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Naming Conventions...

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by jessie

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I was told I needed to post this in the TQ&A section... so someone could earn a bunch of points for the best answer.

As some of you may know, my hubby and I are expecting our 5th child this July, and while we already have a name picked out for a girl, we're completely stumped on boy's names. We are both history and sci-fi enthusiasts, and our other children's names reflect this:

Schuyler (pronounced Sky-ler) Olde English meaning scholar or shelter.
Bennett - This is my step-son and to be honest I have no idea where my husband and his ex aquired this name.
Valkyrie - Nordic mythology, the Valkyrie swept the fallen heroes from the battlefields up to Valhalla where they would prepare for the fight at the end of the world, Ragnarok.
Maxx - Some of you may remember the sci-fi/fantasy cartoon "The Maxx" I believe it aired on MTV in the US.

If our next blessing is a girl, her name will be DeLen - Minbari ambassador from the Sci-fi series "Babylon 5."

Now, with all that in mind... throw some boys names at me... worth 1000 points!!

47 replies

by jck

Aaron
Alexander
Nicholas
Jean-Luc
James
Michael

do I need to give reasons why?

by jck

ok...so you want out of the ordinary

Achilles (mythological god)
Dallas (city)
Ciaran (little dark one, in gaelic)
Ryman (auditorium of the grand ole opry)

there...there's a couple...do I win?

by jck

I still like Jean-Luc tho...if you don't use it, I might later. :-P

by jck

Ciaran is pronounced like "Kieran"...in Gaelic, there was no "K". That's why words in Gaelic like Claddagh are pronounced "Klawd-daw".

If you wanted a girl's Gaelic name, I'd suggest something like Aoife ("Eef-ah").

Anyways...I'm great with out-of-the-ordinary names. Let me know if you want more ideas.

by jessie

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, we HATE common names... if it made this years top 100... it's "right out." And if anybody suggests Jayden or anything that rhymes with it... I'll find a way to deduct points... somehow... some way...

by jessie

And reasons behind whatever names you do chose would be nice... but not entirely necessary...

by tony hopkinson

History and sci-fi, How about Woodrow, for both a president and the real name of Lazarus Long.
Alfred. An engish king, a sci-fi writer (Bester), Alfred Bester in Babylon 5 played by Walter Koenig who was in star trek. With a handle like Alfred he'l probably grow up to be a tough fella as well.
How about Fitzroy, two chances to shorten it when he doesn't forgive you.
If he's cute Beauman, think about it. Ha if he's big Obelisk, well Ok may be not.
And my favourite, vetoed by the missus, choice for my son. Allanon.

by j.lupo

Lael (personal favorite)
Jor-El
Jondalar
Kalel
Kimeran

I do know people with these names (real names)

by j.lupo

Jessie in the book the baby girl was Jonayla without the D. :) I actually love that series by Jean Auel. Of course there is Mercedes Lackey. But we aren't looking for girl names.

by jessie

jck: I do like Cieran. My wedding ring tattoo is a Claddaugh, and our one year anniversary tattoo is the Celtic rune "Jera" meaning "The cycle of one year." which is all about patience, a season for everything under the sun... that kind of stuff.
Tony: Obelisk - HA, my kids do tend to be rather large!!! I also like Woodrow and Lazarus... I do love my Heinlein. Of course, if we named him Lazarus, he'd get called Lazy-A$$ I'm sure...
j.lupo: Jondalar... and if it was a girl, Jondayla...

by itgirli

By the time I post, I bet they'll already be on here, but here goes:

Ahearn - Celtic - Lord of Horses
Arlen - Celtic - Pledge
Carrick - Gaelic - dweller of the rocky cape
Cian - Gaelic - Ancient
Davin - Scandinavian - Finnish (that's what it means. how odd)
Devnet - Irish - Poet
Doane - Irish - dune dweller
Gannon - Irish - Fair-skinned
Karstan - Greek - Christian
Kegan - Gaelic - Fiery

by the way, in 2001 I named my son Aidan. And in 2004 it was the Top of the 100 most popular names. At the time, it was creative, but everyone was being creative just like me. (I named him after a dead elf king in a book. anyone know what book?)

