C. writes:
My husband and I are disagreeing about a name. I love the name Simeon, and while he likes it, it is too close to Simon (negative connotations for him) for him. I know it’s only one letter difference, but I feel the names are vastly different. What do you think? I searched the site, and it appears there are no other questions of this sort.
The names Simeon and Simon seem similar enough to me that if someone liked one name but couldn’t use it, I might recommend the other name. They seem different enough that I’d hope their differences were enough to solve the problem: the different number of syllables, the different rhythm, the short vs. long I-sound, and the additional vowel sound in Simeon.
But name similarity is in the eye of the beholder: if your husband thinks of the Simon association every time he hears Simeon, it won’t help to tell him the names are too different for him to do so: he’s already doing so, and isn’t likely to stop even if we were to all agree that they were very different, which we won’t all do. Certainly I’d consider them far too close for sibling names, for example.
For me the larger trouble is the similarity between Simeon and simian. I might instead recommend Silas or Cyrus or Elias or Gideon or Solomon or Leon or Roman or Nolan or Edmund or Eamon or Micah or Josiah or Isaac.
Or Damien.
Sometimes when I cannot fall asleep I play a game where I compile rummy-like sets of nearly-alike names, usually ones separated by only a single letter. So, one group would be Ben, Ken, & Len. Or Sara, Tara, Mara, Cara, Dara, Zara & Lara. Perry, Terry, Berry, Gerry. Harper & Casper. Or sometimes it’s names that just sound alike but with more spelling aberrations–John, Dawn, Don, Fawn, Ron, Vaughn…….Or have the same ending sound–Brooks & Max, say. I tend to keep to simple names, because if I have to think too hard, it defeats the purpose of trying to fall back asleep. But where I”m going with this is it seems to me that there’s a kind of perverse tendency (dare I say a rule of thumb?), at least with me, that makes it such that if I like one of the names in such a cluster it’s the only one I like. Even though the names sound similar there’s always something about the other choices–a vibe, or they’re the wrong generation, or lack elegance–it can be anything, really, but something will put me off to the other “similar” names and make them not even come close to the one I love.
But another clearer rule of thumb is that it’s often similar-sounding names that indeed do get suggested on name blogs. I wish there were some way of statistically knowing how often this works out for others…….
I find it helpful to think of name blogs as a place for the commenters to have fun discussing names. There’d be no way for us to guess that someone who liked Simeon also liked, say, Casper, so all we can do is suggest names similar to the one(s) they mention and have fun doing that—as with your get-back-to-sleep game. If we knew the statistics of how often we were actually helpful, I think that might take the focus from where it’s intended to be (“Let’s have fun talking about baby names!”) and put it somewhere else (“Let’s feel discouraged if we can’t somehow solve the incompletely-stated problem of a stranger!”).
Other times, I do think the letter-writer can fail to see that he or she prefers a certain sound or category of name, and that it’s helpful to point that out: if someone’s list contains Owen, Noah, Sophia, and Olivia, I think it can be valuable to draw their attention to Fiona and Milo and Rose and Josephine. Which is not to say I’d also suggest Waldo and Opie: it’s not just about similar sounds. But looking at the sounds can be a starting place for helping someone discover what it is they like in a name.
Oh! I wasn’t in any way meaning to be critical of you (or of us)! I think you do a fabulous job. And sometimes we do OK, ourselves. :)
And yes, as long time Swistle follower, I should know better than to lead off by maybe derailing the endeavor. Sorry.
It’s okay—I didn’t mean to come across all smack-downy. More like, I know what you mean, and here’s how I soothe myself when I worry the same thing.
Funny, about your name grouping game, I was just thinking last night how many J__N names there are … (spelled phonetically)
Jan, Jane
Jen, Jene (Jean)
Jin (Gin, as in short for Ginny/Virginia/Ginette)
Jon, Jone (Joan)
June
No Jine or Jun .. in English anyway.
Sebastian is another name that comes to mind with a similar sound/cadence to Simeon-but without being quite so close to Simon. In addition to Damien, there is also Damon which feels closer to Simon but not so much Simeon
I actually know a kid named Simeon (about 5 yrs old) and ‘simian’ was also the first thought I had when I heard it. And it’s not an association that has faded over time for me, either.
I personally think Simeon is very different from Simon but here are some other names that came to mind:
Dawson
Finnian
Gilbert
Julian
Jerome
Seymour
Weston
Wesley
I second Swistle’s suggestions of Gideon and Solomon.
Elliot?
I love Simeon, but couldn’t come around to using it. The simian situation is too much burden for a little boy, in my opinion. Too bad, because it’s an awesome name.
I like a lot of the name recommendations made in this post, though!!
The simian problem aside, weirdly enough, Simon and Simeon feel like two COMPLETELY different names to me. I think I’ve been poisoned by the Chipmunks (as I realized earlier this week in this very blog’s comments section)–I can’t divorce the name Simon from glasses, high intelligence, and following the rules! I don’t think it helps matters much that “Si” is the beginning sound of “science,” either. To me, Simeon is Simon’s cooler, more casual cousin–similarly, I never even think of Simon when I meet a woman named Simone. “Simone” feels much more like “Nicole” to me–all sophistication and affect.
But this is a moot point, of course, because the husband mentioned in the letter apparently has this negative association, with the name Simeon, as well…so hopefully the letter writer will come up with something she can get excited about anyway.
For the record, though, I pronounce “Simeon” in a way that doesn’t sound very much like “simian.” It’s much more like “SIM-ee-uhn” (whereas “simian” is “SIM-ee-anne” in my view).
That’s interesting that you think of Simeon as Simon’s cooler, more casual cousin because I was thinking the exact opposite. Simeon sounds more uptight and biblical to me. But then I have known a few really awesome, very chill cats named Simon, so that might be why.
Simeon and Simon seem really different to me, but if the husband gets the Simon association from Simeon, it’s probably a no-go.
I am not a fan of Simeon for the reasons Swistle described. I have heard someone pronounce it sigh-MEE-uhn to get around the monkey issue– but that seems belabored and not really worth it. I’ve also met a Simeon who pronounced his name exactly the same as Simon, which perhaps illustrates your husband’s point.
Not to get too preachy…but one of the difficult things of naming a child as a couple is that some names will just be out of the running because one or the other of you has bad associations. If Simeon is too close to Simon for your husband’s liking, I think that should be respected. Imagine if his favorite name was, say, Amelia, but you had been bullied all through middle school by an Amelia (or an Emilia, to sort of make it like Simon/Simeon). I imagine you would ask him to let go of Amelia/Emilia as a possibility and hope he’d respect it.
As Swistle said, it’s in the eye of the beholder how close Simon and Simeon are in terms of associations, and it’s not necessarily rational.
Best of luck! And I feel your pain as a few of my favorite names are off the table for similar reasons.