A friend of mine is expecting her first child, a girl, in October. In fact, she is due on my birthday which of course I took as a conspicuous and undeniable sign that I should indeed name this baby.
So. I need your help.
My friend is looking for a first name that begins with A and a middle name that begins with P. The baby’s last name will be Willis.
From our conversations to date, it seems that my friend is looking for a name that is neither celebrity wacky nor terribly common.
Here are a few of my own ideas for her…
Adelaide Price
Avery Prudence (some of you might get the reference?)
Anya Penelope
Allison Page
I know how much you guys love baby name stuff, so please chime in again and again with ideas. From experience, I know how much this can help.
Ready, set, let’s name her!
Thanks for the shout out, Aidan!
If she’s looking for uncommon, I’d skip Avery. It’s a great name, but it was up to #18 in 2011, and seems like it might go a little higher still.
So let’s see …
There’s the Totally Unexpected: Avalon, Adair, Atalanta, Averil, Aleydis, Alix (a French medieval form of Alice, though it might feel common thanks to all the girls called Alexis)
There are the Classics: Alice, Anna, Amelia
There are the Names in the Sweet Spot: Adelaide, Anya, Ada, Annika, Amelie.
I think Adelaide and Anya from your list hit it exactly – they’re not celebrity wacky, and they’re not terribly common.
I love the idea of Anya Persephone, but that might too fanciful a middle name. I also like the idea of Adelaide Plum, but again, that might veer into the celebrity wacky category.
Hmmm … if all else fails, I do think Prudence should be a contender!
Phoebe is my very favorite name, so I’d offer that as the P … I love Amelia and Anna. I’m pretty traditional when it comes to names and agree that Avery (while I really like it) is pretty popular right now.
Fun! For the P name, I’m going to throw in Pomona. Two of my friends were going to use it for their baby, but he turned out to be a boy.
And I love Avery – but I’ll go with Adelaide instead.
I’ve always loved the name Annika. It’s a beautiful name and I have only met one in real life. It also has the nickname option of Annie which is sweet on a little girl. We actually consdiered this for our first but ended up choosing Harper (which I love and in 2008 it was not nearly as popular as it is now–curse you Victoria Beckham).
As for the middle name I like the above reader’s suggeston of Plum. It’s a little out there but doen’t Annika Plum sound amazing??
Let us know the final result.
P.S Avery, Adelaide are over-used. I have lost count of the Addy’s/Addies I have met recently
The “P” is the hard part. Maybe something like Adele Peyton/Payton?
Aven
there are a million bajillion good A names but I’m in love love love with Aven
Priscilla
gorgeous P name alternative to Penelope, Pippa, and Persephone.
So I vote Aven Priscilla
My friend’s name is Aven. It’s a wonderful name and no one else I know has it. She said she was named after a wildflower. So I change my vote from Annika to Aven:)
Paloma is my favorite “P” name for a girl. I also love Anya Persephone. Other suggestions:
Agatha Plum
Audrey Paloma
Andromeda Persephone
Aurelia Primrose
Oh, please use Adah for the first name!! It is one of my very favorite A names. You could do Adah Pearl because that would be a 2-1-2 syllable rhythm, which I love.
Adele Peyton has some serious charm! Reminds me of Sienna Miller’s Marlowe Ottoline. Vintage, current, clunky, fun – it shouldn’t fit toghether, but it does.
Anneliese is a favorite of mine. I also know a baby Adelaide nn Addie over in California. Aubrey would be classic but different, too. It’s way too popular, but I’m still a fan of Ava For the P middle name, I like Perrin (or Peregrine), Phoebe, Perry, Poppy, Priscilla, Paris and Paz.
I think Anneliese Perrin Willis or Adelaide Phoebe Willis would be lovely.
How about Paloma for the P name? Spanish for Dove. There’s a really pretty kid’s song about Palomita Blanca (white dove) that my 3yo daughter sings, so I find Paloma endearing b/c of that song.
I have just two suggestions:
Aurora Paige
Alba Pilar
I have to say, I love a good Audrey. Classic.
