Category Archives: Uncategorized

Sunday Summary: 12/5/10

Posted on
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Christmas came early to Appellation Mountain, with a guest post on Nameberry leading to a shout-out from Lisa Belkin’s venerable The Motherlode blog at the New York Times.  Christmas also officially arrived in our town – a tree was lit in the City’s park, we had breakfast with Santa, and we spent a few hours at our parish bazaar.

But back to naming news, because those kids?  They’re not gonna name themselves!

And on to the rich and the famous:

While I’ll still post celeb births here if the name is stunningly different or eagerly anticipated, I’m putting some of the more routine announcements up at the AppMtn Facebook page, along with interesting links and intriguing name sightings.

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

Sunday Summary: 11/14/10

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20

I used to spend lots of time at Yahoo! Answers, dismayed at the number of posters planning to name their triplets Maddasynne, Mykailee, and Madduxx.  Or so they said.  Now I try to stay away, but every now and again, I slip.  During my last lurking foray, I found a lengthy list of names one poster had suggested to one of those generic “What are some good baby names?” questions.  (Actually, I think it was more like “Help!!!!! I need som cute behbeh names ‘cuz me & my BF can’t decide?  LOL!”)

Usually the lists are forgettable at best, but these fascinated me.  What do you think of:

  • Yorick
  • Probus
  • Lael
  • Fabian
  • Sorian
  • Jeriel
  • Vilas
  • Dorcas (yup, on the boys’ list)

And for the girls:

  • Mimosa
  • Edna
  • Jonquil
  • Aubretia
  • Zabeth
  • Danessa
  • Ofira

I don’t expect to see any of them in the US Top 100 – or even 1000, really – soon, but it was such an extraordinarily eclectic list, I had to share.

In real life, there’s a new kid in my ‘hood called Zephyr.  Which kicks off a whole week of eclectic, I think:

  • ForReal spotted a baby girl named Fig Ava;
  • Also, in Oklahoma, ForReal found a boy called Tayden, and a girl called Maebry.  I love the sound of Maebry, but the spelling feels forced.  I’m not sure what would improve it – Maybrie?  Maebrie?  Hmmm … maybe Maebry is best;
  • BabyNameWizard posted a long, long list of backwards baby names. Is the world ready for twins named Kavon and Novak?  How ’bout Aric and Cira?
  • Pamela Redmond Satran’s article on Baby Boy Names and gender at The Daily Beast sparked a firestorm of comments.  Even the relatively neutral were highly opinionated: “Children are best named after a beloved relative or friend, or even after a historical figure, biblical character or other admired person. We would do well to lose the baby naming books.”  Really?  Somehow I think this commenter has never named a child.  Which reminds me, my son Aly was at a class with a same-aged girl called Allie on Saturday, and the world did not end;
  • Nameberry’s list of Water Names included Bay, a name that seems to surface more and more often.  Here’s one that is not on their list, possibly because it has never been used as a given name: Cascata.  It’s the Italian equivalent of cascade or waterfall.  Cascade feels a little too brand name (it’s dishwashing detergent in the US) to use for a child, but I’ve always thought Cascata had potential;
  • I finally watched an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.  The names aren’t stunningly unusual, though there’s a healthy dose of gender-bending in their choices.  Two of the Housewives are called Kyle and Taylor, Taylor’s daughter is called Kennedy, and Camille has a daughter named Mason.  But Kyle’s four daughters have attractive names: Alexia, Sophia, Portia, and Farrah.  Oh, and I think Lisa has a daughter called Pandora, but I’m not sure if I caught that right;
  • Nancy wrote about babies named Celebrity. No, not babies named Lennon or Lady Gaga, but babies named Celebrity.  It has happened.

Celebrities were also good enough to catch the theme:

  • Vera Farmiga named her daughter Gytta Lubov, a little sister for Fynn.  I’ve yet to hear the name pronounced by the proud parents, so for now, it is all speculation if she was inspired by the Sanskrit name that rhymes with Rita, or the Old Norse Gyda, which sounds more like GUH theh.  We’ll have to wait until
  • Ne-Yo welcomed a daughter named Madilyn Grace. Yes, it is quite the ordinary name.  But when Dad answers to Ne-Yo and mom is Monyetta, there’s a chance the name will be equally outlandish.  Their fairly pedestrian pick is the surprise!

That’s all for this week.  If you’re craving a Sunday Summary-esque fix midweek, find AppMtn on Facebook, too.  Oh, and stand by – Nameberry is releasing their 2010 stats tonight 2011 predictions (oops – thanks for the correction, British American) at midnight!

As always, thank you for reading and have a great week!

Thank you!

