Could Toboggan be a name?

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For some reason I love saying the word "toboggan", and I know it means a sledge to slide down a snowy hill on but it reminds me of a name and for some reason I feel it should be a name.

I was thinking of calling the main character in one of my stories Toboggan because it sounds like such a nice name.

I used to think it was a name.

You could have it be a nickname for a character, but it would be odd as a given name.

But I get what you're saying ...some words just have a sound that you latch onto. Like these...


galoshes

I would think that when you write a story you can name the characters anything at all that will not get you sued or arrested.

One odd name in a story sounds very reasonable to me. Making all of the names odd could be entertaining.

Of course, if you get it published we'll know that the author is you! (I hope you use an odd pen-name, too.)

I'd love to have Toboggan as a last name. That would be cool. Dot the second o and the a.

I'd be more likely to use it as a family name, but I don't see it as any worse than "Lily" or "Wednesday".

Sgt. Toboggan

Or you could be slightly subtle about it the way Erle Stanley Gardner was with the character Hamilton Burger.
^hamburger

"Toboggan" could become "Toby Gann"—and I hope they have a friend named "Robert Sledd".

I think it's just weird. And I live in the country where tobogganing is practically a religion, next to hockey and curling.

Maybe "Toby" for short? Toby the Toboggan, sounds like the title of a children's book.

I am in a country (and family) where there are some weird given names.


<=>https://www.babycenter.com/baby-names/most-popular/uncommon-and-unusual-baby-names_10388919

<=>https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-outrageous-baby-names-parents-picked-in-2017_n_5b4eb4e5e4b0de86f487f824

When I think of "toboggan" as a name my first reaction is: Probably a girl.
(And then I feel sorry for her for the kind of humor that name would attract.)

Toboggan Jones
Toboggan Matthews

It could work..

BUT...once you allow yourself to name a character "Toboggan" then ...you're on a slippery slope!

(just kidding)

Toboggan Maple.

I think anything can be a name. Toboggan sounds awful to me as a name but if you like it, you can give your story character or real-life child that name. I've met a person whose name is "Maggot". Her parents somehow must have liked baby flies.

Toboggan could sound like one of those native last names that wasn't discarded and replaced with a Hispanic last name during colonialism.

And yes, it does sounds more masculine.

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It would be a cool last name to have. It sounds German. It looks German.