A Week of Girls’ Names

When I started writing Name of the Day posts, I had a simple plan: a girl’s name one day, followed by a boy’s name.

Trouble is that requests to cover girls’ names routinely outpace requests for boys’ names.  And not by a little, either.  I’ve been four, even six weeks ahead in girls’ names and realized I was missing a boys’ name for the very next day.

Searches for girls’  names outpace boys’ searches at about the same rate, too – even when I did manage to keep the content split evenly.

Given the requests and the searches, I’ve started to mirror that in my posts.  And yet, I was still way behind in the number of requests I could accommodate.

So this week is nothin’ but sugar and spice and everything nice.  (Or not, depending on what you think of the Names of the Day.)  But they’ll all be suitable for a daughter.  I’ll be back to a more balanced calendar next week.

Sunday Summary: 10/18/09

First, congratulations to reader Photoqulity for a successful showing of her work Fuzzhead by DP at the Newport News Fall Festival of Folklife.  Her bibs rock!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

True fact: I can recite the original text of Where the Wild Things Are.  From memory.  (And yet I regularly forget my PIN number.  Go figure.)  

Parlor tricks aside, it sounds like Spike Jonze has managed to turn Maurice Sendak’s beloved classic into an appealing children’s movie.  Best of all?  He got to name the monsters! Fritinancy linked to an interview with Jonze and Sendak about christening the five Carol (male), Alexander, Ira, Judith and Douglas.   But we all know that the name to get the biggest boost from this flick is probably the already popular Max – he of the wolf-suit, who could soar in the 2010 rankings.

Speaking of heights, unless you were under a rock, surely you caught the not-flight of Falcon, the boy who ran up a bill with NORAD in a balloon built by his daredevil Dad.   (Except not.  It turned out Falcon was on terra firma the whole time.)  No, you’re not imagining it, either – Daphne du Maurier penned an all-but-forgotten novel titled The Flight of the Falcon back in 1965 – but her main characters were Aldo and Armino.  Falcon has brothers named Bradford and Ryo, and the whole family recently featured on an episode of Wife Swap.

While we’re talking television:

  • On FOX’s high school musical Glee, quarterback Finn suggested a baby name to cheerleader Quinn: Drizzle.  Quinn was not impressed;
  • On the baby shower episode of 18 Kids and Counting, grandma-elect Michelle fixed Mackynzie’s name on the sheet cake after the bakery biffed the spelling.  The first, I’ll bet of many such incidents.

In real life, non-reality-TV baby  names:

  • Bewildertrix wrote about the Boo phenom.  I have yet to spot it in the US, but apparently there’s an epidemic of girls with names like Daisy Boo elsewhere in the English speaking world.  And she spotted a Kherington – as in Fame!  Of course, hers was a middle name – Brooke Kherington;
  • In News from the North, parentcentral.ca reports on a new baby named Briese Lively.  The first name is a friend’s surname, pronounced Breeze.  I can’t help think that Briese would’ve benefitted from a more restrained pick in the middle spot;
  • From Canada to Russia, with love … Nancy posted about the most popular names in Vladivostok, Russia, where the As have it – Anastasia, Alexandra, Anna, Alexander and Artem share the top spots, along with Vladislav  - can you imagine being Vladislav from Vladivostok;
  • Speaking of global names, Laura Wattenberg posted on the Global Hit Name You Haven’t Noticed - Matthew.  And Matteo, Matthias, Mate, Mathieu

A few other notes:

  • Actress Nia Long’s son (he’s eight) is called Massai Zhivago.  Call me crazy, but I love it;
  • Real World alum Rachel Campos-Duffy (back from Season Three, San Francisco, when we were all watching) grew up and became an occasional guest host of The View, the political conservative they call on when their regular reality-star-alum/political conservative isn’t available.  I might not agree with her, but I like the names she and husband Sean picked – and they’ve had a lot of practice.  Baby #6 is on the way – the first five are Eva Pilar, Xavier JackLucia-Belen, John-Paul and Paloma Pilar;
  • Now that’s how to name twins! Arrested Development actor Jeffrey Tambor and wife Kasia have welcomed Hugo Bernard and Eli Nicholas, little brothers for Eve Julia and Gabriel Kasper.  Then again, dad has plenty of experience.  He’s 65;
  • SNL’s Bill Hader and wife welcomed daughter Hannah Kathryn.

But the big starbaby news of the week is the arrival of Lou Sulola.  Check out Nameberry’s Pamela Redmond Satran’s slideshow up at The Daily Beast, listing the many celeb babies given names that range from gender-neutral to gender-bending.

And lastly, I’m headed to New Orleans for a friend’s wedding this weekend.  The Names of the Day posts will continue as planned, but if I do post a Sunday Summary, it will be brief!

Name of the Day: Fuchsia

There’s Scarlet and Violet, Ruby and Jade.  But if you seek a truly daring color name for a daughter, this could be one option.

Thanks to Imogen for suggesting Fuchsia as Name of the Day.

Continue reading

Name of the Day: Sanne

Would you name your daughter Suejust Sue?  In the Netherlands, plenty of parents are opting for a related nickname name.

Thanks to Kelleita for suggesting Sanne as Name of the Day.

Continue reading

Name of the Day: Zora

On the heels of Zane, here’s another zippy Z-name.

Thanks to Laney McDonald for suggesting Zora as Name of the Day.

Continue reading

Elsewhere Online: Momentum and Baby Names

How many times have you heard the parent of a small child say something like this: “We didn’t realize Isaiah was getting so popular!”

“I really hope Ruby doesn’t take off!  I hated being one of three Jennifers in my class.”

Or even: “I chose Ava for a girl and then my neighbor/co-worker/sister-in-law stole it!”

My theory is this: the more we hear a name, the more likely we are to consider it for our own children.  It’s why names like Damien and Regan can pop even after they’re used for children that we hope ours won’t emulate.  Ditto name elements – Miley owes some of her success to Billy Ray’s Disney daughter, but more to her similarity to Riley and Kylie.

You and I hear parents’ laments about Ava and Ruby and Isaiah and think: names embraced by celebs/last popular 100 years back/borrowed from the Bible are likely to rise.  We’re not surprised.  But hey, if you’re here, you’re probably more into names than the average person naming a baby right now.

Which is why I think you’ll be pleased as punch to know that NYU psych professor Todd Gureckis and Indiana U’s psych/brain sciences professor Robert Goldstone have researched this very topic.  Their results can be read in the scholarly journalTopics in Cognitive Science.

Read the summary here: Recent ‘momentum’ influences choices of baby names, NYU, Indiana psychology professors find.

I haven’t read the original article – and I’m not sure I have the academic chops to completely digest it – but their finding is this: at least since the 1980s, parents have shown a preference for names that are rising.  Therefore, those names rise.  And so parents continue to show a preference for the rising names.  And so they continue to rise …

It isn’t the whole picture, of course, but it’s an interesting piece.

Starbaby News: Welcome Lou Sulola

The rumors were right!  Heidi Klum and Seal have welcomed a daughter, Lou Sulola.

Color me surprised.  Firstborn daughter Leni’s full name is Helene.  (I’m not sure about middles – anyone know?)  And her boys have long names: Henry Gunther Ademola Dashtu and Johan Riley Fyodor Taiwo.

Lou is stylish – she’ll fit right in with other celebribabies like Tiger Woods’ Sam.  But this feels a bit like the SJP/Matthew Broderick twins – one daughter received three names, the other just two.

Won’t the girls envy their brothers’ longer names?