10 Weeks: Name Game - Syllables & Cadence

My friend Martha made a good comment on my Name Game - How-To post, regarding syllables in kids' names. She is of the opinion that, to prevent shortening and lengthening of first names, two syllables is the optimal number for a kid's first name.

I don't necessarily disagree, but I don't think you can really prevent people from inventing little nicknames, regardless of how many syllables. Nicknaming is less about shortening than it is about making something accessible, easy, less formal. My name, Waldron, has only two syllables, yet people have been wanting and trying to call me Wally and Waldo forever. I fully expect August to have to spend some effort fending off Auggie... or accepting it, which I hope doesn't happen!

So as an addendum to my How-To post, here are some guidelines on syllables and cadence, some of which I had previously touched on in my Rules post, back when we were still searching for a name.

• An odd number of syllables is more rhythmic
  

The normal speaking cadence in English favors an odd number of syllables. If your last name has an even number of syllables, then you're in luck, because you can make it so that no matter what "version" of your child's name someone is using, there will be an odd number of syllables.

The three main "versions" of identifying a person are First (Eliot), First-Last (Eliot Faulkner), and Full (Eliot Watson Faulkner). If first-middle-last goes odd-even-even, then each version will turn out with an odd number of syllables.

Many will note that we didn't follow this advice ourselves. Just goes to show that all advice and wisdom must be taken with grains of salt and weighed against other factors. In our defense, I will say that having all the names use the same number of syllables creates a rhythm all its own, especially in the Full version. And that our son's name has the feel of a quarter-note for each name... August is just two eights and Eliot is two sixteenths followed by an eight... both have the same duration, really.

• Keep stressed syllables separate

Assuming you agree, why do you think Lainey Faulkner works and Elaine Faulkner doesn't feel like it works as well? Again, because of the rhythms we tend to use when speaking in English, it's best if the stressed syllables in a name are separated by one or more unstressed syllables. AUgust WATson FAULKner flows. But eLAINE FAUlkner doesn't. It's not a knock on the name Elaine, which is beautiful, but it works best when paired with a last name which doesn't begin with a stressed syllable. For example, it works great for my friend eLAINE mcCLAY.

It's all because, in English, we swing our speech... think iambic pentameter. Elsewhere, speech has more a "march" feel, or a jungle beat feel, or something else. They all call for different cadences and therefore, names don't always sound ideal across languages. We prefer Elaine, with the downbeat on LAINE. Elsewhere, they prefer Elena, downbeat on EL. Cadence matters, and it's cultural.