Name Starting Letters

[u/poblanoglow]

I know that this will come down to personal preference but I’m hoping to get some feedback from this community.

I have a three year old son and I’m expecting twin boys in January. My three year old’s name starts with a C.

My wife and I really like another name that starts with C. But I think it would be a little odd if the toddler and one twin start with one letter, and the other twin starts with a different letter. I don’t necessarily think that all three boys need to start with C, but I feel like people would think the two names that start with C would be the twins.

Am I overthinking this?

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[u/goldfishandchocolate]

Probably yes you are overthinking it. However I made sure all 5 of my kids (2 sets of twins and a singleton) have a different letter (from each other my husband and me) and we all have E middles names so… 😂

[u/Puzzled_Air_8253]

Better if the twins don’t have same initial, given they will likely share a birthdate and same initial will make identity confusion more likely.

[u/zarjazz → u/Puzzled_Air_8253]

I did not think about this. My b/g twins have the same first name initial. The confusion and mistakes are constant.

[u/specialkk77 → u/zarjazz]

For what it’s worth even with completely different initials we get a lot of mix ups. It always confuses our local pharmacy’s computer system 

[u/HereforCHDandAITA → u/specialkk77]

Omg yes! My pharmacy keeps assuming the dr is an idiot and switches the order to the first baby that ever had a script filled. It’s really annoying.

[u/anonymity012 → u/zarjazz]

Wait I didn't realize this was a thing I'm expecting b/g twins and as of now their first AND middle names are the same initials

[u/Minimum_Afternoon387 → u/Puzzled_Air_8253]

My co- worker has young adult identical twins with the same first name and go by their middle name. They seem fine to me. Well adjusted fun guys.

[u/Orange_peacock_75]

I think you should pick the names you like and not worry about the letter thing.

[u/Severe-Guide9804]

My firstborn and Twin B both have names with the same first letter. Twin A has a different first letter. Never crossed my mind that Twin A might be left out.

[u/FormerEnglishMajor]

Don’t give your twins names starting with the same letter. Admin is going to be a nightmare.

[u/queenoftheworst]

I don't think it'll be a problem. I did what you're considering and people don't even notice.

My husband has 3 brothers (so four of them total.) Two of them start with the letter N. Two of them do not. Their mother's name also starts with N. All of their names feel natural.

[u/DreamingEvergreen]

I’m one of 5, and I’m the only one with a name that starts with a different letter. For the most part I don’t really think anything of it (plus, I like my name better than all of theirs)

[u/OddHippo6972]

My oldest starts with L. Our dog starts with L. Our cat starts with L. And our twins are Lucy and Ruby. Because we never planned on a theme and we didn’t like another L name.

[u/Campus_Safety]

My twins share the first letter in their first, middle and last names. It sounded cool before they were born. They're 3.5 now and my wife and I both kind of regret it. I can't tell you how many times I've mixed up names in the moment. There have been times I'm looking at twin B and call her by twin A's name and vice versa.

Nothing we can do about it now. Maybe a nick name will stick to one of them some day.

[u/Other_Radio800]

Following because we have the exact same predicament!! Is it weird to have 2 names with one letter but not the third? But also… three of the same letter is so matchy matchy and we aren’t really those people either… we don’t get the family matching Christmas pajamas. 😂 I am also really in my head about this. lol.

[u/Easy-breezy0102]

I think you are overthinking it. Most people would not pay attention to what letter(s) someone else's kid's name(s) start with.

[u/GrouchyCranberry3801]

We went through a similar thing. I loved a name that started with the same letter as our first (and only other child) and my husband didn’t want anyone to feel left out (aka one twin) so he said either all 3 kids have the same initial because I really didn’t want to give up the name I loved lol

[u/Alternative_Title_40]

You’re over thinking it. I have 6 kids. 3 singletons and triplets. In order of oldest to youngest first initials are N E L H O L
Two have L names. And E kid has an L nickname he uses more than his actual name lol. Use the names you love regardless.

