Still completely charmed by Mary Augusta, Chanel’s brilliant Mary double barrel, so I thought I’d do a post on some double Mary names. I’ll be honest, usually I’m not a fan of double barrels because I think they have a tendency to sound either too Catholic, too pretentious, or too twee. Can you imagine “Mary Beatrix, can you come here, dear? Mummy needs you to freshen her drink,” or see Mary Agnes without picturing a nun? It’s a fine line you need to walk to make a double Mary name work. Some barreled names, such as Marybeth and MaryAnn, have become decently popular “smush” names, so they are to be avoided as well. As for the hyphen: no! The hyphen is just awful, in my opinion. My hatred of punctuation in names does not stop at apastrophes.

I’m going to try my hand at some double barrels with Mary. I probably wouldn’t use a Mary- name, so these might get a little fanciful! I think Mary works best with an unexpected 2nd half:

  • Mary Violet (saw this on a board I frequent and I love it)
  • Mary Scarlett (ditto)
  • Mary Alice (Love this)
  • Mary Frances
  • Mary Petra (Be still my beating heart! I love this one.)
  • Mary Zelda
  • Mary Charlotte
  • Mary Eden
  • Mary Iris

Of cpurse, there’s always the “First middle nickname” route. Mary Elizabeth called Mary Beth, Mary Katherine called Mary Kate. I think that’s a really good way to double barrel without fully committing, in case you’re not sure it would work for you. Mary Jane is beautiful too, but there’s that pesky drug connection. I’ve also got Mary Clementine knocking about, but I’m not convinced that it would be acually usable. Also, what would you do about middles with a double barrel first? I usually play with 3 name combos, so putting a middle in wouldn’t bother me, but if you ony want 2 names, do you add a middle or not? What are your opinions on hypenating the two names? What do you think of these names as a “genre?” I would love to hear your thoughts!