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Guest2: heh-LAY-nə isn't just currently fashionable. Plenty of accents in English feature vowel raising before a single consonant (and a nasal one at that). Consider the effect of silent E--similar effects are at work. If the goal is to maintain an EH sound in the name, it can be accomplished orthographically by doubling up the trailing consonant: Helenna.
need2xthehelp: You've got a bunch of possibilities to choose from, and I'll just add to the list. I'm trying to choose names that combine the sensibilities of the three lists (frilly Italian, Celtic surname, Modern femininity) into a whole. One solution is to start with a long name of one style, shortenable to a nickname of another style: Magdalena (nn Maggie) Melania (nn Milla) Lucrezia (nn Lucy) Ottilia (nn Tilly) Or, we can combine the styles into a single name: Ardith Livia Csilla Ilona Sybille Would something like that work for you and your husband?
Time to geek out again. I'm reminded of the World of Darkness role-playing game series, in which one of the main authors changed his name to Mark Rein•Hagen, specifically with the bullet. I suppose it could also be an interpunct, but it was designed to be quite prominent. Also, I remember how in the video game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, which starts with humans landing and colonizing a planet around another star over a thousand years, the names of people quoted change over time. In the end game (when there are things like artificial intelligence and telepathy), a number of quotes come from a man who raises AI's (his title is "wakener") by the name of Bad'l Ron. I started wondering what might have to change in our culture to start using names like that. Not much, apparently.
See, and all this time I thought the character was Jedidiah Springfield (based off Jedidiah Smith)! Shows how little Simpsons I've been getting lately...
Wondering Dad: I think Edith and Arthur work extremely well, especially with Henry and Samuel. They all have that "Late 19th Century Author" feel that really makes the whole group work well together. The names are high on style points. I think they're a great choice. If you and your wife like the names, then go with them--you won't be steering your children wrong. And yes, King Arthur will be the big anchoring point of the name for probably at least a few more centuries.
Wondering Dad, Hollis is in an interesting place, stylistically. On one hand, it's the name of an old man (peaked in 1910). On the other hand, it has L-is-the-new-V, and it's the Gen-X Holly with the trendy feminine -is ending (see Iris, Lois, Glynis). Ellis is in a similar situation, but has been rising of late on boys. I can understand your concerns, though, if you feel that it's not right for your daughter. It's definitely not cut-and-dried. I bet that a girl named Hollis will seem to have a perfectly normal name by her peers, since it hits the right style points. In my opinion, the name's all right, but you definitely have a case if you wish to push back. If you're not sold on the name, you're not sold on it, and that's what counts. What other names are on your wife's side? Both first and last names?
PennyX: Camille still reads quite female to me, but Kamilos, Camillo and Emil are names that would feel male, and are similar to Camille. Similarly, Michele is female, but Michel is male, and has the same pronunciation.
Jane: I personally don't have a problem with Frank. It's great in an "everybody knows it, nobody uses it" way that despite not fitting sound trends, it hits the mark on unique-but-not-crazy trends. I personally prefer Franklin over Francis, mainly more for American reasons (Benjamin, Roosevelt). Other names that can get you to the nickname Frank include Francisco, Franco, and Franz.
Thanks for that explanation, Essy01. But as a guy, I just have to say... there ain't a lot there. That's just a well-exploited waist-to-hip ratio. That's not necessarily callipygian. ...And that's probably enough piggish behavior out of me.
emilyrae: That's a great bit of evidence, but now I have to ask, what does "Pippa Middleton sexy" mean?
tinaconn and zoerhenne: Anonymous is also the name of the hacker group that has been highlighted in a number of stories throughout the year, regarding Wikileaks, the recent Facebook attack, and the hacking attacks on businesses in the name of the Occupy protests. I see Anonymous as a candidate for the name of the year because the big stories are about the nameless masses, or about privacy, or about the power of anonymity online.
Also, Zucati? Do you mean Zuccotti?
As an American man, I just have to say: Definitely NOT Pippa. She is NOT on our radar. I have a vague memory of a pretty girl with a ridiculously stupid hat, and after that, nothing. She has not appeared again in my news. Anthony? Perhaps. Seven? A contender. Siri: I like this one. It's a specific name that denotes a specific trend that's growing: it's no longer about human-human interaction, but human-computer, where the computer interprets the human. I'd like to add one more name to nomination. We hadn't heard names of people in the Japan disaster. One of the defining characteristics of the Occupy movements is that it's about no one person in particular, but about (nearly) everyone. With both Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Jerry Sandusky there's work on letting the victims keep their privacy. And one additional group has appeared a few times for different reasons in the news lately: the recent Facebook hack, background behind Wikileaks, and the like. I nominate the name Anonymous.
Lucubratrix: Congratulations on Rupert, and it's good everyone's home safe! Miriam: Nikola. Barring that, Nikolas. He's a Tesla fan, that should get his approval and still feel like a good, solid choice-- Crap, that's his last name. Okay... Astronomers would work: Tycho. Kepler. Herschel. Sagan. Hoyle (bonus for the card game reference). Copernicus is a little long and clashes with Nickolas--but like Nikola Tesla, he was Nicolaus Copernicus. Kopernik? Kuiper? Cooper?
Don't forget SpongeBob Squarepants! I've had to buy SpongeBob stuff for my nephew in Germany, where he's SpongeBob Schwammkopf, or translated, SpongeBob Spongehead. French: Bob L'éponge (Bob the Sponge) Spanish: Bob Esponja Russian: Gubka Bob Kvadratny Shtany (Sponge Bob Square Pants) Icelandic: Svampur Sveinsson (Sponge Swenson) Danish: SvampeBob Firkant (SpongeBob Quadrilateral) Italian: Spongebob Welsh: SpynjBob Pantsgwâr (SpongeBob Squarepants) The alliteration is only kept in German and Icelandic. (I'll keep looking in other languages.) Must be really difficult to translate...
Anna S: No, I don't, I'm afraid. Possibly because they wouldn't necessarily know how many of each a person might have, while compressing as much information as possible into a single first name, so that you could always tell what the first name is because it's the first word?
Charly: For official government business in the United States, there are no diacritic marks in names at all. There also aren't any hyphens, apostrophes, or other non-letter marks, either. I'm trying to locate the official document that explains this. I think it's amusing because it includes a reference to D'Brickashaw Ferguson (whose first name is recorded in the SSA database as DBRICKASHAW). (ETA: Found it.) This means that Zoë is Zoe, and so forth, but that the two names are equivalent for government work. So you can't claim it's not about you because you're Zoë and the letter's for Zoe, but they also won't lose you just because you're Zoe in the system and not Zoë.
zoerhenne: Ha! I'll be honest, Lysander is my choice because I wanted something a little more relaxed than Lyzandred. (I've got a slight issue with Desdemona, too, but it's because of the "demon".)
emilyrae, about candy names: I ended up with Johnutty Buddies (Cute little Johns, now with extra nuttiness). Emilumpies are fine.
alr and lucubratrix: Congratulations to you both! I'm so excited for all of you and your families! kakicloud: Combining an Oliver/Sebastian lover with a Christopher/Logan lover... Alexander and Silas come first to mind (and yes, they've been suggested). How about Nicholas? Yes, it ends with S, and the last name starts with S, but S is a letter that can take it quite easily, and the flow is good.