The Baby Name Wizard

Macy comes from Thomas, and could honor Grandpa Tom.

Robin for Grandpa Robert?

Wilhelmina for William?
Justine for Justin?
Winifred for Fred?
Frances for Frank?

My grandmother, the oldest of 8 children, was named after her father Benjamin - she is Benita. It seems like kind of a strange name for an Irish-German farm girl, but I'm impressed that her parents chose to name their firstborn after the father instead of waiting for a boy to "carry on the name."

A girl in my sons swim class is named Johnnie . She is almost two and has a good amount of hair but she is always mistaken for a boy and her Mom snaps at people when they get it wrong. Its like are you joking? She can't be surprised that people make that mistake.I bet when Johnnie is in grade school people wil read her name and think its an error. Unitl they get to know her of course. The instucter kept calling her Joanie which was pissing off her mom like I can't even imagine.
A friend of mine has two kids Ryann and Alexx both girls I always wonder what they would name a son.

Funny that this post came along right when I was thinking about the possibilities of Benjamina (to honor a Benjamin) and Jaspera (as a female form of Jasper)... What do you think? I'm especially curious about Jaspera -- would it sound made up/cree8ive? I'd pronounce it JAS-per-a. I'm not looking to use it on an actual child, just curious. Jasper is one of my favorite male names, after all!

Macy/Massey is the name of a prominent medieval family in the northwest midlands of England.

Winifred is not derived from the same root as Frederick or even from the same language. The feminine form of Frederick is (obviously) Fredericka.

A feminine possibility for Richard is the very old name Richildis. The first element is the same, but not the second. This is typical of Germanic bithematic names, because the grammatical gender of the second element determined whether the name would be given to male infants or female. So you can change a Germanic bithematic name from a boy's name to a girl's or vice versa by using the same initial element and then adding a second element of the appropriate gender.

Of course in the passage of time, many such Germanic names developed a feminine form according to the relevant vernacular. Hence Roberta from Robert, Fredericka from Frederick, Wilhelmina from Wilhelm (William), Ulrica from Ulric(h). In the absence of a recognized feminine form, it is still possible to use the old Germanic method of name formation. Take my son's name Edward. It would, I suppose, be possible to form Edwardine/Edwardette/Edwarda on the pattern of Bernadine/Bernadette/Bernarda, but it would be better IMO to use the old method and choose Edith (Eadweard/Eadgifu). My son's middle name is Raymond, the feminine version of which is Raymonde. Raymonde at one time was a very common name in Provence, but I suspect it is no longer.

Maureen: I really like Jaspera, though my impulse would be to pronounce it Jas-PEAR-a unless directed otherwise ('pear' like the fruit). It doesn't strike me as kre8tive per se.

I'm split on Benjamina. It does seem a little more kre8tive, but as I sit here and say it to myself, it's rather growing on me! (It's no where near the same level as Alexx, though, which to me screams kre8tive!)

David -- Davia, (or if you want to lop off it's head, Avia or Ava)

Benjamin -- Minna or Jamie (I don't care for Benjamina)

I like Masey for Thomas...

My father's name was Richard...I can not think of a female name that is easily derived from it.... Ricarda? Rita perhaps? Nothing I like.

Around the turn of the century in Scotland it was custom to add "-ina" to the end of pretty much every male name. So when I worked on a geriatrics ward in Scotland in 2000, the elderly ladies had the most bizarre (to modern ears) names:

Jamesina
Johnina (yes, really)
Davidina as well as Davina
Albertina
Alexandrina
Alexina
Thomasina
Williamina

some appear on here: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/files1/stats/name6.pdf

Edward - Edwina, of course

This is a fun challenge when I think about the male members of my own family. Like Laura talked about, there are a couple different routes to take for each name: "standard" feminine equivalent, shared origin, similar sound, and (for the real stumpers) similar meaning.

My father's name is Stephan, which obviously gives you Stephanie, which I hate (probably because it's from my own generation). A similar sounding name might be Stella, which I like. For shared origin, when I looked up the name etymology of Stephan I saw that there's a Maori variant "Tipene," which I could see as a girl's name if you're not afraid of a few funny looks. For shared meaning, Stephen is from "crown" in Greek, so how about "Atarah," which is crown in Hebrew?

I like this game. Let me try some others.

