Baby name needed: Name for biracial baby boy

A reader named Laurie is trying to find a name for her baby boy:

I am white, my boyfriend is black. […] The problem is he does not want a “ghetto” baby name, but I don’t want a plain old “Matt or Jeff” name. He seems to be stuck on the name Martell but it reminds me of the name Martin…I hate it. He has now said he wants the name to end in -tell, as in “Dontell” (his brother). I am not creative enough to think of any names that end in -tell, please help me.

I couldn’t come up with many -tell names, either. But there are plenty of names that end with an L-sound, such as:

Abdul
Ansel
Axel
Cordell
Cornell
Darnell
Darrell
Denzel
Derrell
Donell
Durrell
Emmanuel
Ezekiel
Farrell
Ferrell
Gabriel
Harrell
Howell
Ishmael
Jamal
Jarrell
Jemuel
Jerrell
Joel
Khalil
Kordell
Latrell
Lemuel
Lindell
Lionel
Lowell
Lydell
Markell
Maxwell
Mitchell
Montel
Nathaniel
Nemuel
Newell
Nigel
Parnell
Phanuel
Randal
Roswell
Russell
Shamal
Shemuel
Terrell
Tyrel
Vernell
Wendell
Zuriel

Do any of you have other name suggestions or advice for Laurie?

3 thoughts on “Baby name needed: Name for biracial baby boy

  1. That’s a tricky one. I like Wendell, Nathaniel, Parnell, Cordell–I know adult black men with those names, so they would not be, as she put it, “ghetto” in the way that some names are perceived. Nat and Nate are good nicknames for Nathaniel, too. I think I would avoid direct rhymes like Montel…

    I taught twins Darnell and Darrell one year…

  2. Ask your boyfriend if he wants the name to sound black or a name that is used by other black men. I agree that it’s not easy to think of names which end with -tell. I thought of Averil, Emeril, Hazel, which end with L. Dontell reminds me of Donatello. Perhaps you could look at some similar names and drop the last -O, like Marcello becoming Marcel. I think there are some nice choices above so talk it over with him.

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