B. writes:

Hello! My husband and I are expecting boy/girl twins in August, but they will most likely arrive in July. We currently have a son named Benjamin and a daughter named Rosalie. Ben and Rosie. We love both of their names and it was a no-brainer to use them. We have a list of names we like for these babies, but none are really jumping out at us. My husband is Hispanic and our last name sounds like Tablecloths, with emphasis on the T, B and S at the end. We don’t want any cutesy, rhyming twin names. But we want them to compliment each other and our other kid‘s names. Here’s our list:

Girl:
Lucy
Violet
Cecelia (nn – Celi, pronounced see-lee)
Nora

Boy:
Isaac
Rafael (nn – Rafe)
Felix
Oscar

Names that have been vetoed:
Vivienne
Lorenzo
Evelyn
Oliver
Jacob
Ruby

Thoughts and any other suggestions would be much appreciated!

My favorite boy name from your list is Isaac: it’s most similar in both style and popularity to Benjamin. From your girl name list, I think I’d remove Violet because of the flower theme with Rosalie; then, of the three remaining, I think I like Lucy best with Isaac and with the two first children’s nicknames—but Cecilia best with Rosalie. Ben, Rosie, Lucy, Isaac—or Benjamin, Rosalie, Cecilia, Isaac.

Would you like all four children to have nicknames? If you used Lucille or Luciana or Lucienne, it would go well with Rosalie AND have the cute nickname Lucy; and Isaac could be nicknamed Zac or Ike.

More boy name possibilities:

Charles (Charlie)
Daniel (Dan)
Jonathan (Jon)
Joshua (Josh)
Nathaniel (Nate)
Nicholas (Nick)

More girl name possibilities:

Amalia (Molly)
Annabel (Annie)
Annika (Annie)
Beatrix (Bee)
Bianca (Bee)
Elizabeth (Bess)
Francesca (Frannie)
Isadora (Izzy)
Minerva (Minnie)
Penelope (Nell)

I especially like Charles and Amalia with the nicknames Charlie and Molly: Benjamin, Rosalie, Charlies, and Amalia; Ben, Rosie, Charlie, and Molly. But perhaps the ending of Charles is awkward with the surname, in which case I like the sound of Jonathan/Jon: I like the subtle repeated O sound in Jon and Molly.

Or Joshua and Annabel, nicknames Josh and Annie: Benjamin, Rosalie, Joshua, and Annabel; Ben, Rosie, Josh, and Annie. But I wonder if the “bel” sound in Annabel is too repetitive with the surname. If so, I’d go with Annika instead.

Or Nicholas and Penelope, nicknames Nick and Nell: Benjamin, Rosalie, Nicholas, and Penelope; Ben, Rosie, Nick, and Nell. But again: maybe the ending of Nicholas isn’t great with the surname AND maybe the -ell sound in Nell is too repetitive with it!

Kristin writes:

We are expecting our second girl in July. My husband and I have narrowed down our list to three main names and I would love your opinion–or if you have a similar option? We have a 2 year old name Tessa Faye. Our top 3 list is:
Lyla
Livia
Presley

We like Kate as a middle name, but not sure if this would be TOO similar to our older’s daughter name.

 
Tessa, to me, is a sweet, old-fashioned, exclusively feminine name. For me, this would knock the modern surname name Presley right off the list. On the other hand, the sounds (separate from the associations, which of course vary from person to person) are compatible. If you were considering, for example, Leslie/Lesley, which is very close to Presley in sound, I would think it worked despite Lesley being at one time a man’s name (as were Anne and Evelyn, so I tend to think In The Now on this issue): Tessa and Lesley. And in fact I think that might be a nice one for your family: Lesley Cothron; Tessa Faye and Lesley Kate.

Livia also seems like a good fit, although it seems like the similarity to the Top Ten name Olivia might be a hassle to continually deal with.

Lyla or Lila is my first choice: to me it has the same sweet and old-fashioned feel as the name Tessa. Lila Cothron; Tessa Faye and Lila Kate. Myla would also be pretty.

I think it’s fine if middle names are similar in sound, and in fact I find it appealing; it makes me want to say “Tessa Faye and Lila Kate,” even though I would usually have just said “Tessa and Lila.”

