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I have a feeling this one is going to be polarizing, but I have been harboring a secret love of the name Geraldine. I believe it could be easily revived. It registers an attractive bold cherry red candy color in my grapheme-color synesthesia, and I believe that matches the spunky feeling I get when I hear the name.

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Now, I know some associations are not going to be congruous with mine, but when I was a foreign exchange student in France, I briefly knew a girl named Géraldine who was very popular and glamorous. She was very pixie. That made me like the name right off the bat. I think perhaps in France, the name Géraldine is seen as more youthful (or was in the 90s).

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I also have a now-deceased great-great aunt Geraldine Martha Vaughn (née Hornickle), which is such a delightfully clunky name, especially the maiden name. When my grandmother became pregnant with my aunt, she ran away to California to escape the wrath of my great-grandfather, and there she met my grandfather's aunt Geraldine, who was kind to her and gave her things that she kept including a pretty metal spatula with a heart carved out of the middle that I always use when I am making breakfast potatoes. My grandmother always says "you know where Aunt Gerry's spatula is." It's hard to not love a name with associations like that. I love that spatula.

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The girls in that family were all named things that are waxing fashionable: Geraldine, Fern, Alice, and Freda. I know there were two twin boys named Milton and Mayron. I think there were one or two more boys. My great-grandmother was Fern.

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Anyway, thanks. What are your thoughts on Geraldine?

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ETA: I looked it up. The other brother was named Forrest. How the hell could I forget that?

This message was edited 6/27/2017, 9:56 PM