Odd Thoughts

Name Game Since I read

Name Game
Since I read Bart's post about naming, I've spent some time thinking about the
sorts of reasons people have for naming their children. I came up with 4 reasons
(in no particular order): sound, meaning, ethnicity, history (whether familial
or broader historical context). Obviously in America the sound of a name takes
precedent in most cases. I can't deny that sound was the primary reason for the
name we chose. Most of the reformed/intellectual sorts tend to argue for meaning
and history as the best reasons for choosing a name, but I've been wondering if
that position is missing something. My question is mostly directed toward the
linguist sorts among us (Courtney Huntington, Jeremy Wilkins, Doug Jones, Matt
Greydanus), but everyone should feel free to give their two cents. Anyway,
here's the question: what role should the sound of the words have in child
naming? It seems that J.R.R. Tolkien put a lot of emphasis on sound when he
created his various languages, and the same reformed/intellectual types referred
to above love to talk about sound in poetry and the way certain words fit
together.