One of the most common requests I get is for help combining two or more names into a single baby name. There are two main ways to do this: You can either work backward (by fitting existing baby names to the starting names) or forward (by taking pieces of the starting names and creating brand new baby names).

The first method is most appealing to traditionalists who want the resulting "combined" baby name to be something established, not new. Here's what to do:

1. Decide on your starting names
Normally these are the first names of the parents. I've seen other sets of starting names, though, such as the first and middle names of both parents (total of four names) and the names of the mother and both grandmothers (total of three).

2. Find a trusted source of baby names
A baby name book or website will suffice. (Websites often offer more search functionality, though, so they might be more useful for this activity.)

3. Break up the starting names
Mentally divvy up each name into parts. The most important parts are the first letter and each syllable, but you could also focus on unique letters and/or letter combinations. If you're working with Layton and Diane, for instance, you could break them up this way:

Layton - L, "lay," "ton"
Diane - D, "di," "ane"

4. Scan for baby names
Start scanning the names in your source (starting with the first letters you came up with -- in this case, L and D). Look for baby names that have at least something in common with each of your starting names. For Layton and Diane, you might spot:

Boy Names: Dalton, Daniel, Darrell, Dayton, Declan, Dell, Delton, Dillon, Doyle, Dustin, Landon, Lane, Layne, Leander, Leland, Linus, Lucian, Lyle
Girl Names: Dahlia, Daniela, Danielle, Darla, Darlene, Dayle, Delilah, Della, Ladonna, Leeann, Lia, Lillian, Lorraine, Luanne, Luciana, Lynda, Lydia, Lyla
Either Gender: Dale, Lee, London

After that, you can move on to other first letters (e.g., A, I, N). Try to pick out all names with even a tenuous connection to each starting name (...it's easy to eliminate names later, but it's a chore to go back and re-scan if you don't round up enough names on the first pass).