嗨，杜娜。
My husband and I are expecting Baby Boy #2, and we are struggling with the name. I set a few preferences for our first that hold over to our second -- at least two syllables, to balance our short last name, and hard consonants in the middle or the end, because our last name is all soft sounds. I also wanted to make sure the name wouldn't be obviously or automatically nicknamed (to avoid any confusion or irritation when people aren't sure -- or make assumptions -- about whether they should call Nicholas by Nick or Matthew by Matt).
We landed on Everett for our first, and we love it. A few options we have on the list for No. 2: Anders, Theodore, Oliver and Bennett. I like Felix, Asher and Simon, and my husband likes Maxwell, Sterling and Warner. I like the name Graham, but it fails my "hard consonant" AND my multi-syllable rules. I have my heart set on Conrad as a middle name, but we have a few family name options that we could slot in. I love Bennett, but is it too close to Everett? And Theodore is a great classic that doesn't feel over-used, but would it be hard to keep from being Theo? What are options we're not thinking of?
Our due date is mid-September, so I hope you can put this in the queue before then!
Thank you!
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像所有作家一样，我偶尔会爱上短语或对话线，并很想过度使用它们 - 尽管我并不像你知道的那样糟糕this guy。（预测莱尼的插话：“ 1zplayf-cking sorkin！”）昨晚我实际上停了一场谈话，因为我爱上了自己说“鼻子鼻子的修改”，大声说出来，并想将其写下来以再次使用。所以起诉我，我有一个自我。
我并不总是有机会使用的一个短语，但我记得像昨天一样 - 在五年级时，我开始乘坐校车。是的，那是一辆短的巴士，现在就笑了。我痴迷地研究了公交时间表/清单的东西，因为= nerd。因此，当公共汽车上有一个没有被解释的孩子时，我感到惊讶。原来，她是公共汽车司机的女儿，大约是我们的年龄，我开始工作所有关于她的事情，当她告诉我她的名字时，我说：“对，但这是一个昵称，对吗？就像您实际上被命名为“完整长音”，不是吗？”（伙计们，我在完全听到这个命名这个孩子的女人时说了这一点。因为=书呆子，也是因为= hubris和小学自我。）
This girl pulled herself up to her full 4th grade height, tossed her crimped side ponytail haughtily, and shook her head.
“我是命名珍妮。”
你明白了为什么我想一直使用它，对吗？那里有这样的力量和反抗！她被授予F-Cking目的的简短表格，您永远不会忘记它！
Later, I dated a guy whose full name was a common short-form for his name (think full name Luke, rather than Lucas): his mother hated nicknames, so she hoped if she chose the nickname to start with there wouldn’t be any room to manoeuvre.
These instances stick out to me because they’re not the case anymore. There’s a pretty decent split between people who want long formal names for their children that are also easily nicknameable – and Abigails called Abby, Williams nicknamed Liam – and those who want the unshortenable, whether that means Augustus or Connor or Yvette. To underscore a point, nobody is ‘命名Jenny’ anymore.
So if avoiding a nickname is important to you – and I totally get it, because as I’ve long rattled on about, why choose an awesome name if nobody’s ever going to hear it?—then I am sorry to say you must strike the following names from your list:
- Theodore
- Maxwell
- Oliver
Especially when children are young, there are people – teachers, coaches, etc – who will shorten the name in an effort to make a connection with the kid, or, something I’m embarrassed to say I only just realized, to make the name easier to say forotherkids. In my experience, most kids don’t mind this. They like having a ‘morph-able’ name, but your dreams of always hearing it long and uninterrupted are much, much more likely to be shattered if there’s an official short form, or even, in the case of Oliver, a nickname that’s fun to say. (Go into the office stairwell, call out “Ollie!” a few times, and you’ll get it.)
So the other names on your list are far more achievable for what you want to do. Anders, Felix, Simon, Sterling, and Warner – there’s almost nothing here to nickname, which is a good thing, though I just cracked myself up at the prospect of one 13-year-old trying to be cool and calling your son, also 13, “Sterl”. Asher is a 50/50 proposition – hecouldbecome Ash, but it’s not an accepted or ‘desired’ truncation; a Gideon could become ‘Gid’, if his friends and family were so inclined, so you can’t worry about everything. But my kingdom for a full name that’s never shortened – why do you guys think I’m always pushing Barnaby?
As for Bennett – I mean, it could go one of two ways. It absolutely does sound similar to Everett,and有“本”的昵称因素；这是一个很棒的名字，但是除非您真正重视类似的声音或其他任何比较，否则我认为即使在您列出的参数中，您也可以做得更好。
Obviously, as you already know, names that are or could be surnames will do well for you here – I’m thinking about names like Connor, Garrett, Walker, Griffin, Webster… I could go on infinitely, because a lot of these have a lot of charm.
但是，考虑到您对Felix和Simon和Asher的包含，我个人都喜欢，我想给您一些主要是名字的选项（尽管有些是稀有的一面）：诸如Angus或Dermot或Dermot或Lawrence的选择，或格罗弗 - 格罗弗！drexel？菲兰？拉弗蒂？沃尔特，斯宾塞或石榴石？
You could also go with sort of ‘rarer classic’ names like Clement or Ambrose or Magnus or Hugo or Cyrus or even something like Nigel – they’re not as easy to nickname but still have that rare-ish spirit you like. If all of these are missing the mark because you just really want something longer, you can decide for yourself whether Bernard or Montgomery or Wallace or Wolfgang (there it is again!) are rare enough that people will accept them at face value, without assuming there are nicknames to be found there, somewhere, if they just look hard enough.
And if you dislike all these choices, and your heart cries out for Theodore (…I feel you) or Archibald or Zachary, just be ready to head off would-be nicknamers at the pass, and trust that your love for the full name is a good enough reason to use it – and insist on it.
但是，作为最终的PS，您知道什么名字不开放辩论，并且在那里站在那里，本身就可以安全吗？格雷厄姆。I get you on the ‘rules’, but I also think if it does everything you love, it might be worth a second look – Ann Rule and Cy Young and millions of other one-and-one types still have names to remember, right?
Let us know!
