Boy & Girl Twins after a Singleton!

[thompssn]

I'm in baby-name overload! I guess you have to have something to obsess over and I've got almost all of the other big things figured out, so names are swirling around my head like a constantly running ticker tape!

We have a 16 month Conor. We decided to try for "one more" and...well, we got one more than we bargained for!

When we found out I was pregnant we decided, almost immediately on Cormac for a boy and Cordelia for a girl. I wouldn't have thought twice about having two "C" kids. I seem to be drawn to those names. And, this was to be my last pregnancy, so I wasn't worried about falling into the trap of having to Keep coming up with "C" names just so no one would be "left out".

After we recovered from the news of Twins, we decided to hold off on naming issues until we either discovered the genders, or found out that they couldn't tell us definitely. We recently found out (with a 90% accuracy guarantee) that it's a boy and a girl.

So, now the dilemma. Should I go with 3 "C" names, or is it too OTT, especially since the later two both begin with "Cor"? Or do I strive to have all different initials? We have both though of them with those names for so long now, that it seems like it would be hard to go a different route now, and my husband has no qualms with the names matching. It's just that if you had asked me Before, I would have said that I would never name twins "matching" names (and there are tons of lovely names out there).

I definitely don't want the twins to have names that start with the same letter, and Conor be the odd one out, since he'll be in that position with most other things as they're growing up. And I don't want only one of the twins to have a "C" name that matches Conor and the other one not.

So do I have:
Conor
Cormac
Cordelia

Or, do I start combing through names lists again?

I know different people like different things, just wondering if YOU asked someone the names of their kids and they listed the above, would you be rolling your eyes in your mind?

[mischa]

Personally, I would choose different initials. Not only do Cormac and Cordelia share a "Cor" beginning but Conor also shares an "or" with the names so I find them very matchy. Try yelling them out a couple of times. My cousin has two sons named Cole and Conor and he says it's confusing and he regrets choosing the second name that is so similar. Twins are so often thought of as a "pair" so I like each child to have their own unique name to emphasize that they are truly "individuals". But in the end, it's your decision and if you love the names, then use them. Have you thought about putting them in the middle spot?

[aguafresca]

I have to agree with Mischa above. If the C names were more different from each other, maybe it wouldn't be as bad, but the Cor/or sounds repeating is a lot. I love the idea of keeping Cordelia and Cormac as middle names if you can figure out how to make that work. (Also, if it matters to you, I don't think of Cordelia and Conor as having the same "feel" - do you tend more toward Conor-type names, or more toward Cordelia-type names? That might be something to think about if you decide to look into other possibilities.)

[thompssn]

Thanks for the suggestions. I may try to work them in as middle names, if possible. From the beginning it was obvious that they all started with a "Co". But, honestly I didn't realize the "Cor" for the beginning of the last two until very recently. And, I didn't make the "or" connection with Conor until you pointed it out!

I seem to be drawn to the longer names personally. I also like names that would give kids a lot of options for nicknames, as we all know that kids hit that age where they want to be called anything Other than what their parents named them. But, I also like Short, snappy names as well, and like to pair them together. Conor has Alexander as a mn. And, "Cormac" would have had something similarly long and easy to break up into different nicknames. With "Cordelia", her first name would have been the longest one, but we would have called her "Cordy" which would fit in the same flow as the other two short names.

[googoogixie]

I really love Cormac and Cordelia with Conor, but I've always been a fan of alliteration in general. It's not everyone's cup of tea. I think you should absolutely use them as middle names if you decide you aren't a fan of them all sharing a first initial.

[emiliaj]

I think although there are similarities in the names each has a distinct sound.
With Conor the key sound is the "Con" part where with Cormac the "mac" part is stronger. Mac would be an AWESOME nn BTW.
Cordelia is 3 syllable and the "deel" sound dominates over other sounds. Cordy is a cute nn especially with Mac. Cordy sound quite different to Conor and Cormac.
So yes, some parts are similar- but if they are the names you like I don't think it would be an issue- it's not like you are choosing Elijah, Eli and Elly.

[tquints]

This is a tough one! I love Cormac and Cordelia, but when you hear them listed at the same time it does sound a little like characters in a fairy tale. On the other hand, when you're actually introducing your children, there's a lot more to take in than just the names. They'll have their own personalities and appearances to go along with their very appealing names. This may be one of those situations where you make a decision when they arrive.

[thompssn]

We may end up going with it. My husband isn't "Against" other names. It's just that we Have already started thinking of them as Cormac and Cordelia. And, me trying to have a name discussion has almost become a running joke in the house, by this point!!! He's utterly convinced about the names and can't understand why I'm becoming wishy-washy about it, since I wouldn't be if it was just one of the two on the way. After a lot of obsessing about it, I'm becoming a little more comfortable about the matchiness.

The biggest reasons (I've seen Hundreds of times in the last week of in depth research) people give against it don't really apply in our situation. Using a calendar and writing initials for instance. My family all have different initials, but we used different color stars. My husbands family all have different initials, and they still used shapes. The twins aren't Identical, not even the same sex, so I don't think issues of "finding" their own identities will be a problem like sometimes happens with identicals. And even the issues with teachers dealing with same initials in school (not that I'm overly concerned about that one, I can imagine it's happened before and they've dealt with it), we live in Ireland and more than likely they'll all be going to same-sex schools, so Conor will be in an older class and Cordelia will be in a different school than Cormac. And, most importantly...I do Love the names.

Anyway, I've decided that I'm driving myself crazy with it at the moment. I'm going to take a step back for a few days and then we're going to talk it all over again this weekend. If I'm still having issues with it then we'll take the time to come up with different initial names to at least have on the back-burner in case I'm hit with another burst of crazy at the end of the pregnancy and decided 100% Against the matching. And, then see how the new names grow on us. If they become as good/better than the first set or if they still end up falling short.

So, thanks for all of the suggestions/advice so far, it has been appreciated. I'd still like to hear any other opinions, don't stop just because I "think" we've decided. :P

[sugarfoot]

It's not terrible and I wouldn't think it utterly ridiculous, but I probably would have at least a slight internal eye roll.

[aguafresca]

I keep thinking about this thread and it seems to me like you just independently like Cormac and Cordelia and weren't trying to go for matchiness, is that true? I mean, if those are your two favorite names (and they do "flow" together well anyway), I'm thinking you should just go for it. They're both nice names independently and have several good nicknames that make them sound even more different. As far as matchy twin names go, this set is probably one of the best.

Also, I'm trying to figure out myself if we have another girl if I'm okay with choosing the name Eloisa which has a lot of sounds in common with my daughter's name - Lucia. On one hand the matchiness is bothersome to me, but on the other, the majority of the time kids are just known by their first and last name (not so-and-so's sister), so it's probably more important that the first and last name go together than the sibset be perfect. I would hate to pass up Eloisa just because I already have a Lucia. So I've been thinking about that in relation to your posts and you sound like you've thought it through and are happy with your choices. So I'm kind of revising my first post - if you can't find anything else you like more, I think you should be confident with Cormac and Cordelia.