26 by zimpenfish via Flickr

It was apparently word name week last week.  I kicked it off by covering Crew as Baby Name of the Day, followed by:

• This Nameberry post asking Word Names: Pro or Con?
• Elisabeth’s list of Uncommon Word Names.  From her list and the comments there are a quite a few that I love: Chapel, Prairie, Harbor, Wreath, Concord, Serenade, Morrow;
• For Real continues to spot them in use regularly.  She found boys called Cane Allen and Coy Waltan here, Kitty Florence Bayley here, and a Colt Douglas and Gabrielle Spring here;
• Then there’s this mom, who did not name her daughter Fig after all;
• Over at the AppMtn Facebook page, Chord was generally given positive reviews;
• Also on Facebook, Lindsay mentioned a woman named Romance on Say Yes to the Dress – very appropriate! – and Sarah mentioned seeing a Toddlers & Tiaras pageant hopeful named Serenity, only spelled Saryniti, which strikes me as rather chaotic;
• The Stir’s list of patriotic baby names contains plenty of noun options, from the obvious – Star – to the subtle – Apple, as in the pie;
• Nancy’s newest eBooks, 1-Syllable Names, isn’t about word names, but the her preview list includes a bunch, like Chase, Hope, and Faith.  Actually, that sounds like a command, too …

Olympic gold medal-winning softball pitcher turned television host and serial reality show contestant Jennie Finch completed the week by welcoming son Diesel Dean, a little brother for Ace Shane.

We still don’t know the name of Natalie Portman’s son, but I managed to write about intriguing Hollywood baby names at Nameberry for tomorrow anyhow.  Rory and Isotta have been rattling around in my head for months, so I’m really glad to have a chance to collect them.  Got the theme yet?  Tune in tomorrow to see if you’re right!

A few more thoughts:

• Will the ever-so-likeable Tom Hanks as title character in new movie Larry Crowne make us like Larry any better?  Apparently one of the other characters is named B’Ella;
• I guess we won’t see many kids sharing names with Mr. Popper’s Penguins, but I get a kick out of them anyhow;
• Could this New York Times article be any more wrong about the nostalgia wave?  Actually, Andrew Gelman misses some big trends in boys’ names, too.

That’s all for this week.  As always, thank you for reading!