Congratulations! You’re having boy and girl twins. Now it’s time to choose their names.
As a rule of thumb for boy and girl twin names, you'll want to pick two monikers that carry equal weight, according to Laura Wattenberg, author of “The Baby Name Wizard.”
“A classic example of an unfair naming situation is when the son is a Jr. and the daughter does not have a family name,” Wattenberg tells TODAY.com. “Many people approach naming boys and girls differently — and that looks especially noticeable when you’re announcing two names at once.”
There’s a temptation to pick twin names that match (think Ashton and Ashley), but Wattenberg says there are more modern ways to honor that special connection between multiples. She suggests anagram names like Aiden and Nadia.
“It sounds the message that they are different people who are made of similar ingredients,” Wattenberg notes. "They're built from the same letters, but you won't get the two names confused with each other."
You can also create new names based on personal meaning. For example, hikers might go with two of their favorite national parks, while globetrotters might pick two of their favorite cities.
“The names will obviously sound very different, but have that same conceptual link,” Wattenberg shares. "It's a neat message."
Wattenberg says she also likes names that have the same vowel or consonant patterns as “they look and feel natural together.”
If you're looking for inspiration, you can look to celebrity boy and girl twin names: Alexander and Violet (Lance Bass), Monroe and Moroccan (Mariah Carey), Knox and Vivienne (Angelina Jolie), Max and Emme (Jennifer Lopez), Phinnaeus and Hazel (Julia Roberts), Gideon and Harper (Neil Patrick Harris), Slater and Bronwyn (Angela Bassett), Alexander and Ella (George Clooney), Sir and Rumi (Beyoncé), Nicholas and Lucy (Enrique Iglesias), and Jack and Holly (Gordon Ramsay).
And then, of course, there are public figures with a twin sister or brother: Scarlett and Hunter Johansson, Kiefer and Rachel Sutherland, Giovanni and Marissa Ribisi, Parker and Christopher Posey, Noah and Chloe Schnapp.