Let’s have a poll, over to the right! [Poll closed; see results below.]

Sarah writes:

I know there is a lot of discussion of using maiden names or other surnames as first names. Is it weird for people who are still living who have that as a last name? For example, I’d like to use my mother-in-law’s maiden name as a boy’s first name. However, her brothers, their wives and children (my husband’s aunts, uncles, and cousins) still have that last name. How weird would it be for a child to go to a family reunion and have his first name be the same as other family members’ last names? Is it best to use maiden names as first names only if the name is going to ‘die out’ and not be carried on my another generation?

I have a firstnamey surname in my own family tree, something like Jameson, and we considered using it as a child’s first name. It’s a little hard for me to tell if it would feel weird to my uncles and aunts and cousins who still the name (since I didn’t have the name myself), but my GUESS is that if they thought it was weird, they’d think it was cool-weird rather than awkward-weird or unpleasant-weird.

An acquaintance of mine used her mother-in-law’s maiden name as her child’s name, and when she speaks of it, it’s always about how happy and pleased everyone was; she hasn’t mentioned anything about the other family members feeling weird—but of course she might not mention it, and/or they might not have mentioned it to her.

I SUSPECT, though, that it’s not very weird, and that it’s quite positive and flattering. I’m imagining going to a family reunion and seeing a little Jameson, and I think I’d feel happy about that. It seems like it would trigger feelings of family pride and also of family inclusion: like, even when one of our own marries out, our name perseveres—and even though this little guy doesn’t have the same surname as we do, he has it anyway. Plus, it communicates strongly that not only do the parents feel favorably about that whole part of the family tree, they even like the sound of the family name!

But I think we need people who have actually experienced this to weigh in. Has someone in your family used your own surname as their baby’s name? And was it weird? And if it was weird, was it bad-weird or good-weird?

And if you haven’t experienced it, you can still make a guess as to how you and your relatives might feel about it if it were your family.

Earlier today we discussed Jenny Grace’s question about the name Eloise. At the beginning of that question she writes “I have been VERY MUCH enjoying the discussion of various names that originate in children’s literature, such as Heidi, Wendy, Alice, Dorothy, the names from The Children’s Hour, the names of the Little Women, stuff like that. And…um…some boys’ names too I suppose (not really, I’m not good at naming boys),” and at the end of that question she writes: “I also want to know what you’re favorite literature-based names are, if you have any.” I thought we should have that as its own separate discussion.

Let’s see…my own favorite names from children’s literature seem to be mostly girl names. Josephine for sure, from Little Women, and Margaret/Meg from there too. Genevieve from the Madeline books: even though Genevieve is the dog, it was when I was reading those books (as an adult, reading them to a child) that I thought, “…Hey, the name Genevieve is pretty awesome.” Anastasia from the Lois Lowry series. Margaret/Meg and Charles from A Wrinkle in Time—with conflicting feelings about preferring the nickname Charlie, which would be incompatible with naming a baby in honor of the book. Fern from Charlotte’s Web. Frances from the Russell and Lillian Hoban books. Phronsie (short for Sophronia) from The Five Little Peppers. Phoebe from The Children Who Stayed Alone. And it was Kevin Henkes who, during one of my pregnancies, caused me to give serious consideration to the name Chrysanthemum.

But it is a little hard to say which of those names I love because of the books, and which names I love because they were/are in style and REMINDED me of the books. I didn’t like the name Genevieve when I was reading the books as a child, after all, but only later on. And I like Charles/Charlie, but not the middle name Wallace unless I’m actively reading the book at that moment. And I probably liked Margaret mostly/only for the nickname Meg, and Megan was near the top ten when I was the age to read those books.

I think it’s often that the name starts coming into style—and then, when people are considering the name, the childhood book connection seals the deal. The name Charlotte came into style and, as it did, people remembered the pleasing connection to the book Charlotte’s Web—but without also turning to names like Fern and Wilbur, because those two names were NOT coming into style. Same with Genevieve: I was reminded of the name by seeing it in a Madeline book, but the name was already on its way up at that point.

