A reader e-mailed me a few weeks ago about a friend of hers. This friend needs help combining the names Rosalina and Consuelo into a baby name (gender unspecified). I always love to help, so here are some suggestions:

1. I usually start with more of a traditionalist method -- that is, breaking down the starting names (usually by syllable), then search for established baby names that include these elements.

Rosalina - R, Ros, a, lin, a
Consuelo - C, Con, sue, lo

Rosalina and Consuelo are both Spanish, so I did my best to gather a lot of Spanish baby names.

Female: Carolina, Catalina, Celina, Cielo, Colina, Concetta, Consolata, Constantina, Coral, Corina, Cornelia, Iola, Milagros, Rocio, Rosario, Rosella, Socorro, Ursula

Male: Celino, Collin, Conrad, Conrado, Constantine, Cornell, Cory, Elio, Leo, Lino, Linus, Lisandro, Marcelino, Rocco, Roscoe, Roswell, Russell, Silvio

2. Many who like the idea of combining names to create a brand new name actually prefer more modern-sounding names. So, the next thing I try is breaking down the starting names a little more creatively. Then I piece those fragments together, pretty much at random.

Syllables - ros, a, lin, con, sue, lo
Similar syllables - leen, sway, way, low, loe
Letters - a, c, e, i, l, n, o, r, s, u

Here are the names I came up with:

Acolina, Alina, Alino, Alsuelo, Caleen, Conalina, Conlin, Coro, Corsue, Eenlo, Eilo, Elina, Elolina, Iconina, Ilo, Inacon, Irosa, Linor, Linosa, Lolina, Lorcon, Lulina, Narosa, Nino, Noora, Nuelo, Ocona, Olicona, Olina, Onaca, Onsuelina, Roca, Rocona, Rosuelo, Roslo, Rosso, Suelina, Sueline, Sway, Swayla, Uela, Ueline, Ula, Urosa

Some are a little silly, but others might work well -- just depends on what your tastes are.

I hope my reader's friend finds this helpful. If you have any questions about combining names, please feel free to share them in the forum. We'll do our best to help you out!