, except about rhyming. Rhyming or similar-sounding names are (in my opinion) best avoided in sibsets so people don't get confused, including the kids themselves if someone's not speaking clearly. The whole first-letter thing doesn't seem like cause for concern at all, unless, say, the parents and four kids all have J names, and then baby #5 suddenly has an R name or something.

[aquariumdrink-r.livejournal.com]

i knew a family who had 6 kids, 5 of which had [very strange] Z names. the last kid was named giovanni. he always wondered about that.

[requiem-morrow.livejournal.com]

I agree. No one in my family has matching initials. Mom and Dad are an A and V, kids are B, L, and S. My brother does have my dads fn as his mn, but I never felt left out because I didn't.

[xpaniic.livejournal.com]

I agree, except for names that rhyme for sibsets like Kate and Nate, it could get confusing for the kids when they're little.

I just realized that my family kind of has matching initials, but I am positive that it wasn't on purpose. My dad and my brother's name both starts with R and me and my mom's both start with J. But I also have a half brother and sister's that first initials are A and C.

[imyourrapunzel.livejournal.com]

haha I know siblings named Nate and Kate.

[samaside.livejournal.com]

My dad has younger siblings named Kevin and Karen. He's named Scott. He's never had a problem with it.

My mom, though, her parents were just weird. Her and her siblings are named David Alan, Debra Ann, Donna Ann, Dorie Ann. It has ALWAYS seemed ridiculous to me. No one else in our family had done anything else like that. Well, except one of my dad's cousins.

She has a Connor, Cameron, and Cole. I remember asking her about it right after Cole was born. She had never intended to do it. In fact, she didn't like people who named their kids with the same first letter. But after they had Connor and decided on Cameron she thought it would be unfair for the other kid.

If it had been a girl they were going to name her Kendall. She figured the K would let the girl feel a little bit different.

[imyourrapunzel.livejournal.com]

I agree with most of this.

I don't mind names that start with the same letter. Sometimes I think families can take it too far if done intentionally, the Duggar family for example.

Matchy sounding names are something that I do take into consideration. I babysat for a family with three kids named Cailean, Hailey and Hayden. Nothing against those names individually, but I got so confused when I had to use their names.

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

I'm one of those people, I guess. I'd either give all my kids names that start with the same letter (which I definitely would never do, but I've always secretly wanted quadruplets named Blair, Blaine, Blake, and Blythe) or all different letters.

A sibset of say, Kevin, Katherine, Kelly, and Peter would bug me. I've always had an obsession with fairness, so even if Peter feels just a little left out it would make me sad. It wouldn't bother me so much that I'd freak out about it, since I like all of those names; a sibset of Amelia, Jaiden, Isaac, and Nevaeh, would bother me a lot more because I don't like those names.

And it would just make me wonder why the parents broke their pattern. My cousin Abigail's parents' names both started with L, and so does her brother's, and I've always wondered why they gave him an L name and not her.

[barelyshocking.livejournal.com]

Do you think that perhaps the people who choose to name their kids with the same letter or with rhyming names also follow other patterns in their life? For example, they're well organised and store all pantry supplies in tupperware containers or something like that?

[aballard23.livejournal.com]

Well, my family is all A names except for my younger sister.

My mom's mom is Alice, my dad's dad was Arthur, my mom is Allison, my dad Albert.. I am Alicia.

.. And then my sister's name is Kearstyn. It makes things horrible unbalanced, in my eyes. I mean, my mom, dad, and I all have the same first and last initials, but my sister gets left out?

It was my Dad's fault, lol.

[monalyssasmile.livejournal.com]

One of the things I fear is that someone will think that I purposely named my kids with the same initial. Many of my favorite names start with A and if I find a guy who loves them like I do, I guess my kids will have all the same initial. I just don't want people thinking I pulled something cheesy like naming them all something that starts with A.

[monalyssasmile.livejournal.com]

OH and another thing, my sister and I are Amanda and Alyssa and my brother is Kevin. I don't believe my parents are the type to pull the same initial thing on purpose, so I think they just named us that because they liked the names.

One of my childhood friends's family's names were George, Terry, Travis, Trevor and Trenton

[http://users.livejournal.com/hajari_/]

I don't get it either. Unless all of the names are ridiculously matching except one, I really don't see how it matters. You aren't usually going to be listing the whole family's names in a row anyway. You'd only be addressing one of them and not thinking about the names all their relatives have.

