Secret Baby Names Connections

Secret Baby Names Connections

Usually, when baby names are related, the resemblance is pretty obvious.  For example, Christopher’s foreign versions include Christophe and Christos and his short form is Chris; Patricia is otherwise known as Patrizia or Patrice, Pat or Patty.

But this isn’t always the case.  Alexander might be Alistair to his Scottish cousins, Sasha to his friends.

This can come in handy if you’re looking for an invisible (to non-nerds) or at least indirect route to honoring a namesake.  Ways you can do this include finding an interesting but accessible international variation, or an unexpected nickname that can be used on its own, or a mythological, biblical, or other name switch, or dual identity.

Here are some possibilities you might consider.  How many of the connections are visible to you?

Agnes….Ines/Inez

Aileen….Aveline/Evelyn

Alexandra….Shura

Alice….Ailis/Ailish

Beatrice….Trixie

Berenice….Veronica

Bridget….Bedelia

Cora….Persephone

Dawn….Aurora

Diana….Artemis

Dorcas….Tabitha

Dorothea….Theodora

Eleanor….Nell

Elizabeth….Elspeth, Isabella, Libby— ad infinitum

Emerald….Esmeralda

Esther….Hadassah

Eve….Chaya

Hedwig….Edwige

Hope….Esperanza

HyacinthJacinta

Jade….Giada

Jane….Ivana, Siobhán, Jensine

Janet….Sinéad

Jennifer….Guinevere

Lily….Shoshana

Lorelei.…Rory

Margaret….Maisie, Daisy, Pearl

Maria….Mitzi

Mary….Miriam, Moira

Matilda….Maud

Millicent….Melisande

Minerva….Athena

Sarah….Sally, Sadie

Susannah….Shoshana

Thomasina….Tamsin

Violet….Iolanthe, Yolanda

Vivian….Bevin

Xenia….Oksana

Absalom….Axel

Adrian….Arjun

Alfred….Avery

Basil….Vassily

Bernard….Bjorn

Charles….Cathal

Edmund….Eamon

Edward….Ned

Eugene….Owen, Euan, Ewan

Frederick….Fritz

George….Joren, Jori, Yuri

Henry….Arrigo

Hugh….Ugo

James….Hamish, Seamus, Jago, Semaj

Jasper….Caspar

Jerome….Geronimo, Hieronymus

John….Euan, Eoin, Jens, Ivan, João

Joseph….Joos, Joop, Sepp

Lawrence….Lars, Lorenzo

Lazarus….Eleazar

Luther….Lothario

Matthew….Levi

Nathaniel….Bartholomew

Neil….Nels

Nicholas….Colin

Peter….Piers,  Piet

Robert….Rupert

Roland….Orlando

Stephen….Esteban

Ulysses….Odysseus

What secretly connected pairs of names would you add?

About the Author

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.