by salamander

Some of my favorites:

Alexander - protector of men
Gavril - Slavic/Russian version of "Gabriel"
Gavin - Welsh - "little hawk"
Varrick - German - "honorable defender"
Sachiel - the angel of the ninth hour of the night

I also have a copy of "The Dictionary of Angels" lying about, that includes many more exotic names for heavenly creatures from other cultures, if you want me to check there.

by salamander

Jesse -- the book is huge. If you have specific letters, ideas, or themes, that you like, or need specific info on any of the below, peer mail me and I'll provide more info.

These are the angels governing the hours of the day and night:

Michael
Anael
Raphael
Gabriel
Cassiel
Sachiel
Samael

There's also a listing of seventy angels to be invoked at the time of childbirth as a blessing. It's probably too lengthy to post here, but if you want it, feel free to peer mail me and I'll scan it in and send it to you as an attachment.

Congratulations!

by montgomery gator

Boys names from Stargate SG1:

Teal'c
Bra'tac
Rayac
Apophis
Anubis
Heruar
Baal
Thor
Frey
Selmac
Yu
Sokar
Kronos
Jack
Daniel
Jonas

(Another fan of Stargate SG-1 might be able to help with spelling of some of these)

by montgomery gator

Jessie: only the first two have apostrophes. Regarding "Yu" (the "good" System Lord, the Chinese Gouald, but old and senile), they did make some jokes about that in Stargate SG1, if I remember correctly. Jack O'Neill had trouble understanding the name.

by dwiebles

Loki (Norse Deity)
Fenrir (giant wolf of Norse mythology)
Ghestal (just a personal fave)
Rand (Wheel of time series Character)

Love the idea - Good luck ;)

by Jay Garmon

Well, you can always go with some of the classics, like Arthur, which has a host of references beyond the King of Camelot (including Arthur Dent from the Hitchhiker's series, and the secret identity of Aquaman, Arthur Curry). Arthur is also sidekick to The Tick, and a namesake for Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur

There's Apollo, which references a Greek god, a Roman God, a space program, a pilot from Battlestar Galactica (both versions), and a superhero from the Authority comic series (though there are some touchy sexual orientation issues with that one).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_%28disambiguation%29

Gareth was a Knight of the Round who racked up an impressive total of victories in service to his uncle, Arthur. Also the name of a roguish archer from the fantasy comic series Sojourn.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gareth
http://www.coreyblake.com/cgww/characters/sojourn/gareth.html

Ransom is a pretty daring choice, but it has some references few people realize. The blood shed by Christ during the crucifixion is sometimes literarily referred to as ransom. Ransom was also a character in the C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy. Capt. Ransom also commanded the infamously amoral crew of the U.S.S. Equinox that appeared in episodes of Star Trek: Voyager.

Stark is another good one that people often overlook. There is of course the Stark family from the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. Stark is also slang for Starways Common, the universal language from Orson Scott Card's Ender series. Tony Stark is the secret identity of the Marvel superhero Iron Man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stark

Eloi refers to both the humanlike race from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine and an Irish Saint who was horseshoed by Christ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloi

Ogier, both the kind but powerful builder race from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, and a hero of Danish folklore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogier

by Jay Garmon

It's a little cumbersome, but I'd recommend going to http://www.pantheon.org (The Encyclopedia Mythica) and just tooling around. When you have a list of names you like, feed them into the Wikipedia, which will produce some disambiguation pages that list all the various uses and meanings of the terms. It's not a quick process but it is very illuminating.

by Member 25348569

If hubbie likes sword names...

Glamdring, Gandalf's sword.

Gurthang (reforged Anglachel).