I have a friend, Laura, with sisters Anna and Alice. I'm pretty sure Laura doesn't feel left out or unloved that her name doesn't start with an A like her sisters'... I doubt she's ever noticed.

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

Me and my siblings:

Claire [me]
Jeffery
Cameron

He has never felt left out, nor have I ever noticed it to be weird that his name doesn't start with a J.

[crzydimond.livejournal.com]

*Doesn't start with a C. Lol.

[brunhildevalkyr.livejournal.com]

I personally hate the idea of really obvious naming patterns like alphabetical or rhyming among siblings. I unintentionally have named my children using a pattern, but it's not an obvious one. All of my children's first names are named after Nobility/Royals.

I have
Tristan - named after the knight from King Arthur/Tristan and Isolde legend
Richard - who's named after Richard the Lionheart
Anastasia - named after the daughter of the last Russian Czar

I didn't realize the connection between the names until I named the third child.

[sweatydog.livejournal.com]

Doesn't really matter to me. I'd try not to use matching names though.

My moms brothers all got the same initials GLK I think. (can't remember the middle initial)

and my mom wound up with KSK which she later changed to KC.

I don't really think the "kid" would care that much either way. Unless the kids are all named, Richie, Rickie, Dickie Richard, Jayden.

Thats a little bit weird.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with you.

Although I must say that when I see a sibset that's somewhat like...

William
Charlotte
Madysynn

...I really wonder how come they chose such a crazy spelling.
I don't really care, but it makes me wonder.

[ouronlylight.livejournal.com]

If it's a sibset like Alexander, Anna, and William, it doesn't bother me as much, bt if it's Alexander, Amelia, Anna, and William, that seems a lot more disproportionate to me or something. If you have fifteen kids, and five share the same first initial, that's fine, but if you have six or seven kids and five have the same initial, that just seems really weird to me. Hope that made sense. :/

[poespretty.livejournal.com]

I'm one of those people who would just be irked if one initial was different and the rest the same. For that reason, I named my kids all different letters (and they're all different from my husband and I). on the other side, I would find it kind of annoying to have all the first letters the same too. I do feel though that if I REALLY liked a name enough, I would use it anyway regardless of the first letter conundrum.

I don't like matchy matchy names but I also agree that it would bother me more to have wildly different styles of names, like an Anne, a Mary and a Lafawnda. that just seems weird to me. oh and rhyming is just awful. so confusing I'd think.

here's a perfect example: my friend has 3 daughters Kelsey, Kassidy (who they call Kassie) and then her third is Madison. now even though it bugs me that she did 2 the same one different, it's preferable (to me) than her first choice for DD#3 which was Kasey.

can you imagine? Kelsey, Kassie, Kasey? believe me, it's already confusing when she tries to call the first two's names in the same breath.

[barelyshocking.livejournal.com]

Lafawnda, always makes me laugh :D

[amspeck-myworld.livejournal.com]

I purposely make sure my children names *don't* all have a distinguishable pattern. All names are chosen for their individual meaning to my husband and I and other than the first name being understandable in english and the first middle name being hebrew, and having a second middle name, I want no distinguishable pattern between them. A bit of conflict now as I have Mirabelle and Mason as well as Zachary and Zofia in my 'top seven names for eahc gender lists', but I feel they are different enough and will have enough other siblings if we get to those names that it won't really matter.

My siblings and I were all given 'D' names. For no real reason I know of. Now my sister and I both go by variations of our middle names due to our dislike/apathy towards our first name 'set'.

My husband is Jonathan and his brother is David, chosen because 'they were great friends in the Bible'. They have a strained relationship at the best of times (there is 10 years between them) and that... expectation isn't helping anything.

[emtotherescuee.livejournal.com]

I have an unsettling feeling that my comment on the previous post somewhat helped influence this one...

The thing is, just because you never felt left out about the letters doesn't mean another child won't. You never want to take any chances.

The rhyming thing is basically because you don't want to call one child, and have another child respond, it'll just be troublesome.

[hotchpot.livejournal.com]

See, I have this problem in that my two favorite names are Anne and Daniel. I have told my folks that in no exception are they to call my daughter Annie, but come on, it's going to happen. I plan to call my son Daniel Danny, and Annie and Danny...just imagine trying to call, "Annie, come here," and both kids would be like, what? Me?

So we've settled on Anne Louisa (nn Hannah) for a girl and John Daniel (nn Jed) for a boy. Jed and Hannah aren't too similar at all (and Danny and Hannah aren't too much so, either, I don't think...in case we end up changing our minds).