Ok so here is the deal I am writing a piece and there are two sides to the story. On one side the people have names of rock musicians such as [name]Joss[/name], [name]Hendrix[/name], [name]Marley[/name], [name]Lennon[/name] yada yada. You get the picture. But here is my delema: On the other side I want to use classical musician references however all of the name are super long! Bethoven or however you spell that, Motzart or if that aren’t super long they don’t really sound like first names. So if anyone could help come up with nick names or names sprouting from any classical musicians that would be of a great help! The only one I have for sure so far is [name]Haydn[/name]. And if some could sound like girl names too. Thanks for the help!
Well, I think there’s a wealth of cool names on the classical side, depending how you want to go about it! There are composers, performers and roles in opera and musical theatre.
It’s a pretty broad field, so I”ll concentrate on classical composers and operatic performers for you. I”ll just give selections of noted musicians throughout the years that I think have usable first, middle or last names. Hopefully it will help you out!
Composers:
[name]Eric[/name] Whitacre b. 1970
[name]John[/name] [name]Coolidge[/name] [name]Adams[/name], b. 1947
[name]John[/name] Corigliano, b. 1938
[name]Milton[/name] [name]Byron[/name] Babbitt, b. 1916
[name]Benjamin[/name] Britten ([name]Edward[/name] [name]Benjamin[/name] Britten), 1913 ”1976
[name]John[/name] [name]Milton[/name] Cage [name]Jr[/name]., 1912 ” 1992
[name]Samuel[/name] [name]Osborne[/name] [name]Barber[/name] II, 1910 ” 1981
[name]Aaron[/name] Copland, 1900 ” 1990
[name]George[/name] [name]Gershwin[/name], 1898 ” 1937
B”la [name]Viktor[/name] J”nos [name]Bart[/name]”k , 1881 ” 1945 ([name]Bella[/name] obviously is rising as a girl”s name)
[name]Samuel[/name] [name]Coleridge[/name]-[name]Taylor[/name], 1875 ” 1912
[name]Amy[/name] [name]Marcy[/name] [name]Cheney[/name] [name]Beach[/name], 1867 ” 1944
[name]Achille[/name]-[name]Claude[/name] Debussy, 1862 ” 1918
[name]Gabriel[/name] [name]Urbain[/name] Faur”, 1845 ” 1924
Sir [name]Arthur[/name] [name]Seymour[/name] [name]Sullivan[/name], 1842 ” 1900
[name]Johannes[/name] [name]Brahms[/name], 1833 ” 1897
[name]Clara[/name] [name]Josephine[/name] Schumann, 1819 ” 1896 (both [name]Clara[/name] and [name]Josephine[/name] fall right in line with the old-fashioned name trend.)
[name]Robert[/name] [name]Alexander[/name] Schumann, 1810 - 1856
[name]Frederic[/name] [name]Fran[/name]”ois Chopin, 1810 ” 1849
[name]Franz[/name] [name]Peter[/name] Schubert, 1797 ” 1828
[name]Wolfgang[/name] [name]Amadeus[/name] [name]Mozart[/name], 1756 ” 1791 (I think [name]Wolfgang[/name] is totally usable)
[name]Johann[/name] [name]Sebastian[/name] [name]Bach[/name], 1685 - 1750
[name]George[/name] Frideric Handel, 1685 ” 1759
Performers:
[name]Dawn[/name] Upshaw, b. 1960 ” American soprano
[name]Renee[/name] [name]Flemming[/name], b. 1959 ” American soprano
[name]Andrea[/name] Bocelli, b. 1958, Italian tenor
[name]Jose[/name] Carreras ([name]Josep[/name] [name]Maria[/name] Carreras i [name]Coll[/name]), b. 1946, Spanish tenor
[name]Kiri[/name] Te Kanawa, b. 1944 – Soprano from New Zealand
[name]Luciano[/name] Pavarotti, 1935 -2007, Italian tenor
[name]Marilyn[/name] Horne, b. 1934, American mezzo-soprano
[name]Leontyne[/name] [name]Price[/name] ([name]Mary[/name] [name]Violet[/name] [name]Leontyne[/name] [name]Price[/name]), b. 1927 ” American soprano
[name]Joan[/name] [name]Alston[/name] Sutherland, b. 1926, Australian soprano
[name]Maria[/name] [name]Callas[/name], 1923 ” 1977, American-born Greek soprano
[name]Renata[/name] Tebaldi, 1922 ” 2004, Italian soprano
[name]Birgit[/name] [name]Nilsson[/name], 1918 ” 2005, Swedish soprano
[name]Enrico[/name] [name]Caruso[/name], 1873 ” 1921, Italian tenor
I apologize! I know many more famous female singers than male! Comes from being a soprano myself I suppose!
Let me know if you need more biographical info about any of the composers, or if you need to know how to pronounce a name!
Good luck!
P.S. For what it’s worth, [name]Haydn[/name] is pronounced “HIGH-dn”, not like the name [name]Hayden[/name].
wow this is fantastic thank you so much i’ll post if i have any questions!
Another one popped into my head this morning: [name]Gerald[/name] Finzi (1901-1956), another composer. I thought his last name could make a fresh [name]Finn[/name] name for an adventurous parent. 