What's in a name?

[etherial]

I'm working on a LARP Character, and I'm puzzling my puzzler with coming up with a good name. It needs to say "I'm of Scandinavian Descent" but also "I'm from Middle America". It needs to be ethnic, but not too. I'm not overly concerned about meaning or symbolism for this name, but for reference: He's a bit of a misanthrope, but a team player. He's a physical education teacher who wants to reach out to his students: the couch potatoes, the dumb jocks, the loners, the social butterflies, and teach them to challenge their preconceived notions about how to tackle problems and achieve their goals, and maybe avoid poisoning themselves or getting pregnant. Also, he's a werewolf.

[Poll #1916669]

Comments

[jedilora.livejournal.com]

Carl Erikson.

[kadnkadnk.livejournal.com]

Lars. Always be Lars. Unless you can be Batman, then be Batman. :)

Lars Ericson? Lars Nilson?

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, Lars Erickson is so common a name, Google suggested I try searching for it instead of "Lars Ericson". Fortunately, it looks like nobody famous is Lars Erickson.

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

Larry...

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Oh, and obvious joke names or names of famous people will be dismissed out of hand. My character has a legal name, even if everybody calls him "Bork Bork Bork".

[be-well-lowell.livejournal.com]

Damn. And I was just about to suggest "Ericsson Keillor."

[stillking.livejournal.com]

Arthur Jarok
Arthur Carlsson
Arne Vitkauskas
Erik Kastenessen
Leif Arneson
Kjell Eriksen
Ulf Baumann

Or, obviously, combinations of the above.
Do I need to belabor that Ulf = wolf ~= warrior?

[londo.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with Nielsen? It's plenty Middle America, and also is obviously Scandinavian if-and-only-if you are paying attention.

[etherial.livejournal.com]

It hadn't occurred to me to spell it that way. Nice.

[adrianna-r.livejournal.com]

I like Lars Nielsen personally. Lars because everyone can call him Larry.

[anitra.livejournal.com]

I think if you want to go with only-vaguely-ethnic, you want something like Eric Nealson (or Eric Nielsen, as londo suggested).

The Larsson and Ericsson (Eriksson) family names are more obviously Scandanavian.

Lars/Larry would be a good first name for a phys. ed. teacher. :)

[princess-muffin.livejournal.com]

Eric Coulson (Erik Colesson)

Perhaps distantly related to Marcus Cole, even... what a lineage that would be...