Acronym baby names are officially a thing. Not a major thing, but still a thing. Acronym baby names I’ve come across include Ily, “I love you,” and Lya, “love you always.”
One type of acronym that seems to be trendy in general these days is the “AB_” acronym, in which the first two words are “always be” and the third is a verb in “-ing” form. They stem from ABC, “always be closing,” made famous by the movie Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). Variations I’ve heard include ABS (“always be shipping” or “always be “selling”), ABL (“always be learning”), a different ABC (“always be charging”), and even ABK (“always be knolling“).
So I wondered: Could we create an “always be” acronym that’s also a good baby name?
For the name to be pronounceable (unlike Abcde) the third letter would have to be a vowel. And I’d say the best vowels for the job — considering both the number of available verbs and the resulting acronym — are E and I. So let’s see what we can come up with for ABE and ABI…
ABE
Abe is typically a nickname for of Abraham, but Abe is also used as an independent name. In fact, dozens of U.S. babies have been named Abe (not Abraham) every year for many decades.
Here are my top five acronym possibilities for the name Abe:
- ABE: “always be exploring”
- ABE: “always be evolving”
- ABE: “always be experimenting”
- ABE: “always be embarking”
- ABE: “always be excelling”
And here are some of the other verbs that could be used: earning, educating, empowering, encouraging, engaging, engineering, enhancing, enjoying, evaluating, examining, exceeding, and experiencing.
ABI
Abi, like the more familiar Abby, is a short form of Abigail. Abi isn’t common as an independent name, but usage has picked up a bit recently.
Here are my top five acronym possibilities for the name Abi:
- ABI: “always be imagining”
- ABI: “always be innovating”
- ABI: “always be improving”
- ABI: “always be inspiring”
- ABI: “always be initiating”
And here are some of the other verbs that could be used: illuminating, implementing, impressing, improvising, increasing, influencing, informing, inspecting, integrating, interacting, interpreting, and investigating.
What are your favorite “always be” acronyms for Abe and Abi?
Do you think anyone out there has used an “always be” acronym as a baby name yet?
