Time for another “Name I Feel Like I Made Up, But Likely Didn’t: Abelson. It’s not even in my book of 50,001 baby names, which stretches (“Must! reach! 50,000! mark!”) to include such names as Eleven and Eccentricity and Ecru.

The name Abel is so great: strong but gentle, and a pleasing word association with “able”. Plus, he was the nice brother of the Cain and Abel scandal. Unfortunately, the Cain-‘n’-Abel thing is kind of hard to beat, nice brother or not—especially for someone who has a brother. The “Am I my brother’s keeper?” joke is likely to get old.

How about THIS, though: Abelson. It’s got the Abel part, plus it’s a surname name. It has the sound of a name of old standing (even though I’m pretty sure it isn’t), rather than of a modern invented name. It’s strongly boyish, but without sounding overly tough-guy.

Yesterday we discussed the baby name candidate Brando. Today I have another name I feel like I thought up: Schroeder.

The comic strip Peanuts is what made me think of it. The names Charlie, Lucy, and Violet are all back in style, and I think Sally and Frieda are in our near future. Schroeder is a possibility for parents looking for something truly uncommon.

1. The name has a pleasing association in Charlie Brown’s friend Schroeder, a sweet and sensible piano player.
2. It sounds a little like the already familiar Schuyler/Skyler—though it’s a soft c rather than a hard c.
3. It has the popular “er” ending, as in Archer and Tanner and Tyler and Carter and Cooper and Hunter and Parker and Sawyer.

Unlike the name Brando, this is a name I’d like to use myself if it worked with my surname, which it doesn’t. What do you think of it? Would you use it? Whether you like it or not, do you think it has Name Potential?

You know how sometimes a name will seem to come out of nowhere? The Baby Name Wizard uses the example of the name “Keaton,” which a whole bunch of people “made up” all at pretty much the same time. The author Laura Wattenberg writes:

Our tastes, which feel so personal, are communal creations. Keaton? Well, it’s a surname ending in “n,” a style parents are flocking to for fresh ideas that sound like classic names. K in particular is a hot first letter. And don’t forget that almost every parent today grew up watching Alex Keaton on Family Ties. So…thousands of parents across the country have independently “invented” the name for their kids. …It’s frankly unnerving to discover that the quirky name you’ve always just happened to like is now a chart topper.

OMG, don’t you LOVE her? Insights like this one have CHANGED MY LIFE, and completely changed the way I think of names. And it’s the same with name revivals: names that have been used before, but not recently. YES, I “thought of” Sam and Max and Joe, and then “suddenly they were everywhere.” YES, I thought Isabel was a really pretty and unusual name, and then “suddenly everyone was using it.” This is how it WORKS. I felt a lot better once I realized there was no avoiding it except by giving your child a name everybody hates—and even then, you may find you’re just a decade ahead of the coming trend.

All of this is an introduction to a name I “thought of.” It’s a name I FEEL LIKE I came up with all on my own, which means that ALL OVER THE NATION other parents are inventing it too, and in fact I’m sure it has already been used.

Ready? Here it is: Brando.

1. It’s a shortened version of the name Brandon, so it has that “familiar but fresh” feeling.
2. It brings to mind tough, handsome, manly Marlon Brando.
3. It has the cool O ending.

Well? Well? What do you think? For me, it falls into the category of a neat name I would recommend but wouldn’t use in my own family because it doesn’t coordinate with our style. How about you? Do you think the name has potential? Whether you like it or not, does it seem like it could be A Name?