Type-inspired baby names?
Here's a semi-serious idea that actually could happen, depending ..
Two of my oldest friends are 5ish weeks away from having their first baby, and they're nowhere near a sense of what to name the lil pup. They're both designery and bookish, and quite like type. In fact, she's sitting across from me and just exclaimed "Pica! We'll name it Pica! Or .. Franklin!"
So, if you had to choose a type-inspired name for a baby, boy or girl, what would it be?
All the reasonable guidelines apply, for example nothing unpronounceable or humiliating. Like, not 'Slug'. :)
thanks!




29.May.2008 1.55pm
Pica is no good..it is also "a medical disorder characterized by an appetite for largely non-nutritive substances (e.g., coal, soil, feces, chalk, paper, etc.)" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pica_(disorder)
how about:
Chase
Em
Bezier
Aldus
Hrant
Ula (EULA)
Ogonek
Pi
29.May.2008 1.56pm
pica would be cute as a nickname, but can you imagine getting to grade 1 and finding out the meaning of your name:
pica, 1/6 of a inch, an archaic form of measure.
wow, great.
if I could name a little bundle of joy after type-related things I'd consider:
Cooper
Eric(a) (as in Gill, as in Gill sans and Eras)
29.May.2008 1.57pm
And pika the homonym is a little rodent!
I like Em and Ogonek. :)
29.May.2008 2.05pm
Lest we forget the obvious . . . Mark . . .
And personally we were very seriously considering the middle name Pilcrow for one of our own . . .
Didn't make the cut . . .
:D
29.May.2008 2.54pm
If 'Slug' is out, then so is 'Creep'? (Daddy: "Where is my little Creep? There is my little Creep!")
How about Cicero or August?
One of the leader linguists from France is Pierre Pica -- as a last name, that calls for a "Cicero Pica". Can't think of anything with the metrics system. "Millipica" ... sounds like a kind of bug -- the insect type.
29.May.2008 3.29pm
Bonefolder.
Edit: Sorry, that's a bad answer, but I couldn't resist. I'll put some better choices here as I come up with them.
29.May.2008 3.27pm
Cicero and Agate!
29.May.2008 3.28pm
'Bonefolder' has considerable humiliative qualities!
29.May.2008 3.29pm
Chancery?
29.May.2008 3.35pm
Dingbat, when naughty
:)
29.May.2008 3.39pm
Dot
29.May.2008 3.41pm
Serif
29.May.2008 3.59pm
River
Ascender
Kern > Kerner > Kerny
Typo
Case
j a m e s
29.May.2008 4.09pm
Kerny! :)
Lubalin
Willow
Velvet
Kepler
29.May.2008 4.46pm
I would just call him Font and for a nickname fontfont.
29.May.2008 5.05pm
Our second son is named Dash.
-=®=-
29.May.2008 5.07pm
or foot foot…
29.May.2008 5.34pm
Kernelius
29.May.2008 6.05pm
Verdona
Sansie
Python
Helveta
Zapffy
Hyphen
29.May.2008 9.54pm
I always though Galliard would be a nice boys name.
Cheers, Si
30.May.2008 12.03am
Adrian
Renner
Fedra
Jenson
Oz
Lino
Mistral
Caslon
dr
30.May.2008 12.14am
My favorite so far is Kernelius! How about Shifty Kernelius?
Tilde
Glyph
Iota
Breve
Eta
Ellipsis (Ellie or Ella)
Ampersand (a fine middle name, no?)
Akkadian
Nineveh
Trema
Umlaut
30.May.2008 1.24am
Typo
for parents who wish they weren't going to be parents
30.May.2008 3.43am
Well, there is this story that Gerard Unger's Flora was named after his daughter, as it had been suggested by Hell, the company who initially published it.
What's almost unbelievable is that a few years later he met someone who told him they had named their daughter Flora, like his font, after looking for inspiration in a type specimen book!
