There are many patterns in life, both natural and man-made. Some are aesthetic, some are mathematical and some were designed with safety in mind. Still others are so amazing in their accidental beauty, that it takes your breath away.
One area in which you must be very careful in starting patterns is in naming your children. You can get into dicey territory when you have more children than you originally thought you’d have, and you can run short on options. My maiden name was Jeldness, and both my brother and I have names that start with ‘J’. Jennifer Jeldness. Just the alliteration of this name alone earned me nicknames like ‘Jenny Jello-head’ when I was a kid. Not sure how my brother fared. But how many more ‘J’s, that sounded good with Jeldness could my mother have come up with? The Duggars went down this path back when they saw only a handful of children in their future. But now that they are letting God decide their family size, do you know how hard it is to find 20 names in one letter that you like? That sound good with ‘Duggar’? Thank goodness they didn’t start with ‘Q’!
Our family pattern-alphabetical names-started out innocently enough. For those of you who don’t know my family, they are, in order: Alex, Bethanie, Casadie, Delanie, Emmalie and Fynnlie. Alex and Beth were born during my tumultuous first marriage, and there were never any plans to expand that family. Those names were alphabetical completely by accident..in fact, Bethanie’s name was almost Amberly. But when Alex was little, I would always tease him gently, and say “Mommy should have another baby and name it with a ‘C’, so I’d have Mommy’s ABC’s Cute, huh?
Cut to several years later, remarried to a wonderful man-with whom I’d happily repopulate the earth if ever a comet decimates the masses. You’re welcome. Anyway, this brilliant 1st child of mine, with a photographic memory (at times) asks his newly pregnant mother “So, are you going to name it with a ‘C’ so you have your ABC’s? And with that, a pattern was born. We scoured name books, and found several wonderful options. When we discovered our precious baby was a girl, we began to narrow the list. Cassidy was a favorite name from a tv show, so we decided to go with it. But it needed tweaking. You see, there was one more pattern to deal with. I loved that Bethanie’s name ended with ‘ie’, and thought because they were sisters, it would be cute if they matched. (Boys names do not need to follow this IE pattern.) So I played with it. Cassidie, Cassadie, Casidie, Casadie, and so on.
Casadie Kimball it was!
And then….
Delanie Kimball
Emmalie Kimball
Both of these so easy. One glance at a name book, they popped out and we knew it instantly. They were both converted to their ‘ie’ versions easily and beautifully. In fact, I mentioned in a previous post that E’s name was laughingly decided was we drove home from the hospital, with our brand new Delanie in the backseat. “So, what’ll we name the next one?” Erickson Kimball, or Emmalie Kimball. Done. 11 months later, Emmalie joined our family. Eazy Peazy. No need to go any farther, right?
August 2008. Decisions to be made. Go for it, or don’t. Six is crazy, right? Well, I’d just been through a major hospitalization and surgery, and it was very scary stuff. My employer’s reaction to my long-term absence was less than positive, and it was causing me to reprioritize my life. We decided that our children were our greatest joy so why not invite MORE joy into our lives? So, with decision made, the hunt was on. “F”. No disrespect to those out there with lovely and wonderful ‘F’ names. There’s just a lack of contemporary, feminine ‘F’ options. Even for boys, Frederick, Francis, Frank, just not our style. We did like ‘Ford’ for a boy. But I challenge you, my loyal readers, to find an “F” girls name that could end in an LY or IE. It cannot be a nick-name as a first name “Frankie, Francie” I had nearly 300 cast members at Disney involved in working on this.
We even briefly considered abandoning the pattern…but thought about how the child would feel not being part of the plan. I also had a friend who was adamant that our patterning was ridiculous, but he was equally appalled that we would consider abandoning it. I heard this opinion daily. He still can't say our baby's name without equal amounts of humor and disgust. His repeated statement. "I don't support that."
We finally settled on Fynnlie. It was a choice widely debated, because Fynn is generally listed as a boy’s name, but we do adore it. Finley is growing in popularity for girls, so it’s not such a stretch to imagine more Fynnlie’s in the world. In fact, there was a Fynnlie, spelled the same way, born 2 hours after our Fynnlie, in the same hospital. Our beautiful Fynnlie is a credit to the name. Always happy, she has taken to the name with grace and finesse. It suits her.
For those who ask me “So, are you going for a whole alphabet?” Maybe I am. Maybe I’ll be the first person on the planet to have 26 kids for the sole purpose of completing a pattern. For your reading pleasure, here’s a quick rundown of some top choices for the rest of the alphabet. There are holes here, and this does not obligate me to stick with these choices should the letter ever be needed.
G- (g) Gracie (b) Grayson
H- (g) Hadlie or Harlie (b) Harrison
I-
J- (g)Jacie (b)Jackson or Jaxon or Jameson
K-(g) Kennedie
L- (g) Lexie (b) Landon
M- (g) Macie, Mallorie, Maralie, McKinlie (b) Michael
N- (g) Natalie (b) Nicholas
O- (b) Owen
P- (g) Preslie (b) Parker
Q- (g) Quinnlie (b) Quinn
R- (g) Rylie (b) Ray, Reese
S- (g) Sydnie (b) Sawyer
T- (b) Tristan
U-
V- (g) Valarie
W- (g) Whitnie (b) William, Walker, Wyatt
X- (b) Xander
Y-
Z- (g) Zoie (b) Zachary
There you have it. Suggestions for adding to the list welcome! Leave me a comment with any patterns or traditions for naming your children that you’ve followed. Was it a joy to follow, or did the need to name your child something specific cause you to pause?
