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It makes me think of Samwise and Pennywise at the same time, which is a weird mashup. I wouldn't think of Ben as being short for Benvolio, the unsuccessful peacemaker. Benjamin would be my first assumption or, if I thought the parents were going for a fandom mashup, Ben Kenobi. As you said, he'll doubtlessly be known as Ben.

I've always thought Benvolio was a cool name, but going from that to Ben negates the appeal - Ben is fine but by itself doesn't seem particularly fun or charismatic to me.

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I do like Samwise but as a stretch, in a dorky GP type way. Benwise goes beyond that and again seems to miss the mark.

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Like...I guess there are worse names, but I'm disappointed in how ordinary and ho-hum it is yet also embarrassed by how dorky it is? Which seems like a bad combo.

This message was edited 5/16/2023, 11:48 AM

I never would have thought of Benvolio just from "Ben". I would have thought of Samwise from the "wise" part.
Benwise isn't bad, I guess, but it just looks like someone took Samwise and said "what if I replaced the Sam part with another one syllable name?"

I see I’m in the minority here, but I don’t mind it. I wouldn’t use it personally, but it’s not the worst name I’ve seen by a long way. And Ben is a solid nickname.

No thanks. It seems really unappealing to me.

Why Benvolio? I don't remember him being an interesting or important character at all. And pairing that with Samwise.... It's not.... Like the two characters are not of equal importance, so that makes it seem very random.

Naming your kid after a fictional character isn't the worst thing in the world but it sounds like these people haven't read a book since high school.

Notwise, terrible

Hilarious, I'm afraid. I imagine that people will try to pronounce it in any way except the 'right' one: Ben-wee-sa springs to mind. But Ben is a good name to fall back on.

This message was edited 5/15/2023, 12:34 PM