Name for a Character

[how-obscure.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I woke up from a dream this morning that left me contemplating an idea for a story, which will probably be started but never completed because that's how I roll, but I'm going to try anyway, and I need a name for a character.

I want a name that is aristocratic and formal. Bonus points if it is unusual. Bonus bonus points if it has a far more pedestrian nickname that the younger of the two brothers can call his baby sister while the rest of the family cringes.

( In which I ramble about names considered )

TL;DR: Give me names that are like Cordelia, Lavinia, and Octavia.

(no subject)

[so-there.livejournal.com]

we went to a reptile show in the basement of our library yesterday.. we were early, and the guy running the show said he liked to play a game while he waited for a show to start.. he'd pick a kid, the kid tells him the first letter of their name, and he guesses the name. some he got in the first guess or two. a few he couldn't guess at all. he called on my son Linus.. he's one of the ones that he couldn't guess :)

oh and since this is a community about names, I thought I'd share some of the terrible pun names of his pythons: Julius Squeezer and Cate "as in suffocate".

We're seriously lost over here.

[belle-m.livejournal.com]

I'm due with a boy in about a month, and I have absolutely no idea what to name him. My SO and I just aren't crazy about any boy names this time around, and while we scour name books, Nameberry, Behindthename, Nymbler and everywhere else, it usually just results in the same set of name-savvy, popular-to-the-site names going through the revolving door. It's not that I dislike those names at all. In fact, I like most of them, but they just don't give me that Archimedes in the bathtub moment.

On our extraordinarily lackluster (to us) list, we have things such as:

Asher: It's...nice; I like it, but I worry about it's surging popularity. I like its sounds and its softness.
Anders.: My SO adores this. It's his #1. I'm very 'meh' toward it. It has things I like: Scandinavian origins and rarity while still having pronouncibility, but he would be resigned to being called 'Andy', without a doubt.
Hudson: I've been warned by many that this is very trendy with it's last-name-as-a-first-name quality. It's popularity worries me, too.
Finn: Originally, one of my favorites. However, now all I can imagine is a shark's fin or the word for "finished" in French.
Benjamin: My all-time favorite boy name. My SO dislikes it very much, and I could never use it as a first name because of its level of popularity. It will most likely be the baby's middle name though.
Quinn: This was a top contender for us if the baby was a girl, but since it's unisex, we just added it over to the boy list. It's hard to see it on a boy after picturing it on a girl, though. Have the girl's taken over this name now?
Julien: Not Julian. My family is French, so I can only ever imagine this name with an 'e' in it. It doesn't wow me though. It's Julien. Plain old Julien.
Henry: I love Henry. I think it's sweet and lovely. My SO thinks it's the whole wheat bagel of names: boring, boring, boring.
Declan: I don't know why this is on our list. We both sort of like it. On paper, it looks cool and sounds nice. When spoken, it feels weird.

Other mentionables on the list: Calvin, Harrison, Henrik, Jonah, Milo, Orson, Griffin, Jude, Lachlan, Leif, Johan, Soren.


Yeaaah. Help? I'll take any advice you have whether it's in the form of new names or just help on the ones we have.