How to name twin boys, according to a baby name expert
Choosing twin boy names means twice the fun!
“There’s only one real rule and it’s that the names have to be fair,” Namerology creator Laura Wattenberg tells TODAY.com about finding boy names for twins. “An example of an unfair naming situation is when one son is a Jr. and the other son is given a name that has no special meaning to the family.
"Twin names should feel equal," the "Baby Name Wizard" author adds.
According to Wattenberg, modern moms and dads are getting away from “matchy-matchy” monikers that have the same start and rhythm. Instead, a popular trend is choosing two names that are anagrams of one other (think Lane and Neal or Lonne and Nolen).
“It sends that the message that they are different people who are made of similar ingredients,” Wattenberg says.
For parents who are drawn to names with meaning, Wattenberg suggests choosing two places that have special significance.
“Maybe it’s the names of two national parks you visited, like Brighton and Acadia,” Wattenberg says. “Cities are another great option.”
Wattenberg also likes names that have the same vowel or constant pattern, such as Simon and Ronan.
"Names that have the same vowel consonant pattern don’t necessarily sound similar, but they look and feel natural together,” Wattenberg says. “It’s subtle to the point where most people won’t even notice.”
Parents can still go the classic route and pick alliterative names. The U.S. Social Security Administration compiled a list of the most popular names for twins in 2010. For boys, the most common monikers were Jacob and Joshua, Ethan and Evan, Jayden and Jordan and Daniel and David.
If you're looking for other sources of inspiration, there are also some celebrities with boy twins: Julian and Aaron (Robert De Niro), Malachi and Roman (Ashley Graham), Zion and Zillion (Nick Cannon), Nelson and Eddy (Celine Dion), Cy and Bowie (Zoe Saldana), Tristan and Sasha (Chris Hemsworth), Thunder and Saint (Usain Bolt), Asher and Askel (Bode Miller), John and Gustav (Julie Bowen), and Valentino and Matteo (Ricky Martin).
And then, of course, there are public figures who have a twin brother, like Dylan and Cole Sprouse, Rami and Sami Malek, Ashton and Michael Kutcher, Jon and Dan Heder, Shawn and Aaron Ashmore, Vin Diesel (born Mark Sinclair) and Paul Vincent, Benji and Joel Madden.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
