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?
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…
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.
Thank you for your thoughts, Bridgett and Austin!