Often, the public perception is that twins are very much alike - in terms of appearance, personality and in their names or nicknames. But the latter assumption doesn't hold true anymore - the art of naming your twins has become as unique and imaginative as the twins themselves.

Based on research of the more than 1200 sets of twins in our online twins database, as well as facts about names uncovered at various Internet baby name sites, we offer up the following information that may or may not assist you in naming your impending twins. We're not trying to make any editorial comments on whatever names you do choose. As the old saying goes, 'there are no bad twin names, just bad twins'.

Nearly one-third of the twins names in our database (193) are same-initial twins (i.e., Darlene and Diane for girls). Twins whose names both start with the letter 'J' are far and away the most popular combination of same-initial twins. We uncovered 31 different J-J twins - some like Jared and Joel, John and Joseph, Jacqueline and Jennifer and Jonathan and Jordan were found on two different sets of twins. Interestingly, many of the J-J twins were same-sex twins - a fact which didn't hold true with other same-letter combinations. A lot of J-J twins are biblical in nature (Jonah and Joshua, for example). African J-J twins are also common (Jo'Nasia and Jo'Niyah, or Je'Khi and Jekashia).

Other popular letters for the same-letter twins include 'M' (24 in our database), 'K' (22) and 'C' (15 with another 4 C-K combinations that phonetically sound similar). Others in double digits include 'R', 'A', 'D' and 'B', although names with 'A' in general are very popular currently so based on our simple research, the 'A-A' combination isn't as common as you might expect it to be.

Sometimes parents are committed to naming their twins with a certain letter combination. While we didn't uncover many 'A-B' or 'A-Z' combos (just three apiece), 'B-J' (11), 'A-J' (10), 'A-M' (9), 'C-S' (8) and 'K-M' (8) are some of the other popular letter combinations.

While same-letter twins seem very popular, rhyming twin names and sound-alike twin names show up much less frequently in our database. We found only about 25 rhyming twin names, with seven of those having one or more of the twins' names beginning with the letter 'A' (Alana and Breana, Alvin and Calvin, Ana and Ivana, etc.). Sound-alike twins, where both twins names are very similar but don't necessarily rhyme, are even less common. Examples of these include Stephen and Stephanie, Alexander and Alexis, Janet and Jeannette, and Joy and Joyce.

Any twinstuff.com visitor is welcome to search our database for name inspiration, but be warned, you're not going to see many repeat twin combinations. The most popular combination of names that we uncovered is Amanda and Emily, and Christopher and Michael, with four sets apiece. Other popular combinations include Courtney and Kristen (or variations thereof), Mark and Michael, Bryan and Shawn (spelled in a variety of ways), Brian and Joseph, Lauren and Logan, Matthew and Michael, Rachel and Rosa, Ray and Ron, Don and Ron, and Stephen and Wesley. Speaking of the names Don and Ron, researchers have found out that twins are four times as likely to have those names than non-twins, although our highly unscientific database suggests those names are less common for recently-born twins.

Themes for your twins names is another path to take, but again it's the path less travelled by many of our database entrants. Faith and Hope obviously have very optimistic parents. Capri and Sienna are possibly the twins of car aficionados. Crystal and Shania probably come from a family of country music fans. And Jordan and Karl could possibly be the result of watching a lot of basketball games (Michael Jordan and Karl Malone), but don't quote us on that one. A lot of twins combinations seem to come from soap operas as well, but we don't have time to research that theory.

Another popular method to name your twins is to use a name that actually means twins in one language or another. In English, Tom or one of the variations below means 'twins'. The below table is a good reference tool for some of the lesser known combinations on that theme.

Name	Meaning	Language (if known)
Tom, Thom, Thomas, Tomas, Tommy, Thompson, Thomasin, Thomasina, Tamas	A Twin	Various
Ulan	First Born of Twins	African
Tamasine	Twin
Banji	Second Born of Twins	African
Kpodo	First Born of Twins	Ewe
Tasmine	Twin
Yamal	One of a Twin	Sanskrit
Zesiro	First Born of Twins	African
Panyin	Older Twin	Native American
Tameka	Arabic
Banji	Second Born of Twins	African
Odion	First Born of Twins	Igbo
Ntai	First Born of Identical Twins	Sotho
Ntainyane or Masilonyane	Second Born of Identical Twins	Sotho
Didymos	Twin	Greek
Geminiano	Twin	Italian
Taiye (or Taye)	First Born of Twins	Yoruba
Kehinde	Second Born of Twins	Yoruba
Mosemodi	First Born of Identical Twins	Sotho
Mosemotsane	Second Born of Identical Twins	Sotho
Alaba	Second Child Born After Twins	Yoruba
Gambo	Child Born Before Twins	Hausa
Idowu	First Child Born After Twins	Yoruba
Idogbe	Third Child Born After Twins	Yoruba
Wora	First Twin	Galoa
Yeno	Second Twin	Galoa