Posted on
6

About a year into writing Appellation Mountain, I stopped checking the site’s stats.  I’d become a bit obsessed with it, wondering why I wasn’t doing better than so-and-so, or worried that I wasn’t ranking higher in search engines.

Then I stopped looking … and you kept reading, and telling your friends.  I can still see a summary of total visits on the dashboard, and I glance at it now and again, content that there are more and more people finding their way here.

Thursday evening I noticed that hits were trending upward – fast, and I mean Brangelina-surprise-adoption fast.  When I clicked through, I realized it was because tct1219 had mentioned me on The Bump’s community forum about baby names.  That ordinary day brought more traffic here than any guest post at Nameberry or celeb name announcement.

It is humbling to read complimentary reviews of your site, and I truly, truly appreciate each and every one of them, on The Bump and elsewhere.  But what I most appreciate is that you visit here, share your thoughts, and suggest your favorites to be profiled as Names of the Day.

So whether this is your first visit or you’ve been reading since 2008, I sincerely thank you for being here!  I was name-mad before blogs existed, but it so very much fun to share my obsession.

Reader Baby Name Story: The Nickname Came First

Posted on
10
Kestrel

Kestrel; Image via Wikipedia

Today’s story comes to us from Sara.  She had the opposite problem from so many of us – she and husband knew what they wanted to call their daughter, but had to agree on what to write on her birth certificate.

My husband and I love names that are a bit unusual, but not too hard to pronounce.

When we were pregnant for our daughter it took us months to agree on a name. Finally we were able to agree on the name Kesi.  It was cute and new, but not too weird.

The only problem? The name’s meaning: “Born in time of father’s misfortune.”

Little girls will look up the meaning of their name and I advised my lovely husband that this just would not do.

We now had a dilemma. After months of negotiations we had a name … that we could not use!

So I decided to see if I could find a name that we could shorten to Kesi as a nickname.

After some searching I located the name Kestrel, meaning in Old French “little rattle”, and also belonging to a small hawk. Perfect!

Just last year at school her class had a project: look up your name’s meaning.  She was thrilled with hers, and really enjoyed reading about the small hawk that shares her name.  I can only imagine what may have ensued had we stuck with the original name. I’m not even sure HOW you would make a poster out of that … LOL!

Our daughter and all of her friends love her name, so it has been a hit! She is now 11 years old and I can’t imagine her with any other name.  She is spunky and cute. The name really fits her. Everyone seems to be able to pronounce it with no trouble, and we get to call her by our cute nickname of choice, Kesi.

We also have a wonderful, intelligent, and kind-hearted son named Colby as well as a new little girl to come.  We have yet to settle on a name for the new addition, but Elodie, Sofieke, Evelyn, Brynley, Adele, and Bijou are on our list, along with many others. We have two weeks to decide and I have changed my mind every few weeks.

Wish us luck!

Best wishes, Sara – and congratulations on your newest addition!  (If Sara doesn’t comment, I’m guessing it is because Elodie Sofieke Evelyn Brynley Adele Bijou has already arrived.)  My son had a similar project in kindergarten – well, just a worksheet instructing him to find out why his parents chose his name.  I was delighted that I had a story to tell.

Sunday Summary: 9/12/10

Posted on
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Let’s start a handful of picks from pop culture: first, True Blood’s werewolf Alcide.  He joined the cast in Season Three and will be back in Season Four.  If Sookie recently attracted attention, how about this romantic French spin on the Greek Alcaeus?

I’m also intrigued by Katniss, the heroine of the bestselling young adult trilogy The Hunger Games.  Her name is taken from the name of an edible plant, not just in her distopian fictional universe, but here on Earth, too.  Stephen King panned the name in a review, but I find Katniss pretty clever.  And what’s more, I can imagine Katniss catching on – she’s almost a blend of all those Kate names and the vintage, ends-in-ess choices, like Frances and Alice.

And let’s not forget TLC’s latest entry about families with lots of kids.  This one has lots of wives, too – yup, they’re profiling a polygamist family in Sister Wives.  The faces in their very crowded family portrait belong to:

  • Dad Kody;
  • First wife Meri and her daughter Mariah;
  • Second wife Janelle, and her kids Logan, Madison, Hunter, Garrison, Gabriel, and Savanah;
  • Third wife Christine and her kids Aspyn, Mykelti, Paedon, Gwenelyn, Ysabel, and baby-on-the-way Truely;
  • Fourth wife-to-be Robyn, who brings three kids to the bigger-than-Brady bunch: Dayton, Aurora, and Breanna.

It’s interesting to see that you can share everything, and still have very different taste in baby names.

