It’s been a while since we’ve had a good baby name dilemma—but reader Stephanie has a real quandary when it comes to naming her third child.
We have such a hard time with boys’ names. Right now I LOVE Arlo William….so much so that I’ve pretty much stopped looking for other options. My husband is not convinced, he likes it but feels like it might be too out there. What do you think? Ideally I’d like a name that starts with an “A” and has a nature meaning but I’m open to other options. Our other children are Violet and Silas…we like more old-fashioned names.
Arlo is an excellent choice! It’s a name that seems to be on a big uptick lately—it jumped 100 spots from 2011 to 2012, and is currently in the 818th spot on the top 1000 baby names. It has the nature theme you love (it means “tree”), and was picked by several celebrities recently, including actress Toni Collette and Jackass’s Johnny Knoxville.
For a few other choices, consider these options:
Ashton Ashton Kutcher has brought this name into the limelight, but it’s a lovely old English name that means ash tree, and works beautifully with William. It’s currently in the top 150 baby names. If Ashton Kutcher doesn’t work for you, try Asher, which means beloved, and is only slightly more popular than Ashton. Asher also has the softer consonant sounds that work beautifully with your sibling choices, Violet and Silas.
Acton Acton means oak tree (lots of A tree names, it seems!). It’s an English name that will work beautifully with William and your last name—and makes a nice variant to the red-hot name Atticus.
Aurelius Speaking of Greco-Roman names like Atticus, consider this softer name, which means “golden one,” and was the name of a popular Roman emperor. Not loving Aurelius? Consider the more popular August or Augustus.
What name should Stephanie pick? Do you have any other suggestions that you want to add?
Have a burning question you want answered about your baby names? Email me at lamilbrand@gmail.com, or post it in the comments! And to keep up with the best in baby names, like In Name Only on Facebook.