Thematic Naming

hipposhorts

Hi everyone! I've have been lurking on this board for a few days,and I finally decided to post after reading the brothers named Easton and Weston thread. I know theme names are as a general rule very tasteless, however I really like the idea of naming future sons Archer and Fletcher (which means basically one who makes arrows) is this an obvious theme or is it subtle enough to work? Also, would the repeating -er ending be too much? I seriously love both names, but I certainly don't want to be one of those people who treat their children's names as they would their children's birthday parties, all about cutesy themes. I'm not trying to create drama or anything just wondering.

HannahO28

ah.... don't worry about creating drama. We're not THAT scary. Are we? 

I think the names are a little too themey for my taste, but it's not something I would side-eye if someone else name their kids that. Unless they were twins, I would probably think that's a little much.  If there was a girl mixed in there somewhere I might not even notice. 

hipposhorts

Thanks ladies I have really enjoyed reading all the thoughtful posts on this board, they're oh so much classier than the posts on many other naming boards. Regarding the names I'm not totally in love with the similar endings of Archer and Fletcher myself, but I'm such a name lover that they are only two names off of an ever growing and changing list, so it's not a big deal if I have to throw them out entirely and they could always go in the middle. 

lilygirl

I'm not a fan of thematic naming, in general. However, I think that, like pp, most people don't know the meaning of Fletcher.

Side note: DD is Georgia. I had to make the decision to use that over my grandmother's name, Virginia, which I absolutely love. I felt like we would have had to go to the West Coast for child number 3. 

AsOctoberFalls

I don't know the meaning of Fletcher, so I would not have picked up on the theme.  However, I don't like the double -er endings.

cmeinla

You could use Archer as a fn on DS 1 and Fletcher as a mn on DS 2.  Then you get to use both names, and don't have to worry about the matching endings.  Nice names though, and it probably wouldn't bother me to see them both as fn.

 

ps I was a little scared when i first clicked on this post to open it, so to see those two normal names was pretty funny, compared to the horrors I was expecting. Again good job.

starlight8323

It would be one thing if they both just ended in -er, but they actually both end in the -cher sound, which in my opinion is too much. And they don't even have differing long-vowel sounds in the first syllable to break things up. This is a definite no-go for sure.  

But there's no need to scrap both names as you mentioned. Just pick one of them. (I know it can be difficult to just pick one, when you are a big name nerd like us!)

Welcome to the BNB! That wasn't so bad, was it?

jiffy-pop

I like Archer and Fletcher! It's not an obvious theme, even though DH and I shoot bows at archery tournaments all the time!

braveangel2

Themed names are one of my naming interests, especially for multiples. I prefer the much more subtle (example: Michael and Eleanor or George and Matteo) to the more obvious, and Archer and Fletcher are pretty obvious to me. We've even had a poster a few months ago bring these up (and the thread also mentioned Hunter and Ryder - I'll see if I can find it).

On their own, Archer and Fletcher are obviously masculine, easy to say and spell and each is an occupational name. So I don't see any strikes there. I suppose you could also argue that they won't be in the same household forever, so Archer's colleagues may never know the theme or that he has a brother at all (unless he's like me and blabs about the sibling all the time...in a loving way of course.)

Here are a few things to consider with name themes. Most importantly, are you going to box yourself in? What guarentee do you have that you're going to have a boy, much less two? I stumbled on a really good link the other day about this, and I think she says it better than I could:

https://www.nancy.cc/2009/12/21/dont-commit-to-a-name-pattern-until-you-read-these-3-tips/

zaramarie81

braveangel2:

Themed names are one of my naming interests, especially for multiples. I prefer the much more subtle (example: Michael and Eleanor or George and Matteo) to the more obvious, and Archer and Fletcher are pretty obvious to me. We've even had a poster a few months ago bring these up (and the thread also mentioned Hunter and Ryder - I'll see if I can find it).

On their own, Archer and Fletcher are obviously masculine, easy to say and spell and each is an occupational name. So I don't see any strikes there. I suppose you could also argue that they won't be in the same household forever, so Archer's colleagues may never know the theme or that he has a brother at all (unless he's like me and blabs about the sibling all the time...in a loving way of course.)

Here are a few things to consider with name themes. Most importantly, are you going to box yourself in? What guarentee do you have that you're going to have a boy, much less two? I stumbled on a really good link the other day about this, and I think she says it better than I could:

https://www.nancy.cc/2009/12/21/dont-commit-to-a-name-pattern-until-you-read-these-3-tips/

Love this article. Btw, speaking as a twin. I was so, so, SO thankful that my parents did not give us an obvious theme or rhyming names. The only pattern was that the last letters of our names matched (first and middle). It's so subtle I didn't notice it until I was an adult.

citychicks

I like Archer and Fletcher, but Easton and Weston are nms. I have an Archer and though I wouldn`t use Fletcher because of that, I wouldn`t side eye anyone who did.