Family Name: Ian
Standard: Joan, Jane, Jean
Origin: Seona (Scottish form of Joan) or Siobhan (Scottish form of Jeanne)
Sound: Ianthe (Greek for "violet")
Meaning: n/a

Family Name: Gordon
Standard: n/a
Origin: n/a
Sound: Jordan, Gordiana
Meaning: Tara (Gaelic for "hill")

Family Name: Gerard
Standard: Geraldine
Origin: Gertie
Sound: Jeri
Meaning: Rhonda, Rhonwen (Welsh for "blessed spear")

James--You could do Jamie, but I prefer Jacqueline.

Mark/Marcel--Marcia

Benjamin--I like Benjamina. Gina would be a cute nickname.

The Oxford Dictionary of Names gives Rhona (Rona) as a feminized form of Ronald...based on that, Wendy, you could go with Richa or Rica, maybe?

You could take a cue from Dorothy's chic(ken) sidekick in Ozma of Oz and have yourself a little Billina. And Dorothy, by the way, could yield Theodore.

Uncle Samuel might lead you to Samantha, of course, or you could use the latter name as a jumping-off point and give him an Anthea instead.

If the Irish form of Jonathan is Ionatan, you could, I suppose, please your grandpa with an Iona in his honor.

And celebrate Cousin Derek with an infant Teri -- the first is a form of Theodoric, the second a possible diminutive of the same.

For Benjamin what about Benita?

For Richard how about Richmal - like the writer of the Just William books.

Anthony - Antonia or Antoinette

I've come across lttle girls called Billie and Frankie in England. But not Cameron or Aubrey!

Did you know that Eleanor Roosevelt was named for her father, Elliott Roosevelt, who was called "Ellie"? That's a pretty prominent cross-gender namesaking right there!

I know little girls named Frankie (Frances) and Rudy (Ruth). Both are under 4. And didn't Melissa Etheridge just name her daughter Johnnie Rose? I think these names are still in play... with all due respect, Laura! :) Actually, they may increase in popularity again when people start to tire of all the "frilly-elly-ana" girls names.

Applying the challenge to my family:
Arthur -- Arlene
Patrick -- Patricia, Patrice, Risa
Marco -- Marcella
Anthony -- Antonia,Antoinette,Etta,Tonianne

Off to see some fireworks on the beach...Happy 4th of July!

My mom's cousin was named Mary Fredna in honor of her father Fred, although I guess the obvious choice would have probably been Frederique....

I went to school with a Davida and a Johnatha. I think Johnna is pretty, though I'd spell it Jonna.

Let's see. If I named for grandpas, I'd have to go with Roberta (though I'd rather use Robin, as a previous commenter suggested), Wilhelmina or Willa, Jonna, and.....okay, I'm stuck on Grandpa Gerrit.

I have a female 15 year old cousin whose full first name is Franki, after her (previously deceased) grandfather Frank.

At this point I've heard it for so long that it seems completely natural - I cannot imagine her named anything else - even though we were all quite surprised when her parents intially named her.

Also, (for use some day far in the future,) can anyone think of any way of clearly naming a child (male or female) after someone named Wayne without using that actual name? It seems to be a name devoid of linked names, even through meaning. And first-letter commonality doesn't count to me. I'm curious what you creative people come up with!

okay. I'm quite curious how well I can accomplish this challenge.
The men in my family and my ideas to honor them:
Brian- typical would be Brianna, but I prefer Briony.
Orval- tough one. But I like Orla. as well as Onora.
Arthur- this one is hard...perhaps Aretha, but I don't really care for that.
Richard- another hard one. Perhaps Rachelle, though it's not really close at all.
John- I think Johanna is my favorite
Willard- I think I'd go with Willa.

not too hard...though other suggestions for Richard would be great.

I'm not all up on the name roots, but I am creative. So, I had some fun with the name Aaron.

The obvious homophone: Erin

Anagram: Nora or Rona

When looking up the names, two definitions popped up: "mountain" and "exalted, strong"

For the "mountain" meaning: Sierra or Helen or any other mountain name could be a sneaky way to honor an Aaron.

For the "exalted, strong" meaning: There are many choices. A sampling: Aaliyah, Bridget in all its forms, Brianna, Valarie

My personal favorite out of these is Nora, but I'm sure y'all probably have even better suggestions!

Karyn--

For Wayne, I'd probably do something like Wynne for the anagram(ish) and sound-alike quality. Or Carter because Wayne apparently means cartwright or wagon driver.

That's all I can think of for now!

