Colors of Blue by Zbigphotography via Flickr
We all knew that any baby name chosen by Beyonce and Jay-Z would make waves. But Blue Ivy is even wilder than many of us expected.
Plenty of colors are fair game in the land of baby naming, from pretty botanicals like Rose and Violet to more masculine hues like Gray and Jet. Blue has been in the shadows for years, worn by a handful of celebrity kids, usually in the middle spot:
- Cher’s son Elijah Blue
- The Edge’s daughter Blue Angel
- Ella Bleu Travolta
- Rocker Bret Michaels’ Jorja Bleu
- Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell has Bluebell
- Rascal Flatt’s Joe Don Rooney has Raquel Blue
- Most recently, Alicia Silvertone’s much-maligned Bear Blu
Add in Azure, one of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s Ed Sanders’ triplets, and Indigo, daughter of actor Lou Diamond Phillips, and this is a shade with some serious style in Tinsel Town.
What gives? The word blue has been in use to describe a primary color for centuries, stretching back to at least the thirteenth century. A host of associations, favorable and less so, attach to the name:
- Blue is the color of constancy – true blue.
- Blue is the color of sorrow – you can have the blues or sing the blues.
- Little Boy Blue wears the color we associate with our sons, at least in the last century.
- Blue ruin is an old slang term for gin, though today Bombay Sapphire feels removed from the hue.
- Blue ribbons are usually given for first place, and blue chip means high in value.
- Blue blood implies royal birth.
- Once in a blue moon means something that happens rarely.
- A blue dahlia has never been produced – so it implies something unattainable. The Blue Dahlia is a 1946 film noir, and before that, a nineteenth century Russian ballet.
- Blue skies and the bluebird of happiness lend the name an optimistic note.
- The big blue is the ocean, and almost makes blue something of a nature name.
- So does sky blue, and the wild blue yonder.
- Or maybe the colors of the American flag make this a patriotic choice – red, white, and blue.
From navy blue to carolina blue, there are tons of shades. Because they’re more typically associated with boys, there’s something gender-bending about choosing Blue for a girl. Except that many other colors names lean feminine, like Scarlett or Lilac.
2006′s much-lauded novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics introduced a girl called Blue Van Meer. The book is part-coming of age novel, part-murder mystery. The film rights have been optioned, but little has happened with the movie’s production. Should that change, well – that would lend a literary edge to this starbaby name.
Suddenly, Blue feels more like a viable option for a given name. In the 1930s census, there are more than a handful – though they appear to be mostly men. While the name has never cracked the US Top 1000, it has been in use.
Dare I add that the dog on Blue Clue’s was, well, a blue dog? And a girl, for what it is worth.
Blue also shares a vowel sound with Ruby, Lucy, and Julian - all names quite in favor right now. Short B names for girls – think Brooke and Blair and even Bess - have always had a certain charm.
It may be that the happy couple had other reasons for choosing Blue, but it strikes me that the question isn’t why they settled on the appellation. The question is why more of us didn’t think of it first!
Blue is also the color of purity. That’s why in paintings of the virgin Mary, she is usually wearing the color blue.
That’s interesting. I always thought that white was the colour of purity and blue of royalty, which is why the Virgin Mary is usually depicted wearing a combination of the two.
I don’t think I either love or hate the idea of Blue as a given name, whether it be on a girl or a boy. What I do like is the idea of giving your child a name that means something to you.
I have to echo Charlotte’s sentiment – I neither love nor hate Blue as a given name. I do love the color and I like how incredibly versatile its meaning seems to be. Also, as a huge bluegrass fan, ‘Blue’ as a name feels very musical to me.
I don’t think Blue is such a wild or strange choice as a first name. Colour names can be really fun and they can have wonderful meanings and connections, like you’ve shown. I also love that they chose Ivy. But Blue and Ivy put together just doesn’t work for me. It almost reaches the same level as Bear Blu and Bronx Mowgli. I really thought they would go for something French or more traditional. But they’re celebrities so I guess it is to be expected.
Oh, and I forgot this: Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziQx0cXV4nY Though I’m partial to the Bryan Ferry cover.
I agree with the other commenters — I don’t love it or hate it. It’s not my cup of tea, but I do respect that it’s an unusual name that is not ZOMG SO WEIRD. It should wear well.
I’m more concerned this will be the thing that finally tips Ivy into true trendiness. That’s my daughter’s name, and we’ve come across only one or two others in the last 4.5 years. I fear that now there’ll be a mass of them.
Our Ivy is 8.5 and we’ve met maybe 3 or 4 others.
But Ivy has definitely already been on the upswing if you look at the SSN lists.
When the news first broke there was some confusion if that baby’s name was Ivy Blue or Blue Ivy. I like Ivy Blue but putting an adjective together with a noun like that just doesn’t work for me. One commentator on TV said that Blue Ivy sounds like the name of a new vodka.
My daughter has a friend named Elsabelle Blue and I just love that combination.
I was really confused when the story broke.. of course about whether it was Blue Ivy or Ivy Blue or if it all was just rumors.. then I was confused about the combination in general.. a color and a thing name. I just thought they would be more posh creative or traditional, this is just one of those crazy celebrity names now. But who am I to judge, I would name a kid Holiday if given the chance. My guess is that they have some sort of strong meaning which always makes the name better, when you have a strong personal connection to it. Well she wont have to worry about too many people in her class having her name.. thats for sure. Im really on the fence if I like it.. I like Ivy, but Blue??? I feel like I need a name story to fall in love, but from this traditionally private couple I doubt we will get one.
