I’m a huge follower of women’s NCAA artistic gymnastics - and have been all my life. However, there have been some gymnasts in the college scene with some v unusual names and I’m not sure if they’re made up. Some I like, but some are kinda strange!
What are your thoughts …
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Braie - an alternate spelling of [name_f]Brie[/name_f]
Chanen - could be made up completely or viewed as an alternate spelling of [name_f]Shannon[/name_f]
Danaea - an alternate spelling of [name_f]Danae[/name_f]
Kalliah - could be made up completely or viewed as an alternate spelling of [name_f]Kalilah[/name_f]
Kaytianna - mode up perhaps drawn from[name_f]Tatianna[/name_f]
Kullen - an alternate spelling of [name_m]Cullen[/name_m]
Lyanda - perhaps an alternative to [name_f]Lydia[/name_f] or [name_f]Lynda[/name_f]
McElle - made up
Memory -word name used as name (pretty rare compared to many others)
Micole - maybe a smooshed name based on any M name smooshed with [name_f]Nicole[/name_f]
Napualani - traditional Hawaiian name
Storee - word name with creative spelling
Xarria - [name_f]Arria[/name_f] with an X
I would say some are real, some are made up, and some are just kre8tiv/alternate spellings.
Kullen, Storee, and Xarria could be considered kre8tiv/alternate spellings of [name_m]Cullen[/name_m], [name_u]Story[/name_u], and [name_f]Zaria[/name_f]. Memory is a real word, obviously, so not made up. I think Napualani is Hawaiian or based on traditional Hawaiian names. Most of the others seem like made up names or alternate spellings, but I’m not certain.
“Made up” is a bit tougher to classify than you might think. [name_m]Even[/name_m] parents who think they’ve invented a name may find that it’s already an extant name or word in a foreign language (see Kalliah, Braie) or simply made up of elements of other names (Kaytianna, Lyanda). People seem to be pretty bad at making up totally new names. They usually end up with things that are variants or combinations of sounds they hear in other names.
Micole just seems like an offshoot of [name_f]Nicole[/name_f].
Storee ([name_u]Story[/name_u]) and Memory are clearly just words, so obviously the parents didn’t invent them.
Napualani appears to be a legitimate Hawaiian name. I found several businesses with the name, includingthis one that claims the name means “heavenly flower” or “sacred children.”
Kullen is just the surname [name_m]Cullen[/name_m] with a K.
I’ve heard of Xarria in several different spellings, but I can’t find great information about its origin.
Kaytianna appears to be a smoosh of [name_u]Kay[/name_u] and [name_f]Tianna[/name_f] or [name_f]Kate[/name_f] and [name_f]Anna[/name_f].
[name_f]Kalea[/name_f] is a Hawaiian name, and Kalliah may be a respelling.
Chanen is a surname.
Lyanda seems like a combination of [name_u]Lee[/name_u] and the suffix anda.
Braie is a form of the [name_m]French[/name_m] word meaning “to bray.”
Danaea seems like a variant of [name_f]Danae[/name_f] or [name_f]Dania[/name_f].
McElle is just Mc (as in [name_u]Mackenzie[/name_u], [name_f]McKenna[/name_f], [name_f]Micaela[/name_f]) + [name_f]Elle[/name_f].
So like I said, many of the parents of these women may have thought they invented the name, or may not have had these exact origins in mind, but I wouldn’t classify them as totally made-up names.
Your first responder bit them on the head pretty well I would say and the subsequent posters as well, I would say all names are made up, a lot longer ago than now, some howler recently… doesn’t make any more legitimate that another only gives it more history and makes it more recognizable.
Kaytianna could also be drawn from Katiana
Memory is so pretty!