The Baby Name Wizard

I know there's a slim chance Laura will see this... but I'll give it a shot. It's a bit about celebrity baby names....

http://entertainment.msn.com/movies/hotgossip/10-24-07_6

Aaron & Erin sound the same the way I say them (they rhyme with Sharon). I work with an Erin who is constantly having other attorneys show up in court looking for a guy named Aaron. Of course, I also work with a male named Carey who people are usually expecting to be a Carrie, so it evens out in the end. :)

Jasper's mom-
I love all but Ivan, Nigel, and Ezra, which just aren't my personal taste.
I think all your current choices pair well with Jasper (which I'm constantly suggesting to people on this site)!
I also thought you might like Asa or Thatcher (which was discussed above).
I imagine Jasper as a guy who runs a fly-fishing lodge in Montana and works in his glass-blowing studio in his free time-sort of a rugged, renaissance type if you will. Asa and Thatcher have a similar feel to me.
Oh, maybe I could sell you on Dashiell?
I wasn't brave enough to use it myself, but Jasper and Dashiell (Dash) would be a darling pair.
I like a lot of the other suggestions you've gotten as well. I hope you let us know what you choose.
Take care!

Hey, isn't the sehra sound identical to the serra sound? Anyway, serra (to rhyme with "care-a") is exactly how I grew up saying Sarah, and it isn't a problem at all! It's just a Great Lakes, probably upper Midwest and Canadian way of saying it. To us, it's the Eastern seaboard pronunciation that sounds exotic and funny-- something like sahra, but that's probably not quite it! And I do enjoy the Southern pronunciation-- "Say-ra".

I like the rich variety of accents in North America...

hyz, eo, et al--
I almost wrote serra instead of sehra, but wanted to emphasize the "eh" sound, and it doesn't sound like care, which rhymes with air.
Too bad we can't all use the International Phonetic Alphabet here, to distinguish all these vowel sounds!

I would say Dawn rhymes with pawn, but not with Don and gone, which rhyme with each other. A few threads back, someone posted a link to a pronunciation quiz...quite pertinent here, I think. (I just went looking, and here it is again...
http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_american_accent_do_you_have)

The doo-un pronunciation of Dawn refers, I would say, to the really heavy New York accent, a la Fran Drescher, with a lot of nasality. Not to sound like a snob, but most well-educated NYers don't sound like that.

Eo--when I say "seh-ra", it doesn't rhyme with care-a. Sarah rhymes with care-a! (or bear-a or air-a...). Seh-ra for me is more like the "se" in seven plus ruh (rhymes with uh..). Clear as mud? :)

Arlene, I have to confess I had a moment of panic a few minutes ago -- I thought perhaps I knew you, which isn't panic-worthy per se, but I suppose you know how pseudo-anonymity on the Internet is. But, no, it's another New York Arlene, with Sharons and Saras elsewhere on the family tree.

Anyway, I realize I change my pronunciation of "Sharon" depending whom I'm with; the Sharon I know is from Long Island, so her siblings and parents definitely have it rhyme with "Aaron," but her sons were raised in the Midwest, and call her (when not calling her "Mom," that is) something closer to the ambiguous, ever-shifting "hair"/"Sara" sound.

I so wish I could hear the differences in how you all pronounce all these names! I have come to the sad conclusion that I have a very boring accent ("midland" from that quiz Arlene posted). Sigh. I wish Aaron and Erin sounded different to me, but they don't. And Anna and Miranda rhyme to my ear. How boring!

Hannah--
Nope, don't think we know each other. I know only three (and a half) Hannahs: one in her late 70s or 80s, one around 18, and one 4 or 5, all through my synagogue. The half is the mn of my 3.5 yr old granddaughter.
I think it's a beautiful name!

Jasper's Mom:

Love your list! I considered many of the same names and ended up with a Silas Oliver, so (like others) I'd add Silas to your list. (Bonus: it's Simon and Elias rolled into one!) Other suggestions: Tobias, Felix, Hugh, Hugo, Milo, Matthias...

