It doesn’t.

Matchy names are a problem though.

Matters to me. They don’t have to be exactly the same (same letter or sounds or lengths) but I like when they sound like they could be siblings. My DH is from a big family and while their names do sound like a family now to me i still notice how dissimilar some of the names are (think Elizabeth and Jennifer).

Anonymous wrote:I’m a twin with a name very unlike my sister’s. Think something along the lines of Anastasia and Morgan. The only thing our names have in common are that they are unusual. But I have two other siblings as well with very common names (e.g. Paul and Mark). I can tell you it has been totally fine. Sometimes we laugh about what our parents were thinking, and after 40 years it sounds like our names go together after hearing them so much.

This. If I listed my and my siblings' names it would sound like I was an outlier, but we're a set because we're siblings. You hear the same 3 names said/yelled together enough and bingo: they're a set!

You only need one first name and one middle name. With DC 2, we had exactly two first names and one middle name that met all the criterion. Made things very easy and low-stress.

I’m a twin with a name very unlike my sister’s. Think something along the lines of Anastasia and Morgan. The only thing our names have in common are that they are unusual. But I have two other siblings as well with very common names (e.g. Paul and Mark). I can tell you it has been totally fine. Sometimes we laugh about what our parents were thinking, and after 40 years it sounds like our names go together after hearing them so much.

This is one of those cases where you’re going to have to tell us the names.

I know a family where the names are all three very dissimilar, and I wonder how they came to be — one made up, one British traditional, and one trendy. It’s like they threw darts.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know a family that basically made up a name for their first child and then gave the second a top 5 name

That is always a bit odd

I know a family who did the same, but different order: first has a super preppy name, second one that's completely made up. I think it's odd, too.

We did think about how our kids' names would sound together. No regrets and we love our kids' names.

Same. I know sisters where one has a typical grandma name (Hazel, Edith, Pearl) and the other has a total wild hippy name (Sunshine, Rainbow, Meadow).

It mattered to me. The most common mistake, though, isn’t names going together, it’s names being too similar. Ellie and Emmie. Jane and James. Jacob and Jack. I know sooooo many sibsets like this and it’s just too easy to mix them up. Sure they “go together” but it’s poor planning IMO.

I know a family with two daughters, Esmeralda and Marge. It's definitely a bit jarring at first, but they're both family names, so...

I mean, there are certainly outliers where the names are so similar or so awful that it's a problem, but mostly it's not a problem.

Also, don't name them Samuel and Ella, because when you call them for dinner, it will sound like "salmonella." But, again, outlier.

What about the blogger who named her girls Mila and Mya?

I had a friend in high school who was the only one in his family whose name didn't start with the same letter. He resented that during his teen years. That's the only time I've seen it matter to someone that their name didn't match with their sibling's name.

It might matter to the kid, and while they won't be a kid their whole life, they WILL be a kid during all their formative years.

It would be weird to have, say, an Algernon, a Beauregard, and a Kayden. But it doesn't matter if they sound particularly euphonious.