Sitting around with another baby name aficionada the other day, discussing what she might name her next child, I suggested Henrietta, one of my long-time favorites. Yes, the aficionada said, she loved Henrietta too, and yet….
“It’s a lotta name,” I offered.
She nodded. “It’s a whole lotta name.”
I’d never thought of names in quite this way before, but the more i considered the concept of names that were too elaborate, too exotic, too quirky, too too, the more accurate I thought it was. There were a lotta names, I realized, that I thought were wonderful, but nevertheless would never actually choose for a child because they were, well, a lotta name.
Like what, beyond Henrietta? Well, like Leopold, for instance, which is in fact my second child’s middle name. In the middle, it’s great: cool, distinctive, old-fashioned but not frumpy. But in first place, Leopold would be a heavy moniker to pull off for a child or a teenager or basically anybody not as good-looking and self-confident as George Clooney.
Extra syllables can sometimes push a name into the lotta category. Olde World heaviness. An especially evocative image.
Billy Bob might be considered a lotta name, just as might Wilhelmina. Prudence or Percy, along with Petronella. I guess a name might be too much if you can imagine it preceding your child into every room, being the thing people notice and comment on earlier and more often than they notice your child’s dancing green eyes or shy smile or talent at math.
Here, some names that might qualify as being a whole lotta and maybe too much name.
girls
boys
Tags: complicated names, elaborate names, four-syllable names, heavy names, long names, three-syllable names
This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 10:29 pm and is filed under name and identity, name ideas, name style . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Have you ever read the children’s book called Chrysanthemum? (It’s about a little mouse girl who gets teased about her name. And try saying *that* 6 times a page!) I think that one belongs here. Amethyst, Guinevere, Araminta and Casper are all on the fence for me. But then again, “normal” people who aren’t obsessive about baby names might disagree with me!