I can’t name a boy for the life of me
I wrote about names I like not that long ago and I’m doing some more thinking about them. Basically, Will mentioned to me, probably a few months ago now, that he’d like to name a son Phobos. I’d like a girl, or girls, I can give some gemstone-inspired names to, I’m sure I’d like a boy just as much but the problem is, I just can’t think of a male name that I 100% love!
The problem with Phobos, of course, is that the word “phobia” is derived from it. A moon of Mars shares the name, and I suppose that’s quite cool, but I can’t imagine us standing at reception in a GP surgery saying “Yes, we’re here with Phobos Rowley-Morris!” and not feeling awkward about it.
I hear so many girl names I love but while some male names are nice, I never love them. I think the only male name I truly loved was Raziel, but it would be so awkward to use as a first name in England and I think it would serve better as a middle name, possibly in feminine form.
But yeah, in my desperation to search for a male name I am even slightly interested in, I have come up with these. I won’t cover Kobi, Raziel, Bareket, Fox, or Nazariy, because I did that in my last post about names.
So here we go.
Enver – broadly Balkan and means “luminous.” Also the name of an asteroid.
Lorn – I know it from Lorne Lanning, creator of the Oddworld games. Apparently from a Scottish place name.
Tudor – from the Welsh name Tudur, people would probably find it strange as a non-surname. Also a Romanian variant of Theodore.
Alfonso – a Spanish and Italian name I’ve always liked saying aloud.
Homer – I like the sound of this more the older I get, although everybody would think of The Simpsons.
Absalom – Hebrew, variant of Avshalom, meaning “my father is peace.” Also a son of King David and brother of Tamar. I am reminded, though, of the caterpillar Absolem in Alice in Wonderland.
Bayard – I know it from Bayard Ellis in Law & Order: SVU. Has grown on me a bit.
Lowen – “jolly” in Cornish, and close to an appealing female name, Elowen/Elowyn.
Zenan – Cornish name related to Sean. Can only find info about it in a book, there’s nothing online, which makes me less confident about it. Sezni is a nice Breton variant that probably wouldn’t fly at all in England.
Zenoby – I swore I’d read that this was both a masculine and feminine name, derived from Zenobios, but now I can only find that it’s a feminine name of Cornish origin. Like Nazariy, I think it would sound good as a male name.
Zeno – Greek and Italian, derived from Zeus.
Anastas – Russian and Bulgarian variant of Anastasios, male version of the illustrious Anastasia.
Kosmos – “world” in Greek.
Jory – Cornish variant of George, although I’ve seen it used as a female name before.
Maybe, the right male name is out there, maybe one day I’ll see it and think “Yes! That’s the name for my son!” Maybe it’ll even be one of these names, or another name I heard before and didn’t think much of at the time.
Honestly, naming animals is much easier, you can get away with anything. Can’t call a human child Jupiter.
On another note, Kayleigh has grown on me out of the blue as the 3rd-best girl name after Ruby and Saffira. No idea why, just kind of happened. Americans seem to think it’s part of the recent -leigh suffix craze with names, but it actually goes a fair way back on the British Isles. And of course, Leigh is a name in its own right.