Lately I’ve thought a lot about what different people consider to be a long name vs an average name, and what factors play into this. Is is about syllables, amount of letters, or maybe just about how much space it takes up written down? Does it differ between names for different genders? Is it something else entirely? I made a little survey to see if we can find a Nameberry consensus!
What do you think makes a name long?
- Amount of syllables
- Amount of letters
- How much space the name takes up
- Something else
If you think syllable count matters, how many syllables does the shortest long name have?
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6 or more
- It differs depending on gender
- Something else
If you think the amount of letters matter, how many letters does the shortest long name have?
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12 or more
- It differs depending on gender
- Something else
If it matters how much space the name takes up, which of these Aa-stretches represents how long the shortest long name is?
- Aa
- Aaa
- Aaaa
- Aaaaa
- Aaaaaa
- Aaaaaaa
- Aaaaaaaa
- Aaaaaaaaa
- Aaaaaaaaaa
- Aaaaaaaaaaa or longer
- It differs depending on gender
- Something else
And a few comparisons that made me think of this. You may not consider any of these names to be long, others might. This is mostly to make it more concrete with real, familliar names. Please choose whichever you instinctively see as longer:
- Aurora
- Brooke
- They’re the same length
- Amalia
- Alexandra
- They’re the same length
- Emma
- Ella
- They’re the same length
- Annabeth
- Benjamin
- They’re the same length
If you have something more to say, please feel welcome to share it! This applies extra if you answered “Something else” to any of the questions!
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I think for me, it’s the amount of syllables and amount of space they take up, however, something that also influences it for me is how unique the name is. If it’s more in use where I am, it doesn’t feel so ‘long’ - it just doesn’t have the same grandeur or impact.
So [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f], [name_f]Olivia[/name_f], [name_u]Benjamin[/name_u], [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] or [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] for example don’t feel long to me, but [name_f]Lavinia[/name_f], [name_f]Ilaria[/name_f], [name_m]Evander[/name_m], [name_u]Peregrine[/name_u] or [name_f]Hannelore[/name_f] do?
2 Likes
For me, it also matters what it’s paired with.
If [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f] is [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f] [name_f]Eve[/name_f] [name_m]Jones[/name_m], it makes more sense to me for it to be [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f] instead of [name_u]Vivian[/name_u] whereas if it’s [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f] [name_f]Anastasia[/name_f] [name_m]Quintavius[/name_m] then it seems longer (although in this example [name_f]Vivienne[/name_f] seems to balance the mn more? So maybe idk what I’m talking about…)
I also agree with @Greyblue that unusual names seem grander if they’re longer.
2 Likes
this is super interesting to ponder! my youngest sister’s name is 4 syllables but only 6 letters, and my parents thought it was so long that they deliberately chose a short middle name to balance it out (even though my surname is only 1 syllable). in contrast, my legal first and middle name are 3 syllables, and 7 and 8 letters, respectively.
I think my sister was born on the cusp of when long names stopped being automatically shortened in the US. for instance, I have 2 students who have 4-syllable names, and while I have shorter “pet names” for them (like, names I use endearingly), it feels comfortable calling them by their full names. but my sister was always (and probably always will be) her nickname to me. I can’t imagine calling her by her full name, it just feels too long 
1 Like
For me it’s about how many sounds each syllable contains?
For example, [name_f]Alexa[/name_f] isn’t long. It’s not short either, it’s just average. It consists of 5 sounds and 3 syllables. The first syllable has one sound, the second has two, and the last one also has two.
[name_f]Erzsébet[/name_f] is also 3 syllables, but 8 sounds, so it instinctively feels longer, and I would call it a long name! The first syllable has one sound, the second four, and the last three. It takes more effort to say.
The look of the name does also play a role (for example, if [name_f]Erzsébet[/name_f] was spelled Erzébet, it’d feel shorter) but the number of individual sounds is my main criterion!
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Any name over three syllables feels long to me 
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Voted something else because its any/all of the above for me. All three are contributing factors but in some cases one is enough to make a name feel long. For example, I voted for a 7 letter minimum but [name_f]Aurora[/name_f] still feels pretty long because of the 3 syllables.
For a name to feel too long to be usable its more about flow (unless the name literally has too many characters to fit on your governement’s forms). [name_f]Evangeline[/name_f] [name_f]Artemisia[/name_f] [name_f]Louisa[/name_f] Lastname doesn’t feel unusably long even though its 14 syllables long because it flows nicely to me but something shorter that doesn’t flow could feel too long because its difficult to say the whole name or it just feels like a list of random names next to each other and not a cohesive name.
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I think how long a syllable sounds makes names long or short.
Like if the same sound carries on for a while
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