30.May.2008 4.49am
Kennerley or Kennerly. Please, no Pica :-) If a boy, Cícero. Congratulations for the parents.
30.May.2008 6.12am
Lydia[n]
Arial
Palatino/a
Finial (Finn)
In a few days we'll be naming our first daughter Johanna. Sadly, not a) after the font Joanna, b) after Gutenberg, c) after Johanna Bilak. Though I might tell her a combination of those things when she's older.
Her middle name will be Margaret, and a few people have pointed out we could very well nickname her JPEG.
30.May.2008 7.14am
I teased Tiffany that she should name her kid EULA - it comes from Faulkner as well.
30.May.2008 8.17am
Tympan, Tympani
Brayer
Verso
Gute
30.May.2008 11.41am
If twin boys - Cooper and Bookman. They could be a crime-fighting team when they grow up.
30.May.2008 12.06pm
Love these:
Finial
Nineveh
Sansie
Russell has a son named Dash! I'm impressed!
To my ears: Cooper = Pooper Scooper. :)
30.May.2008 12.48pm
Pronounce the double 'o' in Cooper like the double 'o' in foot. Cooper.
30.May.2008 12.57pm
Clever
30.May.2008 12.58pm
Platen
30.May.2008 1.17pm
Caron
Macron (Mac for short)
Trajan
Hint
Sans
Oblique
The last reminds me of the movie Runaway Bride (which, um, my girlfriend likes) where Richard Gere's journalist had a cat named Italics! :)
30.May.2008 1.23pm
Oh, I think that Paica, or Pyca, is a substitute to Pica.
30.May.2008 1.23pm
oh thats the best. hee! :)
imagine yourself in the lane, banging on a tin of tuna with a fork, calling 'Italics! Itaaaaalics!'
and whose cat is named Bembo? Jim Rimmer?
30.May.2008 1.44pm
Sluggo from the old Katzenjamer kids cartoon.
ChrisL
30.May.2008 1.47pm
Majiscule has a very royal sound to it
30.May.2008 2.17pm
the father-to-be has just suggested Lucida, Lucy for short
brilliant!
31.May.2008 2.43am
or akzidenz?
31.May.2008 7.02am
>the father-to-be has just suggested Lucida, Lucy for short
Lets hope the baby isn't too tubby - Lucida Grande - not so good. ;-)
31.May.2008 8.55am
Trajan kind of works because you could call him Trey for short.
31.May.2008 10.45am
"or akzidenz?"
Middle name would be Grotesk?
31.May.2008 5.48pm
sweetie, you *were* planned, we just *liked* 'akzidenz'!
1.Jun.2008 2.52am
Caron > The Caron Carpenter Story
j a m e s
1.Jun.2008 6.48am
Kis
Goodchild
Serif
Freight
1.Jun.2008 6.27pm
Great post!
If it weren't for my level-headed wife, our three daughters would be named: Serif, Zuzana and… Orphan (she doesn't like me very much).
2.Jun.2008 4.14am
Auntie Em.... Auntie Em .....
2.Jun.2008 5.06am
You could tell us the surname so we could fit them better together (kerning-wise too).
I'll try going through Bringhurst's glossary of characters (some serious, some joking):
Cedilla (for a girl, perhaps)?
If the baby was redhead you could call him/her Dumb Caret (not sure it's “^” or another one I'm missing)!
Or maybe Dumbquotes! :P
Dyet (“Đ”)? :P Dyet Coke!
Ethel (“œ”)!
Hedera (ivy leaf fleuron)!
Háček (caron, inverted circumflex like over the lc C) or Kroužek (ring), a nice pan-european feel to it…
Solidus (fraction bar)?
Well, not Sputnik…
Nor Swung Dash!
(Going through to the glossary of terms)
Well, not Bastarda!
Bitmap? :P The other day I was suggesting Pixel for a friend's cat.
