Help me pick a name that doesn't rhyme!

February 9, 2013 10:04 AM

I am expecting a baby boy, and we have a slight problem when it comes to giving this kid a name. Our last name, Hadley, rhymes or sounds sing-songy with the only names we like. Help!

I have three favorite boy names:

1) Leo (my husband hates this one, so it's out...just want to give you an idea of naming style)
2) Henry - so our kid would be named Henry Hadley. Is this preposterous or kinda cute? I definitely don't want our kid to have a "funny" name.
3) Charles (nickname Charlie). Is Charlie Hadley too many -lee sounds?

I'm looking for your gut reaction as to how these names sound with our last name, as well as any suggestions of similar (classic, old man) boy names.

posted by anonymous to human relations (66 answers total)

They're all fine. Realize that kids will make fun of pretty much any name you pick.

I am currently trying to convince my husband that "Miles" and "Silas" are the best names for baby boys. See if you like those.
posted by trunk muffins at 10:07 AM on February 9

Jonathan
posted by royalsong at 10:07 AM on February 9 [12 favorites]

I like Henry Hadley. I'm not sure about Charlie Hadley, but I like Chuck Hadley.
posted by payoto at 10:08 AM on February 9 [7 favorites]

Henry and Charlie both create full names with overly strong "ee" sounds. What about Otto, Miles Samuel (nicknamed Sam, not Sammy), Winston, John or Mark?
posted by runningwithscissors at 10:09 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]

Will Hadley
Ben or Benjamin Hadley
James/Jack/Jim Hadley
posted by 2bucksplus at 10:09 AM on February 9 [5 favorites]

I like Henry Hadley. It sounds like a character name, but in a good way.

Oliver is one of my favorite names for a boy. Oliver Hadley sounds good without being in any way cute or singsong-y.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 10:10 AM on February 9 [7 favorites]

Samuel Hadley
George Hadley
Lincoln Hadley
Andrew Hadley
posted by murfed13 at 10:14 AM on February 9

My gut reaction is that both Henry Hadley and Charlie Hadley are excellent names—simple, strong, enduring, and not at all too rhymey or sing-songy. I think both are much better names than some of the less-common alternatives in this thread. Congratulations and good luck!
posted by cribcage at 10:14 AM on February 9 [19 favorites]

As a Chuck myself I like the sound of Chuck Hadley.

What about Lamarr?
posted by humboldt32 at 10:17 AM on February 9 [7 favorites]

I like Jonathan too. "Jonathan Hadley" sounds good, and if he prefers, he can go by "Nathan Hadley" or "Jon Hadley" when he's older.
posted by essexjan at 10:19 AM on February 9 [7 favorites]

Also, I read somewhere that the names people remember best are four- or five-syllable names. A four-syllable name is sometimes called a "Frere Jacques" name - so Henry Hadley or Charlie Hadley would fall into that category. A five-syllable name is an "Eleanor Rigby" name, which Jonathan Hadley would be.
posted by essexjan at 10:21 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]

You might want to avoid any name or nickname that ends with "s", because it will run into the last name and sound like "Sadly".
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:23 AM on February 9 [11 favorites]

On our baby/old man name list: Simon, Eric, Martin, Philip, Oscar, Patrick, Felix (the husband was not going to go for this, but it is my great-uncle's name and I love it)
posted by Maarika at 10:24 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]

Jules Hadley

humboldt32: "What about Lamarr?"

That's Hedley.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:25 AM on February 9 [8 favorites]

Aaron, just because I've always liked that name and, if one of my twin daughters had been a son, I'd have used it.
posted by uncaken at 10:28 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]

Michael. Mike Hadley sounds like a bad-ass.
posted by jabes at 10:29 AM on February 9 [3 favorites]

Wyatt.....
posted by pearlybob at 10:30 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]

Julian.
posted by Wordwoman at 10:32 AM on February 9 [4 favorites]

I think Charlie Hadley is great. Not enough Charlies around these days.

