Dear Jennifer,
My husband and I are trying to decide on a name for our baby boy. It’s between Graham or Jared. We like Jared because we would use Leroy (which is my dad’s middle name) as the middle name so the initials would be JLB which is my husband’s father’s initials. So we would have both families represented.

We are also considering Graham which seems like it’s a softer (less rigid) name. Part of the problem with Graham is that my husband doesn’t really like the initials GLB so we were thinking about having two middle names Leroy and James (which is my husbands father middle name) so again…both families represented but my husband doesn’t really want two middle names.

Do you have any thoughts on this. Thanks for your help!

Sincerely,
Louanna

Dear Louanna,

I’m not a fan of two middle names. I think it’s clunky for a person to bear three given names and just looks like the parents could not decide.

Between Graham or Jared, my personal preference is Graham. Jared has become very popular lately, and I like more unique names. Also, I identify Jared with the Subway guy and the jeweler (“He went to Jared’s!”).

But like I said, that’s just a personal preference–and assocation–and not given from the perspective of a name expert. Ultimately, it’s your decision.

Sincerely,
Jennifer