Saturday, October 2, 2010

Riddle This

Our son Andy and his charming wife are expecting their second child any day now (a boy), but Andy is being a bit cagey about the name they've selected. He's given a few clues:

A Riddle:
We played a game one night that included your future grandson's full name. All I will share is the final score of the game: 164. If you figure it out, please let others have a try until the birth.


Figuring 164 would be pretty good bowling score, I guessed the the baby's name must be Brunswick.

Joyce emailed Andy these guesses:
Eric
Fredrick Charles
Settler
Catan

But all those guesses were wrong, so Andy gave us another clue:
Your proper name rule assumption is keeping you from using the right game.

So we figure the game must be Scrabble.


Based on that assumption, we've come up with this list of names that are legitimate Scrabble words. (Please feel free to offer other suggestions as comments.)


Al        an East Indian tree
Alan      a large hunting dog
Alec      a herring
Argus     an East Indian pheasant
Art       an aesthetically pleasing arrangement
Ash       to convert into ash
Baker     one that bakes
Basil     an aromatic herb
Ben       an inner room
Benjamin  benzoine
Benny     an amphetamine tablet
Biff      to hit
Bill      to present a statement of costs to
Billy     a short club
Birch     to whip
Bob       to move up and down
Bobby     a policeman
Bolivar   a monetary unit of Venezuela
Booker    one that books
Boxer     one that packs boxes
Brad      a thin nail
Bud       a undeveloped plant part
Burton    a hoisting block
Buster    one that breaks up something
Carl      a peasant
Carter    one that carts
Carver    one that carves
Chad      a scrap of paper
Charley   a fool
Charlie   a fool
Chase     to pursue
Chevy     to chase about
Chico     a prickly shrub
Chuck     to throw
Cisco     a freshwater fish
Clarence  a closed carriage
Clay      to treat with clay
Clement   merciful
Cliff     a high steep face of rock
Cooper    to make or mend barrels
Dagwood   a large sandwich
Dale      a valley
Dalton    a unit of atomic mass
Davy      a safety lamp
Dean      a head of faculty
Dexter    situated on the right
Dick      to copulate with
Dickens   a devil
Dirk      a small knife
Don       to put on
Duke      a high ranking nobleman
Dusty     full of dust
Earl      a British nobleman
Ed        education
Eddy      to move against the main current
Ford      to cross by wading
Frank     honest and unreserved in speech
Franklin  a medeival English landowner
Fritz     a non-functioning state
Garvey    a small scow
Gene      a hereditary unit
Gilbert   a unit of magnetomotive force
Glen      a small valley
Graham    whole wheat flour
Grant     to bestow upon
Guy       to ridicule
Hale      healthy
Hank      to fasten a sail
Hansel    to give a gift to
Harper    a harpist
Harry     to pillage
Hector    to bully
Henry     a unit of inductance
Herb      a flowering plant with a non-woody stem
Herby     abounding in herbs
Homer     to hit a home run
Jack      to raise with a type of lever
Jacky     a sailor
Jake      all right, fine
Jay       a corvine bird
Jean      a durable cotton fabric
Jeroboam  a wine bottle
Jerry     a German soldier
Jesse     to fasten straps around the legs of
Jimmy     to pry open with a crowbar
Jocko     a monkey
Joe       a fellow
Joey      a young kangaroo
John      a toilet
Johnny    a sleeveless hospital gown
Jordan    a type of container
Joseph    a woman's long cloak
Josh      to tease
Kelly     a bright green color
Kelvin    a unit of temperature
Ken       to know
Kent      knew
King      to reign as king (a male monarch)
Kip       to sleep
Kit       to equip
Kitty     a kitten or cat
Kris      a short sword
Lance     to pierce with a lance
Lars      Roman gods
Lee       to shelter from the wind
Leno      a style of weaving
Levy      to impose or collect, as tax
Louie     a lieutenant
Louis     a former gold coin of France
Mac       a raincoat
Manly     like a man
Marc      the residue after a fruit has been pressed
Marcel    to make a deep soft wave in the hair
Mark      to make a visible impression on
Marshall  to put in proper order
Martin    a small bird
Marvy     marvelous
Mason     to build with stone or brick
Matt      to produce a dull finish on
Maxwell   a unit of magnetic flux
Mel       honey
Merle     a blackbird
Merlin    a European falcon
Mick      an Irishman
Mickey    a drugged drink
Mike      a microphone
Miller    one that mills
Milt      to impgregnate with milt (fish sperm)
Milty     full of milt (fish sperm)
Mo        a moment
Molly     a tropical fish
Morgan    a unit of distance between genes
Morris    an English folk dance
Morse     designating a code used in telegraphy
Mort      a note sounded on a hunting horn
Nelson    a wrestling hold
Nestor    a wise old man
Newt      a small salamander
Newton    a unit of force
Nick      to make a shallow cut in
Norm      a standard
Otto      fragrant oil
Palmer    a religious pilgrim
Parr      a young salmon
Pat       to touch lightly
Peter     to diminish gradually
Pierce    to cut or pass into or through
Ralph     to vomit
Randy     lustful
Reed      to fasten with reeds (the stalks of tall grasses)
Reg       a regulation
Rex       a king
Rich      having wealth
Rick      to pile hay in stacks
Rob       to take property from illegally
Robin     a songbird
Rock      stone
Rocky     stony
Rod       to provide with a rod
Roger     a pirate flag
Rusty     covered with rust
Sanders   one that sands
Shaw      to show
Shawn     an early woodwind instrument
Shea      an African tree
Smith     a worker in metals
Sol       the fifth note of diatonic scale
Sonny     a small boy
Spencer   a trysail
Stew      to cook by boiling slowly
Sue       to file suit or a boy named...
Tab       to name or designate
Tad       a small boy
Ted       to spread for drying
Teddy     a woman's undergarment
Terry     an abosrbent fabric
Texas     the uppermost structure on a steamboat
Thatcher  one that thatches
Timothy   a European grass
Toby      a type of drinking mug
Tod       a British unit of weight
Tom       to behave like an Uncle Tom
Tommy     a loaf of bread
Tony      stylish
Troy      a system of weights
Turner    one that turns
Van       a type of motor vehicle
Victor    one who defeats the enemy
Wally     something visually pleasing
Ward      to turn aside
Warren    a place where rabbits live
Watt      a unit of power
Webster   a weaver
Will      to decide upon
Willy     to willow
Wilt      to become limp
Woody     resembling wood

