Spin-off: Synesthetes, does it affect your naming style?

[blackapple]

I had no idea we had so many synesthetes here on the boards, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask something I have always wondered.

Does your synesthesia affect/impede names/naming for you? Does it make you prefer one spelling over another, or even not like a name or to like a name outside your norm? Does it affect naming siblings? Use the color codes to show examples if you like.

For me, it enhances naming, but I do think my personal tastes override it in most cases. I tend to like balanced names, either very colorful or very uniform (examples below were Lilith and Gaea) and colorful examples include Oscar and Matilda).

Examples of my favorites:

:male:
Solomon (mostly uniform- it's very aquatic and serene)
Edwin (colorful)

:female:
Beatrix (colorful)
Cecily (unform, very sunny and bright)

It does affect my preferences in spellings sometimes. Like, Emilia or Amelia. Amelia is much more colorful. Emilia is nice too though, it seems more even. It would depend on the mn I guess.

[from out some valley]

The thing with my synesthesia is that I don't see the color of a name letter by letter like you do, Melina. I actually see the name as a singular color -- my issue is that when a combo is put together, if the color doesn't mesh well, I have to reject it. For instance, a friend wanted to name his son Alden Bruce. Alden looks like this to me: Alden, and Bruce. So, put together, they made this really awful muddy blue color, and I just went UGH. (The baby ended up being a girl, Lydia Jane, which produces a lovely fuchsia mix)

But with your examples:
Solomon
Edwin -- this isn't the right color, it should be a very dark purple-black
Beatrix -- however, Beatrice... this also isn't the right color for it.
Cecily

My personal tastes, like yours, override the colors. It would bother me more if I had twins, I think, but naming separate children won't bother me too much. After all, my synesthesia also extends to personality -- for instance, Stephen is always a shade of brown. However, my fiance looks like Stephen, a more honey-tone, and my uncle looks like Steven, a very dark blackish-brown. I don't think it's the V that does it, though. It's just the personality difference.

Plus, my synesthesia isn't visually based, it's auditory. If I went through every babyname book and read every single name out loud to myself, then marked the colors? I'd NEVER find anything that matched! :wink:

ETA: I LIED. I just thought of one that matches: Ruby and Edwin. Ruby is slightly brighter, but they are similar in color.

[from out some valley]

Oh I totally know what you're saying, about feeling crazy. I told a friend of mine once about the music-color part, and told him it was called synesthesia. He was like "That sounds more like schizophrenia to me." :pms:

And now that I thought of making lists by color I may have to do it. Haha it's going to take forever.

[Zabbie]

I have strong numerical-spatial synesthesia, which doesn't affect my taste in names, and slight word-taste synesthesia which does! Mostly it's to do with the name rhyming with something else, like Molly tasting of shoe polish, or resembling something closely, so Gareth tastes of car exhaust fumes (the way they used to smell before catalytic converters). But often it's inexplicable, like Nora tasting of porridge! I usually only think about it when I feel dislike towards a name, but I have a positive response to some, like Charlotte (my niece's name) tastes of cinnamon and chocolate...mmm...

[thane]

Mine isn't as cut and dry as colors to names/letters. I see pictures and/or feel a specific emotion. Often with music I smell things or see color.

Willow is fresh billowy white clouds on a warm spring day.
Asha is a brilliant red/orange/gold sunset over a lake.
Rachel is a secret hiding beneath a calm serene exterior. Or like doing those picture search puzzles find 10 bluebirds in the picture -- you know its there you just can't see it.

I definitely agree with you on the feel from Solomon. Aquatic and serene.

[Jenaphora]

For me an entire name is a certain colour, UNLESS its the name of someone close to me, like my mom Paulette, or my brother, Josh. Those names are colourless to me, because they are much more associated with the person themselves. My dad though has a colour, hmmm, so that theory is out I guess.

But, I don't have to like the colour of the name in order to like the name necessarily. Most of my favourite names have colours I like however, and not sure if its just coincidence or not. BUT, Rufus isn't a colour I particularly care for, but I do still like the name, kwim?

[liren]

I'm not sure it affects my style, but it does affect how I combine names. I keep trying to make one name balance or stabilize/neutralize the other. (Same thing happens with numbers, there are some I don't like seeing together or in a certain order because to me they're having a fight, or knocking each other out, or are about to fall off a cliff...) Spatial synesthesia is a little harder to explain, at least in terms of describing how I perceive words/things, so I rarely mention it, lest people think I'm even crazier than I actually am. ;)

[LaLaLalena]

It's not as strong for me with words as it is with numbers, so it doesn't really bother me with naming. However, if I wanted to think about it, I could describe a color for each name. Organizing my name list by color fascinates me! I may have to do that!

ETA: It also doesn't really bother me when other people color names differently than I do, unlike with numbers. If a number is colored "wrong" it reallllly bothers me. :shrug: