Fun Combinations of Names for Twins

Twin Babies

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Choosing names for twins is an important responsibility for parents, but it also seems to a hobby for others. You can find many online discussions of what people would name twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and octuplets.

If you are debating what to name your children, there are helpful resources for parents to choose names for their twins. For example, you can find lists of the most popular twin names.

If the name search is getting stressful, you might want to take a step back and look at some creative, lighthearted, and even silly suggestions for names for twins. You never know when a name will strike your fancy, and it's possible that you will discover some realistic possibilities among the names listed here.

You can also look at these names and think that at least your choices aren't as silly as those listed. While names can seem important, they are only one small influence on your twins' development.

Twin Names From Music

You can take names from popular songs or artists. It can be a blessing or a curse to be identified with these tunes or singers.

  • Caroline and Cecilia: If you'd like your twin daughters to each have a theme song, consider Caroline and Cecilia. They can sing along with "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond and "Cecilia" by Simon & Garfunkel. Be sure to take a good look at the lyrics to see if you really want to make that a child's theme song for the rest of her life.
  • Alison and Veronica: These two girls' names are featured in Elvis Costello songs from the 1980s. Elvis Costello is himself a dad of twins, although he has twin boys.
  • Madonna and Rihanna: Consider a combination of superstar singers. There are plenty of well-known female singers known by one name. Try Madonna, Cher, Beyonce, Pink, Ke$ha, Adele, Ciara, Fergie, Jewel, Selena, Enya, Sade, Blondie, and Shakira.
  • The Beatles: John, Paul, George, and Ringo
  • New Kids on the Block: Jordan, Jonathan, Joey, Donnie, and Danny
  • Backstreet Boys: A.J., Howie, Brian, Nick, or Kevin
  • NSYNC: Justin, JC, Chris, Joey, and Lance.
  • One Direction: Niall, Zayn, Harry, Louis, or Liam.
  • Male/female duos: For boy/girl names, duos include Sonny and Cher, Donny and Marie, Peaches and Herb, and Ike and Tina.

Twin Names From Literature

Classic names from literature have been quite popular. You can do a deeper dive to find fun ones that are especially good for twins.

  • Jane and Emma: This is a reference to "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte and "Emma" by Jane Austen.
  • Persephone and Seraphina: This clever combination is found in the novel "The Distant Hours" by Kate Morton.
  • Shakespearean names: There are several great names for girls found in the works of Shakespeare. Ophelia ("Hamlet") and Cordelia ("King Lear") go particularly well together, but other choices include Portia ("The Merchant of Venice"), Katherine ("Taming of the Shrew"), Viola ("Twelfth Night"), Beatrice ("Much Ado About Nothing"), Goneril or Regan ("King Lear"), and Juliet ("Romeo and Juliet"). For boys, there are Othello, Romeo, Balthasar, Mercutio, Iago, Montague, Claudio, or Falstaff.
  • Darcy and Fitzwilliam: Two classic names for boys, or for a boy and a girl, drawn from Jane Austen's protagonist in "Pride and Prejudice."

Place Names and Geographical Names

You can name your twins after universities, cities, and geographical features. Of course, you always face the question of whether that's where the twins were conceived.

  • Meredith and Emory: These are but two of many choices related to colleges and universities. Meredith College is a girls' school in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Emory University is a university in Atlanta, Georgia. Pay homage to your alma mater by naming your twins after colleges such as Auburn, Baylor, Bryn (Mawr), Marquette, Berkeley, Amherst, Trinity, or Juniata. How about William and Mary for a boy and a girl? Or Bama and Bryant for twin boys if you are a fan of the University of Alabama?
  • London and Paris: These names are on recent lists of most popular names for twin girls. Other geographical names include Atlanta and Savannah, Trenton and Jersey, Brooklyn and Manhattan, Virginia and Georgia, Cheyenne and Dakota, Orlando and Jackson.

Famous Couples

Some names just seem meant to be together. Look for names of famous couples in history, the media, movies, or television. The problem for real-life couples is that there is always the possibility of a breakup. For example, Brad and Angelina might have seemed like a good choice at one time, but not after they divorced. You might think Will and Jada will last, but will they? It is safer to stick with names from older series where you know there was a happy ending.

  • Laverne and Shirley
  • Brady Bunch names: Greg and Marcia, Jan and Peter, or Cindy and Bobby
  • Bert and Ernie
  • Barbie and Ken
  • Rhett and Scarlet
  • Samson and Delilah
  • Tristan and Isolde
  • Anthony and Cleopatra

By Pamela Prindle Fierro
 Pamela Prindle Fierro is the author of several parenting books and the mother of twin girls.