To narrow down your list: Yes, I'd avoid another J name (though I love James). Yes, I'd avoid another -er name (so I'd keep Leo, ditch Leander). I like Theodore nn Theo, but not Theo alone. Ivan seems a bit out of place with Jasper. I'd also stick with a less common name (reasons I didn't seriously consider Owen and Gabriel).

Jasper's Mom --

I like your name list! I think the only one I'd steer clear of is James, just because it sounds a little matchy with Jasper. (Not that I can talk, having Anna and Amelia on my list as sisters for Aaron.) Owen, Simon, and Elliot somehow stand out as especially good brother names to me. I don't have experience with having two children with differently-popular (if that makes sense) names, so I can't help you much there. I don't think two names ending in the same sound would register with me, so the -er names wouldn't put me off. I did want to point out, since you like the nickname Eli, that that is a legitimate name on its own as well.

Elizabeth T.-- Not to belabor the accent thing, but I like yours-- and probably mine. Nothing wrong with Aaron and Erin sounding similar! Spelling, pronunciation and language are nothing if not idiosyncratic...

Robert Klein, the very funny comedian, from New York City, says that when he first went to college in Alfred, New York, he was bemused to hear the pronunciation of his name. Alfred is a tiny, idyllic college town in the heavily wooded hills of western New York, about 70 miles south of Buffalo and probably 90 miles south of Rochester. The way he heard it, people were calling him "Bahb".

That's why I mention the "Great Lakes" accent. Apparently there's a crescent of region around the Great Lakes where "Bahb" sounds normal-- from western New York to at least Chicago, where the "a's" are very flattened also. I like it! (Not least because hubby is from Chicago!)

Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions!!

I do like the sound of Silas, but I can't separate it from Silas Marner, which is a negative for me. I do love Everett, and I like Milo a lot. I have a hard time separating Felix from the cat, although it's a beautiful name. Dominic, Benedict, and Vincent sound too Catholic to me, which I'm not. I have an aunt named Adrienne and an ex named Matthew, so those are out. Sterling sounds too macho for me, and I've never been a fan of Luke. I like Asa, that's going on the list, and Thatcher, Tobias, Hugh and Hugo are all nice names, but for reasons I can't articulate, I just don't like them much. Dashiell is a great suggestion! I really like the sound of it. I don't particularly like the spelling, though... I'm a visual person, and it just doesn't look great to me, but it is on the list now! Hannah, I didn't choose Jasper for the Johns connection, but it was an added bonus, as Leo Castelli would be! I'm also considering Marcel, but I wonder if it's too tied to Friends now...

I think any child born now or in the future will be too far removed from the "Friends" generation to notice that they have the same name as the monkey. Even with syndication.

Oh, also, does you think that Dashiell would work well on a quiet, intellectual type? Do you think it would be unfortunate if he were a slow runner? I'd say it's about 50/50 that he would be a sort of geeky kid (DH was really geeky and I wasn't), but he'll most likely be intellectual, artistic, and NOT a fast runner, if he takes after either one of us in those regards, so I wouldn't want a name that would set him up for difficulty there, and I'd worry a bit about the nn. Dash.

Thanks again for the suggestions, everyone, I'm sure I'll be posting more, and I'll let you know what I decide down the line!

Really?! A little girl Tirzah? How great! I've always loved my name. I have never met another, though there is a lady in my rose society named "Thirza." Even she thinks that my name is nicer though. :)

Regarding matching an unusual name, I agree with Arlene that people presume that if one child has an unusual name, all of them should.

In our family, when we were trying for a second, we seriously considered several "matching" names for our daughter Phoenix, some of which I now find quite funny.

Mythological: Phoenix and Griffin, Phoenix and Drake. Avian: Phoenix and Wren, Phoenix and Falcon, Phoenix and Peregrine. Cities: Phoenix and Austin, Phoenix and Avalon. X names: Phoenix and Xephyr, Phoenix and Xander.

