My husband’s name is Constantine, and I thought it would be a subtly sweet way to name our boy after him. Unfortunately, we have received less-than-stellar feedback from a lot of friends and family members.

She also mentions:

I am a bit wary of going onto public forums, as I have seen many get effectively crucified for their name choices, and while it wouldn’t normally bother me, I’m just so attached to the idea of Stanley that I couldn’t stomach it well.

Personally, I think Stanley is a great name. And I love that it was inspired by Constantine.

But it’s certainly unstylish right now. This might be what’s behind all the less-than-stellar feedback.

A lot of people can’t fathom why a parent would use an unstylish name for a baby. They don’t understand why a parent would choose a fusty name like Clarence or Eugene when fashionable options like Caleb and Ethan are available.

(One day, of course, Caleb and Ethan will be out, Clarence and Eugene will be back in, and these people will change their tune accordingly. But I digress.)

Feedback that speaks to style or taste should always be put into context. Stanley isn’t a popular name at the moment, so it makes sense that people aren’t going to be too enthusiastic about it. This doesn’t mean that Stanley is a bad name; it just means that people’s opinions are influenced by prevailing trends.

Feedback that speaks to other things, though, is often much more valuable. Has anyone brought up unpleasant associations? Offensive nicknames? Vulgar initials? Trends come and go, but facts like these stick for life.

I’d bet that most of the feedback Whitney is getting falls into the first group. I think this type of feedback could be disregarded if Whitney is willing to acknowledge (and accepts the fact) that Stanley is simply not a popular baby name. Any feedback that falls into the second group, though, should be taken more seriously.

What do you think of the name Stanley?

P.S. Whitney didn’t ask for name suggestions, but I did want to mention Stanton and Thurstan as possible alternatives to Stanley. They have the same “stan” element, but neither has ever been in style (as Stanley once was) and therefore neither has ever fallen out of style (as Stanley now has). So people might find them more agreeable.

I regularly see double-x baby names used in English-speaking countries. The double-x names below, for instance, belong to babies that were born in America, Australia, Canada, England and Scotland within the last few years.

The problem? There’s no double-x in English. Sure, you’ll sometimes spot it in brand names (Exxon, T.J. Maxx) and in surnames (Foxx, Saxxon), but “xx” just doesn’t occur in native English words.

And that’s not all. The double-x has several unsavory associations (see 1st paragraph). So “xx” isn’t a particularly classy pair of letters.

My advice? When it comes to baby names, stick to a single x.

Charles and Carlo

• French author Charles Perrault wrote Tales of Mother Goose (1697).
• Italian author Carlo Collodi, born Carlo Lorenzini, wrote The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883).

Johann and Hans

• Swiss pastor Johann David Wyss wrote The Swiss Family Robinson (1812).
• Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s began writing fairy tales in the 1830s.

Lewis
English author Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

Louisa
American author Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women (1868).

Jules
French author Jules Verne wrote Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870).

Mark
American author Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).

Johanna
Swiss author Johanna Spyri wrote Heidi (1880).

Robert
Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island (1883).

Beatrix
English author Beatrix Potter, born Helen Beatrix Potter, wrote The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902).

Jack
American author Jack London, born John Griffith Chaney, wrote The Call of the Wild (1903).

James
Scottish author James Matthew Barrie created the character Peter Pan in the early 1900s.

Lucy
Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote Anne of Green Gables (1908).

Frances
Anglo-American author Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote The Secret Garden (1911).

Theodor
American writer Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote The Cat in the Hat (1957).

Madeleine
American author Madeleine L’Engle wrote A Wrinkle in Time (1962).

Katherine
American author Katherine Paterson wrote Bridge to Terabithia (1977).

Beverly
American author Beverly Cleary wrote Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (1981).

Lois
American author Lois Lowry wrote The Giver (1993).

And now, two questions for you:

• Can you come up with any other children’s book authors?
• What interests/activities should we namestorm about next?

He reminded me of Yo Xing, who was born in the U.S. to an American father and an Australian mother, neither of whom is ethnically Chinese.

What do you think of baby names that come from cultures/countries that the baby is a not a part of (either via heritage or via birth)?

If you chose the middle option, please leave a comment and let us know what circumstances would make a name like this ok (or, conversely, not ok).

Hudson comes from a surname, so the first place I’d look is other surnames. Here are a few ideas:

(At first I was only going to omit names ending with -son. Then I decided to cut all names with n-endings, just to get a good range of sounds in there.)

Do you like any of the above with Hudson? What other names would you suggest to Tamela?

Update (3/14): Tamela has to get some adoption paperwork squared away, so she needs to select a name within the next few days.

Here are a few more facts:

• The baby’s surname will be a Spanish name that starts with an S. Think Silva, or Santos. (Neither of these is the actual surname.)
• Because the baby is coming from Russia, Tamela would really like something that’s “at least a little Russian.”
• Current favorites include Maxwell, Luis (nn Louie) and George (Tamela’s father’s name). She also mentioned Matteo in this comment.

I really like both George and Maxwell with Hudson. I think either one would sound great as a first name.

Matteo doesn’t strike me as being a great match to Hudson, in terms of style. (Fits perfectly with the surname, though.)

I’m undecided on Luis. I don’t think it’s a terrible match, but I don’t think it would fit as well with Hudson as Maxwell or George would.

As for Russian names, let’s see…Maksim or Maksimilian are both similar to Maxwell. Yuri is a version of George. (Also a cosmonaut!)

