A New Possibility.... Thoughts

Boy Names
1

Question 1) What are some offbeat ways to get to the following nicknames: (parentheses are some I like, just to give you an idea)

  • [name]Leo[/name] ([name]Leonidas[/name], [name]Leopold[/name], [name]Lionel[/name], Leolin, [name]Celio[/name], [name]Aurelio[/name])

  • [name]Kai[/name]/[name]Cai[/name] ([name]Caius[/name], [name]Malachi[/name], Caian, [name]Makai[/name])

  • [name]Finn[/name] ([name]Finnegan[/name], [name]Finnian[/name], [name]Finlay[/name]/[name]Finley[/name])

  • [name]Bo[/name]/[name]Beau[/name] ([name]Bolan[/name], [name]Bowen[/name], [name]Boman[/name])

I’m not usually a nickname kind of person, but these particular nicknames could also work in Chinese, which is something we’re looking for since we live in China and are trying to find ways to connect the “English” name to the Chinese name.

Question 2) Are some of these ‘L’ intensive names (like Lionel, Leolin, or perhaps Leland-- two 'L’s in each name) too much ‘L’ when combined with our last name (Luckie)? What about some of the less intensive ‘L’ names (like Leo, Leopold, Leonidas, etc), would they be okay with Luckie as a last name, or is it still too ‘L’ intensive to you?

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@tf- Thanks for putting together that list! It’s been copy and pasted for further reflection.
As far as the character we’d be using for [name]Finn[/name], I’m not sure exactly which one we’d choose, but it’d be one of the ones with the pinyin of ‘fen’ (a bit of a different sound to [name]Finn[/name], but pretty close). I’m not very good at Chinese names myself (never know what sounds good to a Chinese ear), but my wife said there are some ‘fen’ characters that could work pretty well in a Chinese name. Also, we’re not necessarily gonna go with a one character name (though one, two or three would also be fine with us), but since it’s so hard to find a full two-three syllable “English” name that works straight across with the Chinese language (like we were able to find with our first son, Rayhan 瑞晗), we thought if we have one syllable/character that shares the same sound (like ‘liu’/[name]Leo[/name]), it’d be another way of connecting the “English” name to the Chinese name (then he could have a shared NN (like ‘[name]Leo[/name]’) to English and to Chinese speakers)

5

Okay, I’ve been having too much fun with this (as in spending more time than I ought :)) Here’s what I have so far:

[name]LEO[/name]:

[name]Elliot[/name]
[name]Julio[/name]
[name]Leander[/name] (I know you prefer [name]Evander[/name], but [name]Leander[/name] is still cool and could get you to [name]Leo[/name])
[name]Leonas[/name]
[name]Leonid[/name]
[name]Leontes[/name]
Leor (the three above are variations of the [name]Leo[/name]=lion names. Leor is Hebrew, from a root meaning “light.”)
[name]Napoleon[/name] (I do not imagine you want to name your son after [name]Napoleon[/name] Bonaparte, but after I whimsically stuck Bonaparte in the “[name]Bo[/name]” name list, I couldn’t resist putting [name]Napoleon[/name] with the “[name]Leo[/name]” names.)

[name]KAI[/name]/[name]CAI[/name]:

Caiaphas (Cool name, uncool namesake. He was the Jewish high priest who presided over part of [name]Jesus[/name]’ pre-crucifixion trial.)
[name]Carlyle[/name]/[name]Carlisle[/name]
[name]Kyle[/name]
[name]Michael[/name]/[name]Mikhail[/name]
[name]Mordecai[/name]

[name]FINN[/name]:

[name]Finbar[/name]
[name]Fingal[/name]
[name]Fintan[/name] (all three Irish)
[name]Phineas[/name]

And just for fun, some Elvish names from J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythology. I realized, when thinking about [name]Finn[/name], that the “fin” element was used a good deal by the Elves, particularly those of the First Age:

Curufin
Finarfin
Finrod
Finwё (prn. [name]FIN[/name]-way)
Glorfindel

[name]BO[/name]/[name]BEAU[/name]:

Beaulieu (prn. BEW-ley, this is an English surname and place name derived from the French beau lieu, “beautiful place.” Unfortunately, the first thing I found when I Googled “Beaulieu” was Beaulieu carpet. Didn’t know such a thing existed…)
Beaumont (“beautiful mountain”)
[name]Beauregard[/name] (We actually have a young councilman in our neighboring town named [name]Beauregard[/name], nn [name]Beau[/name].)
[name]Boaz[/name]
Bodil (Norwegian, “commanding.”)
[name]Bogdan[/name]/[name]Bohdan[/name]
Bonaparte (!)
Bonar (Scottish, from Old French, “gentle.” I have seen it as a surname.)
[name]Bowman[/name]/[name]Boman[/name] ([name]Bowman[/name] is an English word name, “bowman”; [name]Boman[/name] is Persian (?), meaning “great mind.” Rereading your original post, I see you already have Boman on your list.)

As always, best wishes, and thanks for sharing the continuing challenge! Maybe it’ll be a girl, and all your troubles will be over :slight_smile:

6

[name]Leonard[/name]/[name]Leonardo[/name] would be my favourite way to get to [name]Leo[/name] (although I think [name]Leo[/name] is fine as a name by itself.)

Prefer [name]Kai[/name] by itself, but maybe something in the vein of [name]Caspian[/name] might work.

[name]Finnegan[/name] is nicest for [name]Finn[/name], imo.

Playfully, for [name]Bo[/name], I’ll punt with [name]Columbo[/name].