What about substituting Hank for Henry?

Joseph (or Joe)?

George?

Jack? Jack Hadley has a nice repeated vowel sound.

You could go throught the list of US presidents for a good sampling of old-fashioned names. Hey, how about Rutherford Hadley?
posted by scratch at 10:33 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]

Sing-songy isn't bad. It's practically what every person who changes their name for a showbiz career wants to aim for. They're memorable and simple and clear. Keep!
posted by Miko at 10:39 AM on February 9

We had the exact same problem as our last name ends with an ee sound. We chose the name Owen for our son since it wouldn't rhyme and had no known nicknames.
posted by Leezie at 10:43 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]

Some names I like with Hadley:

Edward
Thomas
Paul
Mark
Matthew
Robert
Douglas
Gordon
David
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:45 AM on February 9

I love Henry, but it's insanely popular right now. He'd be Henry H. for a long time. I think Charles/Charlie sounds fine.

Other names that might be your style that sound good with Hadley: Kenneth, Trevor, Lucas
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:48 AM on February 9

Kevin
Miles


The problem with "Henry Hadley" is the double "ee" sound, not the H's. But the only "H" names I can find that would work are Hogan, Homer, and Howard. Actually, I like Howard.
posted by DoubleLune at 11:03 AM on February 9

Nicholas. Nick!
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:11 AM on February 9

I've known the name Henry Hadley for years (I've even got a few of his records) and it never struck me as funny or not euphonious. Plus you've always got the Hank option.
posted by in278s at 11:25 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]

Not a fan of "Leo" (more because of DiCaprio than the sound, though I also think it's too many long-e sounds for one name,) "Henry" (long-e,) and Charlie-as-nickname. I'm not a huge fan of nicknames, though - I'd call a baby named Charles "Charles." All the time. And I have a strong preference for mixing up hard and soft consonants and long and short vowels: I use my middle name a lot in part specifically because it has my only long vowel.

I also like, from those listed above by other posters: Kevin, Miles, Thomas, Matthew, Joseph, Michael, Simon, Phillip, Patrick, Benjamin, James, Nicholas, Luke/Lucas.

Names I like (musically) that I don't spot above: Andrew, Walter, Arthur, Louis, Francis, Leonard (full name only,) Warren, Edwin, Lewis, Cecil, Allen, Parker, Oscar, Everett, Stephen, Glen, Alexander, Edmund, Nathaniel (Nate may be OK,) Franklin, Donald, Neil.

I don't mind the "S"/"sadly" thing - I don't think it's as bad as a lot of other things out there, kids almost always find something to pick on and I'd rather it be "sadly" than freckles/weight/etc., and this particular one can be fixed fairly easily with a solid nickname if the teasing gets bad. However, please make sure the initials don't spell something that will hurt. It was next to impossible to escape "spa" and "sap" with the kids in my class (I was SPA, my best friend was SAP.) My mother gave my youngest half-sister on that side of the family a second middle name, and deliberately avoided having any of her three given names start with a vowel, just because this happened to me (and our middle sister - vowels in the middle are extra bad, BTW.)

As far as strategic/meta issues are concerned:

One of my friends from church let all of us (he has 800 Facebook friends) vote on potential names using Qualtrics - normally I'd be a little worried about this tactic, but it seems to me to be a perfect solution to the "does this sound odd to people" problem.

It was really simple: you just got a giant list of pairs of names and had to pick which one in each pair you liked better:

Christopher Hadley vs. Marcus Hadley
Marcus Hadley vs. Charlie Hadley
etc.

At the end, he got a report showing the rankings - it was basically just like KittenWar, but with baby names.

