So, we’ve got a bit of a dilema! We’re three days away from Fealy Bub Number 4’s due date and we still don’t have any idea of names for this little one. With our other three kids we had a Top 5 boys/girls names by this point that we took in with us to hospital and made the final decision when we saw bub. We don’t know what sex baby is – we have always opted for the suprise factor with all of our kids and to be honest that is the only thing that gets me through labour, the excitement to see what new little person will be joining our family!!
I don’t know why we are finding it so hard this time round to choose a name! Maybe it’s knowing that this will probably be the last child’s name we get to choose? Maybe we’ve used up all the names we really liked after three kids? Maybe it’s because now we are surrounded by so many friends and family who all have kids and all the names we like are already in use? I have to admit that we don’t make things easy for ourselves. You see – I have a bit of a thing about four letter names. Matt, Jess, Jack, Toby and Lexi – see – four letters for all of us!
When Jack was born we didn’t have the four letter name rule – Matt just had always loved the name Jack and so that was how it was. By the time Toby came along though, I’d somehow got it into my head that I wanted to stick with the four letter names for our family and so our little rule was born. We’re adding a bit of an extra naming convention to Bub No 4 too (I know, I know – a little kinda crazy going on here!) in that I don’t want a name ending in ‘I’ or ‘Y’ sound, we’re looking for a strong ‘full stop’ type sounding name to finish on! Oh, and the other thing? It has to ‘match/go’ with the rest of our names – it has to fit in, you know?? Not asking much now are we!!
So although we love Abby, Gaby, Lucy, Mily and Body, they are all out of the running. As are Kate, Beth, Kira, Bree, Brad and Adam which we also really like, but they are already in use in the family! Georgia, Charlotte, David, Max and Sam are favourite names too but they are out of contention due to not meeting the 4 letter rule! Can you see our problem??? We’re being very fussy I know, but names are so important don’t you think? We are not the type to go for anything to out there like ‘Apple Sauce’ or ‘Weekend’ or ‘Wolfgang’ – we definitely fall into the more traditional names category.
We need help!! Does anybody have some ideas for us? Are we nuts with all our little naming rules? Did anybody else out there have some little quirks or conventions when it came to naming your kids??
Oh and of course, the other tricky bit with this naming business is that we actually have to agree on a name we both like – that’s a whole other problem hehehehe!
Interesting rules Jess and Matt. Boy names that stood out for me here were Lucas, Ethan as all the boys I know with these names are nice kids. Girl names would be Ava, Amy, Mia I like all these and there are none in the family as I recall. Enjoy picking it’s all part of the fun. Xo
Hello Peter Prado People!!!
Confessions of the 4-letter namers here. I have been following your blog since it began and LOVE to hear all your travels and news. We also fell into the 4 letter naming thing by accident and have 3 boys the same age as your current 3. Toby, Judd and Hugh. We aren’t into anything outlandish either but don’t like the regular “popular-in-at-the-time” kind of names either, so our Toby started that trend and we continued on with the other 2!! We knew from as early as what we could tell on the ultrasound what we were having so can’t really offer any help with girls names, except that I worked for a while with an obstetrician and we had some gorgeous names come through. A few of my favourites at the time were…..Jazz, Dior and Taya. The other boys names that weren’t too common but nice were Rhys and Nash.
The hard part we found with boys is that they turn into men so one has a huge responsibility to find a name that can transcend the 2 phases of a male’s life!!!! Some feel this is irrelevant but whilst working in the baby game I heard some doozies come through and many just were too little boyie to become good men’s names. But I guess that all comes down to opinion and tastes!!!!
Good luck with your labour and I look forward to hearing your choice.
Love Black Betty BTW. We are up in Darwin for my husband’s work at the moment and have just purchased a Jayco expanda and hope to start our travel adventures from up here!!!!!
Your faithful follower
Sue and all the Y chromosomes
Oh Sue – you have made my day! I really like the name Taya – will have to run that one by the panel later! Hugh is on our list at the moment too!! Thanks for all the suggestions and enjoy the Jayco Expanda!!! Very nice!!
We has sooo much trouble naming number 4. He was or 3rd boy and we give the kids 2 (family) middle names so we were well and truly out of boys names. I had heaps f girls names of course. We initially called him Louis at the 10 day mark. Then nobody could spell or pronounce it and we have such a tricky surname. When my husband wrote Louise on my daughters card I knew it had to change. So Louis became Rupert. He’s definitely Rupert! I love names and we aren’t having any more either! So I shall use this excuse to do some brainstorming and get back to you with some suggestions!
Cat – I think our baby may go un-named for quite some time at this stage! We’re going with ‘Kid4’ at this point!
What a lovely predicament to have! Poor bub 4 will have a complex about their name – wondering if you’d run out of good names by the time you got there. So hopefully bub 4 will love their name and not be worried when they read this blog post in the far off future! 😛
I speak as my mum’s bub 4. I was ok though, because I had, in my opinion, the best name! Even though no-one can spell it and no-one can ever pronounce it!
