Permaculture Baby Names

I'm at that point in my life where the thought of children is in the air. I'm in a lighthearted mood today and an idea came to me.

What names are out there that are (or could be) inspired by permaculture?

The first one that comes to me is Bill.

It is a common name but Bill Mollison... I mean what a guy!

You should host a poor-man's poll to name your baby! :-)

Sprout
Brooke
Ash, Ashley
Ivy
Forrest, I went to school with a Forrest Green ..
Basil
Tansy, my Aunts name
Flower names, like Lily, Rose, Zinnia

William David (after Mollison and Holmgren)
Herb Spiral
Poly Culture (Hugo Culture if it's a boy)
Ruth Stout
Zone Two
One Straw (Revolution)
Synergy
Edge
Guild
Sepp
Paul

Permies Dot Com -- maybe call her Dot. :)

Christopher Weeks wrote:
...
Synergy
...

I thought of that, but it doesn't shorten well...

I'd probably go for Forest. Or anything tree-based. Hazel, maybe. Or Rowan.

Burra Maluca wrote:

Christopher Weeks wrote:
...
Synergy
...

I thought of that, but it doesn't shorten well...

Yeah, some of the "weirder" ones might make better middle names than firsts. Rowan Synergy Norton rolls along nicely and most people don't really advertise their middle(s) anyway. I can imagine people being averse to calling their child "Syn" because of the homophone Sin.

For girls, a flower name, Rose (Rosie), was very popular in my family.
For boys, OH... Thomas sounds good...

My youngest daughter's middle name is Rain... Cause it's pretty and we are always praying for it.

Flower names for girls are always popular.  One of my niece's middle names is Marigold.  I guess if you want to be really unusual you could do Comfrey.

Edit:  I also think Willow is a pretty girl's name.

thomas rubino wrote:For girls, a flower name, Rose (Rosie), was very popular in my family.
For boys, OH... Thomas sounds good...

I was about to say I didn't get it ...  Then I did.

Christopher Weeks wrote:
Yeah, some of the "weirder" ones might make better middle names than firsts.

Agree, and exactly what we did for both of our kids. Nice normal first names and odd middle names. Equipment used in the sport where we met and not Permaculture related, but this was almost 40 years ago.

Story time: My mother's given names were Margret Elizabeth. And for whatever reason, their parents treated it like a double barrel name and called her "Margret Elizabeth"... until she was an active preschooler when they shortened it to "Molly Beth".

Then she was sent to a Catholic School and the nuns word was law. They decided Molly Beth was too long, and shortened her name to Beth.

This led to complications, so when she married and started a family, all three of her daughters were given single syllable first names.

Fast forward to her attending Adult Evening University classes and one evening the Prof asks at the beginning of class, "Who's this Margaret Blank person? She's never attended a single class!" My Mother stuck up her hand.  The Prof's response was, "How on earth do you get Beth out of Margaret?"

Fast way forward to her being a non-verbal dementia patient in long term care. The staff all called her Margaret. She didn't respond to Margaret.

There's no way to be perfect with anyone's name, but when you're thinking of naming your kid, "Moon Unit", consider that some kids can swing with any name, but some kids can't.  I have a friend whose name often doesn't fit on Gov't forms. Think of her in Grade 1 when she had to struggle to write it all, when the kids with 4 letter names were on to the task they were assigned. Think of how it will sound when some bully intentionally mispronounces it. Try to predict the future, when the name, "Gay", suddenly takes on a very different meaning. Consider their perpetual frustration when they have to spell it three times for the clerk to get it right.

Please, for my mother's memory, be kind when naming your children!

“Excuse me, Swale? Is this Swale Farmer?”

That is a name that would not be likely to pass on Permies sadly.

I like flower names. Pachysandra, a medicinal herb and plant I love, could be shortened to Sandy or something like that for instance.

Char? Frog?