I stumbled over an odd aspect of English while recently trying to write a limerick that dealt with a less-than-flattering personality trait. I needed to come up with a man's first name, two syllables long, and with the accent on the second syllable.

Doesn't seem to be too difficult a task, does it? I thought for a bit and could only come up with "Ramone," a name I didn't want to use since there was no reason to make the primary character in this piece Latino and, moreover, using that name could have invited the misunderstanding that I was trying to make some point linking Latinos with the negative personality trait in question. I thought for a while longer and "Jose'" came to mind but that was no better.

Bringing up one of those "name your baby" websites, I found one put out by the Social Security Administration which lists the most popular baby names given to children in the U.S. by year. Choosing a year at random, I brought up the list of the 500 most popular male names given. "Ramone" and "Jose'" were there as were "Miguel" and "Raul," all Latino and unusable for the reason I've stated. Other two-syllable, second-syllable-stressed male names given were "Tyronne," "DeWayne," "Lamont," "Darnell," and "Lamar." Now, despite the fact that Tyronne Power (1950s movie star) and Lamar Alexander (U.S. politician) were/are decidedly not African-American, those five names pretty much are.

And that was it. Nine names out of 500 and there's not a Caucasian name in the bunch. This strikes me as extremely odd. Anyone have any idea as to why this might be?

I've no idea, CJ. I too have tried to come up with 2-syllable boy names with a stress on the last syllable and have failed miserably. I went to the site that neveu recently posted and quickly found a girl's name that would work..."Breanne," which leads me to ask: Is there a difference between girls and boys in this?

This question causes me to lament on how our world has changed. Political correctness has become so important that we have to use names that sound Caucasian for fear of offending others. While I agree completely about the need to use a Caucasian name in this situation, it is a sad commentary on our society, at least in my opinion.

I've been thinking about this and it seems to me that most of our two-syllable words (in the US) are accented on the first syllable. Many women's names were derived from men's names. We took the man's name and modified it in some way to create a woman's name; for example by adding a suffix (Robert, Roberta; George, Georgette or Georgiana), or changing the spelling (Francis, Frances; the source I'm going to cite, though, says Francis can be either masculine or feminine). It seems there is usually a shift of accent, also. In the man's name the first syllable is accented; in the woman's name the second syllable is acented. We also sometimes change the pronunciation of a vowel. For example, when the masculine Brian becomes the feminine Brianne (or Breanne or some other variant) we change the i from "eye" to "ee," as well as shifting the accent and altering the spelling. The only two-syllable woman's name that I can think of off hand that is accented on the first syllable is Rachel . The only two-syllable man's name I can think of that is accented on the second syllable is Bernard , though I think it might be different in England. I went to this site and entered two names that were male and female counterparts, and I got the etymology. In some cases female names that I thought were derived from male names turned out to have a different etymology. I found out I could enter a word that I was pretty sure wasn't a name, but was close to one, and I would get a list of names. For example, I entered Boran and this is what I got.

Tinman

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This fits a general rule of English phonology: nouns don't have final stress, unless they end in certain heavy suffixes (engineer, referee, legionnaire, masseur, balloon). There's a small number of exceptions such as police, regime, cheroot, canoe.

Female names are often derived with a stress-seeking suffix: Georgette, Francine.

The suffix -a isn't heavy enough to attract stress. What's happening in Robert ~ Roberta is that both are following the normal rule, and assigning stress to the penult, as in basalt, and aroma or verandah.

The two names Bernard and Maurice are notably given final stress in the USA, but given the normal stress pattern elsewhere.

quote:

The only two-syllable woman's name that I can think of off hand that is accented on the first syllable is Rachel .

How about Mary, Susan or Carol? Or Catherine (we don't pronounce the middle "e" over here) and its variant Kathryn? Some older names such as Kathleen or Beryl are accented on the first syllable.

quote:

There's a small number of exceptions such as police, regime, cheroot, canoe.

And of course, in the UK, moustache (spelt mustache and pronouched with the stress on the first syllable in the USA).

and its variant Kathryn?

Or even its deviant: Cathryn?

Robert and Richard would work if you pronounced them the French way, but I think perhaps Bernard would be a better choice. Its second-syllable-stressed version isn't unknown over here, and an author's note would suffice to point people in the right metrical direction.

What an interesting topic though! I'd never even considered, let alone noticed, this before!

quote:

Originally posted by Dianthus:

quote:

The only two-syllable woman's name that I can think of off hand that is accented on the first syllable is Rachel .

How about Mary, Susan or Carol? Or Catherine (we don't pronounce the middle "e" over here) and its variant Kathryn? Some older names such as Kathleen or Beryl are accented on the first syllable.

Yes, since I posted that I've thought of many more and wondered how I could be so dense. I know a Kathleen and a Nancy, so I don't know why I couldn't think of them.

Tinman

At any rate, aput very successfully answered the question: Maurice and Bernard.

They are certainly Caucasian sounding, though they do sound a bit Jewish. I hope that's okay!

I've since scrapped the limerick as simply not being good enough, the kind that travels for five lines and ultimately goes nowhere. I'll keep Maurice and Bernard in mind for the next time this comes up. Thanks to all.

BTW, I had heard that "Apple" is a very popular girl's name right now, so I looked it up on neveu's site. It doesn't seem to appear there at all. Have any of you heard of the name "Apple" for a girl?

Only for Gwyneth Paltrow's baby. I have nothing against unusual names if they're aesthetically pleasing (subjective, I know), but 'apple' to me isn't even that nice a word - at least, not for a person's name.

Better than banana or satsuma though, I suppose.

Apple Blythe Alison Martin was born on May 14, 2004 in London.

Tinman

There seem to be large numbers of vegetative female names:

Fern, Rose, Hyacinth, Olive, Holly, Jasmine, Lily, Cherry...

But I can't think of a single boy's name of that ilk.

Joaquin Phoenix changed his name to Leaf for a while (the story goes he wanted a name from nature similar to his siblings River, Rain and Summer).

Now there are names that I wouldn't mind giving to a child - I've often thought about Liberty (the fifth Phoenix sibling). I like the meaning and the sound - and of course, it can be shortened to Libby to avoid teasing if necessary.

Rowan (though I don't know if it's from the tree).

Basil
Forrest (Forest)

Tinman

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Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Simon, Garfunkel ...

Frank Zappa's kids are named: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva Muffin.