7 comments:

joyce said...

I like Able, but the Bible spells it Abel.

And I think some of these word verification words will work:

shusenni

and I like Brunswick. (until you pointed out the naughty nick name someone other than yourself might come up with)

Jerry said...

I am glad that you have narrowed it down.

Gladys said...

Well since my new grandson's name is deemed to be Oatmeal I am thinking that I'll take any of those. I guess that this one will be Oatmeal, the next will be Buckwheat, then of course Flaxseed and finally a little girl named Pumpernickle.

Andy said...

Bob, I'm gonna guess Arnold Palmer. I mean, the last time I golfed, I shot a 164, so that's my frame of reference.

Hula Doula said...

If it would have been 176 I would have guess my pianos that I play on and his name would be Steinway. HUM.....164 or....Afd. That would be 1 for A 6 for F and 4 for D.
Oh the name game. You know he's keeping the name from you so that you won't have the opportunity to make fun of it before his son is born!!

joyce said...

we were so off---David Mace Williamson was born on Oct. 6th.

the only way his name could be a Scrabble word is by using the nickname, Davy.

Andy said...

Congratulations! What an exciting time it is when the babies come.

David Mace...ummmm...close enough to 164, I reckon. But, when you get a chance, I'd be interested in the explanation.

I mean, what game it was, and all.

David. A man after God's own heart.

Mace. I'm not sure I've heard that name before...probably have.

But, David Mace is a fine name. It is a manly name. It's not one of those goofy little kid names that parents tag their kids with, and sounds stupid when they grow up.

Fine name.