My only recommendation beyond that is to please, please, please pick something NOT in the top 10 for the last decade (or any recent top 5.) Because half the girls my age were named either Jessica or Sarah, and there were three Brians (and two Esther Kims) in my elementary school class. This is the list of top 5's for the US for the last 100 years, and the top 200 for the the 2000-2009 period. Oh, conversely, here's the "old man" lists: the top 200 for the 1940s, 1930s, 1920s, and 1910s.

(Also, along the same lines, stay away from the names of lead characters in Twilight, Hunger Games, etc., or anything on this list. This is why you can't name your baby Jacob or Edward - and I'm very sorry, because they're lovely names that would work beautifully here.)
posted by SMPA at 11:30 AM on February 9 [3 favorites]

Oh, and Rupert. I need to stop perusing these lists right now.
posted by SMPA at 11:32 AM on February 9

It's a little hail-fellow-well-met, but Chuck Hadley does have some 'oomph'. Seconding for consideration.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:34 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]

I narrowed down the baby names by having a set of rules (obviously adjust to your tastes).
1. Must not know anyone with this name (friends, family, or celebrity)
2. Must be a name that can be shortened, so he can choose which version to use.
3. Must not be in the top 10 names for the last 10 years.
4. Uncommon enough he won't be in a class with others with same name, but not so uncommon that people can't spell or pronounce it, or give him funny looks.

We ended up failing because both the names we chose appeared in the top ten list the same year we chose them, too late to change! Oh well.

Try typing your chosen names into the Namipedia section of the baby name voyager, so you can see sibling names (aka other names you might like). That whole site is excellent, and just the kind of data nerdery I love!
posted by Joh at 11:45 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]

it's very kind and perceptive of you to consider this, and I think you're right about a bit too much sing-songiness. (I wish my parents had put a bit more thought into how my first name worked with my last name.) My gut reaction to the double-ee names such as Charlie Hadley or Henry Hadley, is that they're a little funny, maybe not as strong or serious-sounding as your son might want when he gets older. With a last name ending in "ee" you might consider names that end in a consonant and/or have nicknames that end in a consonant, e.g. Nathan, Carlton, William (Will), Colin, Liam, Arthur
posted by asynchronous at 11:47 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]

I think names sound best when there's a difference in syllable count between the first and last name. So George Hadley, Theodore Hadley, Nathaniel Hadley sound better to my ear than Henry Hadley.

That said, nothing works better for a name than knowing an actual human being with that name. Forty years from now, Henry Hadley's friends wouldn't be questioning his name. People don't really think about names much over a lifetime unless the last name is Deere and the parents name him John -- things like that.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 12:05 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]

As soon as I saw the last name I thought "Ryan." Not sure why. So much so that I Googled it and it turns out Ryan Hadley is the (self?) proclaimed premier tattoo artist in Fort Wayne Indiana.

So still no idea where I got that, but my vote is for Ryan.
posted by sweetkid at 12:08 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]

Owen is a nice underused name.
posted by katypickle at 12:35 PM on February 9 [3 favorites]

Hank Hadley has a nice ring to it.

If you want other "old man" name suggestions : Harold, Ralph, David, Orville, Allen, Vincent.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 1:00 PM on February 9

Owen is a nice underused name.

Actually, Owen is the 44th most used name in America, as of the end of 2011.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:21 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]

Please name him Charles (Chuck) Hadley! That name has instant classic written all over it. Comedian, Senator, Lawyer, Doctor, Teacher... it just has a great ring to it. Charlie not so much, sounds too little-boy-ish.
posted by tk at 1:24 PM on February 9 [2 favorites]

Unquirky: Thomas/tom, Greg, Nathan.

