Since Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick just welcomed twins MARION LORETTA ELWELL and TABITHA HODGE into their family last week, this seems like the perfect time to discuss baby names for twins.
 
Parents of twins often look for baby names that are related to one another in order to celebrate that special bond only twins share. Parents try to do this in a bunch of different ways and I’ve put together a list of ideas you can consider when naming twins:

« 4 TIPS FOR NAMING TWINS «

1. SAME MEANING

Choose names that have similar or complementary meanings. This is my favorite way to connect names (no surprise!). I wrote about this in the Introduction of BABY NAMES MADE EASY as a way to create a meaningful connection between siblings and their names, without being too obvious or cutesy.

A great example of this is Cleopatra and Mark Antony who name their twins HELIOS and SELENE, which mean “sun” and “moon,” respectively. Very cute, without being too cute…

2. SAME FIRST LETTER

You can use the same first letter for each name. This is relatively easy and you see it a lot. And I mean a lot… A whopping 8 out of the 10 most popular twin baby name pairings in 2008 follow this patter, according to Social Security. The top 10 are:

JACOB / JOSHUA

DANIEL / DAVID

JAYDEN / JORDAN

ETHAN / EVAN

TAYLOR / TYLER

GABRIELLA / ISABELLA

ISAAC / ISAIAH

MADISON / MORGAN

ELIJAH / ISAIAH

ELLA / EMMA

The people have spoken here. Clearly, lots of parents like the idea of choosing names with the same first letter for twins. Enough said.

3. FAMILY NAMES

You can use family names for each child. This is what Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick did — ELWELL and HODGES are both family names.

You could take a look at your family trees and either simply choose names you like at random or choose a particular type of relative, such as great grandmothers, and choose from only those options (provided you like those options, of course). You can mix and match from mom and dad’s family trees of just stick with one. Tons of choices here!

4. SAME THEME

When naming twins, consider choosing names with the same theme. For example, choose two different location names or two Biblical names. Rebecca Romjin and Jerry O’Connell chose floral middle names for their twin girls CHARLIE TAMARA TULIP and DOLLY REBECCA ROSE.

This is a great idea because there are so many options and you can get really creative about what theme you choose!

Looking for more inspiration? Here are the names of some of the twins born to celebrities in 2008:

        « CELEBRITY TWINS OF 2008 «

COCO TRINITY and SAWYER LUCIA — daughters of Diane Farr and Seung Chung

EMME MARIBEL and MAXIMILIAN DAVID — daughter and son of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony

FINLEY and HARPER — daughters of Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Lockwood

JUNO and REX — daughter and son of Marianne and Will Champion

VIVIENNE MARCHELINE and KNOX LEON — daughter and son of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

VALENTINO and MATTEO — sons of Ricky Martin

That’s all for today! Subscribe to the RSS feed so you don’t miss any future baby name posts.

♥  Amanda

If you have baby name questions for me, email me at amanda@amandabarden.com.

Your question might appear in a future edition of Ask Amanda.

For more information on baby names and their meanings check out

BABY NAMES MADE EASY: THE COMPLETE REVERSE-DICTIONARY OF BABY NAMES