We ended up having a girl. So now we have Phoenix and Indigo. If I had to name a theme, I guess it would be uncommon word names with Asian cultural significance that are unisex but lean feminine. Good thing we're not having any more kids! That would be a hard theme to carry forward. :)

hyz, I also find that I have sound preferences that I'm not always conscious of. I actually have a thing for Vs in the middle of names, too, and I seem to have very similar taste you yours... I've noticed that I also have a thing for long Is... as in: Simon, Milo, Ivan, Ivy, Lilah, Silas, Nigel, Eli, Lyle, Lionel, Linus, etc. Ivy is the only one that has a slightly different long I sound in my accent (like Ira rather than Ivan, if that means anything to you), but I like that sound, too, so I group them together.

Tirzah - I went to high school w/ a girl named Tirzah - she was 2 years younger than I am. I always liked it. She had several siblings who also had unusual names, as well. Galene, Shira, and Charis were the other girls - I don't remember the boys names at all.

I know a girl Dashiell, about 10 years old now. She goes by Dash most of the time. I think the name's really cute on her, as it would be for a boy (esp. as her parents are writers.) But if you care about the whole boy-name-getting-hijacked-by-girls phenom, you might beware. Though the name is nowhere in the top 1000 for either sex currently, so I guess you won't come across another Dashiell too often!

Sterling as too macho -

I find that funny, as the only Sterling I know is a 21 year old girl!

Tirzah looks so pretty...how is it pronounced?

And I don't care much for Dashiell, to me it sounds like a person with an old-school Brooklyn accent saying "the shell"...but to each his/her own. :)

Is September nn Ember too hippy for really unhippy ppl to use? I don't think so but someone wants to know. Thanks!

Ooh, I like Silas with Jasper...similar feel but nowherenear the I-want-my-kids-to-be-clones-of-each-other vibe. I used to have the same Marner issue, but I've met a few Silases and the connotation for me is basically gone. Also like how Silas can fit many personalities.

Arlene: Is your a as in Sara the same as the a in carry? It's kinda weird to me that some NYers pronounce it that way...I've always preferred the care-type a in that name...but I like the carry-type a in the other _ara names, like Cara, Mara, Clara, etc....I'm just weird that way, I guess.

I apologize for (a) hijacking and (b) always discussing the same name....Is Maisie (pron. May-Z, not May-C) too much of a stretch as a nn for Mary Sadira? I really like the full name but feel it would be kind of pretentious to use _all_ the time. And anyway, I like nns. ;)

Other possible Mary Sadira nns:
Mary
Sadira
Mae
Mira
Reese

...any others? Thanks.

Jasper's mom--that's funny--I do like your list, and I like the long I, too. But Ira and Ivan have the same I for me... :o/

I was thinking about it more, and realized that I tend to far prefer unvoiced consonants to voiced consonants at the beginning and end of names--i.e. I like p, t, s, ch, k better than b, d, z, g (hard and soft), etc. In the middle of names, I'm largely indifferent. So, Perry and Cary are better than Barry or Gary, for me. I think it also explains why I don't tend to like names that *begin* with V--(Finn is better than Vin, etc.). I think the unvoiced consonants just sound softer and more pleasant. I wonder if this is a common preference?

(I had a really long drive today and yesterday, lots of time for random pondering...) :)

sadhbh--
No,the a's in Sara and carry are different...not very, but definitely different. The best way I can describe it is that the sound in Sara is flatter, and the one in carry is opener. In fact, dd also has an _ara name and it is pronounced as in carry, exactly as you describe. To throw another possibility in there, dd has a dear friend, named Tara...we all rhyme her name w/ Mara, Cara, etc., but her mother calls her [taahra] (a longer, almost British-sounding vowel).

Oops. "Opener?" I meant more open.

