As many of you do on Twitter, Paul periodically brings me samples of interesting names he’s heard in the wild. Last night’s was a name he saw on an old newspaper clipping of a woman and a baby; underneath the clipper it said something like “Marvel Smith and her baby daughter.”

There are several things that make me enthusiastic about this name, despite it not being my personal naming style. The first is the association with Marvel Comics, which seems like it puts the name nicely into the category of names relating to science fiction, video games, and comic books. When I searched online for “Marvel Smith,” trying to find the clipping Paul saw, I found there is also a pro-football association with the name. I suspect there are many parents who would find it useful to lean on these selling points, if they loved the name but the other parent was not immediately sold.

The second is that it’s a positive noun name. There were 769 new baby girls and 13 new baby boys named Miracle in 2015; the name Marvel takes this concept down a notch while still being very flattering.

The third is all the name-like sounds. It shares sounds with (among others): Marvin, Marshall, Marcel, Marlon, Harvey, Martin, Marlin, Marcus, Margaret, Margo, Martha, Marley, Marlowe, Mario, Lamar, Evelyn, Velma—and of course all the -el and -elle names.

The current U.S. usage of the name is low and unisex: there were 14 new baby girls and 17 new baby boys given the name in 2015.

To me, Marvel seems like a nice choice for parents looking for a surprising/unusual unisex noun name with positive associations. What do you think of it?

Dear Swistle,
We are having the hardest time naming our THIRD BOY! We need help! We have a Rory and a Luca, both inspired by our world travels. Rory came from Ireland and Luca came from Italy. My husband likes the name Trey and I like Penn but both names we don’t love. If it was a girl we would name her Rozlyn no question. But since we found out it’s a boy, and with our due date approaching rather quickly (end of August) we feel pressured to find the perfect name for our baby boy Richardson! We are very overwhelmed and would love any input from you or any of your readers! Thank you!!!
-Tacy

My guess is that you are out of locations to draw inspiration from, or you would have mentioned them. Well, if you DO have another country to draw from, I’d start there. It’s a fun theme. Perhaps a country you PLAN to visit some day?

If not, I’d still be inclined toward international-sounding names. And since both Rory and Luca are names with at least somewhat unisex usage in the United States (Rory more so than Luca), I might also look for other names that were not boy-only, or that had the sound of not being boy-only. This is a very assorted sort of list, but this is the kind of thing I’d be considering:

Beau
Cael/Cale
Callan
Darcy
Drew
Ellis
Emil
Finley
Grey
Ian
Joss
Jules
Julian
Kai
Kellen
Kian
Kieran
Landry
Lane
Lee
Merit
Noel
Quinn
Rhys
Sage
Shea
Teague
Zane

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Hi Swistle,

We are expecting our 3rd little boy and are in need of a B name. My husband and I are Ben and Brittany Bradley and we have 3 children: Brennan, Bailey, and Brock Bradley. We feel B named out at this point and are struggling with a name for our 3rd boy. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Brittany

My guess is that by now you have been through the B section of the baby name book so many times, it’s somewhere between unlikely and impossible that I will think of a name you have missed. But sometimes crowd support for a name can help move it ahead of the pack, so let’s make a list and see what everyone likes best.

Baker
Barnaby
Barrett
Baxter
Beau
Beckett
Beckham
Bennett
Benson
Bertrand
Blaine
Blaise
Blake
Boston
Bowen
Braden
Branson
Brant
Brecken
Brett
Bridger
Briggs
Brigham
Broder
Brogan
Bryant
Bryce
Bryson

My favorites are:

Baxter Bradley; Brennan, Bailey, Brock, and Baxter
Beckett Bradley; Brennan, Bailey, Brock, and Beckett
Bowen Bradley; Brennan, Bailey, Brock, and Bowen
Brogan Bradley; Brennan, Bailey, Brock, and Brogan
Bryant Bradley; Brennan, Bailey, Brock, and Bryant
Bryson Bradley; Brennan, Bailey, Brock, and Bryson

Swistle,

I read your blog religiously and am constantly looking for new and/or unique baby names to add to my collection of names. I currently have a 3.5 year old girl named E11ery (last name is the capitol of Alabama)- you actually helped me out with a middle name dilemma when I was expecting her. While we are currently not trying to conceive due to some life transitions, it won’t be much longer before we try to expand our family. At one point I pictured having two to three children but I’m currently 34 years old so I’m guessing we will only have one more due to my age. Anyway, I really hope that our next child winds up being a girl as well but as you know, we have no control over that. We have a name picked out that we would like to use for a future girl and that is R0zlyn. The reason I’m writing you is that I JUST came across the name Laedyn (it belongs to a little girl) and LOVE it which leaves me wondering a couple of things. I’ve never heard Laedyn as a first name- only as a last name spelled Layden or as the adjective spelled laden. Is this usable as a first name? Does it sound more like a girl’s name or a boy’s name or is it completely unisex that one would not be able to guess the gender based on the name? Furthermore, does it pair better with E11ery than R0zlyn? I’m sure you will make mention that it sounds very similar to Lakyn or Leighton (both have various spellings) and both are pleasing to my ear. I searched your blog to see if anyone had suggested this name before and no one had! I would love to have your thoughts on this name and would love a poll!

Sincerely,
Ash

The basic elements of Laedyn work. It looks name-like. It sounds name-like. It would easily join the Aiden/Braden/Caden/Hayden group. The -ae- and the -yn make it feminine. The nickname Lady would be super cute.

Despite these promising signs, however, I wouldn’t recommend it. The first issue is the word “laden”: “burdened” and “weighed down” are not positive associations. The second issue is the connection to the sexually-charged word “laid.” And the third issue is that we already have the name Leighton, which dodges the first two issues: changing it very slightly doesn’t seem worth it in this case.

To answer your other questions: If the name were spelled Laedyn, the -ae- and -yn would make me assume a girl (and I do think that’s a very pretty spelling); if it were spelled Laden or Layden, it would be too unisex for me to guess. The Layden spelling would lean feminine for me because of Layla, but there are plenty of boys named Brayden and Hayden, so I wouldn’t be at all confident.

I hesitate to say it pairs better with E11ery than R0zlyn does; I do think so, but I hesitate to say it because it seems like an endorsement of the name. It’s not enough of an issue to make me want to use it, but both Laedyn and E11ery have a unisex/surname/modern sound, while R0zlyn is a very old name and distinctly girl. But E11ery and R0zlyn are fine together, and before recommending the name Laedyn for purely style-coordination reasons I’d come up with a long list of other options (Finley, Piper, Brinley, Campbell, Delaney, Linley, Teagan, Hadley, Gracen, Kinsley, Devany, Locklyn, etc.).

Let’s have a poll to see what everyone else thinks:

[yop_poll id=”69″]

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