Duh. Or Cartwright for that sassy surname feel.

This is fun! I was considering Kendra for my dd as a way to honor a Kenneth family name but hubby vetoed it. I guess I could of gone with Kendall as well, but that probably would have gotten vetoed as well. They just weren't his style. In the other categories I get these:
Standard:n/a
Origin:(Gaelic=Born of fire)Endellion=Gaelic fire-soul
Sound:Kendra, Kendall
Meaning:Candace=Greek fire-white;Keahilani=Hawaiian the fire of heaven;Tanwen=Welsh White fire

Also:John as family name yields
Standard:Johnna
Origin::(Hebrew=God is gracious)Janelle, Janet, Jane
Sound:Gianna
Meaning:Shannon, Shawna, Shavonne (Scottish,Gaelic)

If I go way back in my genealogy I get some pretty interesting choices and actually have a male named Leslie so that would definately work for a girl.

"I'm stuck on Grandpa Gerrit."

Gerrit is a Dutch/Frisian form of Gerhard/Gerard. The feminine form of the name is Gerda--which may not thrill you. I myself know several Gerrits and Gerdas, but they live in the Netherlands where these names are not unusual.

Gertrude is not the same name, but it is related. It is also one "oldie" name that has not as yet been resurrected. One of my colleagues has an Austrian wife named Gertraud, who is according to my son's judgment a "babe,' and she has managed to go happily through life being called Gert (pronounced roughly like Gairt). If Sadie has made a comeback (to my astonishment), maybe Gertie won't be far behind (or maybe it will). In any case, Trudy is a cute nickname for Gertrude.

Just found out fem form of Kenneth is Kenina-eww! And forgot of course Makenna and the like.
Check out this site for more origin/derivative ideas:
www.20000-names.com
It has different categories too for those that prefer them.

Let's see, going with the male names in my family we would have:

George..obviously Georgianna, one of my favorite girls' names.

William...Willa or Wilhemina.

John (my dad)... I'd go with Johanna, which was also my grandmother's name.

On my husband's side, things get trickier.

Marshal (my father-in-law)...I suppose Marcia/Marsha would work, though I don't like that name much. According to some websites I found, Marshall means caretaker of horses, so Philippa would also be a (much preferable) option.

His grandfathers were:

Arthur... by sound, Athena is somewhat similar. If Arthur means "bear" or "bear man" than Ursula would be appropriate.

Irving... Wow, this one's tough. I've got pretty much nothing other than "I" girls' names like Ivy or Isadora.

I went to school with a girl named Fredell, she said she was named after her father, Fred.

My cousin was born a few weeks after our grandfather, George, passed away. She was named Georgina in his honor.

I have given some thought to the cross gender naming issue, partly because I myself was named for my grandfather and also because I have occupied myself thinking up appropriate names to suggest for grandchildren if there are to be any (not that my son and his wife would pay attention to anything I had to say....)

My grandfather's name was Meyer Wolf, and my parents considered Myrna and Myra before (wisely) choosing Miriam. Unfortunately there is no cute name for a female wolf as vixen is for a female fox.

My other grandfather's name was Schlomo (Solomon) Chaim. The closest female equivalent would be Salome Eve (the Hebrew form of Eve is Chaya). Schlomo/Solomon means 'peace' and Chaim/Chaya means 'life,' so one alternative that I like is Zoe (life) Irene (peace). Zoe and Irene are both Byzantine Greek names, and both have been borne by Byzantine empresses, so IMO they go together. Possible other 'peace' names are Frieda and Fredericka and 'life' names are Vivian and Vita.

This is a pretty tough one, the names I have to play with are:

William - Willa or Sweet William (which is what Billie is a nn for)

Garry - Gracie?

Steven - Stephanie obviously. Maybe Esta - from the Spanish Estefania.

Maurice - well in France it can be used for both males and females, but I would probably go for something like Marcelle.

Raynor - easy - I would probably go for Rainer.

Stewart - again hard because I don't think that there is a female form and it is a surname turned into a first name anyway. Actually, I can't think of anything.

The other name I have is Archer, which is my grandfather's middle name. This could be used as Archer for a girl and I like it, but one of my cousins has already called dibs!

As an aside, in the book "What Katy Did" by Susan Coolidge, one of the younger children is known as Johnnie, which is a nn for Joanna.

Miriam - I thought the Hebrew form of Eve was Chava not Chaya?