Elsewhere online:

  • Speaking of family names, Laura Wattenberg’s article about A New World of Namesakes challenges readers to imagine the feminine form of today’s most popular boys’ names.  Will Connor’s granddaughter be called Connie?  Connorine?  The mind reels.  Apparently Joshlyn is already surfacing;
  • A comment in that post led to these addicting Sporcle games.  Maybe I’m a geek, but I nearly didn’t get the laundry done thanks to these;
  • Sebastiane’s post on Gregory includes a long list of feminine variants, including Jorina. Which gives me hope that we won’t be meeting girls called Connorine;
  • Spotted in Montana: Huxley.  ON A GIRL.  For Real reports a Huxley Isabella was born in Big Sky Country;
  • This one is for Claire.  During our discussion of Endellion, she wrote: “What if we dropped the ‘n’? Endellia is nice.”  Guess what popped up in the new names at Namipedia just the other day?  Wait for it – Endelia.  She may or may not stay there – Wattenberg has some criteria for determining which names can be listed – but other people are thinking the same way;
  • Check out the Class Rosters list at You Can’t Call It “It.” I was traveling for work when her post came out, so I couldn’t put my hands on our lists, but the biggest surprise I’ve heard so far?  Aly has a classmate called Ovid.  I’m not sure if I’m misunderstanding a foreign name or if he really is named after the poet.

In starbaby news, besides Winnie Cooper’s baby dragon, there’s:

Lastly, I was curious to see the upcoming Easy A for tons of reasons – it’s a spin on The Scarlet Letter, Malcolm McDowell plays the principal, the reviews have been great.  But best of all?  The heroine’s name is Olive!

That’s all for this week.  If you haven’t already, leave a comment on this post for a chance at choosing the five names to be featured the week of December 27!  Thanks for reading.

Baby Name of the Day: Zebedee

Posted on
18

Zach is heard everywhere.  Zeke is gaining.  What other Z names might catch on?

Thanks to JNE for suggesting Zebedee as Baby Name of the Day.

Continue reading →

Name of the Day: Quentin

Posted on
9

He sounds buttoned-down, but he’s been worn by some serious tough guys.

Thanks to Emma for suggesting Quentin as Name of the Day.

Continue reading →

Sunday Summary: 2/14/10

Posted on
10

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Which reminds me, a new ABC series called Happy Town will premier in late April.  The character list includes a Henley.  I’m not sure about the plot or the character, but I find myself wondering: could -enley be the new -iley?  

In 2008, Project Runway contestant Kenley Collins made it to the finals.  It’s too soon to say if she’ll become a household name in fashion, but her given name debuted at #998 in the US Top 1000 in ’08.  And we just talked about Tenley, she of Olympic figure skating/The Bachelor fame.  The sound is close to gender-spanning Finley, but unlike Riley/Kylee/Mylie/Bryleigh/Skylea, I’m not sure there are as many -enley options.  (Though my husband proposed in Schenley Park …)

If you just can’t get enough reality TV, here’s one more:  Elisabeth at You Can’t Call It “It” tipped me off to my sure-to-be new addiction, 9 By Design, set to debut on Bravo in April.  The family of impossibly stylish NYC house flippers extraordinaire has seven kids, including two sets of twins.  The New Yok Post described the show as Jon & Kate Plus 8 meets Sex and the City.  Sign me up!  Oh, and the names?  Bob and Cortney Novogrtaz are parents to:

  • Wolfgang, 12;
  • Twins Bellamy and Tallulah, 11; 
  • Breaker, 9;
  • Twins Five and Holleder, 4;
  • Major, 1.

I remember them from an early issue of Cookie Magazine, back pre-baby Major when they were living in a house with a basketball court on the roof.  How many days ’til April 5?

In other news, some of you might recall that I was in the midst of a blizzard last weekend.  A family a few blocks away welcomed a baby at home on the worst day of the record-setting storm. She’s Regina, a little sister for Gregory and Gloria.  The new baby’s name full is Regina Caeli, and that’s not just some nouveau riff on Kaylee.  Regina Caeli – pronounced CHAY lee – translates to Queen of Heaven, and it is a prayer to Mary.  

Since I’ve been talking about reality stars and local celebs, let’s start with the famous folk first:

Elsewhere online:

Of all the weird social media phenomena to emerge in recent years, I’ll admit I’m most fascinated by fictional characters with blogs.  Who writes them?  Isn’t it hard to avoid revealing upcoming plot twists, or over-developing the character who blogs?  Anyhow, The Office’s Pam and Jim have a baby blog, with a recent post on baby names.  Someone thinks Michael and Scott would be great names.

I’m off to stop the kids from eating all of the candy out of their chocolate hearts before lunchtime.  Wishing you a sweet day, and thanks for reading!