Other names, though, I loved for the first time BECAUSE OF the book: the name Anastasia was not at all in style (or even on my radar) when I was a child, but it rocketed up my favorites list as I was reading the books, dethroning previous queens Megan and Stephanie.

Discuss: What are YOUR favorite names from children’s literature? And are any of them BOY names, because Jenny Grace and I seem to be heavily covering the girl names.

Charlene writes:

I have been pouring myself into researching names since I found out I was pregnant but my husband and I have not agreed on a name still! I have two months left to go (EDD due mid-July) and it truly seems hopeless. I have two sons from a previous marriage that I named myself: Landon James and Brady Kenneth. I was drawn to the English Gentlemen sound of it, as well as having last names as a first to make their names sound strong. This time, we are finally having a girl, so this is a very big deal for me! I want to give her a name that is old, forgotten and beautiful. I cannot stand picking a name from the top lists. My husband on the other hand wants a simple, traditional name that is not unusual. Our tastes in names clash heavily.

The names I love are:

Briar (my favorite)
Genevieve
Livia
Viviana
Isabelle
Rosalia
Emilia
Coralie

My husband loves: Ava, Hannah and Rachel. He also would like to have an Italian name since he is Italian but has turned down all my Italian name suggestions.

Originally, we considered going with Briar Rachel (which I absolutely love) but then he admitted he couldn’t love it. Several months later, we decided to pick Ava Gianna but I couldn’t fall in love with the name. It was too popular although I love the meaning “like a bird” since I collect bird decor. I also struggled with Gianna even though I thought it was pretty. I suggested Ava Charlotte, Ava Christine, Ava Genevieve, Ava Isabella, Ava Marlene (after my mother) and he rejected them all. So we have dropped the name and decided to start over although we’re getting nowhere now.

If she was a boy, then her name would’ve been John Michael (my husband’s name inverted) although I would’ve picked Jack.

Our last name starts with D and rhymes with yellow.

This is our third child (my third, and his first to be precise) and possibly our last unless we have one more (undecided).

I will update you with the results if you help! Thanks so much!!!

The trouble with names that are old, forgotten, and beautiful is that as soon as someone DOES remember one, they take off like wildfire—which is how the name Ava is #5 and Emma is #3 and Isabella is #1. It’s as if someone says, “Hey, why aren’t we using this awesome name??” and society replies, “Hey, yeah, why AREN’T we?” And then suddenly, we ARE.

The good news is that this means your tastes aren’t as far apart as feared: you both like old beautiful names, but your husband likes the ones that have already been rediscovered, while you mostly like the ones that haven’t yet.

Will it upset you if you choose a forgotten name and then soon afterward it is remembered? Society tends to move all together toward certain sounds—and the sounds on your list are mostly in that group. Livia is very close to Olivia, which is the #4 most popular girl name. Isabelle is #105, but combined with the spelling Isabel it’s #40—and of course very close to Isabella at #1. Viviana is uncommon, but Vivian and Vivienne are both rising rapidly. Emilia is uncommon, but Amelia is #41 and climbing, and Emily is #6. Rosalia is uncommon, but Rosalie is expected to get much more popular because of the Twilight character with that name. And so on.

One possibility for compromise: start with a name from your list, but then find a similar name that has already been discovered. Instead of Coralie: Cora or Clara with the middle name Leigh/Lee. Instead of Emilia: Amelia or Emily or Leah. Instead of Livia: Olivia or Lilliana or Lia. Instead of Viviana: Vivian or Vivienne or Anna.

Or the other way: start with a name on his list, but find a similar name that’s less common. (This is more of a challenge, I think.) Instead of Ava: Avery or Aviana. Instead of Hannah: Anneliese or Johanna or Susanna or Savannah (Savannah also has the V sound you like).

I also suggest:

Cecily
Clarissa
Emmeline
Iliana

I wanted to suggest Arabella and Annabel and Romilly, but I think they’re too much -ell with your surname. Iliana and Liliana and Cecily might be, too, but I was less certain.

And I encourage your husband to reconsider Genevieve. It’s similar to Gianna, and it’s one of the more familiar names from your list.