Or perhaps one of these Russian names would work as a middle:

(I picked these because they’re so close to their English equivalents. Almost like they’re just English names with a Russian twist.)

As far as combinations go, I’m partial to George Maksim and George Maksimilian. Both are similar to George Maxwell, which Tamela mentioned in her comment, but they look and sound a bit more Russian.

What other thoughts/ideas do you have for Tamela?

Honey
Honey was the 190th most popular baby girl name on the list. Parents have also been using alternative spellings of Honey, and throwing (pouring?) Honey into compound names. Here are all the Honeys I spotted:

• Honey (278 babies)
• Honey-Rose (8)
• Honey-May (6)
• Hunnie (6)
• Honey-Mae (4)
• Hunni (4)
• Hunny (4)
• Honey-Marie (3)

They honey-names don’t even account for a tenth of a percent of all the baby girls in the data set, so I wouldn’t call them trendy. But they’re definitely on the radar.

Can’t say I’m on board with Honey. To me, honey is either a term of endearment or something I use in my tea. I like it for dogs and cats, but not for humans. (Would make a great stripper name, though.)

Honey has never charted here in the U.S., but I have seen it on birth announcements before.

Brandon-Lee
Lee was a very common second element in compound names for both genders. Despite this, I’d bet at least a few of the baby Brandon-Lees I saw were named specifically for Brandon Lee, the actor who died while filming cult favorite The Crow (1994). Here are the numbers:

• Brandon-Lee (23 babies)
• Brandonlee (4)
• Brandon-Leigh (3)

The only “-Lee” names to rank higher than Brandon-Lee were Jayden-Lee (29), Harvey-Lee (26), and Tommy-Lee (26).

Source: Office for National Statistics

Why am I posting old news? Because I recently found a more complete version of the 2008 list that goes all the way down to baby names used in England and Wales just three times. So, the top-ranked names may be old news, but the rest are new. (New to me, anyway.) Here goes:

And now, just for fun, let’s compare usage in England to usage in America:

*By UK, I mean England and Wales. Not an accurate substitution, I know. But “England and Wales” is just way too long for that spot.
**The 1,000th name on the U.S. top 1,000 was used for 192 baby boys. So the question marks represent some number between 0 and 192.
***Update: Kelly has astutely pointed out that raw numbers can be misleading. I’m not going to change the chart — I’m just too lazy — but I’ve thrown in some rough totals, for context.

Source: Office for National Statistics

• Kain, a male character from the Legacy of Kain series.
• Rinoa, a female character from Final Fantasy VIII.
• Kairi, a female character from Kingdom Hearts.
• Raiden, a male character from Mortal Kombat.

I’ve seen Raiden used as a baby name several times. Too bad it’s impossible to tell which Raidens were named after the character and which were simply given a variant of Aidan, or Jayden, or Caden…

Have you met any babies with these names before? (If so, do you know if their parents are gamers?)

The New York Times Magazine asked Markopolos, “Is that some kind of Greek tradition? Giving kids the same name?” He answered:

You saw the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”? Everybody has the same name. Only the people change; the names never do.

What do you think of using the same names (just switching the order) for identical twins? Would you do it?

P.S. Over 75% of those who’ve voted in the poll on twin names prefer twin names that don’t sound similar.

Sources: Bad things to name your twins, Questions For Harry Markopolos – Math Is Hard

But I thought taking a general approach would be more fun than focusing on a specific sport, so here are notable names culled from a range of sports:

James

• Canadian-born sports coach James Naismith invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts in late 1891.
• American athlete James “Jesse” Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
• American athlete James “Jim” Thorpe was named the greatest athlete of the first half of the 20th century by the Associated Press in 1950.
• American football player James “Jim” Brown was named the greatest professional football player ever by The Sporting News in 2002.

Mildred and Charlotte
American athlete Mildred “Babe” Didrikson and English athlete Charlotte “Lottie” Dod were named the most versatile female athletes of all time by The Guinness Book of Records.

George
American baseball player George “Babe” Ruth is widely regarded as the greatest baseball player of all time.

Gertrude
American swimmer Gertrude Ederle was the first woman to swim across the English Channel, in 1926.

Roger
English athlete Roger Bannister was the first man to run a mile in fewer than four minutes, in 1954.

Althea
American tennis player Althea Gibson was the first African-American woman to win a Grand Slam title, in 1956.

Edison
Brazilian soccer player Edison Arantes do Nascimento, also known as Pelé, is widely regarded as the best soccer player of all time.

Jack

• American baseball player Jack “Jackie” Robinson was the first African-American to play Major League Baseball, in 1947. He was also the first African American inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1962.
• American golfer Jack Nicklaus is regarded by some as the greatest professional golfer of all time.

Sanford
American baseball player Sanford “Sandy” Koufax is the youngest person to have been inducted into Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1972.

Muhammad
American boxer Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay) was a three-time World Heavyweight Champion.

Bonnie
American speedskater Bonnie Blair is one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history.

Wayne
Canadian hockey player Wayne Gretzky is regarded by some as the greatest professional hockey player of all time.

Michael
American basketball player Michael Jordan is widely regarded as the best basketball player of all time.

And now, two questions:

• What other sports-inspired names can you come up with?
• What other interests or activities should we namestorm about next?

Sources: Smithsonian Institution, Top North American Athletes of the Century