new sibling names?

[chadwah.livejournal.com]

 My husband and I have one daughter, Ezra Grace, born May 14 2009,  and we're expecting another baby around December 23rd of this year.  We likely won't find out the gender this time (we did with Ezra), but we both have a vague feeling it might be a boy.  Our last name is Irish, three syllables, and ends in "y" ("ee" sound).  We tend to like slightly unusual names, Hebrew/Yiddish/Aramaic names, maybe some Irish names, and some old-fashioned names.  We're also serious Christians and appreciate names with Christian meaning (i.e., Clementine means "mercy") and are really trying to avoid anything pretty pagan sounding (I'm hesitant about January for that reason).  We're also French speakers, so names with a little French twist are nice, but nothing too out-there (we don't want something that'll be constantly mispronounced here in the States).  Here are the names on my list so far -- lots of overlap on our lists, but not as much as I'd like!

Girls

Margaret  
Susan
Clementine (still working on convincing my husband of this one!)
Dove/Dova (as a middle name -- second would be "Doh-vuh"; love bird names, and my grandpa's name is David/Dovid)
Willow (not sure about it...)
Armistice (as a mn -- my only real hang-up is that it means a *temporary* cessation of fighting)
Evangeline (not super crazy about it, but husband really likes it)
Eden
Rebecca (again, I think it's a bit on the common side, and I hate the nn Becky)
January (husband isn't convinced, but I'm keeping it on the list in case we have a January girl...)
Beatrice
Hazel (husband loves it)
Eve (mn, especially if baby comes Christmas eve)
Sadie
Twila/Twyla


Boys

Peregrine (husband's mn... I'm coming around to it)
Josiah (I think I love the OT king a bit more than the name itself)
Fisher (husband isn't crazy about it, I like the connotation of "I will make you fishers of men," and it makes me think of G.M. Hopkins' poem, "As kingfishers catch fire")
Justice (mn -- one of husband's favorites, I like it with Fisher because of the same poem -- "The just man justices...")
Abel
Ephraim
Soren (might be the surest boy's name for us so far -- nn Wren/Ren)
North (mn only)
Malachi (nn Cai)
Atticus (nn Attie)

Husband really likes Soren Templar (Soren = "separate", Templar "for the temple"), but I'm not so down with Templar.  I do like Soren Peter, though.  When I was pregnant with Ezra, we had decided on Malachi Reuven (Ray-OO-ven, not the 2-syllable version) for a boy, but now we don't feel so sure about that anymore.  Reuven was my dad's Hebrew name (he died June of 2008), and his birthday was Dec. 27, but I don't think it can work with Soren because of the two -en endings. 

Suggestions?

Comments

[cerceau.livejournal.com]

No suggestions. I like maybe half of those names.

Just a small nitpick. I'm pretty sure Soren is related to Severus which means stern not separate, unless this is a different name not related to the Scandinavian Sören/Søren

[chadwah.livejournal.com]

I've seen Soren defined as alternately stern and separate, but I like the second meaning better :)

[cerceau.livejournal.com]

I was curious after posting so did some googling.

It could be because of confusion between severe (stern) from latin severus and sever (separate) from latin separare. Soren is ultimately a scandinavian form of Severus, so I doubt separate is a correct meaning.

PS. I hope I don't come off as rude for contradicting you. I'm very fascinated by names and their roots, and it bothers me when people name their children based on misconception of a names meaning/origin :)

[chadwah.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, I don't think you're rude :) I figured the first meaning was the more correct, anyway. But the meaning isn't incredibly important to us in this instance, because to us the meaning has less to do with the etymology of the name than it does Soren Kierkegaard, the Christian existentialist philosopher :)