Re: Dashiell--I like the sound of it (DASH'l, right?), and I think it would go fine on an intellectual boy, and I think nn Dash would be cute regardless, but I'm another one who doesn't like the look of the spelling. It reminds me too much of Deshawn or some other neologistic American name, and depending on the context, I might think it was pronounced da-SHEEL or dash-YELL, which I don't care for.

I love September, nn Ember, but yes, I would definitely assume it was a hippy name. :) I like (some) hippy names.

I would think Sterling was macho, too--a sibling to Remington or Wyatt or Austin or Steele.

Arlene--thanks for the doo-un clarification. The two people who I heard say that are both extremely well educated, but both come from blue collar NY families.

Tirzah--I love your name choices! A lot of them would be on my list if I were braver. :)

Interesting that for some of you Mara rhymes with Cara and Tara. I've known a few Maras pronounced - Mah-ra; in fact, it's the only way I've heard it. Is this a less common pronunciation or are there just two common variants?

I like Maisie as a nn for Mary Sadira.
It seems like a reasonable combination of both names. Mira might make the most sense in terms of sound. I was trying to think of something that would combine the first two initials-something like Miss or Missy, but less precious, maybe?
Of course, nns often come up without planning. Both our boys have nns that I never would have imagined before we had them.
Jasper's mom-I'm so glad you like Dashiell. To me, it's a great name for a little intellectual, and Dash gives it the sporty twist.
The spelling was a big part of why we didn't use it. I was afraid people would think it was a girl's name and pronounce it da-shell. If I was having another, it would be back on my list, though. It was also in a Disney movie a while back, so it may be more familiar now.
Did someone already suggest Blaise (Blaze)?
You should also check out one of the previous posts-"Uh, oh, it's a ..."
There are a lot of good suggestions in that thread that might be to your tastes.

Lily: In Australia Mara, Cara and Tara rhyme and are all pronounce with the ah-ra sound (i.e. Mah-ra, Cah-ra, Tah-ra). As opposed to what I perceive as an American pronounciation using the hard a sound from carry, which in the context of these names it sounds almost like an e to my ear. I always find the American pronounciation of Tara amusing because with the Australian tendency to underpronounce 'er' and 'or' sounds at the end of words they often come out as an 'uh' sound. The name Tara sounds at best like Terra and at worst like Terror.

As for Sarah, we pronounce it with the air/care sound, i.e. Sair-uh. The name Sara on the hand is pronounced Saaa-ruh with the first a coming out like the 'aaaaah' sound you make for the doctor to check your throat.

Aaron, is also pronounced with a hard 'a' sound (like apple) and sounds nothing like Erin or Sarah.

Where's Laura???

We need a new post!

I'm missing her too! Didn't realize just how much I "need" my weekly name nerd fix.

Sarah--
Interesting, what you said about the difference in pronunciation beween Sara and Sarah. A while back, I saw a comic strip (can't remember what or when) in which a character named Sara got very huffy because she was introduced as Sarah, the joke being that they were different only visually, not aurally. Never occurred to me (or, apparently, the cartoonist) that there might be a difference in pronunciation!

And, yes, where's Laura? Hope she's OK.

The many and varied dialects of English speakers certainly make name pronunciation a curious thing. And then there are the quirks of fate: in our family, our daughter and daughter-in-law have the same name, Kara. However, daughter's name is pronounced Kar-a, and daughter-in-law's, Kare-a. Family gatherings are always fun.

I love this topic! My family are great nicknamers--sometimes they have to do with the full name, and might not have anything to do with the name, but everyone has one. My dh's family (MIL) is just the opposite-she thinks people should be named what you plan to call them, no matter what. Both of her kids were named what I consider nicknames (think Joe not Joseph, or Jen not Jennifer). When ds was born, we named him William with the plan on calling him Will. She asked if we were going to call him Bill and I told her no. Before I could go on she just huffed & said "I'm glad your not one of those to butcher names". Needless to say, Will didn't go over so well. My MIL will even refuse to call people what they ask to be called because it's "not really their name". DH has an old school friend Mike, who MIL insists on calling Michael even though he hates it! Can you tell this really bothers me? LOL. Enough with the rant-on the Kate issue, my great granmother was named Sarah, but her BIL didn't think she cont..

