That was kind of the point with some of these names, Wade. Yell out Emma Leigh.

Annabel Lee is a Poe poem, I just threw it in there for the hell of it. Leigh is my mother's maiden name, Michelle is my sister's.

I see the point with Sophie Shaw being a tongue twister. Emma Shaw sounds better there. Madalyn Shaw sounds pretty good that way, too.

I love the name Emma so that is a winner for me.

Emma Leigh Shaw just sounds like you're saying Emily Shaw.

Emily would also be good?

Yeah, my wife has been looking forward to using Emily for a long time.

I agree upon this as well. It's just that, me, personally, I know too many people with "smooth" middle names (the same middle name). Most common being Ray, Lee, Rae, Mae, etc. etc. It's just the flow of it. Not a big fan.

As a boy though, my full name is Adam Dean Carpenter. If you're looking at it from the "Disgruntled parent" point of view - give him/her a middle name she will grow up to hate. You'll get more satisfaction when yelling.

Or if you're looking for a name that can develop into a shorter/nick-name that he/she will grow up to love then I'd go with full traditional names. Like:

Elizabeth "Libby"
Margaret "Maggie"
Rosemary "Rose" (or Mary-Rose for middle)
Bethany "Beth"
etc. etc.

EDIT: I went off-topic, as I forgot to post what name I like! I choose Madalyn.

Congratulations to you both!

I really like the name Annabell Lee, Annabell is a beautiful name and I have always liked it. :)

This. I fell in love with the name the minute I saw it.

those names are really consumed, in my opinion.
i'm always towards more special names.

Emma Leigh is the leading candidate now with Sophie and Madalyn being runners up.

I like the first two names too. The only issue I can see is when they say their names, people will think it's Emily and Carolyn said in another accent.


I don't have a middle name. My mom used my full name.

I had a friend in high school who was actually able to do this. His name was James Bradey Curtiss II, His dad being the exact same sans the "II" part. But Bradey was always able to use his dads credit cards to buy beer and stuff, because he even looked alike he got away with using one of his dads old expired Drivers Licenses that said he was in his mid-20's