Aesthetic Gender Neutral Names Novels & Stories

The place was candlelit and already smelled like heaven. He pulled my chair out for me, sat across the table, and didn’t stop smiling. “So, name ideas?” I laughed, sipping the mocktail they placed in front of me. “Already? We just found out.” “Yes. Because I want to be prepared. Boy or girl. No cliches. Something strong.” “You mean like Titan or something?” He laughed. “No! I mean something elegant but meaningful. What about Layla?” “I like Layla.” “Or Elias for a boy. You know, something that sounds like he could be CEO at birth.”

I double over in laughter at the sheer passion in her voice. “Alright, sorry. Four? So three more?” She nods, uncertain once again. “I like it!” “We still need a name for this little one?” “How about Athena, the Greek Goddess of wisdom?” I ask, leading Allie down the hall to Tabatha’s room. She looks down at the sleeping form of our daughter. “Athena Avalon Astor? That's a lot of A’s, but I like it!” I stop outside Tabatha’s room. “You want her to have my last name as the ‘last’ name and not yours?”

“This is your team. Production manager. Marketing director. PR specialist. They’re all experienced. They’ll handle everything except the design. That’s all you.” A team. Resources. Support. Everything I’d never had with Adrian. “One more thing,” Marcus said. “We need a name for the line. Something that captures your aesthetic.” I’d thought about this. Dreamed about it during those long nights working at the café. “ETHEREAL,” I said. “It means heavenly. Delicate but powerful. Beautiful but untouchable.” Marcus smiled. “ETHEREAL by Serena Moore. I love it. Let’s make it happen.”

Suzu barked once. "Right. So something gender-neutral. Cool. Modern. Perhaps a little magical." I pulled out my notepad from under the coffee table. "River? Sky? Nova? Orion? Riley? Phoenix? You like any of those?" Suzu barked again at Phoenix. "Okay, so we like fiery rebirth energy. Noted." I made a note. "I swear if Dan vetoes that name, we're having a puppy-naming contest and you're helping pick the winner."

"You know, my love, we need to choose a name for our little one." My eyes sparkled. "I've been thinking about that. For a boy, I like Joshua Niklaus, and for a girl, Misty Dawn or .... *Abigail Niklaus* we both heard her, clear as day, I smiled, "I love it!" I said, "It's perfect!"

Kris asked as he gently stroked my tummy and I snuggled closer into his warmth. “ Nothing, just thinking of a name for the baby.” I replied truthfully and he heaved a sigh. “ If it's a girl, why don't we name her Adele?” he suggested and of course Adele was indeed a beautiful name. “ Baby boy?” I asked. “ Licht, Kai.” He unhurriedly suggested and surprisingly the names were Beautiful and unique. I couldn't help but ask him if he'd been thinking of names for the kids for a very long time.

Sitting in the back of the car, holding Grant’s hand while we make our way to our second to last birthing class, I go over some of the names we are still considering. “What did you think of McKenzie?” I ask Grant. “It sort of sounds like a last name to me,” he admits. “But I like Kinsley.” “Kinsley is cute,” I agree. “What sort of middle name would you put with that?” “What about Kinsley Ann, after you?” he asks. “That would be cute. I wish we could incorporate your name into her name as well,” I say. “Well, we might have a boy someday and make Grant his middle name. But I don’t think we can use Grant for a girl, and there’s not an easy way to make it feminine–Granta? Granty? Granata?”

I replied to him out of excitement. “Julian said he should be named Jordan,” Henri responded in my head, and I briefly recalled that Julian had indeed mentioned he was gonna call our boy Jordan. He had even said that if it was a girl, we could still call her Jordan since it was unisex. “What if she's a girl? It would be too tacky. Please, think of a good name for her, I don't want her to have a random name.” I said, and his wolf nodded. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I will pick the most adorable name in the world for her.”

“Because I’m good in bed?” “Because you’re you.” He kissed me, and we lay together in silence for a while. “Do you want to talk about baby names?” Ben asked. I was surprised. “I didn’t know you would like that.” “Of course. We don’t know what it will be, but we can choose names. I was thinking Jordan or Morgan or Riley. Those are all unisex names.” “And I don’t like any of them.” I giggled. “I like Charlie or Blake or Landon if it’s a boy. And Lauren or Nicole or Samantha when it’s a girl.”

Nevertheless, going around and calling these kids names that related to Asher's would drill the joy and loveliness away from the name and make it very tiring to listen to. She wanted to name the girl Aster, name one of the boys Ash, and then the other Ashlan. Too much! Surely, we were obviously going to come to a compromise. I thought the name Aster was very lovely, but Ash and Ashlan, though they were fantastic, they sucked the joy out of it. It was a nice feeling to be debating about these mundane things, except that they weren't as mundane as one would think they were. Their names would shape their future and may favor them in time to come. I cannot have my children walking around soundin