Would naming a 1,800-foot patio home “the Versailles” make it seem larger?

If a builder called its floor plans “The Woodland” and “Meadow Grove,” would it help buyers overlook the acres of forest that were cleared to build the neighborhood?

Baby names, while maybe not topping the list of decisions builders must make when creating neighborhoods, are helpful marketing tools that leave impressions with buyers, real estate experts say.

So how do builders choose between a Kensington and a Kenilworth? A Charleston and a Chadwick?

“There are so many that have to be named, we get pretty desperate,” said Chuck Graham, laughing. He’s principal of Newton Graham Consultants, a real estate consulting firm in Charlotte. “There’s baby names, wives’ names, significant other’s names.”

For builders with an appetite for regal-sounding names, there’s a heavily used book called “English Place Names,” Graham said, “which goes on for pages and pages with wonderful baby names that sound snooty and English.”

Thank goodness, Graham says, more builders nowadays are picking names based on themes or giving nods to historical landmarks close-by, making the process a bit easier.

“I don’t think (builders) make a big deal out of it,” Graham said. “They have so many decisions to make.”