Kree8tivity with gender-bending names is nothing new. I know a Byllye who is nearing 60.

Karyn,

For Wayne, you could go with Waverly (or Wayverly), since it has the same initial sound.

My family names are nonstarters I think. Hubby and Grandpas are Stan, Jeffrey and Hirao. I did think about combining Tirzah and Stan to get Stanza, but Stan wouldn't go for it! (He hates his name.)

Yes, and Byllye Avery is a feminist health-care advocate born in 1937--so she's 71. But Laura agrees that the Billie/Bobbie/Tommie Jo girl names are mostly an early-mid 20c. pattern--so these Byllyes fit the model (creative spellings notwithstanding).

There's a preschooler in the neighborhood called Charley Sue--don't know if that's her full given name or a nickname for something like Charlotte Susanna. I rather hope the latter.

The men in our family have tough names to gender-bend to girl namesakes--starting with Ralph! Raffaela is fine, I guess. Timothy's a stumper, though. I might borrow Tamsin from the Thomas file if pressed. Andrew--well, Andrea, obviously, but that's not my style, so... Melisande? Drew?

Jeffrey might bend to Freya with a little twist...

Terrific conversation!

My grandmother, Leora, was named for her father, Leo. I've always loved both names, and have thought of using either, depending on whether I had a boy or a girl first.

Also, I love the idea of naming a baby girl after her dad or grandpa, rather than "saving" the name for boy.

In my family, some males names are:

Edward, James, Emerson, Joseph.

There have already been some great suggestions for Edward and James, and apparently Emerson is becoming more accepted as a name for a girl.

That leaves Joseph. I love both Josephine and Josie, though I guess those are a bit obvious. Also, Josefina. Nns could be Sepha or Rosie (to rhyme with Josie).

In my family, there are Thomas, Matthew, Harland, and Tempie to contend with.
Tempie is in my husband's family as a male or female name for at least 4 generations. We're not obligated to use it as it was already used by his sister for one of her kids.
The rest of the names are tough. I think Tamsin sounds cute and spunky but it would be really hard to convince anyone I am related to, except my dad, Tom. Mattea is cute but doesn't go with our last name. Harland could be morphed to Garland, which I believe is a man's name too, but it reminds me of flowers so I think it could work for a girl.

Great topic.

My father, grandfather and great-grandfather are either John or Johann, so it would make sense to take Johanna from that, although I have to admit it's not my favourite. It might be a stretch to take Hannah from Johann based on sound, but I'd more likely consider that one.

My other grandfather is Harold, often called Hal. Hallie? Hera? I'm not really a fan of either.

My beloved grandfather was Bruce, and I used to try to figure out a way to make that work for a hypothetical daughter. I never came up with anything.
Anyone want to take a stab at it?

I was thinking Ruby almost worked, but our ln sounds like a color so I had to rule that one out.

Purely a hypothetical discussion, of course.

Harland and Harold, meet your granddaughter Harriet.

Bruce and John, here's Bronwen Jane.

My husband's great-grandfather was named Holland. We're thinking of using it for a girl. He really likes it. I am on the fence...I like the nn Holly, but it might be a bit much for our baby who is due around the winter holidays...also he doesn't like Holly as much as I do. I am also afraid Holland falls into the "place names" trend that is going on right now, even though in our case it has nothing to do with the country. What do you guys think about Holland? I do love the actress Holland Taylor...

Ok, this was really interesting! I took my grandfathers' names: Edgar and Monte, and my dh's grandfathers: Wallace and Ercole.
Here's what I found:
EDGAR- means either Rich or Spear:
rich- Edith, Edina
spear- Gerlinde, Gertrude, Rhonda, Rhonwen, Sparrow
MONTE(dim. of Montgomery)- basically it was a personal place-name, "Gomeric's Mountain". Gomeric meant "man-power" (ha) so I used Power and Mountain:
power- Delilah, Isabella, Taryn, Zula
mountain- Amaia, Carmel, Cynthia, Ida, Jael, Moriah, Samara, Sierra, Skadi
WALLACE- means Welsh or Foreigner:
Welsh- Alis, Anwen, Avalon, Branwen, Bronwen, Briallen, Cambria, Ceridwen, Ceryn, Elen, Eleri, Enid
foreigner- Polyxena, Waltraud
ERCOLE- from Hercules, from Hera. Means Hero or Glory:
hero- Hera, Cressida, Hero, Indiana, Kim, Lois, Maeve, Robin
glory- Charmaine, Eudoxia, Gloria, Glory, Kleio, Slava, Theia
What I found most interesting is that Indiana and Indy are listed as modern-day relatives to Ercole (through "hero"), and my cousin just named his new son Indy Ercole LN.

