Hi Jennifer,
Your website is wonderful, and I’m in awe of the amazing work that you do. As an aspiring author, I am constantly scouring your website to find names for my characters. Since I’m only twenty years old, I’m not going to be naming children of my own anytime soon, but I find your website incredibly helpful for my fictional family.
I have seen you answer many questions regarding naming children, and how you think it’s a good idea for each child to have their own identity within a family. I wanted to ask your opinion on naming twins. I know that you dislike twin names that begin with the same letter; I’m completely in agreement on that. But what do you think of naming twins according to their birth order, Baby A and Baby B?
My little sisters are twins, and when we knew that we were going to be able to adopt them (they were placed with us through foster care at 3 months old), we knew that we wanted to change their names, as we had never really used their given names and only stuck to ‘baby girl’ or ‘sweetie’ before we knew we would be adopting them. We changed their given first names to their middle names, and decided on new first names for them. We found an ‘A’ name for the first born, Baby A, and a ‘B’ name for the second born, Baby B. As doctors only referred to them as ‘Baby A’ and ‘Baby B’ at the numerous doctor appointments they had, we thought it only appropriate. Their names, therefore, are Aspen and Brea.
What do you think of choosing names in this way, so that the children are still given their individuality, yet they are connected? In our case, we actually ended up choosing two city names, though I’m not suggesting that everyone should choose a theme like this. I’m just wondering what you think about using the ‘A’ and ‘B’ names.
Thanks for your thoughts on the matter!
Taylor Faith
Hi Taylor,
I don’t see anything wrong with naming twins with a theme as long as they are not likely to be confused. Aspen and Bree are very unique, and good choices. There is a little “secret connection” behind the names that make a great story.
I am a fiction author, as well, and I always work in some kind of name secret into my novels. Either a character has changed his/her name or has a story behind a nickname or some other anecdote. It’s fun and well, I love names! Since they are so much a part of one’s identity, it’s a great way to give some backstory and/or depth into a character.
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Jennifer Moss (she/her) is the founder of BabyNames.com, author of The Baby Names Workbook, and Producer of The Baby Names Podcast. Jennifer is widely regarded as the leading expert on popular baby name trends and the naming process, serving as the authoritative source on the subject for national and international media.
Jennifer entered the tech arena in the 80s as a software developer and database architect, and became a pioneer in the Internet industry. In addition to operating BabyNames.com, Jennifer owns a web development agency in central California.
