{"id":14576,"date":"2020-03-11T06:24:33","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T10:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=14576"},"modified":"2020-03-11T06:24:33","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T10:24:33","slug":"baby-boy-norris-with-an-m-brother-to-august-augie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2020\/03\/11\/baby-boy-norris-with-an-m-brother-to-august-augie\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Boy Norris-with-an-M, Brother to August (Augie)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle,<\/p>\n

My husband and I are excitedly expecting baby #2 this spring – a second boy! We need some help and appreciate any you can offer at this point! Our last name is Norris with an M.<\/p>\n

Our first son is named August, but he goes exclusively by Augie at this point in his life. We love his name for so many reasons – it’s not completely unknown, but also not common in our area, it’s a strong name with a soft nickname that fits his personality so well, it starts with a vowel (my personal preference), and best of all, we found out after he was born that my grandpa’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had all been named August. I could go on and on about why I love his name so much. Unfortunately, loving his name so much is making naming this second baby seem like a particularly difficult challenge! We’ve talked and talked about options and whether we need to continue talking about options comes down to one question – is Marvin a usable name on a baby born in 2020?<\/p>\n

My grandpa was named Marvin and he was hugely important in my life. My husband was also very close to him. I don’t adore the name, but I would love thinking about him when I talked about my son’s name and I would love to honor my grandpa this way. If he were named Marvin, we would also use my grandpa’s middle name, which was Henry.<\/p>\n

I know names from the same era as Marvin are becoming popular again, but for some reason Marvin feels outside of that trend and like it may never truly be “usable” again. I don’t need a name to be trendy – in fact I’d prefer it not be – but I also don’t want it to be a name people intensely dislike or don’t “get.” Vinny isn’t an option as a nickname because it’s my stepbrother’s name (unrelated to my grandpa).<\/p>\n

So. Would you use a name you feel a little iffy about as a name in theory but love in use because it reminds you of someone you love? Would you stick it in the middle name spot instead? Can you picture a baby named Marvin without wondering what in the world his parents were thinking or cringing or laughing out loud?<\/p>\n

If you wouldn’t use Marvin, what else might you suggest based on our small list of names we’ve come up with? We’re struggling! If we don’t use Marvin as a first name, it would be the middle name. Other options we’ve considered:<\/p>\n

– Elliott
\n– Henry
\n– Arthur (very close friends told us recently that they intend to use this name on a future child and were adamant we not use it even though they aren’t expecting – an issue for a whole other post!)
\n– Sterling (husband doesn’t like)
\n– Everest (husband doesn’t like, although he loves Everett)
\n– Everett (not usable for me because it is closely associated with my father’s family and I don’t want that association – otherwise a lovely name)
\n– Ezra (husband loves, I don’t)<\/p>\n

To get a better sense of our style, if we ever have a girl, our top contenders would likely be Aurelia, Anastasia, Elena, and Violet (Lettie).<\/p>\n

Thanks so much for your consideration!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Marvin is the kind of name I can picture completely reversing my feelings on, the way I did with Henry and Charlotte: both names seemed UNUSABLE to me until they suddenly, abruptly, magically became usable, through some process of name fashion that has been very instructive for considering future naming trends. I would not cringe or laugh if I encountered a baby Marvin, but I would be surprised and interested; I would assume it was a family name. But I’m remembering when I encountered a baby Ruth, and I was not only surprised and interested but AN IMMEDIATE CONVERT.<\/p>\n

It’s too bad Vinny isn’t a nickname option, because Vinny is another example of a name I would have thought was currently unusable, but then I encountered one in the wild and it completely changed my mind. Also, Marvin\/Vinny is a nice fit with August\/Augie; “Augie and Marvin” doesn’t click into place quite as well.<\/p>\n

Hm. Hm. Let’s talk this through a little more. The ending of Marvin reminds me of Evan and Calvin. The beginning of Marvin is more the issue, I THINK. But on the other hand, Mark and Marcus. Hm. Is it the “arv” sound? I am personally a huge fan of the name Harvey, but I recognize it’s a little…vintage for a lot of people. But Harvard and Marvel seem to be rocking it. Hm.<\/p>\n

Well. I can picture Marvin being charming in the same way I find Harvey charming. But I also feel we are Not Quite There Yet. On the other hand, I am so extremely on-board with honor names. And “It’s after my grandfather!” is such an easy and charming explanation. Hm.<\/p>\n

I am not sure if the alliterative surname improves the situation or makes it less advisable. I am also not sure if the similarity to the name of the singer Maren Morris is helpful or harmful or irrelevant. (I had thought when I began the sentence that her name was spelled Marin, which is much more visually similar than Maren.)<\/p>\n

I guess if it were me I would with some regret come down on the side of using it as a middle name, but I would be supportive and impressed by the use of it as a first name. I think what I would do is reverse the name: Henry Marvin instead of Marvin Henry. August and Henry works beautifully, as does Augie and Henry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Swistle, My husband and I are excitedly expecting baby #2 this spring – a second boy! We need some help and appreciate any you can offer at this point! Our last name is Norris with an M. Our first son is named August, but he goes exclusively by Augie at this point in his […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-3N6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14576","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=14576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14577,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14576\/revisions\/14577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}