{"id":11527,"date":"2015-08-06T07:18:56","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T11:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=11527"},"modified":"2016-02-25T10:05:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T14:05:49","slug":"baby-naming-issue-is-it-okay-to-have-alliteration-and-the-same-number-of-syllables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2015\/08\/06\/baby-naming-issue-is-it-okay-to-have-alliteration-and-the-same-number-of-syllables\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: Is it Okay To Have Alliteration AND the Same Number of Syllables?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle!<\/p>\n

I’ve been reading your blog for a long time as we’ve named our three daughters, and I’m finally writing in as we struggle with baby #4 due in February!<\/p>\n

My husband and I have no problem agreeing on girls names. We both love unique, old-fashioned but recognizable names. Meaning also plays a significant role.<\/p>\n

Our three girls are: Ser@fina Audrey, Be@trice Lucy and Ingr!d M@gnolia Jane. Our last name sounds like Handlin. If this little one is a girl, her name will most likely be Eliza or Marigold.<\/p>\n

For all three kids, we’ve had an impossibly difficult time coming up with boy name options and have never settled on any “finalists”. Our biggest issue is that our all-time favorite boy name, the one we both love and would choose in a heartbeat, is Harvey. I feel like we’ve gone through every boy name in the book, and we just don’t love any compared to Harvey.<\/p>\n

The biggest hesitation is that I’m not sure how I feel about alliterative names and would love your feedback. A part of me doesn’t mind them, but I feel that there is some unspoken rule that if one does choose an alliterative name, it should at least have a different number of syllables and a different “beginning sound”. Harvey obviously doesn’t comply with these rules with the two-syllable repeat and beginning with an Ha-.<\/p>\n

What do you think? The few people we have run it across have told me it sounds like a DC comic book character. I’m not sure whether this is good or bad? Part of me thinks a boy may like that type of association, but what about as he grows up?<\/p>\n

Are there unspoken rules to alliterative naming? Is Harvey Handlin too cutesy\/comical, or is it usable?<\/p>\n

Other names we like but don’t love are:<\/p>\n

Theodore
\nWilfred
\nSebastian
\nWesley<\/p>\n

Help! Thank you!!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Use Harvey. Use Harvey. USE HARVEY.<\/p>\n

Okay, I will try not to put on too much pressure. It is YOUR decision. What’s important is what YOU like, not what I like. But here are my reasons:<\/p>\n

1. I love the name Harvey. …I mean, YOU love the name Harvey. You both love it. It is your all-time favorite. You don’t love any name as much as you love the name Harvey.<\/p>\n

2. There are no rules about alliteration; there are only preferences. Some people like it, and some people don’t. It is the same with syllables: some people prefer them to match, and some people prefer them not to. I have occasionally heard “rules” such as that first and last names have to have different numbers of syllables, or even that all three names must have different numbers, but I am going to take a strong stand and say that that is silly. Yes. I said it. SILLY. I think that’s a matter of someone having a strong preference and going around stating it as a fact, and other people hearing those preferences-stated-as-facts and getting nervous.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We have a perfect example of someone using a very similar alliteration\/syllable pattern: the actor Harry Hamlin. I skimmed a short list of celebrities to find a few more: Amy Adams (though the two A’s are pronounced differently), Farrah Fawcett, Janet Jackson, Kelly Clarkson, Lindsay Lohan, Ryan Reynolds. Some people even go further: Joseph (Joe) Jonas, for example, where the entire first syllable repeats. Or Vince Vaughn, whose parents mixed up the syllables when they named him Vincent, but he deliberately uses a 1-1 syllable name—another situation people frequently cite as something they think they have to avoid.<\/p>\n

My own opinion is that it has to be taken on a name-by-name basis, but that in many cases the effect is pleasing and memorable. Another person might have the opposite feeling and wish to avoid it—but you’d be likely to look at THEIR choices and think, “Oh dear, no.”<\/p>\n

Harvey Handlin doesn’t sound cutesy OR comical to me. I’m surprised that not just one but several people have independently associated it with comic book characters–and not just comic book characters in general, but specifically DC comic book characters. I wondered if this meant there was a specific character I wasn’t familiar with that they were all thinking of; I looked through a list<\/a> and didn’t see an unusual number of alliterative names. Or I think it is possible that in your distress, it FEELS as if it’s several when it is not as many as that, or that you’ve asked them about that issue specifically and they’ve agreed, or that it’s several among many rather than all of the several you’ve asked. Peter Parker is, after all, Marvel Comics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Name update!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, after all the hubbub over our boys name, we ended up with a fourth precious daughter :)
\nMatilda Esther was born on Monday 2\/22.<\/p>\n

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my email!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Swistle! I’ve been reading your blog for a long time as we’ve named our three daughters, and I’m finally writing in as we struggle with baby #4 due in February! My husband and I have no problem agreeing on girls names. We both love unique, old-fashioned but recognizable names. Meaning also plays a significant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2ZV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11527"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11906,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11527\/revisions\/11906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}