I find the whole “crazy hollywood name” thing kind of disingenuous, though. First of all, most celebrities don’t name their babies anything out of the ordinary at all. Secondly, names that would be praised to the sky on name nerd boards as outside-the-box (Phineas and Hazel, anyone?) get slammed if the parent bestowing said name is a known entity.
To wit: everyone slams Apple, but oh Clementine and Persimmon and blah blah blah, they’re so ELEGANT. And Paltrow named her other baby Moses, which is a bible name.
I’d probably prefer Ivy Blue to Blue Ivy because of the adj-noun inference, but I like both names just fine. And as with all middle names — people aren’t going to call her Blue Ivy. They’ll call her Blue Carter. (Or is it Blue Knowles-Carter?)
“claps” at everything you just said , including the Beyonce baby.
I would have liked Ivy Blue but Blue Ivy sounds like something out of a botany textbook, in layman’s terms that is.
I think Blue sounds pretty in the middle spot (especially with Ivy; and I think one of Adele’s middle names is Blue) or as a nickname for, say, Brooke or Bella. I can’t see it as a full name of an adult or a teenager, though.
I am not blown away by the name. Honestly it kind of bores me. I think Ivy Blue has a better flow.
The supposes story is that Blue is after Jay-zs album Blueprint and his favorite color blue. Beyonces favorite number is four or the Roman IV ie Ivy. Voila you have an instant name.
By nature, I’m a very laid-back, relaxed kind of person and I relate that attitude to the colour blue.I do like the colour blue, and I could see it working as a name since it isn’t far removed from mine, but my sister has just shouted over my shoulder: ‘ Blue is a BOYS colour, Lou.’ Gotta love the thoughtful insights of an eight-year-old, but I guess she does have a valid point.
In his new song, “Glory,” Jay-Z says – “Baby, I paint the sky blue; my greatest creation was you.” It might be some elementary rhyming, but I think it speaks to the sweetness, significance, and, quite frankly, soul of Blue Ivy Carter (no Knowles)’s name.
Blue clearly has significance to Jay-Z, evident in this above lyric, a tribute to his child, and his three Blueprint albums. Not to mention his color: Jay-Z Blue. Blue, to me, is a color of brightness, life, vibrancy, and youth. I love it – it’s my favorite. I see the sadness that the color could have, but it is such a rich, pure, beautiful color and strong collection of letter sounds that I find the name rather striking. The addition of Ivy, an on-trend nature name, feels even more interesting in the middle spot, I think, although I’ll agree that Ivy Blue sounds less like something in a botany book (though more like something you’d find on a paint chip) and overall more pleasing to the ear, Blue Ivy is just that much more original – though not wildly so in the least! – significant, and subtly charming. I know some have maligned Ivy as a silly, roundabout way of honoring the number four, via IV, but I think it’s the perfect way to work it into a girl’s name in a classy, charming way.
Go paint that sky, Baby Blue! Congrats to mama and daddy, too.
Nice sleuthing, Lemon! And what a lullaby …
Thanks! Speaking of, Glory would be a perfect song for a future sister to Blue – it’s family and musically inspired!
Perfect NAME, not song. I can’t type today.
Don’t forget about Bonnie Blue Butler from Gone With the Wind, born Eugenie Victoria!
How could I forget?!
I like Blue. What gets me about this baby’s name is that her first name is acting as a descriptor for her middle, sort of nullifying the whole first name in the process.
But Blue alone is pretty nice, or if the middle name wasn’t a noun. I read of a character in a book one time named Bluma, called Blu. Nice.
I really like the name Blue. I always have. I like it on both genders but slightly prefer it on a girl.
Blue’s Clues, sure – what what about Paul Bunyan’s trusty ox, Blue?
I would also include Bluebelle as the name most likely to mix with Scarlett or Violet.
And I wonder if the fact that blue is a ‘boy’ colour has encouraged the fact that the name seems perfectly unisex these days. We do fight back against gender and racial stereotypes, as a society, more and more every day, I think…
Blue Ivy brings to mind the play “The House of Blue Leaves.” Great play, but since the title is referring to a mental hospital, it isn’t really namesake material. Blue Ivy also feels like a restaurant or an Inn, like “The Blue Ivy is my favorite spot for Sunday Brunch.”
As for the actual name Blue, it feels more fitting for a coonhound or a Blueheeler. But the thing really holding me back is the phrase “going blue” as in a profane comedian or an actress who switches to porn.
Pingback: From Annai to Zen: Thoughts on the Ever-Deepening Pool of Given Names, Part I | Appellation Mountain
Pingback: Baby Name of the Day: Garnet | Appellation Mountain
I’m the only one here that doesn’t like it. Blue Ivy? Too short, and sounds like a *thing*. You wouldn’t name a person Red Envelope or Gray Goose.. so what makes Blue Ivy any less ridiculous? I’ll never understand.
Pingback: Sunday Summary: 2/12/12 | Appellation Mountain
Pingback: Baby Name of the Day: Elijah | Appellation Mountain