2.1 Combining. A result of morphological reduction or shortening a name can produce a combining form that is used to form new names. It may be useful to divide the various uses of this form into two or three types of combination. 1) The first piece to be combined becomes a prefix that attaches to many different names. 2) The second piece becomes a suffix that attaches to a) many different names or b) their reduced forms.

It is possible that analogy is playing a part in making the parts of a name detachable. The example with “Brooklyn” may have occurred in two steps, with the first caused by an interaction between the given name form “Brook” and the toponym. The fact that there was a feminine ending “-ine” or “-in” on some names may then have been the motivation creating this as a new spelling “-lyn” on girls’ names. The ending “-inda” may be a variation from the feminine name “Linda” where the “r” could on phonological grounds disolve the initial “l” in that name. This could then be an instance of blending.