It’s one of our longest-running forums, at 200+ pages and counting: Name a sibset you know.

On the forums it’s a game where one person names a sibset they know and the next person takes one of the names from that sibset and uses it in a different sibset they know.  Go ahead and play it, it’s fun.

So for this question of the week, we’re going to spin the challenge a bit differently and ask, What’s the best sibset — as in group of sibling names — you know?

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It’s always so disappointing to see the most popular twin names in the U.S.   The majority are connected in such obvious ways, or in several obvious ways at the same time.  They’ve got the same first initial, they rhyme or at least have a similar rhythm, they share a derivation and/or a meaning, they’re identical in style and/or popularity and/or image – and often they’ve got all those factors going on at once.

Dominant pairs include Jada and Jayden, Taylor and Tyler, Ella and Emma, London and Paris.

But we think you can do better, much better, and we’re going to help you.  The point is to find twin names that share a strong bond yet remain distinct individuals, just as you would wish for your children.   Some ideas for fresh links between names are below — you might want to use these for finding compatible sibling pairs too!

Same first initial, different sound

Connecting twin names by using the same first initial may feel like the easiest and, let’s face it, most predictable and boring way to link.

But you can give the powerful initial connection a fresh twist by choosing names that share the initial but sound different.  Some first initials accommodate this idea better than others.  A few examples:

Cybele and Clio

Genevieve and Garrett

Imogen and Isla

Patrick and Philip

If you want to use a first initial that sounds the same no matter what, at least vary the second letter to give the overall sound of each name a distinct feel.  Examples:

David and Drew

Mabel and Murray

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I wish I’d had a daughter named Margaret, called Daisy or Maisie or Mamie.  But it’s a name I grew to love only after I named my daughter, and then my next two children were boys.

Flora was the name we almost used for our daughter, but then chickened out.  And Eliza has long been my favorite girl’s name, but not one my husband likes.

Our only daughter would have been Henry if she’d been a boy, but then by the time we had a boy, I wanted to name him Joseph after my dad.  And by the time we had a second boy, there were too many Henrys in our neighborhood.

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Time again for one of my absolute favorite activities—rounding up the names that Berries have chosen over the past three-month period.  These are the winning picks after all the options were weighed– so often the result of enlightened discussions with and suggestions from fellowberries.

Today’s Quarterly Report includes an even more than usual range of fabulous choices, for both singletons and multiples–and we often get to see the sibsets these newbies fit into.

We also have some multiples of our own: three Spring babyberries each named Ivy and Miles, and two each called Charlotte, Cora, Eloise, Jasper, Leo, Oliver and Samuel.  Plus the similar but differently spelled Alice and Alys, Eleanor and Elinore, Mathilde and Matilda, Vivien and Vivienne, and Edmond and Edmund.

Some of the more intriguingly unusual choices: girls named Bennett , Connelly and Greyson, boys named Hawthorne and Jones, and distinctive middle names Sherlock, Capri, Dover, Huckleberry, and Adventure.

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One of my greatest joys is stepping back four times a year to gather up all the new names that have been added to the Birth Announcement forum, and seeing what names have moved from speculation and possibility into reality—onto the birth certificates of actual little people!  There’s also the added pleasure of seeing the cool combinations of firsts and middles Berries have put together, and how the names fit in with those of their sibs.

Once again, I’m dazzled by the sheer splendor and variety of this list (the London Times has nothing on us!), the intriguing mix of the classic and the creative—so much of it the result of  the savvy advice gleaned from the discussions on the forums.

Most of these names stand individually, but we do have some multiples: three Alices and three Hazels, and pairs of babyberries named Belle, Eliza, Emeline/Emmeline, Frances, Penelope, Ruby, Wren, James, Silas and Walter, and in the middle spots more than one June and Jane, Josephine, Scarlett and Penelope (again); Carter and Alexander.

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