Here’s a delightful challenge! Nicola and Frankie are expecting twins after having four other children. As you can imagine, a lot of the good names are taken and they need our help! She writes:
Hi Elisabeth, my name is Nicola. My husband Francisco (Frankie) and I have four children and are currently expecting our fifth and six — boy/girl twins. Our oldest child is from my previous marriage and her name is Cherry Guadalupe, named for my ex’s mother Cherise and my grandmother Guadalupe. Together Frankie and I have Luis Francisco, Rafael Oscar, and Celesta Persephone. All three of our kids were named after family and friends.
With the twins, Frankie and I want to continue the theme of naming the babies after family and friends but we’ve almost run out of names that we like and wouldn’t mind having our children bear. With all of our other children, their names have some sort of correlation to their godparents’ names. Our son’s godparents are named Ronaldo Luis and Katherine Anne and our daughter’s godparents are named Michael Alessandro and Veta Narcisa.
For our son we thought about using Ronaldo’s intitials but incorporating Katherine’s name in some way. We really like the name Rey (spelled that way–not Ray) and Katherine (who is married to Ronaldo) has a maiden name of Leon Zayas. So, we feel that we should name our son Rey Leon Falto de Garcia. However, we don’t feel completely confident in his name and are still open to suggestions. We will consider other R names and also the idea of using Lorenzo as the middle name (Lorenzo is the hispanic version of Laurence, Katherine’s father’s name). We did consider Rey Lorenzo as well but feel that Rey Leon sounds nicer.
For our daughter we opted to not use any combination of initials but rather to use variants of her grandparent’s names to incorportate. We would like to incorporate my mother’s name, Rosalind, somehow though as well. For our daughter we are kind of considering giving her three names, two as her first and one as her middle. We decided that we would use Veta but we both like Veda better and we would also use Alessandra. So her name would be Veda-Alessandra Rosalind Falto de Garcia. You can see my concern in the fact that she would have an extremely long name and I am not sold on the whole hypenated first name. I have a very long name myself and it has always been a hassle between signing documents and getting documents mixed up due to the fact that they had the wrong first and last name, etc. It’s really just not something I want my daughter dealing with. I really don’t want to omit Alessandra from the name but we really also want to use Veda and Rosalind or some variant of Rosalind.
If you could help us in deciding on a name for our son and shortening the name of our daughter, it would mean the world to us! They will be here shortly and thinking about them entering the world without definite names is a scary thought for us. We appreciate your help so very much, thank you!
Oh and I mentioned that Cherry is from a previous marriage to clear the air that her name is in fact not Cherry Falto de Garcia — or Cherry Garcia! Her last name is actually just one name, she dodged a bullet on that one!
Congratulations on your burgeoning family! All the names you’ve chosen so far are just wonderful. For twins, one of your primary concerns might be the length of the name. Since your surname already consists of three separate entities, and you are adding two children to an already large family, I would definitely err on the side of brevity. I love the idea of Veda and Rey. Veda-Alessandra however? Seems like it could be a burden to both you and your child.
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There are several ways to incorporate Veda, Alessandra, and Rosalind into the name without hyphenating the first name. 1) You could hyphenate the middle name. 2) You could use all three names with no hyphen and choose only one for the first name (thereby giving your daughter multiple middle names. 3) You could create a compound name out of Alessandra and Rosalind, which is not terribly uncommon in Latin culture.
