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Mia wrote in recently to share the problems she was having coming up with a sibling name to match her son Bugsy. Since then, she has a front-runner for girls names, and is still mulling over boys names.
Manday commented on the original post that since Bugsy had been named in honour of Bugsy Malone, a movie that is special to his dad, maybe the next child could have a name from a book or movie that’s special to his mum.
Well, Mia would very much like to choose the name Marlon if the baby is a boy. Marlon Brando has been her favourite actor since she was ten, when she would watch A Streetcar Named Desire with her grandmother. Watching Marlon Brando movies continued being a little tradition for them, and seems like a wonderful connection with her grandma.
POLL RESULTS: Around 38% of people thought Bugsy and Marlon as brothers sounded a little too close to Bugsy Malone, but not enough to be a problem. An equal number hadn’t thought of it until they saw the poll. A clear majority of more than 63% said that sometimes it might be tacky to have sons named after a movie and a movie actor, but in this case it would be okay.
(Picture shows Marlon Brando as Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire)
Waltzing More Than Matilda 
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It’s Angie from Upswing Baby Names. Spotlighting Marlon this week was a coincidence. Talk about zeitgeist in action! But this makes me feel more validated in my choice.
While Marlon doesn’t sound out-of-the ordinary, it might be considered slightly dated, in the U.S. It peaked in the 1970s, but never got terribly popular. But for that reason, in the U.S. it could be seen as a mildly risky choice. And those are the names I like, the ones that are mildly risky, but when taken at face value, actually fit in really well with popular names.
My jaw dropped when you covered Marlon, but it did make me feel that Marlon was very usable, even if, as you say, slightly risky. 🙂
Upswing Baby Names has featured Marlon this week, if you want another perspective on using Marlon 🙂
Mia is definitely putting a lot of thought into naming this baby!
I like Bugsy and Marlon, they sound like a rough and tumble, fun combo. I think they match just fine.
The whole “Bugsy Malone” thing wouldn’t effect me too much I don’t think, it’s not a terribly common movie. Sometimes I believe people work too hard at making their children’s names cohesive, in reality, it doesn’t really matter, it must be remembered that they wont be refer to as brothers Bugsy and Marlon forever, they will grow up and lead separate lives.
In this case them having names from a movie and an actor don’t really bother me either. I mean it isn’t like they are “Harry and Hermione” or “Bella and Edward”, names that are recognizable today as being from films.
Anyway that’s just my 2 cents worth!
It would be interesting to see what moniker a third baby would get though…it gets harder and harder each one you have! 🙂
Good advice there Poppy, and I agree, each one does make a sibset work a bit harder.
We all get our inspiration somewhere, so I see no problems with taking two names from movies/actors.
At the beginning of the post, I thought you were going to say she’d decided on Brando. If Bugsy and Marlon feel too Bugsy Malone for them, Bugsy and Brando would also be a cute sibset 🙂
I have to admit, I am really digging Bugsy and Brando! 🙂