I received an e-mail recently from a person trying to combine Chantel and Martin into either a male or female baby name. I thought this would be a good opportunity to combine names in an article, to give you an example of the two methods I like to use -- traditionalist and modernist.

Going with the more traditional method, I would first break the names into chunks:

Chantel - Ch, Chan, tel
Martin - M, Mar, tin

...and then I would scan a list of established baby names (from a book or web site) and look for names that utilize these elements. Here are some examples:

Female
Amabel, Charline, Charlotte, Charmaine, Cherilyn
Cheyenne, Mabel, Malina, Manuela, Marcela
Marcelle, Mariel, Marta, Michelle, Mirabelle
Shaelyn, Shania, Shanti, Shari, Sharmila

Male
Celestin, Emmanuel, Manuel, Marcel, Michel
Montel, Shaheen, Sheldon, Shelton, Sherman

Using the modernist method, I'd get names that are a bit more out-of-the-box. As with the first method, I'd break up the names -- but this time, in more creative ways:

Syllables - "chan," "tel," "mar," "tin"
Similar syllables - "shan," "elle," "ine," "art," "let," "ram"
Chunks - "nt," "rt," "el," "in"
Letters - aacehilmnnrtt

...and now, instead of working from a list, I'd just piece these parts together at random:

Archan, Archant, Artella, Chamar, Chantine, Chantra, Elma, Elmar, Eltin
Ian, Lantin, Lertin, Marel, Martel, Martelle, Nelam, Nelma, Neltine
Rachan, Rachel, Rintel, Shantin, Shanton, Shartine, Tilma, Trella, Trinel

In some cases, this second method will produce actual names (Ian, Elma). For the most part, though, the names will sound totally made-up.

So, if I were going to combine Chantel and Martin, this is how I would begin. I hope this helps the reader who wrote to me. :) I also hope it gives everyone else some ideas as far as combining names goes.

If you're having trouble combining names, I encourage you to try the methods above. If you don't have any luck, please feel free to post a note in the forum about your situation. We'll see what I can do to help!