Middle-of-the-road quirky: Glenn, Graham

Quirky: Milo, Gage

my favorite


I do not like Henry, nor do I like charlie. I noticed it right off the bat, and I got the same sensation as when I notice a picture is crooked.
I agree with the others that have stated that hard consonants go better with the soft H.
posted by FirstMateKate at 1:31 PM on February 9 [2 favorites]

Honestly, I think they're fine. I was expecting you wanted to call the kid Bradley or something. Those other ones are nice. Kids will always find reasons to pick on other kids - if the kid has an innocuous name, they'll just get called "Dickbag" or whatever, instead. Don't let it affect your thinking too much unless you're tossing up names like "Merlin" or something.
posted by smoke at 1:40 PM on February 9

I love Henry and Charlie and I think they sound fine with Hadley. That being said, how about Eli?
posted by Sal and Richard at 1:41 PM on February 9

Owen is a nice underused name.

Actually, Owen is the 44th most used name in America, as of the end of 2011.

So far we have yet to run into any other Owen's in two different daycares. The real test will be elementary school. In my day that was when you ran into the multiple Jennifers, Heathers and Jessicas.
posted by Leezie at 1:47 PM on February 9

What about:

Alexander Hadley
Christopher Hadley
Jasper Hadley

For some reason, Jasper came to mind because you seem fond of more substantive, classic names, and I thought I'd toss it in there. It isn't heard that often these days. I do like the sound of Charles or Charlie Hadley, but if you worried about the -lee/-lee sound, what about Chas as a nickname rather than Charlie? (Of course, your son may be a really decided little guy who will insist on being called by his given name, and you'll never have to worry about a nickname.)
posted by wolfgirl at 1:54 PM on February 9

I actually think all your original choices (Charlie Hadley, Henry Hadley, etc.) have lots of charm to them. I know this girl in high school named Roberta Machado, which was the most fun name ever to say and I always wished I had a name with a nice rhythm to it. Go for it. He'll make it his own.

The only drawback to soliciting advice on the internet, is that the advice you are likely to get is the names that are likely to be "Top 20 boy names" of the next year. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I do find some of the names currently en vogue slightly Little House on the Prairie-ish. The Lincolns and Abrahams are nice, but I'm not sure how long the style will last as something aesthetically compelling. He also may encounter a few Henrys at school, but then again Henry Hadley seems special in some way.

imo, Henry Hadley or Charlie Hadley could be the name of an author on a book with a nice cover, or a professor or something :-)
posted by mermily at 2:03 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]

I like Charles. Charlie is cute for a baby, but then you can transition to Charles, or Chuck, later on if he/you prefer. Henry Hadley is a bit rhymacious for my taste, and there aren't any obvious (to me, anyway) nicknames to diminish that if he doesn't like it.
posted by pie_seven at 2:33 PM on February 9

Heriot; (n.)
Old English here-geatwe (plural) "military equipment, army-gear," from here "army" (see harry). An Anglo-Saxon service of weapons, loaned by the lord to his retainer and repayable to him upon the retainer's death; transferred by 13c. to a feudal due upon the death of a tenant, payable to his lord in beasts.

or Addison.
posted by QueerAngel28 at 2:38 PM on February 9

My husband, who has strong opinions on names, says that Henry Hadley is ok but perhaps a little TOO memorable. OTOH, Charles Hadley, he says, is a fine strong name that any man would be proud to bear.
posted by KathrynT at 2:44 PM on February 9

Lucas would go well with Hadley, but I discarded it as being too popular (I know four Lucases aged 2 - 13). Max would also have been great, but soooo many young Maxes!

I am kind of in love with Colin as an option now. Colin Hadley, yeah.
posted by Sidhedevil at 3:02 PM on February 9

Since you're posting anonymously, it's difficult to know whether you're American, Canadian, British, or Australian (or other?). What is pleasant-sounding as a first name is definitely a cultural thing. For some reason I get a sensation that you might be British, and as some other posters suggested, the British names Trevor and Graham (both seldom used in the U.S.) go very well with Hadley. I personally think Henry is jarring with Hadley -- too much "H". Of your favorites, I suppose I'd say Charles sounds nicest with Hadley, but I'd keep calling him Charles and not introduce "Charlie." Best of all IMO would be a 3-syllable first name such as Jonathan or Benjamin (especially if you like Biblical names).

