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If you’ve emailed me lately, you might have been disappointed to hear nothin’ but crickets in response.  I’ve been quiet because, frankly, my email is at fail.  Wait, make that flail – I am officially at the point where the number of Baby Name of the Day requests far exceeds my ability to respond.

At the same time, the content at AppMtn is aging – I wrote about Harper, for example, in June of 2008 – before the explosion of celebrity kids named Harper.

Add in an urge to write different kinds of posts – more lists, more articles – and it was starting to feel like a perfect storm.  I’d just about scheduled myself right into the last page of my day planner – January 2012 – and it just didn’t feel quite right.

So, a few changes are ahead between now and the end of the year:

• A new series debuts this Thursday.  They’re short lists of names focused on a particular category.  I’ve usually profiled some of the names in the past, but others are likely to be new.  Tune in later this week to see.
• Beginning in November, I’m going to revise a previously posted name every Thursday.
• I’m going to take new names requests – pretty much everything from July 2011 forward – and put them into polls for you, lucky readers, to select the Monday and Wednesday names going forward.  I’ll probably still choose most of the Friday names directly from requests, based on the requested names that seem to be getting a lot of attention.  The first poll will appear on October 8.

It sounds like an awful lot of change, and in some ways it is.  You’ll still see a Baby Name of the Day post 4 out of 5 days of the week.  The Sunday Summary stays as is, at least after I’m finished with this lengthy explanation.  And who knows?  I started writing Baby Names of the Day on a whim and I remain astonished at how it has grown, so I’m open to the idea of change and growth.

Now, just a few irresistible notes from around the blogosphere this week:

• Isadora mentioned Carnelian the other day – I love it, especially with the nickname Neely;
• Mer de Noms profiled the names of all five Duran Duran members’ kids.  Then noted that she’d gotten the idea from her dad’s CD collection.  Je suis old, but I still love John Taylor’s daughter’s name: Atlanta;
• Could the baby in this picture be any cuter?  Better yet, her name is Enid, mentioned in Waltzing More than Matilda’s series about babies born on (Australian) Father’s Day;
• Nancy mentioned the Morlok quadruplets – Edna, Wilma, Sarah, and Helen.  At first glance, they just seem like four names current in the year 1930, but it turns out their initials honor the hospital where they were born: Edward W. Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan;
• Alcide and Godric both made Nymbler’s Top Five debut names in August.  I kind of love that medieval legend hero vibe for a son.  It could be a lot to wear, but with Tristan gone mainstream, maybe not.

That’s all for this week!  I hope you’ll stick around as I change and re-arrange things.  And if I owe you an email response?  I’ll do my best to get to you soon.