Well, certainly not Lettrine! xD
Quaint is kind of nice and original…
Well, then you've got names of designers and their typefaces… if they have any preferences, they could try and go with those. I really like Columbus, for example, designed by Patricia and David Saunders and Robin Nicholas. But I guess calling a kid Columbus would be a little too “cumbersome”.
2.Jun.2008 7.49am
"Tympani " I love it!
Emma, Enna, Delta, Small Fry,
Colon, Branch, Gee-Gee, Sweet Pie.
Cheers!
2.Jun.2008 8.45am
For a girl - how about
Lucida or Maiandra
For a boy - Viking or Monaco, Arno or Eyrie (very Hollywood sounding)
Gill sounds quite masculine too.... but Gill Sans could be a problem if the family was Mr and Mrs Balls.
Good game!
2.Jun.2008 10.26am
For a boy:
Fertigo (he could have nicknames like Fer, Fertie)
Caslon
Basker (Caslon and Basker could be some two gangsters or so)
Benton (sort of Ben Ten..)
For a girl:
Meta (maybe Metanelle?)
Jannon ("hey Jan, wanna go to the prom with me?")
Tyfa (cool for 3d movie)
2.Jun.2008 11.02am
I'm really glad no one has started a thread on type inspired porn star names or font-related Star Wars names... ;-)
2.Jun.2008 11.29am
> a thread on type inspired porn star names
or something like...... :^)
Commercial Strip
Van Di[j]ck.
ITC Eros
2.Jun.2008 11.55am
Actually Ruben, that's a good idea .. so at the risk of shining a brighter light on them, the baby's last name will be 'Odwak', so what would you pair with it?
2.Jun.2008 3.31pm
VOLT would be a nice name if your baby comes with some open type features. ;-).
2.Jun.2008 4.05pm
Geez. Odwak? :P
Well, I really liked “Quaint”, actually. So if they're not afraid of having an eccentric kid (not only that, I guess they'd have to be really confident), Quaint Odwak actually sounds really good to me. I like eccentric. And it also seems to make sense! A quaint is something “attractively unusual” (according to askoxford.com) – appart from the typographic meaning, of course –, and then you've got “odd” and “wack” or “whack”… I think it's a cool name to have! Although it probably wouldn't fit a girl very well.
And it has unusual letters, too… a name with a Q, a W and a K? That's sweet! But of course, this kid's going to have to live with that name, I don't know how that would be… :P
I'm also a big Seinfeld fan, and the George character wanted to name his kid Seven. Seven Odwak doesn't sound that bad to me. Nice for a girl! :P
How about Bell(e) Odwak? Trinité Odwak? Tilde is like Tilda Swinton, the actress, so it's less “different” if they're not into something too weird… I like Zuzana, too. I think Odwak isn't hard to pair with other names.
Guess we could go on forever… how about getting them here and we'll all brainstorm together?! :P I think we'd all love to help choose a typographic name for a kid! :D
(Long S. Odwak? Nah, that'd just be cruel… :D)
2.Jun.2008 4.17pm
Eureka
Absara
Morgan
Stella
Rongel
Merlo
Renard
Fedra
Charlotte
Sorry. I'll stop, now. :P
2.Jun.2008 5.40pm
I agree with ilovecolors, Meta would be a pretty sweet name.
3.Jun.2008 12.06am
Trajan would be a cool boy's name. What about Ampersand? :D I'd like to see a bully come up with a good name-rhyme tease for that! Maybe if you went ala Prince and spelled it ‘&'.
3.Jun.2008 6.02am
Pearl or Ruby, if small.
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Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster's stopped working.
3.Jun.2008 6.17am
David:
Colon is not good. In spanish Colon is the last section of digestive system and its the Columbus name too. So, bad in both ways. LOL.
Call it Open type so you could nickname him "hey, O.T., wake up!"
3.Jun.2008 6.23am
^ Same in English. I wondered about that, but maybe the last name was Oscopy? Who knew?