Would Dave be a good way to meet your like for David, with your rules?
Or Alex, for either sex? Maybe that sounds too much like Lexi though.
My sister and I have the same initials – that was my mum and dad’s rule for us. HSH (until we both married).
Good luck! x
Heike – you’re absolutely right – this bub 4 is going to have issues about their name forever more hehehehe! I really like Dave, but Matt thinks it’s cheating! I love your same initials rule that your parents came up with – hadn’t heard that one before!
Long time follower (heard about your travels through the Zamily) but first-time commenter. How about Troy, Emma, Luke, CiCi (pronounced see-see), Jane, June…
Kathy – you’ve given us some good ones there! We have to admit to having a strong leaning towards the name ‘Zac’ but it is just too similiar to our Jack! So lovely to hear from a Zamily member, thank you!
Had my thinking cap on……
Drew (I actually love this for a girl)
Alex
Theo
Abel
Odin
Milo
Ella
Bella
Beau
Ok I am done – I am sure you have already seen these but just incase!!!
Carla, I love, love, love Drew for a girl but Matt is not keen – gah! This having to agree business stinks!!!
Jack, Toby, Lexi and Drew – it just goes so nicely he he he!!!
Our little thing is that we have 2 ‘L’s and 2 ‘C’s – Lachlan and Lily, Carla and Carter!!!!! So we really would be stuffed if we went around again unless we had twins – but that’s not going to happen!!!!!!
Oh and…..
Luke or Luca
Carla, great minds think alike!!!! I was at our kinder the other day and I met a little girl named Drew and I have fallen in love with that name, either boy or girl!!!! And being that Drew Barrymore just had a little baby as well why not DREW 🙂 It is 4 letters too……….
So my suggestions are Drew
Peppi
Zali
Felix
Mali
Maci
Alas unless I have baby number 5 I will not be getting a Drew 😉 I have a Rebecca (Bec), Zoe, Abby and Jesse but I also found the fourth baby name really hard. Our fourth baby was going to be a Jesse either way!!! Good Luck xx
I love Mali and Maci but unfortunately they contravene our ‘i’ rule this time round! Aaaaaargh, soooooo hard! Thanks heaps for the the suggestions – it is so helpful having some other ideas come in!!
We had rules too. They revolved around not using the same initial, and not being overly popular names. But for you, in no particular order, or grouped in sex:
Juno.
Beau.
Nick
Leah.
John.
Fred.
Bill.
Hugo.
Jane.
Jock.
Anna.
Kris.
If all else fails, crack out baby names on google, there are loads of sites that you can put in specifications like 4 letters, and even sometimes you can put names that go with…
You’ve got 30 days after he/she is born.
Good luck.
There are some great names already suggested here Jess. It’s been a long while since I named a bub but I have an Emma and my nephew is Levi. I could also suggest Dion, Aden, Anya, Asha, Sara, Beth, Dale, Eden, Jade, Isla, Jaye, Hugo, Kyle, Josh, Maye, Lola, one friend had a kurt, which was a bit weird for a baby but now really suits him as an adult. Never mind, I think babies somehow choose their own names, When I was pregnant with Emma, I had never considered that name and then I heard a lady calling her daughter that, and I started seeing it everywhere. My hubbie didn’t like it and then at about 7 months, suddenly loved it. A similar thing happened with my second, Hayley. It was my hubbies fave but it was when Hayley Lewis won heaps of medals in the Commonwealth Games and I decided I wanted a different name for her, but we could never agree. She is such a Hayley (or Hailz as we call her) and now it’s impossible to imagine her as anything else. How exciting for you.
Who would have thought there were so many 4 letter names! I only had girls but if I had a boy I planned to call him either Adam or Nate. Both strong,no nonsense names imo 🙂 We named our daughter Kate thinking it was one syllable and couldn’t be abbreviated. How wrong we were. She gets Katie, Kaitlyn, Kat, Kit Kat, Kitty cat. Almost all the females in our family have Louise as a middle name, it seems to flow easily. Have fun deciding….
I love Drew, Alex, Ashe for a boy or girl.
girls – Brya, Leni , Lani, Rani, Tara, Rina, Kari, Rosa, Zara, Bette, Erin, Jean, Jose, Page, Shae, Skye
boys – Jett, Dean, Finn, Nate, Ryan, Sean, Tate, Alec, Arne, Cain, Dion, Jake, Leon, Seth
I love Deani for a girl, but it does not fit the rules! !!
Dewi is an abbreviation of David
well some fit the rules and others dont, good luck guys, xxxx
My son is Fynn…sometimes spelt Finn…i still love it, it is a good srtrong name…Finn Feally? Finn can also be a girls name..like in How to make an American quilt.
Thom…(tom) , Arlo, Nedd,Fred,Mace,Till, Remy/Remi, Pepe…….Girls…Rose, Hana, Anna,Tash, ..will keep looking!
And surely if you can have Matt and Jess, then Dave is ok…