I’m going over my long list and thinking about adding some names to my user card and I feel like I have very polarized taste in names. A lot of my favorites are either timeless, traditional, quite popular classic names or what I lovingly refer to as “Catholic old people names”; that is, old fashioned choices, often with family namesakes. These names are full of meaning and history to me, and I love their sense of grounded stability, strength, and quiet power. On the other hand, I also love a lot of somewhat more offbeat choices, often either Celtic or nature names. These have a kind of romantic, magical feel to them (several are drawn from fairytale or legend) and feel a little bit more dreamy, although some of them also have very strong, powerful elements.
[name_f]My[/name_f] issue is that I have a hard time coming up with ways to combine both styles. I have a hard time picturing many of these names as siblings, or even combined as combos (although I probably will use family names for middles, so it’s a bit of a moot point). Some of them do fit in both categories: [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f], for instance, is a solid classic but also feels medieval enough to pair with a more fantastical choice. I’ve sort of reconciled myself to having to pick one style, and I think it will probably be the traditional classics, because they feel more usable to me and I’m a lot more conservative/less willing to take risks than many on Nameberry. But I don’t entirely feel comfortable letting my other, slightly bolder, favorites go.
[name_m]Can[/name_m] you guys help me combine these two styles, whether in a sibset or in a series of combos, so I can maybe picture an alternative to having to pick between two styles? [name_u]Or[/name_u] just give me advice if you feel similarly stranded between two types of name.
The traditional favorites:
[name_f]Mary[/name_f], [name_f]Margaret[/name_f], [name_f]Catherine[/name_f], [name_f]Anna[/name_f], [name_f]Eleanor[/name_f], [name_u]Louise[/name_u], [name_f]Rose[/name_f], [name_f]Theresa[/name_f], [name_f]Beatrice[/name_f], [name_f]Victoria[/name_f], [name_f]Claire[/name_f], [name_f]Elaine[/name_f], [name_f]Rosemary[/name_f], [name_f]Joanna[/name_f], [name_f]Laura[/name_f]
[name_u]James[/name_u], [name_u]Michael[/name_u], [name_m]Daniel[/name_m], [name_m]Anthony[/name_m], [name_u]Francis[/name_u], [name_m]Luke[/name_m], [name_m]Nathan[/name_m], [name_u]Elliot[/name_u], [name_m]Alexander[/name_m]
The creative favorites:
[name_f]Rhiannon[/name_f], [name_f]Guinevere[/name_f], [name_f]Siena[/name_f], [name_u]Winter[/name_u], [name_f]Meadow[/name_f], [name_u]Lark[/name_u], [name_f]Iris[/name_f], [name_f]Liliana[/name_f], [name_f]Fiona[/name_f], [name_f]Aoife[/name_f], [name_f]Fern[/name_f], [name_f]Anora[/name_f], [name_f]Avalon[/name_f], [name_f]Maeve[/name_f], Laurel, [name_u]Skye[/name_u]
[name_u]Rhys[/name_u], [name_u]Rowan[/name_u], [name_m]Emrys[/name_m], [name_m]Ciaran[/name_m], [name_m]Eamon[/name_m], [name_m]Alistair[/name_m], [name_u]Quentin[/name_u], [name_m]Raphael[/name_m], [name_u]Shiloh[/name_u], [name_u]Winslow[/name_u], [name_u]Sparrow[/name_u]
)