“Everybody mixes them up. Even I mix up their names up sometimes. I have to look and say, ‘Which kid is which?’” For New Orleans mother Artisha Davis, that confusion is built into a naming choice she made on purpose, not by accident. While pregnant with triplets, Davis came across the name Daviane on Instagram and was drawn to its meaning: beloved. That discovery shaped the names she created for her three children Daviane, Davianna and Davian giving each baby a variation tied to the same idea while keeping the set closely linked in sound. The result is affectionate, memorable and, in everyday life, easy to scramble.
That kind of sibling pattern has become more visible as more parents lean toward themed naming, including groups connected by shared meanings, sounds or styles, a trend noted in themed sibling names. For some families, the connection is subtle. For others, it becomes part of the family identity from the first introduction.
In Davis’s household, the names are only part of the story. The triplets, now toddlers, also carry the nicknames that emerged during their NICU days: Fat Mama, Little Mama and Little Man. Those labels stuck because they helped distinguish each baby by feeding patterns and early routines when survival and rhythm mattered more than polished introductions. The formal names carried one kind of meaning; the nicknames handled the practical work of daily care. Together, they show how families often create layered naming systems, one for symbolism and another for speed.
Davis knows the territory well because she grew up in it. She is a twin, and she and her sister have spent their lives answering to nearly identical names: Artisha and Artesha. That closeness has brought mix-ups in places where precision matters, including paperwork and records, but it also created a built-in sense of belonging. The names marked them as connected before anyone knew anything else about them.
There is also a cognitive reason similar names so often collide. Research summarized by shared initial or final sounds found that parents confuse children’s names more often when sibling names overlap phonetically, especially when the children are close in age. Psychologists describe it as a retrieval issue, not a sign of neglect or preference. As professor Zenzi Griffin put it, “people shouldn’t read too much into the errors.”
The broader explanation is that loved ones’ names tend to sit in the same mental category. In work discussed by cognitive scientists studying name mix-ups, family names compete with one another when a parent is moving quickly, distracted or calling out under pressure. That is why siblings, and sometimes even pets, can end up in the same blur.
Davis extended her pattern when a fourth child arrived and received the name Devyn, another variation that keeps the family’s familiar sound. She explained the decision simply: “I didn’t want her to seem like she was on the other side of the world from them.” The names may continue to cause second looks at roll call, in classrooms and on forms. But in this family, the overlap is not just a source of confusion. It is the point.
