Looking for baby names that feature the letter-pair OO?
I’ve collected oodles of OO names for you in this post!
Before we get to the names, though, let’s get one big question out of the way…
What sound does OO make?
In today’s English, OO commonly makes the sound you hear in the words boot, food, and moon. But it can also make other sounds, such as the ones you hear in the words blood, or door, or good.
Why all this diversity?
A lot of it has to do with the Great Vowel Shift, which lasted from the late 14th century until about 1700. The GVS was a major factor in the transition from Middle English to Modern English.
In Middle English, OO tended to make a “long o” sound. (As one of my sources explained, “scribes often indicated a long vowel sound by doubling the vowel letter.”) So, in Middle English, the words boot, food, and moon sounded more like “boat,” “foad,” and “moan.”
During the Great Vowel Shift, the pronunciation of most long vowel sounds inexplicably shifted “upward” in the mouth, and the words boot, food, and moon acquired their present-day pronunciations.
But it’s not quite as simple as that. Because some words underwent multiple pronunciation changes during the GVS, while others didn’t undergo any change at all.
And this resulted in OO having a variety of pronunciations in Modern English.
Now, back to the names!
Names with OO
Below are dozens of names that feature the letter-pair OO. Most of these names come directly from the U.S. SSA’s baby name data.
- Ajooni
- Alanood
- Anoop
- Aroosh
- Atwood
- Avnoor
- Aynoor
- Batool
- Bloom
- Booker
- Boomer
- Boone
- Booth
- Brentwood
- Brooke, Brook
- Brookelle
- Brooker
- Brookie
- Brooklee, Brookley, Brookleigh
- Brooklyn, Brooklynn, Brooklynne, Brooklin, Brooklinn, Brooklen, Brooklenn, Brookelyn, Brookelynn, Brookelynne
- Brooks, Brookes, Broox
- Brooksie
- Brooksley
- Brookson
- Brookston
- Cooke
- Coolidge, Cooledge
- Cooper, Kooper
- Dawood
- Delwood
- Derwood, Durwood
- Eastwood
- Eknoor
- Elwood, Ellwood
- Farooq
- Fleetwood
- Garwood
- Glenwood, Glennwood
- Goodluck
- Goodman
- Goodness
- Goodwin
- Greenwood
- Gurnoor
- Hagood
- Ha-Joon
- Harnoor
- Haroon
- Harwood
- Haywood, Heywood
- Hooper
- Hoor
- Hoorain
- Hooria, Hooriya
- Hoover
- Htoo
- Japnoor
- Jasnoor
- Ji-Hoo
- Ji-Soo
- Jood
- Joon
- Joory
- Joost
- Kenwood
- Kirkwood
- Kohinoor
- Kulsoom
- Leeloo
- Lenwood
- Lindwood
- Linwood
- Lockwood
- Lynwood, Lynnwood
- Mahmood
- Mahnoor
- Manroop
- Mansoor
- Marwood
- Masooma
- Maysoon
- Maywood
- Moo
- Moon
- Moosa
- Nooh
- Noomi
- Noor
- Noora, Noorah
- Nooreh
- Noori
- Nooria, Nooriyah
- Noorseen
- Noortje
- Noorulain
- Norwood
- Oona, Oonagh
- Oormi
- Osgood
- Prabhnoor
- Poorna
- Raywood
- Roo
- Roohi
- Rook
- Rooney
- Roop
- Roope
- Roosevelt
- Rooster
- Seabrooke
- Sherwood
- Shooter
- Sookie
- Stanwood
- Sun-Woo
- Taimoor
- Thurgood
- Tooba
- Trooper
- Underwood
- Westbrook
- Wood
- Woodard
- Woodensley
- Woodfin
- Woodford
- Woodland
- Woodley
- Woodlyn
- Woodrow
- Woodruff
- Woods
- Woodson
- Woodward
- Woody, Woodie
- Woo-Jin
- Yaqoob
- Yaqoot
- Yoona
- Zaroon
- Zooey
A number of the above represent transferred usage of various English surnames — particularly those that contain words like “wood,” “good,” and “brook.”
Speaking of surnames (and surnames being used as first names), did you know that five U.S. presidents had OO-names? Weirdly, all five served during the first half of the 20th century:
- Theodore Roosevelt (in office from 1901 to 1909)
- Woodrow Wilson (1913 to 1921)
- Calvin Coolidge (1923 to 1929)
- Herbert Hoover (1929 to 1933)
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 to 1945)
Which of all the OO names above to do you like most? (Can you think of any that I missed?) Let me know in the comments!
Sources:
- SSA
- Great Vowel Shift – Wikipedia
- Stroud, Kevin W. “Episode 143: The Great Vowel Shift (Part 3).” The History of English Podcast 24 Nov. 2020.
Image: Adapted from Raton laveur commun (Procyon lotor) by Clément Bardot under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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