Excellent work with the verb names. You all are submitting terrific entries, including such favorites of mine as Claude and Mame (hey, I’m a crime writer). We’re up to well over 100. You’ve also come up with a bunch I hadn’t thought of. Favorite new submissions:
Piers
Niels
Rex
Iz
Gussy
Rowan
Roger (in UK usage this is pretty saucy!)
Ang
Ade
And my favorite so far… Jocelyn!
But there are still more out there, and nobody has yet hit on my all-time favorite. If anyone does, I will use his or her name (the winner, not the verb) as a character in my next book or story. Come on, do it!
UPDATE: So you’ll know I’m serious, I have told my editor my favorite verb name. If anybody gets it, she’ll verify!
Hot damn, Meg, you sure can up the stakes. I guess I’ll go retire to the couch with a print-off of the comments and a Baby Name Book (though why the heck do they call them Baby Name Books anyway? Unless somebody really has it in for the next generation.)
Tuck, is a guy at an antique store in Charleston — short for Tucker probably
Tab, short for Tabitha
Tag
Fawn
Blu, anyway, I think that’s how Cher’s son spell’s it.
Reid, actually have two friends with this one
Ben — a past participle?
Cain (cain you or cain’t you?)
Kel
Jazz (former student)
Roman
My plane is loading, so for now….
Hoke — yes, a verb — and the character who drove Miss Daisy
Spring — into action is what she did, though only those of us over 80 remember
the actress Spring Byington….
Didn’t she play Marmee in one of the versions of Little Woman?
Anyway….
Pen
Barb
Karen (dropped ‘g’)
Simone (see, moan)
Even (as spelled on page 239 of the trade pb edition of Kill Chain)
Beryl (let’s beryl on outta here)
Grace
Bet
Marge (for those who don’t care for butter on their toast)
Max (to max out)
Momo (shortened to Mo, it could be “I’ll mo the grass this afternoon. Come to think of it, Moe would also work for this one…)
Rose
Tara (don’t tear a hole in your new jeans!)
Ty (short for Tyler)
My comment has vanished. I guess I’ve been mistaken for Spam again.
Two more
Rolf (I’m not sure what it is, but some people pay to have it done to them)
Bertha (“I don’t know how to bertha baby, Ms. Scarlett)
Here’s a few:
Claude
Bea
Blanche
Brooke
Forrest
Hector
Homer
Lance
Paige
Phil
Russell
Shelby
Oh, and let’s not forget April, May and June
Sorry, I got a little carried away with this exercise and got off track with April, May and June. I do know they’re not verb names.
Sorry, I got a little carried away with this exercise and got off track with April, May and June. I do know they’re not verb names.
But I did forget to add:
Abbott
Don
Jimmy
Winnie
Treat
Chip
Okay, my brain is fried, but I think….
Cy, short for Cyrus (sigh)
Tally
Lane (lain)
Frank ( to frank a letter)
Slate
Brad (to afix with funny-looking little nails)
Sherry (as well as to add sherry, “to scurry, to run away” OED)
Marge
Ern (driver of the Knight Bus)
Art
Clark
Kent
Gert
Cora (how does one cora pear?)
Harold
Offa (Mercian king)
Olaf
Prince — has anyone mentioned it yet?
Wright, very popular a few decades ago.
Lurch, from the Munsters I believe.
Spike, as in Lee.
Flip, as in Wilson
Dash, short for Dashell.
Storm, as in Larch (the singer).
During the xmas season here in the southern US we go CAROLYN before SHARON our gifts…off-track, but hard to resist at this point.
And to think — I just stopped by to see where I could buy your books Meg, since my Barnes and Noble only had the most recent one — and look what’s happened….
Excuse me, I mean Dash, like Dashiell Hammett of course.
Harm
Wonderful words!
Leslie, I’m glad I sucked you into the vortex. I’m counting on a Southerner to really work those dropped g’s.
Werner, May does count as a verb name.
Susan, you’re playing dirty, using a typo from Kill Chain. But you get extra points for creativity!
Patti, step away from the Oxford English Dictionary… slowly, that’s it…
Taking the cue of Jocelyn, I came up with:
Brandon
Marion
Owen
Robin
Sharon
Søren
Waylon
Taryn
Badon (Luke, I’m just badon my time until something better comes along)
Katya (If I katya doing that again, you’re grounded!)
Finn
Tristan
Crispin
Ok, must stop. I’ve got the Head Crud and sore throat today and must toddle back to bed and languish for a bit.
My Dutch friend Niels has a friend called Wessel, which I’m told is pronouced with a ‘V’ sound at the beginning but I reckon we can get away with by double-you-ing (particualrly as I do weally wather enjoy wessling).
Guy in my office called Mussaddek; everyone calls him Muss. That counts, right?
Ralph/Ralf
I’m toying with the similarity of Agnes and agonise, but that may be too close and require a public vote
And Win, which I don’t think we’ve seen yet (someone else here must read Harlan Coben)
Cher
Jim–Win and Ralph are on the other page. I like Muss!
I had to go to the family bible for these….
Wade
Phail
Dred
Choke
Ouiser is a popular southern name — it’s a town, yes, but also the name of a character in Steel Magnolias. I don’t know if Vaupel’s first name is pronounced similarly — Ouise — but if so, then…
Ouise = Wheeze
A reach, perhaps.
Oh dear, seems I’ve lost all respect for the language….
Aiken, like when you hurt yourself.
Yale, what you do at a football game.
Wanda, whenever you are lost.
Buck
Acton, what dame judy does
sorry, lost my head with acton
Gwyn (Gwyn and see what they’re up to, silly people at their computers…)
Gawain (think Aussie and accent first syllable–where are you gawain?)
Gord
Red (Skelton)
Jules
Brice (thick Australian again–brice yourself)
I’m leaving for a 12-Step Recovery Program for Verb Name addicts, but before I go, here’s one more for the road….
Joaquin — as in Phoenix, the actor, who (ha!) was in the movie “Walk The Line” — guess he was born to play the part —
Certainly, someone must have already mentioned…
Warren?
Grant
Ebb (Scrooge)
Hector
Ward
Fester (luv those Munsters)
Wolfe
Duane (down the)
Paul
Cotton!
Okay Meg,
How about these, think a southeren accent.
Al – As in ” Al be going now”
Wanda – “Wanda come over for dinner?”
or “He will wanda over later”
hm..
I read through but might be repeating anyway. That is quite the list!
Carrie
Mark
DJ (as in I DJ’d at this cool bar last night)
Chase
Barry (bury)
oops 🙂
Maybe I should have started by reading the first thread.
Ah well, I guess DJ stands 🙂
groan…
I rose from my sick bed for this?? Not nice to make people with bronchitis laugh.
Well, ducks, I cannot believe that none of those was the winning name. Especially Blanche and Wanda. Nice girls, really.
Arch
Elsie (about that)
DeForest (Kelly)
Dwayne (as in Dwayne the bath, I’m dwowning)
Dustin
Eddy
I know this is late, which happens when you start reading blog archives.
How about…
Fonda (as in “fonder” or “fond of”)
and if you don’t think this is real, try googling “fonda cox”; admittedly the first entry is for a performer, but I first saw it on the knitting blog yarn-a-go-go, entry Tuesday, October 14, 2003
also thought you might like this one:
http://beavercreekfarm.typepad.com/walden_farm_notes/2006/06/index.html
their girl dog has been named after Rowan Wool
Excellent! And I love the dog with the tire it’s going to pull to Vegas.
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