For Richard -- I know a Riche, accent over the "e."

My male relatives are really tough:

Grandpas Arthur and Warren
Father Donald (Donna, I suppose... eeewwww).
Brother Roger (which seems the trickiest to me).

Anyone want to take the challenge?

Keren--Chayah and Chavah both come from the same root and either can be anglicized as Eve. My grandmother chose Ida as her English counterpart to Chayah, but I don't know how, why, or when. Her Ellis Island record gives her name as Sivie, which was I guess the bureaucrat's response to Tzivya. Since she spoke no English when she came and was never keen on English her whole life (that is, she could speak and understand English perfectly well when communicating with people outside the family, but inside she pretended not to be able to understand if she didn't approve of what was being said), I don't know how she came up with Celia Ida which is what appears on her citizenship papers.

Some suggestions:

Stewart>Stewardess LOL (well, Stewart means Steward....)

Timothy--the feminine version is Timothea. I know of a couple in New Orleans where naming children for saints is pretty much the norm for much of the population.

Joseph--another feminine form is Josepha.

Jeffrey/Geoffrey--the second element is frith/frid, so Frida/Frieda would be related.

Miriam,
I disagree that Frederick and Winifred are unrelated. Frederick is from the "Germanic" element fred/frid meaning peace and Winifred is from a Welsh name that used the Old English element frid (meaning peace). The Germanic family of language includes Old English, so I think that Frederick & Winifred meet Laura's criteria of coming from the same root.

Some names from my own family tree:
Michael- Michaela, Michelle
Sylvester- Sylvia
Terry- Dorothy (Terry is derived from Theodoric)
Richard- Richelle, Erica (again, both derived from Germanic elements ric/rikr = rule)
William- Willa, Velma
Joshua- Josune (nn Josie)

Beth--

Roger is a Norman form of the name Hrothgar (like the king of the Danes in Beowulf). -Gar 'spear' as in Edgar and Wulfgar is grammatically masculine and so would never appear as the second element in a feminine name. Hroth-/Hrod- does appear as the first element in feminine names--including Rose (here a Germanic name and the flower word fell together in forming this name), Roswitha, and Rowena (a name I quite like).

Re Rose: Behind the Name derives it from Hrodheid (which is a mouthful). The Norman form of the name is given as Roese or Rohese, hence Rose (as Jehanne became Jeanne and Mahaut became Maud). In the 19th century when jewel and flower names were all the rage, Rose got revived as a flower name. Those who think that Rose, lovely as it is, is getting a tad overused might think of going back to Roese/Rohese.

Terry can also be derived from Terence, the feminine of which is Terentia. I just finished reading a novel about Cicero, and Terentia was his wife's name.

Uh, Lysis, Theoderic is a Germanic name. The Theod- root means people and is the root from which Deutsch/Dutch was derived. -Ric is the same root as in Frederick and means ruler. Theoden is a word meaning lord (of the people). Tolkien used this word as a name in Lord of the Rings. Dorothy and Theodore are Greek, both meaning Gift of God (theo- 'God', dor- 'gift').

My husband and my dad are both Stephen; my dad's dad was Roblee (a family surname pronounced ROE-blee); my mom's dad was David; my father-in-law Tom. My parents named my sister Stephanie nn Stevie after Dad which, while it suits her, is not my style were I to name a girl after a Stephen. If I HAD to, I'd probably go the Stefania/Stephania route, which sounds prettier to me.

I considered Roblee for a girl's mn, since it was originally my great-grandmother's maiden name ... I also considered Tamsin for a girl's mn after Grampa Tom ... (our first son ended up with both names: Thomas Roblee). I don't know about a David -- I don't care for the female David options already listed, so I might try his mn -- Xavier -- for a girl's mn. The mn spot is so great for honoring family of either gender! And I believe the saint known as Mother Cabrini when she was alive had the full name Frances Xavier Cabrini.

I've mentioned before that we wanted to honor my mother-in-law, Carol, somehow, and we've come up with a bunch of options for both genders. We decided on Carine for a girl's mn (we don't care for Carol) or Caroline for a fn; for boys: Carl, Charles, and Karol are all contenders.