Needs Name Advice: Dangerously Overwhelmed

Hi! 

My name is Lauren and I came across your blog in my search for baby names among the endless sites that are supposed to be "helpful".  About 90% of the names on those sites are unusable!  I would very much appreciate your thoughts and suggestions if you have the time.  We are expecting our 3rd in October and this one is a surprise so the task of searching through boy and girl names among the thousands of names out there is overwhelming.  I browsed the sites with my first 2 but my husband actually ended up with the winning first names and I did the middle.  We have Luke Edward and Mia Joelle.  He likes traditional, strong sounding names for boys and liked 'Mia' because it sounds so feminine.  I like ones that are a little more unique.  For right now we have decided on Cooper Danger (I gave into the middle name so it's decided) and Ava Blue (he doesn't like Blue).  I love the name Ava but hate that it's so popular though, I'm not opposed to using it.  We don't really have an official list but some of the names we like are:  Everett, Asa, Silas (boys) and Riley, Monroe, Lucille, Daisy, Lynnette, Amelia.

I'm really just overwhelmed and have kind of given up but don't want to regret it later.  

Thank you for any help or suggestions you might have.  

Here's what I think:

You don't seem entirely convinced about the names you've tentatively "chosen."

I'll throw out an analogy here. Remember these tattoos?

Yes, that's a barbed wire tattoo. They were a popular design back in the mid-'90s, fueled partly in thanks to the delightful Pam Anderson flick, "Barb Wire." Look at a page about tattoos on Urban Dictionary, and you'll see what the general population thinks of them now: they're often referred to as dated, callow, and apparently only people with a pathetic, inflated sense of machismo have these tattoos. Not so cool anymore, eh?

Giving your son the middle name "Danger" (and to a lesser extent, your daughter the middle name "Blue") is like giving them a permanent tattoo. It might seem cool and fun and trendy now, but they're pretty much stuck with it. Will the joke be so funny in 15 years? I don't know about you, but I don't find too many knock-knock jokes funny anymore. 

Blue was pretty hot for a minute, but now it just looks like people using it are just hopping on the bandwagon. If you truly love the name, and/or it holds some sort of meaning to you -- by all means, use it. If you're using it because it's a trendy filler name -- it's headed the way of barbed wire tattoos.

Here's another thing to consider: your other children have pretty nice, normal, wearable names. Maybe I'm just projecting here, but if my brother and I had "normal" names, and my mom popped out another kid named Charles Disaster...you bet your britches he'd be tormented. Big time. He wouldn't seem like part of the family; more like some piece of entertainment.

So let's get back to the children you have: Luke Edward and Mia Joelle. It appears you like short, honest names that are gender specific. From the lists you've given, Silas, Lucille, Daisy, and Lynette fit the bill. 

I'll list some other names you might want to consider. A lot of them are playful without being a joke:

Boys:

Arlo

Archer

Axel

Blaise

Bram

Calvin

Grant

Griffin

Forbes

Hugh

Knox

Jude

Oscar

Otis

Otto

Reid

Rex

Ross

Saul

Simon

Theo

Vaughn

Zeno

Girls:

Ada

Adele

Anya

Avis

Camille

Clea/Cleo/Clio

Coral

Dagny

Elise

Etta

Eve

Greta

Hazel

Isa

Ines/Inez

Irene

Iris

Ivy

Justine

Lisette

Olive

Opal - especially if she's born in October!

Patience

Poppy

Romy

Rosa/Rose

Rue

Silver/Sylvie

Stella

Tansy

Tillie

Tess

Veda

Some combinations I think might be nice with your last name:

Axel Everett C-

Calvin Fox C-

Theo Jasper C-

Ross Orion C-

Bram Zephyr C-

Archer Evergreen C-

Olive Amelia C-

Dagny Violet C-

Ivy Tallulah C-

Tess Opal C-

Veda Juliet C-

Lisette Fable C-

Hope this helps, and don't give up! If you need to take a break from names, do it. And don't feel pressured to have the name ready to go for your child if it doesn't feel right -- bring a few that you really like to the hospital and decide when you meet him or her, which one fits best. Best wishes!