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[Opinions] How important to you is cohesiveness in a sibset?
Is it more important to you to use names in a sibset that you like and that go well together (examples in option A below), or names that you like but aren’t necessarily cohesive (examples in option B below)? Obviously people will have differing opinions on names that go well together. Also I know some people tend to favor names that are naturally cohesive (preferring only old-fashioned names, trendy names, names that have similar meanings or origins, etc.). I ask because I’m starting to really like and consider a few names that are very much outside the names I typically lean toward, and I’m not sure how I’d end up feeling if I threw those in the mix of my current faves. For example, both of the following sibsets could objectively fit okay together without anyone sorely sticking out (option A):
William, Charles, Elizabeth, and Catherine
Hudson, Parker, Brooklyn, and EverlyThese below seem a little all over the place in comparison, or one “sticks out”, but could just be names someone really likes (option B):
Braxton, Ezekiel, Frances, and Andromeda
Cage, Norman, Lavendar, and Peyton
Herschel, Blake, Emma, GraceSo, would you lean toward cohesiveness, or toward faves regardless of what they may be?
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I have to say I enjoy a cohesive sibset. So, to me, fairly important
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I'd lean towards using faves regardless.
I would probably avoid doing one particular thing -
giving a younger child a less unique, more dated, or more childish-sounding (IMO) name than an older same-sex sib has.
Ex:
elder - Melisandra; younger - Kayla
elder - Gideon; younger - Cody
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Cohesiveness, seen lots of kids at school mention, other siblings got the normal names, why did they get the weird one
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Cohesion matters a lot to me, not just as a sibset but with surnames as well. It just boggles my mind that quite a few people don't give that any thought and just name their kids whatever they want. I could never, I'm too detail-oriented.
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It's pretty important to me, although not that much. I'd want all of my kid's names to have the same feel, e.g. Joyce and Eunice.
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This is not likely to be a real-life problem for me, but in general I like cohesiveness. I like a set or a combo to "make sense" or to have some kind of theme. I prefer to group like with like. It annoys me, I wish I had a more open-minded approach, and I notice that I get this sort of suffocated, disillusioned feeling after I've made the "perfect" combo or the "perfect" potential sibset. Often I genuinely like it more when it's a bit scrambled - some of my favourite combos have been inspired from dreams or other flashes of insight about names I would never think to put together. When I get out of my own way, that's usually when the magic happens. But I always have that initial attempt to carefully craft something flawless. I wonder if it's because I used to be a lot more chaotic about names - I liked what I liked, and didn't worry at all about style. I would come up with fictional sibsets that were all over the place, and love it. That's my natural namenerd state. It wasn't until later, after reading books like "Beyond Jennifer and Jason", studying history, and coming here, that style became important. So I've learned the "art" of style but deep down I find it more satisfying to just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.For example I LOVE the energy of Herschel, Blake, Emma and Grace. Herschel lights that set UP, where it might ordinarily be super boring, too tidy. And Braxton, Ezekiel, Frances and Andromeda do actually have a cohesive sense of wackiness that I enjoy. I guess I like the idea of "organic cohesion" where a theme isn't necessarily obvious or belabored.
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Could genuinely care lessI never really did care that much.
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I don't really care about cohesiveness, at least not in the sense that all names in a sibset need to have the same origin or be equally popular. But I do think they need to have the same feel, somehow. I can't really explain what that is, to be honest.
To go with your examples: Andromeda and Ezekiel are fine, but if I met two sisters named Grace and Andromeda I would find it weird. When I named my sons I wanted to use my favorite names rather than just picking a name I loved less but that fit better with the others. With the twins I payed a bit more attention to how well they went together though.
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