These Twin Names Match, But Aren’t “Matchy-Matchy”

I love this stuff:

Alice/Celia: This subtle anagram yields two charming classics with completely different sounds.

Beckett/Marlowe: Two playwrights representing two of the hottest contemporary name styles, double-t names and hidden-o names.

Zoe/Eve: These Greek and Hebrew “life” names look similar on paper, but not spoken aloud.

Rima/Amir : These mirror-image Arabic name make a smooth, trim pairing.

Laurel/Daphne : Daphne is the Greek form of Laurel. Both names are thoroughly familiar, but neither has ever been common.

Tristan/Gavin: Two Knights of the Round Table, but far less conspicuous than Lancelot and Galahad.

Indigo/Sienna: Straight from your local Crayola 64-pack, these color names share a creative spirit.

And many more. Also this comment:

My inner scientist has always wanted twin girls named Ethyl and Lauryl as both names are chemistry terms.

26 thoughts on “These Twin Names Match, But Aren’t “Matchy-Matchy”

  1. Do you think TheOtherHungarian in that comment thread got his name the same way “Jonathan (another one)” did? That is, to distinguish themselves from HungarianNameGeek? Or were they always the “other” one, even before there was a one against which to be the other? Real question.

    • I can only speak for me. I had commented here several times as “Jonathan” when some upstart started using the same moniker. Come to think of it, I could probably speak for “Jonathan” as well, but I already chose not to.

  2. One of my sisters had as childhood friends sisters named Amber Glass and Crystal Glass. I don’t recollect that they were twins, though.

    One of my brothers is a horticulturist. When I send him paper letters, in the return address space I usually write, instead of my own name, a plant name that sounds like a real person’s name, for example: Melissa Officinalis (lemon balm), Perry Winkle (periwinkle: vinca minor), Acacia Senegal (gum arabic), Betula Papyrifera (paper birch tree), which reminds me of the 60s singer Petula Clark.

    There really was a woman named Ima Hogg (see Wikipedia) but the story that she had a sister named Ura Hogg is not true.

    • Several thoughts:

      1) Merry and Carol

      2) There is a real woman named Crystal Shanda Lear (We were in the same dorm in college; she usually went by Shanda Lear)

      3) Yes, Miss Ima Hogg is well known in Texas (usually referred to with the Miss)

  3. Two of the oldest families on Block Island, RI are the Dodges and the Balls. One of them married the other and is buried in the cemetery as Charity Dodge Ball. Just show I didn’t make this up, see http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~rigenweb/ball-ri.html That was always my favorite. And she had a daughter, also Charity Dodge Ball. But if she’d had a male twin as well? How about Chance Dodge Ball or maybe Urban Dodge Ball. Any other ideas?

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