Name of the Day: Cosmo
To Seinfeld fans, he’s the resident of Apartment 5B. In the Saturday morning cartoons that many of us remember from childhood, he’s George Jetson’s difficult boss at Spacely Sprockets. But could he also be among the coolest of the ends-in-o baby names that are all the rage?
Thanks to Lola for suggesting today’s Name of the Day: Cosmo.
Tell others that you’re considering this daring name, and they might do a double-take. ”You’re naming your baby after a cocktail?” they might ask. Or perhaps they’ll think of the women’s mag by the same name. But both the drink and the read are short for cosmopolitan - a word that shares a root and a meaning with this name, but is, in fact, distinct.
Saint Cosmo and Saint Damian were brothers, skilled at the practice of medicine and known for treating the poor. They were both tortured and martyred under the emperor Diocletian around the year 283. Cosmo is sometimes written Cosmas, or as the three-syllable Cosimo, a name worn by several de Medicis in Renaissance Italy.
All of the variant versions of the name and the word stem from the Greek kosmos, which originally meant “orderly arrangement” but was applied by Pythagoras to refer to the universe as a whole. Today, we think of the cosmos as the ordered world, and the cosmopolitan as someone who is at home there. In any case, the given name almost certainly predates the use of the terms. Cosmos, cosmic and cosmopolitan were first recorded in the 1200s, 1600s and 1800s respectively, while the name has plenty of use in an earlier era.
In the US, this name has barely cracked the Top 1000, briefly appearing in the years 1913, 1921, 1925 and 1926 before returning to obscurity. But since it is a valid saint’s name, and frequently appears on lists of Italian baby names, it’s reasonable to assume that it’s been in steady, if very occasional use. A quick search of census records pops up dozens of Cosmos, many with distinctly Italian surnames.
While this ends-in-o name is seldom heard circa 2007, plenty of parents are discovering similar choices for their sons. Consider Liv Tyler’s starbaby Milo (ranked #548 in 2007); earlier NotD Hugo (#398); Italian charmers Marco (#209) and Matteo (#623); more exotic versions of the classic James like Diego (#58) and Giacomo (unranked) and, of course, the classic Theodore (#301) which leads to Theo and the dozens of ways to reach the nickname Leo, which ranks #238 on his own.
Cosmo would be a truly adventurous choice, one that sounds more space-age than Renaissance. But it has plenty of history to serve as an anchor, and the sound is just right with the current baby naming style. If Leo and Theo are too tame for your tastes, and even Milo is a bit too often heard, consider raising a glass to Cosmo - a worldly and upbeat moniker for a boy.
Filed under: Names for Boys, Names of the Day |
Tags: Cosmo
You’ve hit on exactly the things I encounter when asking about my Great Grandpa’s name online. I find Cosmo to be rather new-agey and yes, even spacey but friendly and warm too. Expansive feeling (the whole Cosmos, hmm?)
Beyond G Grandpa, it reminds me of Carl Sagan too. Beacuse of the space thing. And that’s okay by me. I like outer space. One of the two great mysteries left us (Underwater is the other). I find Cosmo to be happy, easygoing and masculine. Easy to spell, too. That’s a hard set of things to be, I think. There aren’t many names that “feel” the same to me. Cosmo will definitely be the boy name, if we have another. I find him far too charming to backburner yet again. To heck with everyone else, this is what works, for us. 
Oh, and rocker Beck and his wife (Marissa Ribisi) have a little Cosimo (Cosimo Henri)! So how far off track would simpler Cosmo be?
Woo Cosmo! Well, being a little younger, my first association is the Nickelodian (sp?) show Fairly Oddparents. Cosmo and Wanda are fairy godparents, and Cosmo’s a few crayons short of a whole box, so. However, I quite like the name. It’s fun and distinctly masculine. However, I read somehwere, I think it was in the Baby Name Wizard, that it’s a “personality multipler.” If your kid is named Cosmo and he’s cool, he’s 10 times as cool. But if poor Cosmo is fat or pimply or socially awkward, you don’t have quite as much luck. On a wholly personal level, it’s on the like but wouldn’t use, except as maybe a middle name somewhere down the line. I’d like to use more use though. It’s such a fun name!
I think it’s a fun name, but maybe a little too much fun? I guess the Seinfeld association is really strong for me, but I’d have a hard time taking Cosmo seriously. A great name if you’re a comedian or an artist or an entrepreneur but a bit of a burden if you’re an accountant, a judge, a police officer.
DH, I take your point - marketing guru Cosmo Jones sounds fabulous, but Officer Cosmo Harris seems a bit less credible.
Still, I think it’s an interesting, appealing choice - especially if you’ve got a Cosmo on your family tree! For me, I think I’m partial to the feminine form Cosima - Nigella Lawson has a daughter called Cosima. (And a son Bruno!)
Catherine, that’s an interesting idea - the personality multiplier. I’m off to dust off my copy of the BN Wizard and see if I can find the reference. It’s one of the tricky things of naming babies - my mother is a shy, stick-to-the-shadows type with a flamboyant name. And so she gave me the kind of ordinary moniker she’d have preferred - only to discover that she’d given birth to a spotlight-lovin’ show-off. If we could only swap, we’d both be happy. As I prepare to give my own daughter-to-be an unusual moniker, I wonder if I’ll doom her to be a wallflower.
I love Cosmo! It’s such a fun and quirky name! The first thing that comes to my mind is the Fairly Oddparents show (that’s what you get when you have kids :)). Not a bad association though, I’ve always loved Cosmo; he’s so cute and funny. I think Cosmo would make a great middle name; it’s a bit much for a first name IMO.