A reader e-mailed me a few weeks ago about a friend of hers. This friend needs help combining the names Rosalina and Consuelo into a baby name (gender unspecified). I always love to help, so here are some suggestions:

1. The Traditionalist Method is the place I usually start. Using this method, I break down the starting names (usually by syllable), then search for established baby names that incorporate these elements.

Rosalina - R, Ros, a, lin, a
Consuelo - C, Con, sue, lo

(Rosalina and Consuelo are both Spanish, so I did my best to gather a lot of Spanish baby names.)

Female
Carolina, Catalina, Celina, Cielo, Colina, Concetta, Consolata, Constantina, Coral, Corina, Cornelia, Iola, Milagros, Rocio, Rosario, Rosella, Socorro, Ursula

Male
Celino, Collin, Conrad, Conrado, Constantine, Cornell, Cory, Elio, Leo, Lino, Linus, Lisandro, Marcelino, Rocco, Roscoe, Roswell, Russell, Silvio


2. The Modernist Method is my next step. For this method, I break down the starting names a little more creatively. Then I piece those fragments together, pretty much at random.

Syllables - "ros," "a," "lin," "con," "sue," "lo"
Similar syllables - "leen," "sway," "way," "low," "loe"
Letters - aaceillnnooorssu

Here are the (rather unique) names I came up with:

Acolina, Alina, Alino, Alsuelo, Caleen, Conalina, Conlin, Coro, Corsue, Eenlo, Eilo, Elina, Elolina, Iconina, Ilo, Inacon, Irosa, Linor, Linosa, Lolina, Lorcon, Lulina, Narosa, Nino, Noora, Nuelo, Ocona, Olicona, Olina, Onaca, Onsuelina, Roca, Rocona, Rosuelo, Roslo, Rosso, Suelina, Sueline, Sway, Swayla, Uela, Ueline, Ula, Urosa

Some are a little silly, but some might work well -- it depends on what your tastes are.

I hope my reader and her friend find this helpful. If you have any questions about combining names, please feel free to share them in the forum. We'll do our best to help you out!