Anduril (reforged Narsil) and used by Aragorn. The hilt shard of Narsil cut the ring off Sauron's finger.

Orcrist (aka Luminus) used by Thorin.

Mormegil "Black Sword" - first owner of Gurthang (which is black).

Also lesser known, Icebrand.

MAJOR Tolkien geek, me.

Neil :)

by jessie

jck: Ciaran - I really do like this one. Hubby's and my wedding rings are based on the Claddaugh design, and our one year anniversary tattoo is the Celtic Rune "Jera" for "The cycle of one year." patience, everything has a season and all that good stuff.

Tony: Obelisk -- HA! My children do tend to be LARGE... always above 95th percentile on the growth charts.

J.lupo - I hadn't thought of Jondalar... then if we had another girl someday, she could be Jondayla.

Salamander: Sachiel - I like it. Throw some more from that Dictionary of Angels at me.

Tom: - I'm not real "into" names with apostrophes, way too common in the lower income neighborhoods around here. Can you imagine calling Yu in for dinner, "Hey Yu!"

Dwiebles: Rand - Good series - powerful farmboy kind of a name... I like it - probably too "country" for the hubby.

TG: Boy you are a wealth of worthless info :) I actually like Ransom - very cool.

by jessie

ACK and dangit!!! Answers and comments keep disappearing from this Q&A. Trivia Geek posted a big long post with some great names... and now it's GONE!!!

by oz_media

Tyler Richard - Then his initials are TR.
Tyrone Robert - Again TR

or you could call him 'Windows', or in your case, 'Linux'/'Penguin' like a Frank Zappa kid or comething. Just gotta make sure he's tough enough to hold the name through school.

It would be funny to come up with T.R. in his initials though, you could get a laugh out of it when he got a bit older.

by av .

How about

Da'an (from Earth Final Conflict) He was a fair leader of an alien race.

Hercules (from mythology) Very, VERY strong.

Dar (I know this is the Beastmaster, not exactly science fiction but oh well)

Michael (give the kid a break and go with the flow)

or

Spock (people will thing he is smart, always)

Congrats to you and yours!

by absolutely

"Kazan" means volcano in Japanese. It's not exactly sci-fi, but Japan is well-known for having several mythologies co-existing in the same culture. Also, it's like work play on Vulcan. Spock, y'know.

by jessie

Thank you so much for the suggestions, but Kazan just doesn't "feel" right.

by gary_w

There was a Saturday Night Live skit about a couple agonizing over names. Whatever name the wife picked, the husband always found something wrong with it. When asked if he had a problem with his own name, the husband answered defensivly, no! Then the doorbell rings and the pizza guy announces "Pizza for Asswipe Johnson!". The hubby pays then says to him, "by the way, it's (phonetically) as-weep-eh"! Be careful what you pick as a name! LOL

So either that or "Seven"

by gary_w

Hey! What's with the censoring!? I'll leave out an 's' and see what happens. The bleeped word is aswipe. lol

by jessie

Seven might be interesting, but it's not a name for us. Especially since this child makes the seventh member of our family... people would think we merely lacked creativity.

by deadly ernest

Being a history and a sci-Fi enthusiast you may like to try

Tiberius - 'Ty' for short. Tiberius Cesaer and James Tiberius Kirk - Star Trek. Spelling variants could be Tybeerius, Tybeeryus.

I noticed you also liked Celtic in some of your added posts; you could try some Celtic or traditional Welsh/Irish spellings for names. My son is Allyn (traditional Welsh spelling as we are of Welsh decent). Daffyd (David), Owain (Owen), etc. I particularly like Cadfael from the historical mystery stories by Peter Ellis, or is it Ellis Peters I keep getting that mixed up.

by jmgarvin

Samhain (pronouced Saw Win).

Star Wars Theme
Malak (Sith from Knights of the Old Republic)
Karth
Obi-Wan
Yoda

Others
Helmut
Gaulin
Shieden
Aelous

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