After last week’s bumper crop o’ starbabies, it has been a relatively quiet week.
The only big question is this: Did Hank Azaria really name his son Hal? Or have they simply not released his full name? Wikipedia tells me that dad’s full name is, indeed, Hank Albert - so maybe they decided junior should have a nickname name, too.
Here’s the rest of the news:
- In RL, I live in one of two towns that can claim to be Jim Henson’s boyhood home. (We cover the teenage years, including high school.) And I’m a huge David Bowie fan. But I’d forgotten that Bowie’s Goblin King character in 1986′s Labyrinth was called Jareth until I saw a teenager sporting it on his plastic nametag. He’s one of the few, though – Jareth has never caught on as a name, not even cracking the US Top 1000;
- I wasn’t expecting former Girl Next Door Kendra Wilkinson to name her daughter Esther or Mary, but ever since she announced her pregnancy, there’s been endless chatter about her frontrunner name for a girl – Kaleigh. Apparently, Kendra’s middle name is Leigh. (And her first initial is, obviously, K.) A boy would be named after dad, Philadelphia Eagle Hank Baskett. (Hank again! That’s an AppMtn record.) But that would be Henry Randall Baskett IV – not bad, actually;
- In other reality star baby news, Real Housewife of New Jersey Jacqueline Laurita welcomed son Nicholas Francis, little brother to CJ and Ashley. I assume CJ stands for Christopher Jr. but I’m not sure ’bout that. Another cast member is also expecting a visit from the stork;
- Guiding Light’s Jessica Leccia welcomed a daughter named Ivy Lola;
- From this week’s Toronto Star comes the report of a couple with five kids. Lucky number five is named Angus Raymond Mercury. Wait for it – Angus is after Angus Young of AC/DC and Mercury is after Freddie Mercury of Queen. (Raymond is after a mere blood relative.) Angus’ four big sibs are called Madelyn May (May after Brian May of Queen); Heath, after a golf course in Scotland; Shea, after Shea Stadium and Cheyenne. Apparently mom veto’d Kashmir, as in the Led Zeppelin song – all of a sudden Shea and Cheyenne sound like perfectly reasonable choices.
- If you follow sports news, you might’ve picked up this report (Click here for ESPN’s coverage) Apparently, a high school senior all set to play football for FSU was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers. I can barely catch a ball, so the idea of being recruited in two sports? Wow. Anyhow, the uber-athlete’s name is Jacobbi McDaniel – one Jacob variant I had not heard previously;
- As if my linking to ESPN is not proof enough that it was a quiet week, names-wise, the Daily Express announces that wacky names are nuthin’ new. As they await the opportunity to comment on the next wacky celeb baby name, of course.
From the wayback machine – a year ago, the Name of the Day was Madrigal. Really. This week’s names will be Naomi, Lyle, Eugenie, Boaz and Kylie.
I’ll leave you with a quick update on search names – Esme continues to top the list. Lorelei, Isla, Pomeline, Java, Eithne, Aurelia, Ayelet, Noa and Oona are close behind. The list is much shorter for boys: Finn, Elmer and Remus. If you can’t tell from the list, boys generate far fewer searches than girls. And yet, nearly everyone agrees that boys’ names are harder to decide than girls’ names.
I’m off to fill up the wading pool for me the kids. As always, thanks for reading!
Hal… so very 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hmmm.
I do like Ivy, though…
You know, despite the reasons for the names of their kids, I don’t really mind Angus Raymond Mercury or Madelyn May or even Heath. Shea and Cheyenne are not so much my kind of names. Kashmir would have been a bit overkill though, but with Angus and Madelyn, it’s not super obvious that the names derive from mom and dad’s album collection. (Yes, Mercury is a little ‘unique’ but Freddie isn’t the first thing that jumps to mind when I hear the name, nor does Angus scream AC/DC.) The stadium and the state capitol, not so impressive.
Kaleigh? Um. Hope it’s a boy.
Ah, Lorelei, I love it and would go for it, but it just is so Gilmore Girls to me… hangs out on the long list… maybe I’ll get more ballsy over the next 7 months. Interesting to know it’s such a popular search, though!
Seven months!? CONGRATS!
And I agree about Heath, Madelyn May and Angus Raymond Mercury. Shea is meh. Cheyenne is one of those names that I actively dislike, but I guess she fits with plenty of place names like Savannah and Dakota.
I completely agree with you that Gilmore Girls took Lorelei from being a quirky, educated choice to being a trendy, TV-fan choice. I love the name, too, but I’d never use it.
Ivy Lola is pretty. I’m not sure it flows, but then most celebrities don’t seem too worried about how their kids’ names flow, do they? Both names in isolation are fabulous.
And speaking of Lola, has anyone seen Lola recently? I miss her.
Kayleigh is a perfect name for Kendra to name her daughter. Let her have at it.
As for the reason more girls’ names are searched than boys’? It’s probably because girls are doing the searching, and girls like girls’ names. Go onto Y!A and there are far more questions about girl names there, too. And – let’s face it – many, many, many of the people doing the searching aren’t pregnant, aren’t mommies, aren’t adults – you get it. That’s the only explanation I can come up with.
I’m surprised Elmer is so often searched. That’s an odd one!
PQ, you’re probably right about the girls’ names.
It may also be a function of *how* parents approach naming children. Maybe, if we’re determined to stick to the classics for boys, we’re less likely to search at all. Instead, we sit there saying “There’s Grandpa William, Uncle Jack or let’s just name him Jason Jr.” while with girls, we consider more possibilities.
Of course, for us it is reversed. We know what we’d name six more daughters, but sons? Yikes. But that’s only because we’re out of family names. (The last two we’d consider are “reserved” by my sibs. And women FAR outnumber men in my family, while my husband’s family in Poland has mostly names that don’t work in English. I adore Uncle Zbigniew, but I’m not handing down his name. Well, maybe in the middle?)
Anyhow, it is not a problem for us.
And it may be that Elmer is oft-searched for his relation to one of the characters I mentioned – probably Bugs Bunny? – as opposed to as a baby name. But I do know of a fashionable mama who named her tot Earl, so …
Actually I read an interview in which Kendra Wilkinson said that if she has a girl her name will be either Arianna or Kianna.
Interesting, SMN – the Kaleigh bit was picked up all over the place. Guess we’ll have to wait and see!
I guess I go against the grain – choosing a girl’s name has proven excruciating for us, whereas we had a boy name all ready to go way before we found out the sex of the baby. We are staring down the final 11 weeks and still waffling between four names, knowing that at any moment a dark horse entry from the first month or something will come barreling out of nowhere and completely upset the proceedings.
I’m wondering about Lola, too – anyone? She hasn’t posted in days.
And Kat, 11 weeks! That’s so exciting! (And the pressure is on, isn’t it?)