Sorry, just realized I posted to the wrong topic!

Jasper's Mom: I love your list and think they all go well with Jasper. I'm not too crazy about Ivan and Forrest on their own, but like them with Jasper. I don't think the -er ending is too matchy. Maybe having too J- names could be... also, are you thinking Eli (for Elliot) pronounced like Ellie? Some have expressed concern that this is a common (I think) girls' name so if that's also a concern for you...

Nigel does strike me as British, but I think that's only a concern if that will really bother you, like "Argh, we're not British dammit!" There was a Rigel at my high school also. (It's the name of a star, which I think also matches with the "natureness" of Jasper. But in any case also rhymes with Nigel.)

re: Dashiell: *Is* it pronounced DASH'l? Wow, I was thinking dah-SHEEL all this time. In any case though, yeah I do think of it as an African American name. I feel like it was in a song... but I suppose I could see it crossing over.

Tirzah: I love the name Indigo and was considering it once (sometime in college probably). Do you ever call her Indy?

All the time! I would say about 50/50 Indigo/Indie.

Interested in all the comments about my name. I prefer it to be pronounced without any straess on "stair", and generally get "Allister". Close friends and family call me "Al". An aunt (now deceased) used to call me "Allie" but I didn't like it so much. Anyway, when I look in the mirror, I think Alistair Orton is not a bad sort of bloke.

Misty Lequin is the biggest money-grubbing whore you will ever meet. She is only after your money. Any guy that is with her is hiding his love for underage underdeveloped pre-teens. She has a certain sense of entitlement and superiority, even though she hasn't done much of anything with her sad, pathetic little life except pop out a couple crotch monkeys. The oldest is Victoria Alesha, a cute but in a strange looking way, a carbon copy of her skank mother. The second is Mary Raymond Jr., a/k/a Marky, who she gave up custody because he wasn't fun anymore. You can contact her for a private get-together at: http://www.myspace.com/l01030324

Hi, I just wanted to get peoples opinions on the names Elizabeth Anne Johnson and the name Sandra Polly Johnson. Elizabeth Anne is probably a very common name but Sandra Polly probably isn't. Especially Polly, I've only known one Polly in my life and that's my grandmother-in-law(which is where the name came from in the first place). If I end up having a boy it will be Adam Charles II or Michael Keith. Are those too over used now days? I don't even know.

I believe that there is a significance to having a name that reflects your heritage. If one is from a WASP background possibly they want to carry on a tradition or a family name and a WASPy name is appropriate.

here in New York City it is insane with the Waspy names as they tend to be popular in the Jewish community

For Example:
Ashley Goldberg
Emma Goldstein
Tyler ( for a boy or girl) Glatt
Hunter Rosenbloom
Etc..

What kid of message does this send to the child of their own heritage?

Has anyone seen this in other cities?

To jaspers mom, I have an Elliott and he would cringe if any one caleed him Elli as its a girls name and very popular her in th UK. Elliott would go lovely with Jasper but please for your babies sake dont shorten it. I also have a Noah which i think also goes lovely with Jasper

we named our first son Kael O'Neal (father's family name) D. (last name which confuses EVERYONE because it's a first name)... and for our second son, had wanted to use the name Chase in memory of a friend who passed away, but also wanted to keep the O initial in the middle. My grandfather's name is Oscar so that was logically a choice but Chase Oscar just doesn't sound as good to me and Oscar Chase... but then the poor child will end up with the initials O.C.D. ! lol what a conundrum! can anyone think of good boy's O names. Oliver and Octavian aren't cutting it for us.