Mandy

I just stumbled on this blog while searching baby names, and thought maybe you could help me.I'm pregnant (due at the end of May) with our second daughter.

We're pretty sure her name will be either, Clover or Willa. We just can't decide between the two. I'm fine with waiting to decide until we actually meet her, but I'd love to hear your opinion on the names. We aren't sharing them with many people, so a fresh perspective would be nice.If we use Clover, we'll probably use Jane as a middle name (it's a family name). We have a very short, one-syllable last name, so I generally prefer a longer middle name, but for some reason, I like Jane with Clover.

However, if we go with Willa, I want to use Caroline as a middle name. My mom doesn't think it flows well. Thoughts?Oh, and we have an almost 3 yr. old daughter. Her name is Sadie Julianne.I should also mention that we aren't closed minded to other names; these are just the two that we like the most right now.

If it helps, we also like Zoey, Lucy, Maisie, Delilah (and those are just a few), but none of them are quite right for one reason or another.

Thanks Mandy

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Sorry Mandy for the late reply and hopefully we are not too late!
So first of all congratulations! Two little girls at home will be fantastic :D Busy but fantastic!

Your name choices, Clover or Willa. I’m leaning towards Willa.
I guess when I’m hearing Clover I think of Clove of garlic. Or four leaf Clover. But really is that a bad association? It fits in perfectly with the flower, and herbs names. So it really depends on your point of view. I have to say if you choose Clover, Jane makes an excellent Middle name. It continues the trend you set with Sadie Julianne, having a 1st name with and edge, followed by a modest but stylish middle name!

Willa. I just love the sound of it Will-Ah. Popular in the 1880s- 1940s its due for a come back! Caroline though is just sounding a little to long for it. So middle names, perhaps Rose, Lucia, Emmeline, Adaline, Kate, Charlotte, Madeline, Amanda, Alexis, Suzanne, Grace?

Other names I think could work well are
Arla
Poppy
Lyra
Ingrid
Claudia
Adelaide
Tabitha
Nina
Romily

I like Maisie and Lucy from your maybe lists, but if it doesn’t sound right I know from experience you can’t change your mind. Decide depending upon your gut feeling, and of course when you see your darling little girl for the first time!

Good luck and hopefully not too late!

A Violet Opportunity

Violet Affleck out with Mom and Dad

I was talking to one of the moms from Edward's kindy the other day who has 3 kids and is expecting again. After general chitchat about both our pregnancys I asked her about names. She said "We are looking for something quite uncommon, just like our other kids names". And what are her other kids names? Harrison, India and Summer.

I told her that Edward might have indeed been a Harrison if it had been solely up to me but that Nathan thought it was just too popular. He was in the top 50 names for the year Edward was born (I checked now and he was ranked 24th) so we opted for the unranked Edward. She didn't seem to know that Harrison was such a high flyer.

I also mentioned that Summer and Sienna are amoung our (evergrowing) favourites when she asked. Her response was "I loved Sienna for Summer but we just couldn't have an India and then a Sienna." I checked the stats for my state for the year her little daughter was born abdSummer ranked 23rd, Sienna 8th. What!?!?!?! Since when did 15 places count for all that much? Summer even outranked Sarah at 29, Sophia at 30, Elizabeth at 33, Kate at 47 and ALL the variants of Caitlin! So much for unpopular.

Even the least common of her kids names, India, bears great correlation to the very popular Indiana, who now sits at 47 for us West Aussies.

Tut, Tut, Tut. Why won't people do proper research? If your looking for an uncommon name I would very strongly suggest having a long hard look at the trends and stats. Otherwise you just might find your 'rare' choice isn't rare at all.

So I had a good look at all the names on my list. The habit we have been getting into recently will either be our making or our breaking. We write any names that take our fancy on a white board I put in the lounge, next to the TV, so we have too look at it every day when we flick on the news. Its great! It gives me something to look at during the add breaks plus, we have a big pool to pick from. But anyways, I picked my favourites and had a look at their rankings. It was the best thing I could have possibly done to educate myself. I got some pleasant and some not so pleasant suprises.

For the Boys:

• Did you know that Christopher didn't rank at all in West Aus. !? And his name-cousin Christian ranked 76. I think its safe to use him don't you?
• Oliver was ranked 4th which is sad because he was a big favourite of mine though Olivia was 11th so that might be usable with the nickname Olive.
• Not many more surprises with my boy favourites except for Alexander. He ranked 26th. Yes! I'm happy about this one - just when he cracked it into the top 10 in the States!

For the Girls:

• Madeline didn't rank (but they do only do top 50 occurances). And even if she did,most people pronounce her like mad-e-lin, whereas I prefer mad-e-lie-n (rhyming with crime).
• His favourite girl, Phoebe, ranked 49th.
• My beautiful Imogen is 24th. I shed a tear or two over this one.
• No Isabel's Isabelle's Isabell's or Isabele's appeared anywhere! Which is fantastic because I am just enamoured with scottish Isobel (with a definate 'Oh' sound) and fellow -bel ender Claribel. Though, predictably, Isabella its hot stuff at rank 8.
• One of our strongest honarary middle name possibilites, dissapointingly, was 10th on the charts, Matilda.

And one last one that really took me by surprise:

• Sweet little Violet didn't chart in the top 50 occurances in West Aus. nor in the national statistics. This was quite a shock for me. I always thought, perhaps a little biasedly, that Australia usually, was a bit ahead on the baby name trend front. I did a post a couple of weeks back detailing all the little darling names Aus. has in our top 100 that have escaped popularity in the US. Well since that post, it appears that the US had taken our lead and added a couple of those Australian Favourites to their top 1000, like Gemma and Callum for example. Well it looks like you Yanks have beaten us to this one. I think I might bump Miss. Violet up my list after this discovery.

Shows the importance of doing research, I guess. But I know all you reading this all ready know that. That's why your reading this of course.