So many people give no thought to how a proposed first name goes with the last name. One of my brothers went to school with a boy named Ronald McDonald. Poor kid, must have been awful for him.
posted by RRgal at 3:03 PM on February 9

I know three Jaspers, aged 3 - 7. I also know two Hucks, ages 5 and 6.

Seth? Elliott? Craig?
posted by Sidhedevil at 3:04 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]

Oh, and Felix. I think more people should be named Felix.
posted by Sidhedevil at 3:05 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]

I've noticed more Olivers recently. Oliver Hadley is a great name, and it has the cadence common among famous people.
posted by cmoj at 3:07 PM on February 9

Heath Hadley has a nice ring.
posted by jaimystery at 3:29 PM on February 9

Mr. gudrun's view is right in line with KathrynT's husband in nixing Henry but oking Charles. He also offers up Stephen and Philip as possible options.
posted by gudrun at 4:35 PM on February 9

A little more out there, but not bizarre:

Archer
Jerome
posted by deborah at 4:38 PM on February 9

Max Hadley sounds cool.

I like one syllable names with two syllable last names. Of your choices, I like Charlie and it gives him multiple options (Charles, Chuck, Chip) if he prefers later in life.
posted by maxg94 at 5:11 PM on February 9

I agree that the consonance of the ee sound is too much, but ultimately you could have anything.

Byron Hadley
Walter Hadley
Chip Hadley
Brett Hadley
Alistair Hadley
posted by plinth at 6:40 PM on February 9

1. Ever since it was pointed out upthread, I cannot hear Charles as anything but "Charles Sadly" now.

2. I recognize that naming is a delicate process and there are all sorts of factors to consider, such as grandparents, friends with that name, cousins, siblings, etc ...but man do I strongly agree with the Jonathan recommendation.
posted by estlin at 9:31 PM on February 9

I like the cadence of Ian Hadley. For some reason, I think "Sir Ian Hadley" and that just sounds perfect.
posted by kinetic at 5:15 AM on February 10

I like Nathaniel Hadley - Nathan Hadley - Nate Hadley

In the Bible, Jesus sees Nataniel sitting under a tree and says, "Behold, a man without guile." Not a bad trait to wish upon your child through his name.
posted by eleslie at 5:57 AM on February 10

There's an author in my field named Heidi Harley, and I've always thought she had the coolest and most euphonious name ever. It's definitely memorable, but not in a bad way.

"Henry Hadley" is basically the dude version of "Heidi Harley."

I say go for it.
posted by Now there are two. There are two _______. at 10:08 AM on February 10

Ethan Hadley
Ezra Hadley
Nicholas Hadley
Sherman Hadley
Zachary Hadley
Ellis Hadley
Oliver Hadley
Brett Hadley
Jeffrey Hadley
Samuel Hadley
Norman Hadley
Nathaniel Hadley
Nathan Hadley
posted by Dansaman at 10:40 AM on February 10

Ezekiel Hadley. Zeke Hadley sounds nice.
posted by runningwithscissors at 3:48 PM on February 10 [1 favorite]

Richard Hadley.

Although perhaps not if you are from a country that plays cricket, as Richard Hadlee is a legendary New Zealand cricketer. If you're from the US then I would be confident that no one would ever pick up on that.
posted by jonnyploy at 9:29 AM on February 11

Hunter Hadley
Reed Hadley
August Hadley
Donovan Hadley
Leon Hadley
Sebastian Hadley
Oscar Hadley
Simon Hadley
Lewis Hadley

All of those sound awesome to me.
posted by anoirmarie at 1:56 PM on February 11

Logan Hadley
Quentin Hadley
Beau Hadley
Micah Hadley
Aidan Hadley
posted by deliciae at 2:23 PM on February 11

Gene. Gene Hadley. That's an astronaut name, right there.

But Charles is also good.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:28 AM on February 14 [1 favorite]