By Peapodsquadmom | Leave A Comment
Choosing your baby’s name is a bit of a daunting task. The name you pick out stays with him forever (theoretically). Do you name her after a relative? Will that offend another relative? Does the name “go with” your last name? Will other kids make fun of the name you choose? Will it suit your child when she is an adult? Will it hold him back (someone named Robin Banks would not likely make a successful investment broker)?
When choosing names for multiple babies, however, there are even more factors to consider. Some parents of multiples choose to name their babies according to birth order. Because multiple birth babies are labeled Baby “A”, Baby “B”, Baby “C” and so forth in utero, many parents choose names that begin with those corresponding letters. Still others are fascinated with alliteration and pick names beginning with the same letter. Oh the options! Oh the stress!
While your twins (or more) will certainly be individuals in need of unique names, they will also often be together…as will their names. That does not mean their names must “match” (and really doesn’t mean they have to rhyme…though some parents of multiples do choose rhyming names), but they probably should at least complement one another. You wouldn’t, for example, want one to be named Bucky if the other is named Vladimir. And if you have boy/girl twins, you probably wouldn’t want to choose Jack and Jill or Bonnie and Clyde…unless, of course, you have a very bizarre sense of humor or are a celebrity.
What are your thoughts on choosing names for multiples? Rhyming? Alliteration? A,B,C order? None of the above?
(photo by Penningtron)
ABOUT Peapodsquadmom
Monica is an elementary school music teacher, mom of 6-year-old triplets and wife to daddy extraordi{read more}
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Hi Monica,
I had to comment as we are parents of one plus triplets. We were lucky enough to give all of their grandpas middle names to our kiddos. We did invitro and went in with 3 names….2 out of 3 names stuck. So many people rhyme their names or use all A’s or B’s. It ended up that our first has 6 letters in his name, 5 with the second and 4 with the last. Each name having 2 syllables.My girlfriend who also has triplets went with the 6,5,4 method too! My children are almost and 8 and 5. I will follow your posts as there are not many of us out there!
Best Regards,
Kelly
I can’t help myself, but I gag a little when I hear rhyming or matching names, especially from multiples. Those poor kiddos are going to be a spectacle no matter what their names are, and I’ve known a number of twins who hated the novelty of twinship as they were growing up, particularly when people referred to them as “the twins”. I can imagine it would be much worse for triplets, etc.
Our girls are Audrey Anna, Emma, and Olivia. They’re just names we liked, and we feel blessed that we got to use them all. The most important thing for multiples is to feel like a whole person apart from their “others” and why not start by giving them their own unique name, apart from how it “fits” with their siblings?
Although, we have joked that if we have two more girls we’ll name them Ursula and Isabelle, just to finish out the vowels.
I am terrible at naming anything.. especially children!
My singleton was unnamed for six weeks… the only reason I named our twins at 6 days old was because I couldn’t bare to leave them in the hospital un-named…. We had decided on one name, Zoe and then out of the blue when a nurse asked me if I had chosen a name yet I blurted out ‘Isabella’… a name Dh and I hadn’t even considered! No idea where it came from, but by the time I got back up to NICU after calling DH to tell him the nurses had made special name signs for the girl’s isolettes so there it was.. written down ‘Isabella’.
We didn’t do it on purpose but people have suggested we went with a long name and a short name (we also did the opposite with middle names – gave Zoe the long middle name and Izzy the short one)…. plus we gave twin 1 the I name (cause I is like a 1) and twin 2 the Z name (cause Z is like a 2)…. none of that was planned though!
Oh man, took us forever to name the girls. I didn’t want to use the same letter – I don’t want any of my kids to have the same first letter so none of them do
We did name them before they were born so we knew who was A, who was B and who was C. So much so that in the delivery room the doctor told us that she had baby C when the second baby came out (stinker switched places with her sister). I had originally tried to have an “A” in baby “A’s” name, a “B” in baby “B’s” etc. but the switch just messed us up and we changed baby B’s name so it ended up not mattering!
We still call them the babies or the girls though so it probably doesn’t matter what we named them
2 of 3 have family middles names; 1 doesn’t – dad just liked her name – I guess that’s normal though – naming them as individuals not as a group. I hope they think so at least. Thanks for asking 
I always thought the matchy thing was cheesy with twins…and then I did it! With our first set we had a girl name for sure but could not decide on a boy name…after he was born we named him Braeden without thinking about how it would sound with her name. Her name is Bronwyn. Br….n and Br….n. Augh!!! But you know what? I love their names they really fit their personalities. No regrets.
Not too long ago we had another set of twins – boys this time. Since the first set match I wanted the second set to match a little but not as much. They are Henry and Hudson. I am pleased once again.
We rarely call any of them “the twins” since it doesn’t distinguish which set.