Thursday 28 March 2013

What's in a Name?

Choosing a name for your unborn child can be a fun and exciting process. It's such an important part of your child's identity. Parents often spend hours and hours poring over lists of names, writing down their favorites, vetoing some of their spouses choices, creating a short-list and finally settling on a name for their baby. We look at family names, meanings, origins, spelling, pronunciation, possible nicknames, even sometimes going so far as to imagine how the name could be twisted and made fun of.

With twins it is even harder! Thinking of names that go together and match the family name. Plus, with twins, people have a lot of different ideas of how you can solidify that special bond with their names. Here are some "themes" that I've seen in articles about naming twins:

I could add a cute photo of a nice
handwritten list - but let's be real here
- it was all done on an iPad app. :) 
(Keep in mind that we're having two girls so these are all girl names)

Seasons: Autumn and Summer

Gems: Amber and Ruby

Virtues: Charity, Harmony, Joy, Hope

"Destination" names: London and Paris

Months: April, June, May

Flowers: Rose, Violet, Daisy, Lily

Then of course there are names that start with the same letter, or names that rhyme, or even one name and the other the same but spelled backwards (like Heaven and Nevaeh - still not sure how to pronounce that one?)



While I think some of these are beautiful names, I don't usually go for matchy-matchy things, and in our family we have a whole other list of criteria that names have to fit into...

The names should
- sound nice together (and also with their sibling's names)
- work well with our family name (Portela)
- have some special meaning to us, or a tie to a family name
- be easy to read, spell and pronounce in both English and Portuguese.

 Not too much to ask for, right?

Ever since we found out we were having girls, people have been asking about the names. It's common cultural etiquette here to announce both the gender and the name of your child well before the birth.

So, without further ado...

Arriving mid May 
How did you choose your child's name?

8 comments:

  1. Really cute! Are you going to wait to see them to choose who gets which name?

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  2. That's fantastic! Lisa and Leila...I love it! Beautiful names.

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  3. I am a big stickler for siblings names sounding good together. My son has a very Biblical name but it is quite unique so I want his brother (if he has one) to have a unique Biblical name as well.

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  4. So precious! I'm with you on the "matchy-matchy" names. I love your choice. Naming kids feels like such a big responsibility (I don't want to regret it... like I did naming our dog Daisy. ha!)

    With our little one on the way, my husband has already picked a name. I like it, but I also like to over-analyze and consider all the options. :) He's playing it smart, though, by telling our daughter, so she is already starting to learn "baby's name" even though I'm still weighing my "options." :)

    Hope your pregnancy is going well. Can't wait to see those kiddos!

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  5. OH, I love the names! And they go beautifully together!

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  6. Love those cute names! So excited that you shared them with us. Summerbeth & I pray for your little ones every single night. We chose Summer's name because of what the season means to us: new life, joy, sunshine, and fun. Her middle name has Biblical meaning. As for baby #2, Husband had a dream that we had a baby boy & in the dream God gave him the name too! (We both <3 it!) Still praying about whether or not to add a middle name. I totally get the easy bilingual pronunciation thing. Thankfully, most ppl here can come up with something close to "Summer" or just stick with "Elizabeth." Happy belated Easter!

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Thanks for stopping by. Comments make me smile!

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