In the true spirit of type, we took all the letters from both of our names and tried to see how many new names and words we could come up with. Some weren’t very positive - but they’ve all made it into the baby book for better or worse. None were among the final candidates.

I always liked the Seinfeld episode where “Soda” was George’s favorite baby name and someone stole it. I think Seven was another. Also as in Seven (of nine) - can’t go wrong there. I’d have to leave of Emma (from Friends) not high on my list.

Albie’s is a local watering hole and the first place we met for drinks - so Albie was a placeholder name until Riley was born. Wiggle was her first Word It.

The toughest part is getting past all the nicknames. Charlie was one from your list. Enjoy - it’s the best collaboration you’ll ever work on.

Thanks, Don. After long dinner conversations and minimal research, we can't come up with baby names for girls that have some brand association—except Wendy, of course.

I dug through all of my type catalogs looking for a good name for my daughter. Our 2yr-old daughter was a rock-paper-scissors away from being named Cooper.

Hobo probably wouldn’t create a lot future aspirations.

No on Hobo. And definitely no on Cooper. Whoah. Talk about brining up some bad images...although, there's no such thing as a bad—nevermind.

A good rule of thumb for naming babies is to yell them one at a time outside in the street loud. Stellllllla!

Hey, what's wrong with Salty?

Oh, Salty. You're so crunchy.

I can't believe you passed on Whipple.

Am I to assume "Speedy" and "Mr. Peanut" are still on the list of possibilities?

Bibendum Tselentis is a name that will never tire.

(Sorry...I'll leave now.)

Being the father of FIVE children, I've gone through this most painful episode a number of times.

Maybe I could open up a baby naming business with all this experience! Like those branding companies. Yeah, that's the ticket!

I could charge a fee to dig through your family history and analyze you and your spouse's personality and deliver the perfect baby name! Something that fits your both your family heritage AND your aspirations for the child.

Man, I'm gonna' be so rich.

Bibendum

I had no idea that was the Michelin man's title. What a great find.

What is Mr. Peanut's first name? Talk about a million dollar question.

What is Mr. Peanut's first name? Talk about a million dollar question.

I thought is was Salty?

Salty—as in Mister Salty—was the spokesperson (puppet) for Nabisco's brand of Mister Salty pretzels. I remember him around the 80's, competing for my attention against the likes of the Weaver squirrel (chips and crackers), Blue Bunny (ice cream), and Bessie the Cow (Roberts Dairy). Since living and traveling outside the Midwest, I've yet to see those brands or their respected characters. Perhaps they're in the brand graveyard.

I've always found that the best first names are typically last names, like — Taylor, Cameron, Murdoch, Carter, etc.

For my daughter, we took my wife's maiden last name — Meli�n, switched a couple of letters around, and came up with Melina, which means "honey" in Greek.

I wanted to name our son Marcus, but got vetoed. Mason won out. Again, last name as first name.

Brand-wise as names, I always dug Levi, Macy, or Brooks.

Lame name for the book, but some good selection of uncommon names.

Cool Names: for Babies

You could go with a typographic name and call a boy Aldus.

Aldus sounds better than naming a child Macromedia. (I can't believe I'm having this conversation.)

How about Georgia?

No. Wait. That is taken by Sam's cat. Darn!

Macromedia is definitely out, although -- if it's a girl -- Dreamweaver has a nice hippie, early 70's feel to it.

Please, no more Macromedia names! Too many memories. (Although the name of the corporate font "Vonnes" might be nice... Ugh! No. No. Out damn spot!)

Speaking of "V" names, I was always fond of Victor for a boy, ya know like Victor Hugo. But my wife has put the total kibosh on that name cuz it reminds her of Victor Newman. Damn you Y&R!

Georgia's nice, so is Verdana.

Don't forget Monaco.

Or hey, how 'bout Shelley or Minion?

How about "Stig". It's the name of the Swedish food-company ICAs leading man in their docu-like TV-spots.

Other fine brandnames is Konsum (chain of cooperation food stores), Scandic (hotels), Telia (phonecompany), Posten (Swedish postal service).

In Sweden we got a really lame law which is prohibit the use of generic names or brand names and all other names that could be "bad for the person named". And parents, and people eager to change their own name, is put up to some sort of legal lottery trying to get through with a name that isn't "swedish wellknown".

Didn't Tibor Kalman name his daughter Lulu Bodoni? And his son Onomatopedia?

If so, that's radical. Only Tibor.

Brand and names:

Nike

SoBe

Frito-Bandito

Didn't Tex Avery draw the Frito Bandito?

Jumping in late since my oldest (6 yr. old Isabella is sick, catching what her 3 yr. old brother Liam had a few days before.

