Somewhere an unborn child might be named Vendetta. From my blog stats:
Good sir or (more likely) madam, do not do this! Either the name is way too outrageous with way too may negative connotations, or I want it for myself.
May I tempt you with Siren instead? My friend and I came up with that one in high school, and after lengthy arguments we decided she could claim it. Since then it’s only become more fashionable, with two-syllable names ending in “n” just approaching the cusp of popularity. It’s easy to pronounce and spell, and has a nice base in mythology that sounds kind of intellectual.
Maybe this is a total overreaction, but you can’t ever be too cautious with something as important as names.
On a related note, I came up with one of my favorite recent additions to the Words That Would Be Good Names If They Weren’t Already Words list (or whatever I call it): Havoc. Victor says it sounds unidentifiably foreign, but it’s still nice except for the lack of any decent nicknames.
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
May 12, 2008 at 3:18 am
Manjack Berlin
Havoc was on the short list of pseudonyms I’ve played around with. Havoc Clark was sadly too harsh on the ears and I couldn’t do it. Johnny Havoc was a considered alias but sounded way too made up; unlike Haven Sinclaire which won out. By the way, Havoc as a name is clearly eastern European in nature. Havoc Petrov has a great ring to it. Especially if said in a Slavic accent. And “Oc” is a solid nickname albeit one that one that if used more than Havoc would push the kid into collecting bugs and reptiles and be an overall oddball. Maybe going by O.C. would be better for the kid’s social status especially if a girl.
Come to think of it, Havoc’s going on the short list of names that I’m going to give my children to boost their chances of becoming a superhero. Because you can’t be a superhero without a really cool name or one easy on the ears.
May 12, 2008 at 4:03 am
torhatestheinternet
Oooh. Siren has such negative connotations, though.
Then again, that’s the point of all good words that ought to be names, throwing aside meaning for phonetics.
Havoc is indeed a tough one for nicknames. As someone who has never really had a nickname that stuck too much (Vex and Tor have lasted the longest so far), I’m a huge fan of just mangling names to make good nicknames. My personal favorite is Havvy. Although Vock might function, too. Hav is a candidate, but it sounds too much like “have,” unless you clip the H.
May 14, 2008 at 3:13 am
Lisa Waananen
Counterthoughts: If you like the name Vendetta, negative connotations of Siren clearly wouldn’t bother you much more … O.C. could have been cool for a materialistic girl like four years ago … Havoc does sound eastern European, I was thinking that, it sounds like Fievel’s tougher cousin; it is actually of Old English/Germanic origin … the appearance of Manjack Berlin reminded me that place names are the best for awesome pseudonym last names, though Berlin would also be a trendy first name for the same reasons as Siren.