It seems as if Italian names would be the perfect meeting ground: he’d like to use one, and many of them are ultra feminine like the names on your list. And there are so many good ones:

Arianna
Bianca
Claudia
Elena
Francesca
Gabriella
Lidia
Liliana
Luciana
Marilena
Mirella
Raffaella

But I can see from your list that you’ve already been down this route, and your husband is rejecting all of them. Perhaps he should go through a list of Italian names and say which ones he likes.

If you have a copy of The Baby Name Wizard, it might work to have each of you find which categories of names you tend to like, and then have the other person go through those categories and see if there’s any common ground. He could go through the Lacy & Lissome section; you could go through Biblical or Timeless or New Classics or wherever he finds most of his favorites.

Edited to add: I just realized that some combinations of initials are dicey: particularly VD, OD, and GD. And an L-name probably shouldn’t have an S for the middle initial. Many others aren’t negative but do mean something: AD, CD, ED, ID, MD, RD, etc. And goodness, it’s easy to spell words like BAD and SAD and MAD.

Lisa writes:

I have a question about naming babies. If you name a baby after someone, do they take on that person’s traits?

In our situation, my husband’s grandmother recently passed away. She was an awesome women, was vital with regard to raising him and was wonderful with our other two children. This is why we would like to honor her. However, she had a little problem with holding grudges. She was not on speaking terms with any of her siblings at the time of her death and had only recently started talking to her oldest child after many years of no communication.

We are considering using her name for our 3rd child (due June 10th). We will for sure use it as a middle name and that part doesn’t worry me. But for some reason, using it as a first name makes me worry that our daughter will somehow take on her negative character traits.

So, what do you and your readers think? Will our daughter take on her traits if we use her name? Can we counter act it by using a middle name like Mercy or Grace?

It seems like this is a question that falls into the same category as “Does everyone born in the same range of dates have the same personality, which can be represented by a horoscope symbol?”: some people will say no, and some people will say yes, and many will have anecdotes supporting their position. But in my own opinion, if you are asking if a name has the magical property to carry traits from its previous owner and change a child’s personality and make it different than the personality the child would have had with a different name, I’d say no, I don’t believe it does.

(This is not to say that a child named, say, Phatty, won’t be altered by that experience. But here we are talking about the name as trait-carrier from its previous holder ((and not just ANY previous holder but the specific one the parents are thinking of when they choose the name)), traits that would presumably be carried even in a vacuum apart from the societal experience that can come with a particular name.)

Every person has some good traits and some bad ones, and so EVERY namesake name is associated with some good traits and some bad ones. We generally give namesake names to honor another person (even realizing that he or she, like everyone else, is flawed), and to call that person to mind when we think of the name, and maybe even as a way to highlight certain traits we HOPE the child will have (as we might when we name a child Faith, or Serenity, or Lincoln, or Darwin)—but the name is not itself a magic spell that needs to be counteracted with other name spells.

In this case, however, it sounds as if your idea could help smooth over any family feelings that might be called up by your use of the name. You could say with rueful affection, “We named her after grandma who meant so much to us—but we used the middle name Mercy, because grandma always struggled with that.” Not as a spell, but as a way to call to mind the trait of mercy, as you call to mind the grandmother you’d like to honor. On the other hand, deliberately using a middle name to counteract the first name may only serve to continually remind people of the grandmother’s bad traits, which otherwise might gradually be forgotten.

Lara writes:

Our last name is Hanl0n (only with an o and not a zero, obviously!). I am Lara and hubby is Chris. I am due at the beginning of July with a baby girl. I am at a total and complete loss. Girl names are IMPOSSIBLE! I have dozens of boy names I’d be happy with, but nothing on the girl side is screaming out to me, “I’m your daughter!”. Also, many names I love end in an -in sound, which I feel is way too matchy with our first name (i.e. Emmaline or Rowan). I like names that are less popular, but recognizable. Definitely feminine. Many of the names on my list have a European sound/origin. Unusual but not made-up (for the most part).