Anyhow, as far as names go we had made a list of five before Izzy was born. And I swore that I wanted a girl named Zoe—didn't know what we were having but we spent more times on girl's names—but when I first held the unnamed baby just seconds after she was born, one look into her eyes and she was an Isabella. (She's named after my wife's great-Aunt Isabelle and her middle name Sabina) came from my great-Aunt Sabina who was murdered during WW II.

Liam's name was just one we liked (my wife is of Irish descent) and his middle name, Joseph, was my father-in-law's first name.

And honestly, they both seem to be perfect fits for their personalities.

Correct, Frito-Bandito animation was done by Tex Avery. First created in 1967 by Foote, Cone and Belding. Growing up in the 60s and 70s I liked the Frito-Bandito, but somebody or some group considered the image not PC, it was replace with W.C. Frito.

Have you seen the Baby Name Wizard?

Jemima?

I love the name Carter. I know so many people with that name (including new babies) that I feel like in a few years it'll be common... Remember when you were in elementary school and all the Michaels went by their last name's initial? "No, not Michael S., Michael C."

Tangents. For girls I love the names Audrey and Isabelle. In junior high I was convinced Neaera was the perfect name ever for a girl. (some random sea nymph's name from a Greek mythology-inspired short story.) Now I'm thinking not.

It's a peeve of mine when parents name thier children ridiculous things. Like Apple. Or Pilot Inspektor. (Why, Jason Lee, WHY??) I feel bad for little Pilot.

While watching City of God I thought Rocket was an adorable nickname for a boy. This after watching Salaam Bombay for the umpteenth time and loving the nickname Insect (the Hindi actually literally translated to Cockroach but Insect as it was written in the subtitles is way cuter.)

Remember when you were in elementary school and all the Michaels went by their last name's initial? "No, not Michael S., Michael C."

Okay, so now they’ve grown up and it’s Michael B., or Michael V., etc. Oh to be one of the Michael’s.

As far as female brands - or at least household names; Jemima, yes and what about Betty (Crocker or Rubble)? Or Wilma, Alice, Lucy? Dinah? Oprah?

And lest we forget, a brand fresh outta the joint; Martha.

Don, I commend you. How obvious! Those are great, and yes, Oprah is a brand too these days. We could also throw in Contadina, La Bella San Marzano, Famous Amos, Land O' Lakes, the Corn Maiden, Rastus (Cream of Wheat), Nestlé Abuelita, Mary See (See's Candy), Marie Callendar, Aunt Millie (Pasta Sauce), Betty Crocker, Sun-Maid, Little Debbie, St Pauli Girl, and (of course) Gerber.

Oblivious to the obvious? Not me. I like to hang right out there on the surface ;).

A great look at the brand family, courtesy of Dmitri Siegel.

well now's the time to link to the Baby Name Voyager (Java required), to find out how popular names are, or were. I love putting a name like "Sunshine" in and watching shoot straight up through the 60s, then vanish by the early 80s.

btw, Speak Up folks, "Armin" and "Bryony" didnt even show up, but it looks like "Gunnar" has undergone something of a huge surge in popularity, starting in the early 80's, after dropping off the chart around 1910...

META!

btw, Speak Up folks, "Armin" and "Bryony" didnt even show up

Not that I am entirely surprised. They are hard to come by, even in super-large baby name books. Although I do show up in the http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9017836&query=bryony&ct= " target="_blank"> encyclopedia and thehttp://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=bryony&x=15&y=15 " target="_blank"> dictionary.

What to do?

Bryony... I like that name. Surely, my wife would disagree with using it. And for the record, children are a long way down the road for us, but it's fun thinking of names, "brands" or otherwise.

i wish that Baby Name Voyager thing was working for me. Although, I betcha my name won't even be anywhere near the system.

I was meeting friends in Chinatown this past weekend and saw those keychains/belt buckles/license plates that are readymade personalized along Canal Street. I always remark to my boyfriend how I know that I'll never find my name on those but I always check. Sometimes I'll see names that I haven't seen before like "Hunter" or "Devin" and be encouraged that I'll find a "Priya"... never do.

I caught a glimpse of a few while we walked by and saw a Tom, Thomas and Tommy. Lucky.

Poor Pilot and Apple. They won't find thier names there either.

Fred, the Dunkin' Donuts guy. Ronald McDonald. Mrs. Dash.