Digging some already tossed into the mix, but will add these:
Addison Paige
Audrey Perrin (feminine form of Peter, meaning “rock”)
Aubrey Paden
Ainsley Peregrine
Anika Pallaton (Native American for “warrior”)
ariel priscilla
Audrey is a great name!
oops, heather – i wasn’t trying to reply to your comment
(but, by the way, i love addison and aubrey)
i have one more:
annika perry
[i also like the names april and aidan
]
For A names I love:
Alexa (nickname Lexi)
)
Asher or Ashton (I know these are boys name but I think they are very cute for a girl too)
Ameila (love this one but Amy is a likely nickname which is pretty common)
Amalie is a cute variation?
Ainsley
Alma
Anastasia
Ava (though very popular)
Anya (this suggestion is very pretty)
Aidan (also a great A name
For P names I love:
Penelope (though probably will get very popular soon since the newest Kardashian is a Penelope)
Paloma
Paige
Petra
Piper
Poppy
Good luck! Sticking with initials is hard, I did that with my daughter. You’ll find something you adore!
Adia Perinne
I would avoid Perry as a middle name. With Willis, it sounds almost like “periwinkle”, which could look accidentally amusing or unaware. Pun-ish names aren’t always everyone’s style.
Above roughly translates to “noble little rock”.
Ariana
Adele
Adelede
Alexandria
Anastasia
Anemone
Aphrodite
Artemis
Patricia
(had to throw my P name into the ring)
Polona
Polly
(I like Peyton)
Priscilla
Philomena
Persis
Persephone
That’s all I got
Atlee Peyton
not too strange but not too common
Ohhhh, I am sooooo digging Atlee. Love it.
Naming babies online- you like living dangerously. I have seen some massive fights start because people shared names they were thinking about and someone just reacted.
It went something like this:
“You can’t name your baby Peter. Everyone will make fun of him and say he is a Pecker or some such nonsense.”
Pregnant woman/father make angry and or hurt faces.
“My father’s name was Peter. He was the Bishop of Canterbury and everyone loved him. You insulted me…”
But since I am a licensed troublemaker I would argue for the following names:
Whatyou
TalkingAbout
Works for those people who diehard fans of Different Strokes. RIP Gary Coleman.
Avalon!
Alandryn Penelope.
A names:
Arien
Amélie
P names:
Patience
Peta
Ooh, how fun!
I’ll make some suggestions, but I think my idea of what can or should be used on a regular baby versus a celebrity baby are a tad blurred. Hey, I like fun names!
(I want so badly to suggest Amaryllis, but Amaryllis Willis…sigh.)
Agatha Phoebe
Agnessa Prüm
Amabel Pippa
Adelinde Phaedra
Athena Polly
Amelia Patience
Ailsa Poem
Ada Penelope
Amalia Persis
Adela Pearl
Astrid Persephone
Annina Pepper
Anaïs Portia
A names: Agnes, Astrid, Adele
P names: Pearl, Paige
Astrid Paige and Agnes Pearl
Astrid — I love Astrid Lindgren and the name is such an old classic. Also, so many female names and it “a” or “ie/i/y” that I like ending in D — she could grow up to be a rock star or president and it would work — but not a porn star.
Amelie
Aidan
Annika
Pippa
Pepper
Petra
I know its totally strange, but my man and I have been using two names for the last five years or so when referring to our imaginary children we hope to have some day (although we still aren’t ready): Matilda Penguin and Diego. Matilda because I like the name (although we can’t use it anymore) Penguin after the animal because they have such wonderful traits (see March of the Penguins) and Diego after Maradona, the soccer player.
I know its crazy, but I think I might really like Penguin as a middle name. They really have such amazing instincts for loyalty and family and teamwork, etc. It would stand for such wonderful values.
Agnes Paloma
Aida Penelope
Anwen Philomena
Alma Peony
Amira Pauline
Artemis Philippa
Anouska Petra
If our son was a girl, her name would’ve been Simone Audrey. So, I’m definitely in favor of Audrey. And though I’ve never heard of Paloma, it’s a beautiful name. Audrey Paloma Willis …