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I was recently trailing a just-pregnant-enough-to-need-maternity-wear friend through the mall when I spotted a baby names book.  Moth to a flame, I flipped through the pages.

And I was horrified.  The definitions weren’t just wrong – there’s room to quibble about the origins of many names – they were absolutely uninformed.  Cleo meant “Egyptian queen” as did Cleopatra.  (Wrong.)  Julie was listed as an American name, Juliet as Italian, and Juliette as French.  One out of three is … pretty pathetic.

I stopped short of telling the clerk they really needed to stock Beyond Ava and Aiden.  And I must say, I have a renewed sense of how hard it is for the non-name-obsessed to get good information.

Speaking of which, there was quite a lot of great conversation this week:

• All the buzz was about Girl’s Gone Child’s list of names she’s  not using for their twin daughters.  My favorites from her list: Season, Blythe, and Nova;
• Check out Chanara’s list of possible names for Rosy’s little sister or brother.  Alice Cordelia is my favorite, but she’s not made the final cut;
• For Real spotted a Madalina  – pretty, but loses something thanks to all of those little Madelines and Adalyns;
• British Baby Names has a list of families from the Edwardian era that rival the Duggars for matchiness;
• Did you see this list at Nameberry of double names?  I’ve long loved Coco, Gigi, Mimi, and Lulu – and never noticed that they shared a pattern;
• What do you think of Eisley for a girl?  A Swistle reader has it on her short list;
• As if Glee wasn’t enough, Cars 2 features a British secret agent car called Finn McMissile;
• While we’re looking at animated characters, Nickelodeon is about to import an Italian series about fairies at a Hogwarts-esque academy.  The main character of Winx Club  is called Bloom.  I get a very Producers/grocery store vibe from Bloom, but I like it anyhow.

If you follow AppMtn on Facebook, you heard me shouting “Noooooo!” when David Schwimmer’s daughter’s name was announced last week.  Even more strange?  A New Zealand news site said this of Cleo Schwimmer: “After several weeks of bizarre celebrity baby names, it’s refreshing to find someone who has given their newborn the best chance of a normal life.”

H’okay.  I’m not saying Cleo is especially weird, but it isn’t exactly Anne.

Speaking of celebrity names, Oprah inspired last week’s post at Nameberry.  There’s no post here tomorrow thanks to the Memorial Day holiday, but my list at Nameberry is super-season appropriate and very much fun.

As always, thanks for reading and have a great week!