{"id":9008,"date":"2014-06-14T10:53:11","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T14:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/?p=9008"},"modified":"2015-06-09T13:52:35","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T17:52:35","slug":"baby-naming-issue-a-repeated-er-ur-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/2014\/06\/14\/baby-naming-issue-a-repeated-er-ur-ending\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby Naming Issue: A Repeated -er\/-ur Ending"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am expecting my first baby (a boy) this September and my husband and I are just starting to seriously come up with a list of names. This question is about repetitive sounds in first and last names.<\/p>\n

This baby will most likely have the last name Parker, which made us initially discount any names ending in “er” or “ur.” For example, although we like the names Arthur, Walter and Asher we felt that the repeat final sounds in the first and last names was too much. Now? I’m not sure. What do you think?<\/p>\n

Another wrinkle is this. My last name is Fox Parker (my maiden name is Fox) and we are considering using Fox Parker as a possible last name. Does that eliminate any possible issues with the repeat “er” sounds?<\/p>\n

Thanks!<\/p>\n

Lindsey<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think most repeated-sound issues end up being decided on a name-by-name basis. For example, Archer Parker feels awkward and sing-songy to me, and so does Walker Parker, but Christopher Parker and Walter Parker less so. Part of it has to do with how much of the ending is repeated (as in the case of WalKER ParKER), and part of it has to do with whether there is an additional repeated sound (as in the case of ARchER PARkER), and part of it has to do with a harder-to-put-a-finger-on thing involving the overall feeling\/sound of the particular name and whether it feels\/sounds odd or amusing or sing-songy.<\/p>\n

And of course part of it is going to be pure personal taste: some of us like repeated sounds and some of us don’t. I’ve found it very interesting to go through my son’s yearbook or look at the credits on a movie or TV show, and see how many people have names I would have thought were off the table—things like Mason Emerson. And yet once those names are chosen, they sound fine to me.<\/p>\n

One thing that can help considerably is having a different number of syllables in the two names, which is one reason I think Mason Emerson works. Arthur Parker sounds a little off to me, in part because the matched number of syllables draws attention to the repeating sounds. If you had a name such as Sylvester Parker, the repeated ending would be less noticeable. Unfortunately, most -er names are two syllables.<\/p>\n

Another thing that can help is the familiarity of the first name: Christopher Parker is less noticeably repetitive not only because Christopher is three syllables instead of two, but also because Christopher is such a familiar name we don’t stop to consider it as thoroughly as we would if the name were Runner Parker.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to the third thing that can help, which is avoiding names that are also words. Walter Parker sounds like two names; Walker Parker sounds like two nouns.<\/p>\n

Your idea of using Fox Parker as the surname helps in one way and hurts in another. It helps because a three-syllable surname makes it easier to use a two-syllable first name. It hurts because it adds another word-name to the mix, and gives the whole name a potentially more whimsical sound.<\/p>\n

(One option would be to use Fox as the family surname, though it is perhaps a bit late for that decision. Arthur Fox is terrific, as are Asher Fox and Walter Fox.)<\/p>\n

In short, I don’t think you have to rule out all -er\/-ur names just because the surname ends in -er. I do think -er\/-ur is one of the trickier repeated end-sounds to pull off, because of the way it can make names sound like nouns, but I can see how it could work.<\/p>\n

Another option is to use your favorite -er\/-ur name as a middle name, where the repetition will be less noticeable.<\/p>\n

Or use the -er\/-ur names you like as starting points for finding other names you like. If you like Walter, perhaps you’ll like Walton, Wallace, Franklin, or Frederick. If you like Arthur, perhaps you’ll like Albert, Robert, Kenneth, Gareth, Nathaniel, Ethan, Edward, or Everett. If you like Asher, perhaps you’ll like Caleb, Zachary, Ezra, Abram, or Gideon.<\/p>\n

Or you might find you like the repeating sound a lot more if it’s not at the END of the first name. Robert, Albert, Gilbert, Everett, Vernon, Murphy, Murray, Frederick, Roderick, Zachary, Montgomery, Richard, Edward, Anderson, Jefferson, Ernest, Jeffery, Geoffrey, Curtis, etc.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Good grief this is embarrassing! But at least it’s happening. Better late than never, right? <cringes><\/p>\n

After all of your helpful advice and the suggestions of kind readers our name choice probably seems like it is out of left field. Our little boy Leo (first) Fox (middle) Parker (last) was born on August 12, 2014 weighing exactly 4lbs. That’s right, no er\/ur in sight! I know, how rude.<\/p>\n

The thing is, Leo arrived a surprising (and somewhat scary) 6 weeks early. While we waited to be induced in the hospital I turned to my husband and declared that our baby needed a name that was small and mighty, the two things we knew to be true of our son. He said, “Leo?” And that was it! Our little lion heart had a name. And to imagine we’d agonized over it for months and months.<\/p>\n

(My husband had Leo on his list early in the process but I’d rejected it because I didn’t love any of the longer versions for what I called a nickname name. Silly me. It’s totally perfect. Ha.)<\/p>\n

I’ve attached two photos in the hope that they make up for my gross tardiness. One from his third week of life, and one from last week. Leo’s favourite things today include: smiling at strangers, playing with laces, trying to eat blades of grass, and scrunching up paper. We think he’s super amazing.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your patience. I hope this embarrassing update entices others to come out of the closet of Swistle shame to do the same. Guys! Just send an update. You can do it.<\/p>\n

Belatedly,<\/p>\n

Lindsey<\/p>\n

\"image-1\"<\/p>\n

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I am expecting my first baby (a boy) this September and my husband and I are just starting to seriously come up with a list of names. This question is about repetitive sounds in first and last names. This baby will most likely have the last name Parker, which made us initially discount any names […]<\/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-9008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-update"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-2li","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008","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=9008"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11397,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9008\/revisions\/11397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}