I have always loved my name and loved always being the only one with that name. Sure, I get called “Laura” a lot, but it’s never really bothered me. Chris obviously has always been one of a million Chrises (just on my side of the family, my sister is marrying a Chris and I have a cousin Chris on each side). I am more drawn to names on the “Lara” side of the popularity scale than the “Chris” side. Chris just doesn’t want anything weird (insert eye roll, since he seems to think anything not in the top 10 is weird). His only two suggestions have been jokes: Riley (our dog’s name) and Laura (because it’d be funny to respond to people calling me Laura with “That’s my daughter!”…yeah, not even a little funny).

Right now the front runner is Carys. I feel like it’s on par with my name in terms of popularity and elegance (and again, I love my name!). I am a *bit* worried because I’ve seen it popping up more and more often, but I don’t think it’s going to be the next Jennifer of 1980. The other thing that worries me about that name are that Chris and Carys are very similar, and that we had a baby who passed away after being born prematurely in April named Caleb. Are Chris, Carys, and Caleb too many C’s? We very rarely use Caleb’s name (though obviously we love and miss him) and don’t sign it on Xmas cards or anything. But it could be something to consider?? I also hesitate because of the “Y” trend that is so prevalent in names right now, but Carys is the legit spelling so not letting that bother me too much. I love the meaning of the name. My family loves it. Chris likes it and is totally okay with it. But it doesn’t feel like OUR baby. However, NO name has sounded like that, and I’ve completely devoured every baby name book and site (including the bible: Baby Name Wizard). I don’t know if that’s because I haven’t discovered the right name yet or because I won’t know until I meet her. Also, I’m always hesitant to tell people that’s the front-runner. I don’t know if that is just because I don’t want to hear negative feedback on an unusual name (although when I have shared it’s been positive) or again, if it’s because it’s not right.

So right now my list stands as follows (unless otherwise noted, middle name would likely be Josephine or Marie after family):
Adelle
Anna Kate (going by both names)
Annelie (AH-na-lee)
Anneliese (AH-ne-leese)
Annika
Audrey Elise
Carys
Some form of Eliza/Elise/Elisa
Ellery
Everly
Marley (I know, totally out of style with the others)
Milla (MEE-lah)

Names that were on the list but were vetoed and the reason:
Adair (couldn’t get behind the flow with LN)
Adelaide (” “)
Ainsley (” “)
Alexa (too trendy/”now”/stripper-ish, apparently)
Ava (popular)
Avelyn (flow)
Briony (love, but no one else did)
Caoimhe (love, but no one else did)
Charlotte (too popular)
Clara (not sure why off, but doesn’t feel right)
Elodie (flow)
Emma (popular)
Evangeline (flow)
Kira (flow)
Liliana (flow)
Marisol (flow)
Tessa (flow)

None of the first names have any family meaning or significance. My guilty pleasure names are names I’d never have the balls to use but love nonetheless are word/noun names: Story, Lyric, Fable, Scout, River.

I think I just need an outsider’s perspective. Help????????? Please??????? Otherwise I may end up selling naming rights and she’ll end up Sonic Drivethru Hanl0n.

I have been thinking and thinking about Chris/Carys. Sometimes I think it won’t work; more often I think it will. One thing I’ve tried is changing one of the names a little and seeing how that affects the way I think of it: for example, if it was Chris and Caren, there’d be no problem; if it was Chris and Chrissy I wouldn’t like it; if it was Chris and Maris, it would be fine; if he went by Christopher it wouldn’t be a problem; and so on, making small changes in both directions to try to find where the line is between “works” and “doesn’t work.” It also helps to think of it as the sort of thing a family might do on purpose, to name the daughter in honor of the father.

I THINK that if someone called on the phone and asked for Chris/Carys, it would be clear who they were asking for—and that if it wasn’t, the person on the receiving end would say, “Did you say Chris, or Carys?” and it would be as simple as that. I THINK that the two names, while similar enough to elicit the occasional remark about it, are different enough for the response to be a shrug and “Yeah, we thought of that, but we didn’t think it was a big deal.”

I don’t think it’s similar enough to Caleb to be an issue, unless you think you might feel trapped into using only C names from then on.

I know what you mean about the Y trend, and I think your conclusion is correct: it doesn’t look Y-spelled if it’s SUPPOSED to be spelled with a Y (see also: Emily, Kyle, Ryan, Dylan, Evelyn, Riley).

