It’s been a tremendously happy week.  First, there was Halloween.  The best costume was a 2 year old called Julian, dressed as a garden gnome.  (Between the gnome and this post on Noam, I’m having a real red, pointy-hat moment.)  Then came the arrival of my friends’ daughter, Penelope.  Sometimes it is just lovely to know that the world is bigger by one.

But the real highlight was meeting my new nephew.  (I’ve never been an aunt before.)  We’re quite taken with little Hugo.  My kids were very interested in their cousin, too, though at seven weeks, he mostly slept through the chaos.

Elsewhere in the universe:

• Midwinter Names wrote about Gilda, and suddenly, I’m in love;
• From Nook’s Ghost Post, I’m captivated by Linnet.  Though I’ve heard of stylish parents considering Lynette, that spelling still feels dated – maybe even forced, despite her ties to the legendary Eluned.  But Linnet feels fresh and modern.  More proof that spelling counts, and variant spellings aren’t all bad;
• Marginamia has a great round-up of baby names from Modern Kiddo.  You can browse the site’s archive here.  There’s even a Giacomo!
• What do you think of Warwick?  The second “w” is silent – Warrick.  It’s strong, but not as aggressive as Slade, and preppy, but not as bow-tied as Carter.
• I finally caught the Halloween episode of The Office, and Robert California’s son is called Bert.  There’s no explanation offered, but I’ve been thinking on Bert as a nickname for Robert ever since.  I still find Rob appealing, and Bob dated, but Bert?  Hmmm …
• From the small screen to the big, in new movie Tower Heist, Gabourey Sidibe played a character called Odessa.  She’s a maid-turned-safecracker.  Wonder if this name will see an uptick?
• Step into the Wayback Machine: in 2008, I wrote about Carys, Guy, and Matilda.  In 2009, it was Stellan and Dava.  And last year, Truman and Spencer were highlighted.
• My favorite post of the week was easily Nameberry’s Extreme Baby Names: One you love but are afraid to use?  The lists were fantastic – Maelys, Moxie, Apollo, Ursula, Paisley, Atlas, Ariadne, Calliope, Cosmo, Galilee, Silver, and so many more.

This week marks the start of something old, something new here at AppMtn: I’ll be running re-runs of past posts every Tuesday.  Since the site is about to turn four in January 2012, some of the 2008 content needs a refresh.  Plus I’m guessing that enough of you are new  that there’s no way you’ve read every one of the past 1,438 posts.  (Wow, have I written 1,438 posts?  No wonder the laundry tends to pile up around here …)

That’s all for this week.  Tune in to Nameberry tomorrow for more of this week’s name news.  And, as always, thanks for reading and have a great week!