Hi Duana! Please help! My sister's first child (a boy) is due in early August and she wanted me to write to you because they are not even close to finding a name! We are Persian and both my sister and I and my two
daughters have flower names (in Persian and English). However, for a boy, all we came up with is Forest. So the floral/foliage theme may have to wither on the vine. Here are my sister's rules:
1. Can't have an "s" in it because my sister (wrongly) is convinced she has
a lisp
2. Not too modern but not George either- kind of towing the line between
fresh but not hipster
3. Nothing that can be or is also a girl name (so no Riley, Hayden, etc)
Her front-runner right now is Oliver (which her family likes, but her husband isn't sure about) but she also liked Levi and Mayer (which the family and her husband don't like). If you are up for the challenge, we would welcome some suggestions!
THANK YOU!!!
___
So as soon as I read this, I thought of my current name crush, the underused, evocative, and yes, foliage-based Basil. But then I realized – the ‘s’. Is it still a problem if it’s more of a ‘z’ sound? Okay, let’s say it is. Fair enough, we can accommodate your sister’s request, and also nothing used as a girl name. And yeah, let’s go ahead and say the other parent should have just as much say. So fine, if her husband doesn’t like names, fair enough.
But let me say again that having family opinions reaaaaallly complicates things. My message itself is getting complicated due to the fact that she clearly has a wonderful sister who is eager to help her out, but people, there is a lot to be said for telling your family after the fact, so they don’t get to cringe at whatever it is.
OK. Not George (which I have a suspicion the family would like) but not Levi or Mayer, because they’re too hipster? Got it.
So I am drawn towards Dexter, hoping its sharp consonants aren’t too off-putting. Asher doesn’t have an ‘s’ sound despite that S in the middle, and it does speak to an Ash tree (I mean, so does Oakland, which is a name I heard recently, but we don’t need to be literal, I guess). From Mayer, how about Micah? Gabriel? How did this get so biblical?
Other ones that fall into the not-too-staid but not all the way hip category include Duncan, Julian, and Caleb – I felt myself compelled to offer Orin, and kind of love it. Also Abel, Ray, and Jude? Or if you want to extend the nature trend, how about Cliff, so old it’s new again? Clifford is distinguished and unusual sounding and kind of super ripe for a comeback. Similarly, Drake? Walt? Emile? Hugo?
Have we hit it? For what it’s worth, I also really found myself wanting to suggest a number of names and then ‘finding’ the S in them. This was a workout!
Let me know where she lands – and if they’re struggling, remind her to tell the family after the fact (not you, of course, you’re special)!
Note: Please send your name emails, once only, to [email protected] - duplicates or those sent to Lainey ‘just in case’ will be deleted.
