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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34469
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/34469
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Yes, author's do this **all the time.** One of the books I use frequently is [The Writer's Digest Character Naming Sourcebook"](https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1582979200), it lists 25,000 first and last names and their meanings from around the world and dozens of cultures. Unfortunately, my version does not contain many Asian names (Japanese, Chinese, Korean); I don't know if the current version does or not.

They write and sell this book for exactly this reason; people want to know what names mean and where they came from.

As for "cheesy": The idea that the firemen is going to be chagrined is implausible. Why? Aiden is an actual name, he suggested it, it is not any kind of obvious joke, it memorializes the kid's birth circumstance, so why would he be anything but amused the parent's liked his name suggestion?

It is also implausible the parents, having just escaped death and lost their house and possessions and under the pressure of a newborn and now finding a place to live and clothes to wear will be engaged in banter with a fireman and "loving a name" and deciding there and then to name their child _with the firemen still there_. You have gone from a highly traumatic experience that will stick with them long after the firemen are gone from their lives forever, they should be in an ambulance headed for the hospital and treatment of their infant (and selves) for smoke inhalation, they should be most concerned with the papers, insurance, and what they have lost in this fire. A fun task like choosing a name for a baby and being entertained is not on the table.

Dozen's of baby-naming books also include the meaning of names; Aiden is of Celtic origin. A better solution would be in the aftermath of the fire, in the hospital for hours waiting for doctors to give them the all-clear to take their baby home, morose and bored parents paging through one of the few things rescued from the fire: The baby naming book in the mother's purse that she grabbed on the way out. There they find "Aiden" and it's meaning, and in a bit of gallows humor decide its perfect.

Original score: 3