rec.arts.theatre.musicals

MaryLyon wrote:
> Greetings;
>
> I'm delighted to announce that I'm in "production" for a new event
> which should debut somewhere around March 17, 2008. So far so good,
> I'm feeling well, getting a little belly, and of course, we are very
> excited!

Congratulations!

>
> Now, here's the hard part. We are not going to learn to gender of the
> baby, and we are having a hell of a time coming up with names if it is
> a boy. It would be so great if we could find the perfect name
> somewhere in musical theatre history, but we are coming up short -
> Irving, Ira, Frank, Harold and George just don't work for me! Stephen
> is a possibility, but I am not crazy about it.

Thanks :-P Myself, I quite like it!


> So, put your thinking caps and give me some suggestions! I'm open to
> names of directors, composers, lyricists, actors, or characters. Here
> are my criteria:
>
> 1. Must be more than one syllable. We have a one-syllable surname, so
> we need two or more syllables for things to sound best, at least to my
> ear.
> 2. Nothing too popular, but nothing too weird. I was one of multitudes
> of Amys in school, so I don't want my kid to be put through the same
> experience. By the same token, I don't want too strange a name -
> sorry, Fiorello's off the list! I'd prefer something classic that
> perhaps is not in common use at the moment.
> 3. Surname begins with "L," so first name should not end with "L" -
> this bothers me.
> 4. If possible, I'd like a name that doesn't lend itself to nicknames.
> For example, I'm partial to Charles, but don't want to be fighting
> everyone's urge to call him Chuck for the rest of my life.
>
> C'mon gang, show me what ya got!

In theory, if *you* call a hypothetical boy Charles, and the rest of
your family call him Charles, and he introduces himself as Charles,
people should call him Charles. Unfortunately life doesn't always work
that way. It's certainly (from experience) an issue with Stephen - it's
fairly common for people to call you Steve, even if you introduce
yourself as Stephen (and I think it's *incredibly* rude, about as rude
as rude gets, to call someone by a name other than that by which they
introduce themselves).

I rather like my nephew's name - Nathan. My nephew has nothing to do
with musical theatre (he likes theatre a lot, in fact, but doesn't go to
many musicals - but then he's only 8, he only gets to go to the theatre
when my mother or his Dad are available to take him), but there's Nathan
Detroit, I suppose - you did say characters. And it doesn't lend itself
to nicknames (oddly enough, my brother's name is Nick, well, Nicholas...
which I wouldn't recommend, as a small child people called him Nicky,
and he *hated* that, though now as an adult he never uses his full name
- totally the opposite of me).

Adam is also a nice two-syllable name that doesn't lend itself to
nicknames - musical theatre relevance, there's Adam in "The Apple Tree"
and Adam Guettel.

Are you planning to give a middle name as well, or just to stick with a
Christian name and a surname? (My Dad refused to give my brother and I
middle names on the grounds that he hated his... on the other hand, my
grandmother has always gone by her middle name because she hates her
first name).


--

Stephen

All the power of the sonic is now yours... so don't let the cat sit
on it, 'cos you *really* wouldn't want that.