Thanks Jason. :-)

;-)

Here are some to cross off the list right away. Milton, Saatchi, and Landor,..Crispin? I have always thought I would search for a baby name from jazz musicians. Miles, Parker, Chet, Ella, Billie are obvious ones that come to mind or Ornette and Errol.... more unique. One of my personal picks (don't steal it) would be simply, BRAND for a boy. It also sounds good in front of my last name. I feel sorry for the kids with the trendy names. The Taylors, Tanners, Brittanys, and Calebs...George Lopez always throws in one of these when he impersonates Caucasians.

Dell (computer)

Monte (del monte fruit)

Libby (libby's fruit drinks by nestle')

blue (m&m's) haha

Trix or Trixy (trix the cereal)

Tony (the tiger)

Milo (nestle' beverage)

Tony's the only one that I'd go for in that list. And isn't it ironic that Candy lists a lot of sweet names. (Except Dell.)

Before our son was born, Allyson and I went through two name books to find the right name for our son "Matthaeus" . Our first pick was Nesta Kalani Cortez. Nesta was Bob Marley's middle name and Kalani means "Heavenly" in Hawaiian but that did not workout. While we could not decide on a name we just prayed that our son just be healthy. So we figured when he's born than we'll give him his name. On December 13, 2003, Kalani Matthaeus Bailey Cortez was born. Kalani means "Heavenly" in Hawaiian and Matthaeus which is another name for Mattew means "Gift of God". We call our son by his middle name "Matthaeus" because he is just that a Gift of God to us. He is now two& half year old and learning his letters and to write his first four letters of his name.

how about puma™

Pronounced

pú • ma

or

py • ma

?

Frito-Bandito rocks for a name--why not? I can see it in lights.

Tony (the tiger), now that's a name with bite.

Very Nice�. Wouldn’t be the same without the �

I may have to upgrade to Don�, although I think it’s been in use long enough to qualify for Don �. I think a trademarked baby name elevates the baby naming process, and reduces the potential for encountering similar names. Plus growing up in our litigious society, there will undoubtedly be many opportunities file suit and earn a potential income by protecting your name.

Think of the potential havoc you could wreak among DMV and government employees trying to typeset the character on their forms. Sounds like a lifetime of fun.

Yeah, Don. It's bad enough that some names are hard enough to pronounce.

Asked what love is, 4 year old Billy said “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouths.”

At any age when we love someone we make the extra effort to say their name correctly.

Don Julio’s comment is:

I think a trademarked baby name elevates the baby naming process, and reduces the potential for encountering similar names.

While you're at it, it would be wise to develop Identity Standards for your newborn, so as to avoid their brand being diluted or besmirched. Is your baby a Mrs Eaves, or an Helvetica? earthtones or electrics? Are white socks allowed at all times, or only when set against dark trousers? ;)

I'll offer up Arlo Ian (Arlo Guthrie and Ian Anderson were the inspirations for this moniker) which was never actually considered for my son, but I kept bringing it up since my mother could not say it wihthout laughing out loud.

Identity Standards for your newborn

Brilliant - with a good standards program they would never need to grow up and fall victim to Trading Spaces, Queer Eye, or What not to Wear - unless of course they were hosting the show.

Little “Helvie” is off to a good start. Be careful to avoid a set of guidelines that are too rigid - or you may sabotage their future success with excessive counseling bills, or spawn the next David Carson in rebellion.

My Friday conflicted names to avoid:

Massimo Carson, Rand Chantry. I do like Girl Friday tho’.

To make sure the kid gets accepted to the best schools:

Great name with questionable references,

Felix Courvoisier

An excellent brand,

Johnnie Walker

Maybe too Francish, but nice sounding,

Maurice Hennessy

A home grown, down to earth, guy, er... brand,

Jack Daniel

An exotic sounding favorite,

Bombay Sapphire

The sexy Swede the admen, and women love,

Absolut Tselentis

Quite classy sounding and smart,

Beringer Blass

If you want a bubbly kid,

Perrier Jouet

With this you could call the kid Tan,

Tanqueray

Cute. Very cute.

I'll take myself in a Gibson, dry, w/ two pearl onions, please. No hurry...

Mahalo

Hey Tan, did you get a chance to read the hemp article here on SU? See if you can get some paper made out of Maui Waui. I'll be the first to spec it for a big print run. Enjoy your time in paradise brah.

Speaking of paper and ink, I just caught a very good article in Digital Imaging Techniques by Don Julio. Good points Mr. Julio.

Paper and Ink would be a great set of names. Like Dweezil and Moon Unit. Old school. Where have all the good names gone?

Thanks Blue, I think ;)... I haven’t seen the final in print yet myself.

Pebbles? or Bam Bam?

Yabba-DABA-do!

I'm trying to convince my friends to go with Bastian Viceroy Vickers-Kane.

Bastian is there choice, I just added the Viceroy.