As I write this, a friend of mine is in labor. Not only has she not found out if it is a boy or a girl, she and her husband are keeping their final name choices secret until they meet their new little person.
Readers, the suspense is killing me.
In the meantime, I’m amusing myself with a few links:
- The award for best crowdsourcing this week goes to Nameberry’s post on Twin Names. Are so many twins really given matchy-matchy names, or do the Donnie/Ronnie and Jane/Joan combos just lodge in our memories. Should you consider naming your Kimmie and Jimmie, I’ll direct you to the lively discussion following December’s How Close is Too Close: Ten Factors to Consider post;
- For Real Baby Names reports that a Hope Montana was born in Alaska. She also spotted a newborn Klovis Michael – a girl! I think a boy called Clovis Michael would be pretty cool;
- Bewildertrix spotted a birth announcement for a boy named Pip Shaw. After so many newborns called Archie and Gracie, I’ve stopped ringing my hands about how the names will wear when Archie and Gracie are in their golden years. But Pip? Pip is a bit much. Or make that not quite enough;
- Laura Wattenberg has been looking back at her predictions from five years ago here and here. I think I’m most impressed that her blog has been up for five years;
- But if I’m not mistaken, the longest running blog in our niche is Nancy’s Baby Names. This week, Nancy has story of British alpine skiier Chemine “Chemmy” Alcott’s unusual name;
- Speaking of unusual, Sebastiane brings us Modest and Modeste at Legitimate Baby Names;
- If you’re going to name your baby after a perfume, babynamelover points out that Flora is Gucci’s latest fragrance;
- Everyone’s an expert these days. Even photo site Shutterfly is weighing in on the most popular baby names, announcing that Addison and Emma are big for girls’ birth announcement orders, while “the more traditional William and Dylan were the most popular boy names.” I’ll give you William as a classic. But Dylan? He didn’t even appear in the US Top 1000 until the 1960s. More traditional than what, I wonder;
- Rachel Liebold’s tale of arguing over possible baby names sounds so much like my own story that I think she might be me. Except that she agreed not to discuss it until they found out their baby-on-the-way’s gender and me, well … I could never do that;
- While we’re talking about things I could never do, did you read Alana’s story about naming a baby in Iceland? It was reprinted at Nameberry. I could handle having to pick a name off a list, I suppose, but waiting weeks, even months until after the baby arrives to real the name? Wow.
In starbaby news, besides the arrival of Padma Lakshmi’s daughter Krishna Thea:
- Gary Busey and girlfriend Steffanie Sampson have welcomed a son, Luke Sampson. Gary also has two grown kids, Jake and Alectra, from previous relationships;
- It’s not news, but I was intrigued to learn that alpine skiier Bode Miller’s daughter is named Neesyn Dacey. I haven’t a clue about the origins of her name – anyone have a guess?
Lastly, I usually disagree with the Name Lady, but I laughed out loud when I read her recent column of questions from her inbox. My favorite is this: “I chose my daughter’s name when I saw it graffitied on a truck when I was pregnant with her so I don’t know it’s history. What can you share about this name?”
I’m laughing so hard I actually forgot about my friend and her as-yet-unnamed-newborn.
That’s all for now. Have a great week, and thanks for reading!
First of all, good luck to your friend & I’ll say a prayer for her
Now, to get to business – of course Dylan is a classic name! aka Bob Dylan ! Just teasing
Aside from that,Dylan might not be a classic like Charles or something like that, but the name has been used internationally for a long time & it’s in the top 100 in MANY countries. It’s more contemporary than William, I give you that. To be honest, I’ve never liked William – I tried to & failed. I really dislike how it makes out the phrase ‘ Will I Am’ & all of the nicknames like Bill.Billy,Will & ‘cringes’ Willie.Oh, Dylan has been m number 1# name for a boy since I was 10 
so, I’m extremely biased here hehehehe 
I think ‘classic’ & ‘traditional’ aren’t mutually exclusive. To me , traditional is more conventional. whereas as ‘classic’ is timeless. You can have a traditional name that could be associated with a certain era & then you get a classic that will fit in at any time
I actually kind of get the whole nickname thing as a name
I remember reading a couple of bogs, that at one stage, names like Millie,Tillie etc were all common & if look at the names from about 60 + years ago, they do seem a bit nicknamey, or at least-some of them do to me.That said, Pip Shaw doesn’t appeal to me
My gut reaction was that I liked Hope Montanna. I like Hope & I think Montanna works with it.
Whew, that was long ! Anyway, I particularly enjoyed the names you did this week! Good luck to your friend!
When you mentioned Millie, it made me think of a lady I knew in my childhood. Her name was Mildred, but everyone called her Middie. I haven’t heard that nickname since, so maybe it’s fairly unique.
Sorry, I just read that article by Rachel Leibold & I thought it was brilliant! Being a South African,I COMPLETELY get what her husband Dieter meant by the Jan thing. Here, Jannie & Jan are VERY common names & even nicknames for names like Jakobus, Johannes etc I get what she means;an AMerican would say JAN & I’s say YUN or YUNNY as that is how they are actually said.Sorry, I just had to comment on that.
Anyway , enjoy the rest of your Sunday
I too was fascinated by the details of baby naming in Iceland – so interesting to learn about the cultural differences.
To me, the most remarkable thing about Gary Busey and his girlfriend having their son, Luke, is… wait!? WHAT?! Someone is having his kids?! That kinda makes the name a moot point to me (and there isn’t much that could do that!)
Good luck to your friend and congratulations to them!
In total agreement about Gary Busey!
Pip Shaw??? All I can think of is Peep Show!
Now I’m excited to hear about your friend’s new baby too!
Over the summer I had three friends who didn’t find out the baby’s gender and waited on sharing names too. I awaited anxiously for name news each time. (The three babies were Johnathan Paul, Macy and Dexter.)
I’m curious about Neesyn Dacey too. I’ve never seen Neesyn before. Thankfully, she goes by her middle name.
Ah, we are a lot alike. I could never wait months to name my baby and I drive my friends (who keep their babies’ names secret) crazy. I want to know and I promise I won’t tell anyone else.
Which I tell them everytime I talk to them. Sometimes it works. Other times it doesn’t and then the suspense kills me.
Have a good week!
Sarah