Five(ish)-name Friday: Hyphenated girl name

You missed the Unicorn Frappuccino boat a few weeks ago, so now you’re determined to try some other Starbucks magical creature beverage…but you’re not sure which. Dragon? Mermaid?

You chat about this conundrum with a friendly pregnant lady standing nearby in line. Her drink order is already picked out, but one thing she hasn’t picked out yet is a name for the baby. Here’s the gist of what she’s looking for:

I want to follow a family tradition and give my daughter a hyphenated first name, but I don’t want it to be a familiar combination or too long and laboured. I prefer names that are straightforward but uncommon, like Mona or Maris.

“Do you have any suggestions?”

As a name-lover, you could potentially give her dozens of pairings on the spot. But the line is moving pretty quickly, so you only have time to give her five suggestions before you reach the register.

But here’s the fun part: Instead of blurting out the first five names you come up with (which is what you’d have to do in real life) you get to press a magical “pause” button, brainstorm for a bit, and then “unpause” the scenario to offer her the best five names you can think of.

As you come up with your names, keep these things in mind:

• Be independent. Decide on your five hyphenated names (a.k.a. your ten names in five pairings) before looking at anyone else’s five names.
• Be sincere. Would you honestly suggest these particular baby names out loud to a stranger in a Starbucks?
• Five(ish) names only! I will replace all names beyond the first five (read: ten) in your comment with nonsense words.

Finally, here’s the request again:

I want to follow a family tradition and give my daughter a hyphenated first name, but I don’t want it to be a familiar combination or too long and laboured. I prefer names that are straightforward but uncommon, like Mona or Maris.

Which five(ish) baby names are you going to suggest?