Sibling names

Do you have sleepless nights over whether your new arrival is going to fit your "perfect sibset", or love a name to the moon and back but can't think of any brother or sister names that fit with it for the future, or even have the dreaded multiple problem with twins, triplets or more dawning on the horizon? 

HOW? Is what we are relentlessly screaming. HOW THE HELL DO I GO ABOUT THIS? The obsession with "yummy mummy" doesn't help either, with people endlessly worrying about how they and even their children will be judged based on the "category" their names fall into. 

Let me give you a real life example. Compare this sibset...

"Gilbert, Teddy, Albany, Rufus, Pascal" to this one "Destiny, Crystal, Chanel, Blake, Brooklyn"

Or perhaps compare...

"Elizabeth, Lucy, Isabella" to "Indigo, Celeste, River"

Or even...

"Elijah, Moses, Jedediah, Keziah" to "Kai, Coco, Ebony, Rae"

The thing is, once you start becoming part of say the "bible names" group, how can you escape? I mean, you couldn't have an Elijah and a Jayden....or could you? See, what I fit into, and I encourage all name bods to do the same is to be an eclectic namer...whose mind is always open. Mix and match. Don't feel that just because you already have a Zachary and a Zoe that your next boy has to be something beginning with Z that nobody has ever heard of.  

Live on the edge! I only have 3 rules about sibling names:

1. Make sure you choosing this name because you genuinely like it, not just because it fits into the same "category" as your previous child/children's name(s). Eg. just because you have a Jacob and a Hannah, doesn't mean you need to have another biblical name if you don't want. 

2. Say your new name with each of your children's (or just child's) name(s) again and again, changing the order and make sure they are distinct, and sound pleasing together. For example, Jemima, and Ivy sounds nice but swap it round, and Ivy and Jemima may be too heavy on the "Eye" sound. Whereas Lily and Lucas, Lucas and Lily, seem to work really well together.

3. Don't live in the dream world. This is a real child we are talking about. What will their sibset think of their new arrival's name. Too complicated? Too long? Too hard to pronounce?. When you have your first baby, its almost alright to have an "Aurorabella" but be aware that in a bigger family, names like this will be often shortened by other siblings.