Hi Duana,
My husband and I are expecting our first boy next year and need help with a name.  We want something unique but not completely off the wall.  Our daughter’s name is Chandler (we usually call her Chani) and our last name is two-syllable beginning with a hard “C.”  My husband also has a daughter named Kayla from a previous relationship.  Our top names right now are Maverik or Crew but I’m not 100% sold.  For some reason, I associate Maverik withTop Gun or the Mel Gibson classic although spelling it this way helps alleviate something of that.  Other names that have been thrown out there are Colt, Cash (or Kash) and my husband’s pick, Brady (which I am definitely not a fan of).  We’re pretty sure the middle name will be Ryan, after my brother.  I have always liked Cameron, and even considered it instead of Chandler, but that on my sister’s “list” if/when she has kid and I would hate to cause conflict when there are so many other great names out there.  Lastly, since our daughter’s name is a little masculine, we want our son’s name to be “ultra” masculine.  I tend to be indecisive so I need some put-your-foot-down help!

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….Nawwwww.

I mean, it can’t be. Nobody says to themselves, “I think I’m going to punk a name columnist”. Nobody has that kind of time, do they? Or that kind of imagination? If you are a troll and you wrote this letter, rejoice! I’m going to buy all the way into it!

If you are not punking me…

Let’s have a chat. You have two children in your family, Kayla and Chandler. I was surprised to see that Chandler is an option used for girls sometimes, though I haven’t run into it much. But, you know, lovely. Decidedly more masculine than Kayla, sure, but I totally buy it and I bet Chandler does too. 

But. Maverik. Which I had to retype three times to eliminate that “c” that would get in your way. Dude. Seriously? Crew? You don’t want to do this! You don’t want to do this! Kash! Come on. Don’t just decide, since your daughter has kind of a masculine name, that you need your son to be full-on HULK SMASH. You don’t. He can be just as manly, just as much a boy, if you give him a name that doesn’t look like it’s going to wind up emblazoned on the side of a tractor.

“Traxxx!! Cash!!!”

Instead, go with your first instinct to choose a name that’s actually kind of equally androgynous. OK, so Cameron is off the table, but how about Caleb or Hayden or Landon, which can come off as a little too cowboy but in this case makes kind of a lovely partner to Chandler?

If it has-has-has to be one syllable, to meet your expectations of what it is to be “ultra” masculine, then Cole or Dean or Heath or Reeve or Clive or Kent? I found out that one of the people who has a daughter named Chandler is Jordan Belfort, The Wolf Of Wall Street himself, so maybe that’s a way to go? Wolf? 

I admit my bias here. Some of these aggressively “ultra-male” names like Flint and Hunt and Thor and Bolt seem like cartoon characters to me. I can’t imagine a child called Cash having a whole world of options in front of him – people are going to judge him before they ever meet him, kind of like I just did.

I don’t expect you to love me for this answer, but really I say it because I care. Let me know where you wind up!