And I think a hesitation about sharing the name is if anything a GOOD sign: with names you’re half-hearted about, you might not care so much if people have negative reactions; with a name that’s a real possibility, you’re going to feel more protective of it and more nervous that someone will make a cutting remark.

But I think you also have a lot of other really good options on your list, and also on the veto list. It may be that you will need to bring a list to the hospital, or that you will need to let all the names simmer for a bit and see which rise to the top.

Another exercise that can give good results is looking at each name and thinking about other names that are similar, or ways the name could be modified. Do you only like Caoimhe spelled that way? would your social circle like it better if it were translated to the American English alphabet and spelled Kiva or Keva? I think it would be challenging to get people to pronounce Milla as MEE-la when so many are accustomed to the sound of Milly and Camilla, but you might like Leila or Mira or Keela or Delia or Pilar or Celia or Sela. Briony didn’t go over well, but would Briarley or Brinley?

Or have you played that game with The Baby Name Wizard where you look up a name you like, then choose which of the five sister names you like best and look up THAT name and choose which of ITS five sister names you like best, and so on? I’ve found that useful for refining my style—figuring out which names fall into a group of names that would yield sibling names later on, and which names are outliers that would cause sibling-name problems later on if I chose any of them. The names on your list fall in a wide style range (Adelle to Everly, Anna Kate to Adair, Caoimhe to Charlotte), and if you plan to have more children later, this may help smooth the way for later naming.

The new Social Security baby names update is here! The new update is here! Now things will start happening to us!

Today’s discussion question: What happened this year to your kids’ names, or to names you’ve been considering, or to any name you’ve been keeping an eye on for whatever the reason? (You don’t have to say the actual names if you don’t want to.)

Are you happy about it, or sad? It can go either way, I’ve found. There have been names I liked that seemed too uncommon to use, so then I was happy they went up. Or names I liked because they were A Little Different and then felt a little disappointed that everyone else felt the same way. Or names I was happy to see dip down a bit, because it meant they probably weren’t headed for the Top 10 after all. Or names I was sorry to see go down because it meant that other people weren’t liking my child’s name as much as they used to. And so on.

Of my kids’ non-pseudonym names:

One boy name is plummeting, which is a little disappointing. I like common names for boys, so I’m sorry it went up to where I liked it, and then dropped out of that range as if people are thinking they’re sick of it.

The other four names stayed about the same. But what I was worried about with one of the boy names is that it would go up for GIRLS, because there have been many predictions that it would—or people saying it was used almost as much for girls as for boys, or that they hear it all the time for girls, or that they think of it as a girl name. Perceptions/claims are one thing, statistics are another: it’s still barely used for girls, and going down, while continuing to be common for boys.

A moment of silence, please, for a long and faithful tour of duty:

No book can stand up to so much regular and eager flipping.

Well. We’ll always have our memories. A photo retrospective:

Now: time to dry my tears and email Amazon.com to ask them WHEN OH WHEN they are going to offer the 2009/revised version of this book (currently they list only the 2005/original, though a marketplace seller is offering the new edition at a mark-up), so that I can continue to order it for friends—and for myself. I could have one on its way to me already, but OH NO, I will have to drive to the city bookstore 30 minutes away to buy it. In the meantime, I will see what I can accomplish with some packing tape.

Tori writes:

My fiancee and I are expecting our first child, a boy, in September and though I know we still have lots of time to decide on a name for him I am a little embarrassed to say, I’m stressing out already! The problem is that my fiancee and I were really hoping for a girl, so we’d been focusing all our attention on creating a list of baby GIRL names we love. Because of this, our list of BOY names is non-existent and I feel completely lost and without direction.

In the beginning, I liked biblical names like Noah, Luke and Isaiah, but my fiancee doesn’t want to go the biblical route so now I really don’t know where to turn. There are, however, a handful things I’m sure of and they are:

1. Though we won’t be married when the baby comes, he will take my fiancees last name, which begins with a P and rhymes with Marker.