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Veda Rosalind Alessandra (no hyphen)
Veda Rosandra
Veda Roxane
Rosalind Veda-Alessandra
Rosalind Veda Alessandra
Vedarosa Alessandra
Veda Rosalind Alessia
Rosaveda Alessandra
Rosalia Veda Alessandra
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For a boy, you also have lots of great options here! I’m glad you are feeling comfortable with Rey Leon. It has the brevity, but also the meaning. A win-win! I would also urge you to consider Rey Lorenzo, because the length of Lorenzo actually balances out three letter Rey. Leon and Lorenzo would also be spectacularly handsome as first names, and you could reverse initials:
Rey Leon
Leon Ronaldo
Rey Lorenzo
Lorenzo Rey
Ruben Lorenzo
Ramon Lorenzo
Rex Lorenzo
Andres could also honor Anne, and would give your son his own initial. If you’re giving your daughter three names, have you thought about doing the same for your son? For example, Rey Leon Andres or Andres Lorenzo Rey. For a daughter, Michael and Narcisa are also lovely names to play with. Veda Michaela Rosalind? Rosalind Narcisa Alessandra? It’s so much fun to play around.
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What say you dear readers? Do you have a particular favorite from the Falto de Garcia’s list? How would you honor the godparents in the names?
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with all the suggestions YCCII offered, especially combining the names to shorten them. Vedarosa is lovely! I also like the similar vowel sounds in Veda and Rey.
Although, the name Rey Leon sounds funny to me. The Lion King? Wouldn’t that bring as much teasing to a little boy as a little girl named The Little Mermaid? Perhaps another R name that means something similar to Veda or to Ronaldo? Or if you would like to keep the same vowel sound and the R: Remy.
Good call on Rey Leon! I had Rex Leon on my list of suggestions, but deleted it for that very reason. Maybe they should rethink Rey Leon…
Thank you Elisabeth!!! I can’t wait to hear all of the comments and talk it over with Frankie! I am being induced on the 25th and am freaking out because these babies still aren’t named!
I love the way Rey Lorenzo sounds! What about Vedassandra Roselind but call her Veda? Still the issue of a very long first name though. What about Veda Rossandra?
Oops, I see Elisabeth already suggested Veda Rosandra. I second it!
I have to agree – I love Veda!
I’d also suggest Rosa instead of Rosalind, if you want to keep the name shorter. Rosa is gorgeous! And there is always Rosie as a nickname. Alessandra is one of my favourite names ever. Love Veda too. You are spoilt for choice when combining those three!
As for the boys names, I think Lorenzo Rey or Leon Rey works better than Rey Leon, personally.
Elisabeth has a good point about keeping the names short though – you will be saying both of their names together often, and then there is the thought of calling out 6 children’s names when they are playing in the park! So with that in mind, I think Rosa and Leon, or Rosa and Rey, would be my first-name picks for these twins
I personally love Veda Roxane and Veda Rosalind Alessia for a girl.
And I love Ramon Lorenzo for a boy.
How about Veda Alessia Rose? It shortens the name considerably while still including all the references you hoped to make.
And I like Rey with Veda, but to balance the length of the twins’ names just a little more, how about Rey Leandro? It doesn’t say Lion King quite so plainly, but maintains the meaning and the reference. I even like how both the babies’ names would conclude with a “ro…” sound near the end. Ties them together without sounding like they were named to match intentionally.
I think Rosabelle is a really pretty and not-too-common alternative to other “Rose” names. Alessandra Rosabelle is especially pretty IMO.
I think Rey Leon or Rex Leon are fine. Other R names I’ve always liked are Raphael and Rafferty; both can use Rafe as a nn.
Congratulations on your twins, I can’t wait to hear what you decide!
Oh gosh, you already have a Rafael, sorry! Well…it’s a great name.
Alix is another good short form of Alexandra (Alix of Hesse became the Tsarina Alexandra when she married Tsar Nicholas II). You could also use Alexis, Alexa or Alexia (the name of a modern Greek princess).
I’d also be tempted to go for Rose or Rosa over Rosalind.
I agree that Rosandra solves the Rosalind/Alessandra problem very well. It would work the other way round – Alinda perhaps?
But my picks would be:
Veda Alix Rose/Rosa
Veda Alexia Rose
or
Veda Rose Alexis/Alexia
As for the boy’s name, I think Rey Leon or Rey Lorenzo work fine. The English Reynold (which could be shortened to ‘Rey’) is actually cognate with Ronald, which gives even greater meaning to your choice!
