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What ash (logical nn would be Ash, right?) means to most people is the grey combustion product dangling from the end of a cigarette. Perhaps for that reason, I've never met an Asher. I do know an English-speaking man whose parents for some reason unknown to me named him after two of the 12 Tribes: fn is perfectly acceptable (neither Joseph nor Benjamin, btw) and the mn is Aser, that being the Afrikaans version. It's pronounced with a long a. AAser. Which, round here, sounds like Arser - we aren't big on pronouncing the letter r in English. He finds it mildly amusing now, but says that at school his friends found it totally hilarious.

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Barnaby, on the other hand, is a name I've always greatly enjoyed. Much nicer than Barnabas, for some reason. Usually I'm not too keen on the 3-syllable-ending-in-y pattern for male names: Gregor rather than Gregory, Gerald rather than Jeremy, Anton rather than Anthony. But Barnaby sounds younger and more energetic and cheerful than Barnabas, and I would seriously consider it.