2. I don’t want his first name to end with the er sound because it sounds too much like his last name.

3. His middle name will be a Hawaiian. We are both Hawaiian and live in Hawaii where it is common for most people (even those who aren’t Hawaiian) to give their children Hawaiian names. His will be Kaleomalino; 5 syllables, meaning “The calming voice.”

4. On the subject of sound I’ve decided that a single syllable first name sounds the best when said with both his full name and with just his last name.

5. My fiancee wants a name that is strong, masculine and “boss-like” and I’d like something that I can best describe as not unheard-of but not too popular.

So, with all of that being said, this is the short list of names we’ve come up with: Brock (or Brocke), Vance, Ace, Gabe, and Cash (or Kash.)

Brock/e is the front-runner and I really like the way it looks with the e at the end, but want some opinions on that spelling. Vance is the second runner-up which I think fits my criteria of not unheard-of but not too popular. I think Ace is cute and different but I worry it might be too quirky and therefore not “boss-like.” We’ve both loved Gabe for a long time (shocking for my fiancee since he nixed all my other biblical suggestions) but i wonder if you’d know whether or not it’s appropriate to just name him Gabe and not Gabriel, which I don’t like as much as Gabe. And C/Kash is just so-so but one of the better one-syllable names I found.

It’d be great if you could give your input about the names in our list and add more you think would appeal to us. We’re open to any and all suggestions, even multi-syllable ones, and I just want to reiterate that what I mostly need is some direction!

With an -er surname, I think one of the trickiest parts is preventing the first name and surname from merging to make what sounds like a single occupational name, even a nonsensical one (Paigeturner, Cashpacker, Brantpacker).

I think if I were going to use Brock(e), I would spell it without the E to reduce its similarity to Brooke. Also, the Brocke spelling first hits my mind as if it might be pronounced “broke” or “brock-ee” or “broke-ee”—whereas Brock is immediately clear to me. But I find Brock _arker hard to say (and it might fall into the Cashpacker category), so I’m not sure I’d use it in any spelling.

Vance _arker, Ace _arker, and Cash/Kash _arker sound more comic-book-like/detective-like/action-figure-like/fighter-pilot-like to me than boss-like. The Baby Name Wizard calls them “Macho Swagger” names. They are good, tough, strong, masculine names, and it’s hard for me to tell whether that’s what your boyfriend MEANS by “boss-like” and I should find more of them for you (my own favorite from that category is the name Dutch, or should I suggest Cage?), or whether I should steer you toward the business suits and conference tables that “boss-like” brings to my mind. And of course the “conference table” names are going to change over the generations, just as other categories of names change (what’s Popular, what’s Grandparenty, what’s Weird, etc.). It’s hard right now to imagine a boss named Isabelle, too, but that’s only because it’s mostly a child name right now, not because the name isn’t strong and dignified.

Gabe _arker is the stand-out to me. I can picture telling people I work for Gabe _arker, in a way I can’t picture telling them I work for Kash _arker or Ace _arker. If you’re worried about using a short form of another name, you could use Gage, which stands alone: Gage _arker. But I’ve heard Gabe used on its own before, too, just as Jack and Abby are used on their own. Another possibility is Gable, with the nickname Gabe.

If Ace is too whimsical, I wonder if you’d like Jace, or Case, or Chase, or Tace, or Asa, or Brice. Or Abe, which is also like Gabe.

More suggestions that seem to me to be masculine and strong and managerial—yet capable of wearing a business suit without their powerful muscles ripping the seams:

Brent
Dane
Dean
Flynn
Grant
Gus
Hank
Jack
Jake
Joel
John
Jon
Keane
Kent
Reid
Rhys
Ross
Sean
Shane
Saul
Teague
Trent
Troy
Wade
Zane

As I think I probably do EVERY time I mention the name John, I urge you not to let it flit through your mind unconsidered. But I think others from the list are a better fit with your style. Grant, maybe? Brent? Dane? I put Saul in there even though it’s biblical, just because I like the sound of it so much with your surname.

But you say you’re open to other than just one-syllable names, so let’s see if we can think of a few of those, too.

Brogan
Coleman
Griffin
Hugo
Wyatt

Hm, actually there are probably a TON of 2- and 3-syllable names that would work!