Erin Elizabeth (Elizabeth is my first name)
and
Ryan Michael (Michael is dh's first name)...
the kids love having our names as their middle names.
My sisters first name is my mom's middle name and I was ALWAYS jealous. Of course her name is Rachelle which is cool and french and mine is Tifani- which I hate so that could be partly why. But I was the oldest and if anyone got a namesake it should've been me. But then as namesakes go I'm glad she didn't decide to name me Erval after my Grand
I've noticed (since naming my daughter, Liliana) that it has become trendy (Liliana is an OLD Italian name-DH is Italian) to ad ANA at the end of a name that is otherwise common (Lily barely made the top 100 the year before, but Liliana was nowhere in sight) I took her to get her pictures taken and there were 2 other little girls...Dad #1 calls to his daughter "Ariana...it's time to take your picture" and after they are out of earshot dad #2 says to his wife "aren't you glad we didn't name her Ariana, I keep hearing it now." She agrees it is a popular name and I'm intrigued so I ask what they DID name her and they said "Kayliana" I had to laugh and they looked offended and I explained that my daughter (the same age as the other 2) was a Liliana. They still didn't see the humor in the situation. I ran into a couple at a mutual friends party the other day who have a daughter the same age as My lily whose name is also Liliana and then found out that a girl I went to highschool w/ also has a daughter named Liliana though a few years older. So I wouldn't rely so much on finding a "different" name and just find a name you like.
Syllable balance is KEY. We have a 1 syllable last name so naturally we needed a longer first and middle.also our last name starts w/ an R and some consonants are hard to say back to back...R is one of them so we had to rule out anything that started or ended w/ an R. Once we settled on Liliana, Elizabeth was easy to choose as a middle name. it flowed nicely it had the same classic feminine sound and was the name of the town where my husband was born.
I am puzzled when people give their names that CLEArLY don't go together. A simple test is to scream both names at the top of your lungs as if you were yelling at a child for something they did that warranted that dreaded middle name calling. If you can't yell it w/ flow it will never work for repremanding
Also WHY do people name their kids a name they AREN'T going to call them. My mom's name is Tonya and she's been called Toni all her life. My Grand's name is Erval but her mom called her by her middle (which isn't much better) and her sisters name is Dreama but they call her Sue (her middle name)
Also don't expect that you are going to give your kid a name and THAT is what they will be called..I said Oh, no no no... Her name is Lili
anaWHATEVER...She gets called Lily regardless of What I say and I can't stop North Easterners from calling her Lili-Anna
So that "I named him Robert" thing isn't gonna fly and My mother inlaw was POSITIVE there was no way to shorten the name Brandon. But let me tell ya, there are 1001nicknames for Brandon...My favorite is Bran Muffin (which is just to irritate him) but mostly we call him Brand much to his mothers disdain.
So I say go with what you like. Make sure you can yell at your child w/ both names (they fear the dreaded "she used both names, I MUST be in trouble" scream) and don't worry about what they'll get called or what their initials spell (though I have a cousin whose initials were very close to being POO until her parents realized-so you may wanna watch out for OBVIOUS ones) or how original it is or who else likes it. and That is my 2 cents for what they're worth.
Good luck I hope you have a WONDERFUL time naming your baby to be and enjoy every second of parenthood.
PS. If you have a girl it is always a bonus if her name sounds good following the word Princess
...t.