That is, if my baby is a girl.
My mother’s name is Melanie Lynn, and I want to try to name my baby after her.
Melanie means “dark”, or “black” and often referring to dark hair and/or complexion. And I would use her entire name, except we’ve already started the pattern of “S” names for our children, and I’d like to continue that.
For context, this is our second baby, and I found it fitting because my mother is her mother’s second baby.
I’ve tried to find names that have the same or a similar meaning to Melanie that also begin with the letter S.
Can any of you give me some suggestion that won’t look like I’m reaching? We would keep the middle name as Lynn.
Sable is a modern English name meaning ‘black.’ It comes from the dark fur of the sable marten which was used for its fur, and the darkest fur being the most valuable. The word came into the English language via Slavic languages by way of Latin.
Sable Lynn pronounced close together sounds like ‘sayblin’ which might not fit what you’re looking for. And if you are vegan, then using a name that links back to the fur trade might not be appropriate.
Your mother might also find it odd that you’re calling the name a tribute to her but going out of your way to avoid using her actual name. There could be hurt feelings there.
Since this is your second child, you only have one older child with an ‘S’ name, so it’s not really an realised pattern at this point. If you called your second child Melanie Lynn in honour of your mother, you wouldn’t be breaking any patterns or making this child the odd one out because they only have one sibling anyway. If your baby was the seventh child and all six siblings’ names started with S then I could see the problem, but when you only have the one child with an S name, you aren’t locked in to a pattern at all. You have to decide what part is more important to you, having the names be themed around the letter S or honouring your mother.
Sable Lynn (black or dark) could even call her Belle for a nickname
Sullivan Lynn (means dark eyes) Sullie for a nn
Senna Lynn ( the moon- I think this still works)
Sonoma Lynn (valley of the moon)
Senna is a laxative plant. I would not give this name to a child.
That's the only thing I thought of, too. Do not name your child after a laxative.
Another who immediately thought of the laxative.
I personally wouldn’t think of that and didn’t even know that. I still think it’s a cute name!
Might not be quite what you’re looking for, but maybe Sabrina (like the witch), Sienna (a shade of brown), or Silva/Silvia/Sylvia (forest, but it makes me think of “una selva oscura” [“a dark forest”] from Dante’s Inferno).
Siara (little dark one)
Sable (black)
Saturnine (dark)
Siara doesn’t mean ‘little dark one’, it’s a variant of Sierra ‘mountain range’.
I think you’re thinking of the Irish name Ciara (always pronounced Kee-ra with a hard ‘c’,) which comes from cíar meaning ‘black’.
Sullivan means “dark or black eyes.” I don’t love this name for a girl, but you could call her Sullie.
Selah, Selena, and Simone share sound/spelling with Melanie, though they don’t share meaning.
Melody Lynn
Sable is also a unisex name. Just bringing it up since no one has mentioned it yet
I love this one.
Selena (moon) would retain some association to darkness and also keep some of the sounds of the original name.
Could you do a C name? Ciara or Ciarnan ? I think Sage could work ? salvia mellifera is black sage!!
Both Ciara and Ciaran have hard C sounds. They anglicise to Kiera and Kieron respectively. And Ciaran is a boy’s name.
Ameliana Lynn
Liana Lynn
Lanie Lynn
Emiliana Lynn
Melania Lynn
Alani Lynn
Would you consider Melissa, it has S but not first letter.
Sable is the only one I could find
Related in meaning: Samira
Related in why girls were named Melanie in the twentieth century: Scarlett
Sullivan, Sable, Shadow