My only concern about ‘Rey’ is that people are likely to assume the name is ‘Ray’ and he will be forever having to correct them.
You could always give him the formal name Ronaldo, but just call him Rey. Ronaldo Leon has a good ring to it, and gives him plenty of choice as he gets older.
Other short ‘R’ names you might like: Rafe, Raul, Reuel, Rio, and Ruy.
Congratulations on your twins! Veda Rosandra is beautiful and for a boy, I like Lorenzo Rey.
I’m feeling so smooshy lately. I adore Vedarosa or Rosaveda with Alessandra as a middle name. I don’t think calling “Vedarosa” with all the other names will be cumbersome at all. No one would think something like Victoria to be too long, so why not Vedarosa? You could, of course, still just call her Veda. If the smoosh isn’t your cup of tea, then I’d just go with three names, nothing hyphenated–let her have two middles but just call her one name. That said, I vote Vedarosa Alessandra.
and for baby boy: I’m not familiar with the Lion King thing, but if that’s problematic, then I really do like Raymond Leon (depending on how Leon is being pronounced?) or Raymond Lorenzo.
These are all (for baby boy and girl) really beautiful suggestions, but favorite suggestions are the smooshes!
I vote for VedaRosa Alessia and Lorenzo Rey. Congrats on the twins and I am looking forward to seeing what you go with!
You have Cherry, Luis, Rafael and Celesta.
I really have to second the Veda Alix Rose/Rosa or Veda Allerosa – my smushed idea.
As to your son. why not Reymundo Leon – gets a bit away from the Lion King- but seriously only adults are going to figure that out. There is no way anyone under high school age is going to figure that out- and what kid uses their whole name in school? Rey Falto de Garcia will be enough of a name.
My only other idea would be to honor Katherine with Carlos (or any other C name) – I love Lorenzo, but it is a bit of a stretch to name after your son’s godmother’s father. Maybe ask Katherine if she has any names she likes if you want to honor her with a choice.
Overall I have to agree wtih shorter is better. I should have a bit of an idea I have triplets with two older sibs. When you are rounding up the herd in Target – shorter names are the key!
Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone! We will be sure to update with our choices once they are here!
Hello all, I wanted to update you like I said. Yesterday morning I went into labor (fortunately, no induction needed and I was able to welcome them into the world at the birthing center without complications!). Our daughter was born first and was born un-named as we were still debating between two names but our son was born Andres Ronaldo Falto de Garcia. At last minute we decided to use Andres to honor his godmother as suggested by Elisabeth and use his godfather’s first name as his middle. We returned home this morning but before leaving the birthing center we finally filled out our daughters birth certificate and decided on Veda Alessia-Rose Falto de Garcia. This way her only first name is Veda and we honored all three people. Andres and Veda have proven to be the most wonderful final additions to the Falto de Garcia family and we are all so in love!
Congratulations to the whole Falto de Garcia clan! Welcome to the world VEDA and ANDRES!
What a way you came, and so quickly, from your original names. I’m thrilled we were able to help you come up with the *perfect* names, and I love how Andres Ronaldo and Alessia-Rose echo one another, so appropriate without being corny for twins.
Congratulations to Mama and Papa, and welcome to the world, Andres Ronaldo and Veda Alessia-Rose!
You had such a tricky puzzle of beautiful names to arrange and rearrange until you got it right, and you did. I loved your thought process and knew that you would land on perfection.
Absolutely. Right on with your final choices! Gorgeous! Veda and Andres have a perfect sound together, every name in there is meaningful, beautiful, and substantial, and the full names just sing. Love them.
And kudos to Elisabeth on coming up with the very fresh-sounding Alessia…it’s like a little breeze blowing through the middle of the name, but it retains all of its meaning without even stretching. I’m a bit jealous of the wealth of naming fun found in this set of honorees!