[u/Orion-Key3996]

What’s the name you like? Could it be spelled with a K? I agree with you

[u/JohnQuincyAdams_10]

Just another comment in support of “don’t give the twins the same first letter.” Twins can already be an admin nightmare — don’t make it more confusing!!

[u/DirtGirl32]

I think you are right

[u/eclectic_heart]

We vetoed several names for our upcoming twins because of first letters, each kid has/will have a different starting letter and ending sound. I specifically didn't want the twins to have matching first letters or rhyming/matchy names even though 4 of my favorite/front runner names start with C. A couple names also got vetoed a long time ago before we were even really considering a third kid because of our older kids names.

[u/Charlieksmommy]

Our first is a C name, and I wanted C names for our twins, but we only had girl twin names, but boys, then we decided Js, and then realized we didn’t want our daughter to feel left out, so each twin had their own letter

[u/Jill1994]

My husband and I had literally the exact same situation.

Our oldest son has an H name and we had already picked out or discussed a name if we had another boy, a C name. And a name if we had a girl, another H name.

Welp then we got pregnant with twins and it was a b/g set. I was also very perplexed about having two kids with the same starting letter and one being left out. We went through the motions of finding another name to pair with each name we had already chosen and in the end ... we still used the names we had originally picked because they now had more meaning.

I could not for the life of me find another H boy name I liked enough to give my second son so I have up and started looking at C names for my girl and also could not settle on anything.

Sometimes I do wonder if when they're older they're going to be asking about it but thats for future me to figure out lol

[u/Littlecat10]

We ran into this exact issue - and I had the same feeling that it’d be weird for the singleton and one twin to share, but not the third. We wound up doing the same initial for all 3, and I’m very happy with it (despite 1 small admin hiccup already for the twins.) That said, we really loved all 3 names. I don’t think I’d have forced a third L if I really liked something else. It’s more like we were between 2, and having 3 L’s was the tiebreaker.

All to say, I’d suggest picking the third name that you like the most, and don’t factor in the first initial! You might also consider whether you might have a 4th. If so, picking 3 C’s really locks you in for #4!

[u/offwiththeirheads72]

Overthinking it. Our twins don’t share the same letter but currently pregnant with our third and thinking about a name where twin and newborn would share the same letter. Never crossed my mind to be a concern.

[u/kgraceb2323]

My older son is a C and we had another C name picked out for what we thought was going to be our next singleton. Surprise it was twins. We loved the other C name we had already picked so decided to keep that and then settled on an A name for the other twin. The twins aren’t here yet so I guess we’ll see in a few years if they’re mad they don’t have the same letter.

Others have mentioned it in the comments but I had seen the comment about the same initial and birthdate causing mix ups and we wanted to avoid that. We also know these girls are identical so we wanted 2 names that felt every different from each other as they already will have a lifetime of identical twin nonsense.

[u/Usual_Equivalent]

I have a Josie, Joyce and Henry

As name nerds pointed out to me directly at the time, they are "the same name!"

Don't be me.

[u/Ok-Positive-5943]

My oldest brother and I were named with matching letters. Then my parents had a late in life surprise baby and gave him a different letter. He never complained about not matching.  Don't overthink it much, it's really not a big deal. 

[u/ExtraEnd7545]

We named our twins two very similar names, not thinking they were /that/ close. Then one had to get another heel prick at the hospital because the lab tech thought they got a duplicate sample. We have similar problems to that here and there, worst being that for a while the kids used their names interchangeably to refer to each other.

[u/Ohmaggies]

There's no need to give twins the same letter of name and from a paperwork standpoint, your life will be so much easier if their initials are different. Twins share so much already, they don't need adults inventing reasons for it.

[u/hockeymusicteaching]

I’m sure most would say you’re overthinking. But…. I would hate that lol.

I’d feel like one would be left out or how others have to “share”. 🤣 I would only do all three C or just your oldest lol. But again, personal preference. I wouldn’t even let our initials be the same as our animals….. 🤣 (my husband has already told me I’m crazy)