I hope you had a wonderful, magical holiday! A few random observations from the wider world:
- Clio opened a gift from the B. You toys line to find this quote in the packaging: “I’m going to have five children and name them Cabbage, French Toast, Table, Shower, and Chair!” I laughed, and then noted that the quote was attributed to Skye, age 6;
- I’ve yet to see it, but the third installment in the Meet the Parents series hit the big screen earlier this week. The Little Fockers are the sensibly named Henry and Samantha, which is, I think, what probably happens if you go through life saying, “It’s Gaylord, but please call me Greg.”
- I finally watched Easy A over the weekend, and there’s a great line about the name Olive: “My name is an anagram for I love.”
Elsewhere online:
- Does being a teacher really making choosing a child’s name harder? Teacher friends have told me that’s so, and this post at Swistle repeats the lament. But I think Swistle’s advice is spot on: “I think this would be a happier and easier process if you could bring yourself to avoid an insistence on the child being the only child of your acquaintance with that name … Coming to terms with a duplicate now is like getting the first ding or scratch on the new car: nice to get the inevitable over with.”
- Nameberry posted their 2010 Most Popular Lists. On the boys’s side, Finn edged out Henry for the #1 name, but only if you exclude other Fin- names like Finnian and Finnegan. Charlotte reigns supreme for girls, but there are some real surprises in their Top 100, like Elodie, Pearl, and Rory;
- While we’re on round-up posts, here’s Nancy’s take on Scotland’s 2010 baby name data. Is Riley-Boy a typo, or a defensive move for parents fearing their son will be mistaken for a daughter? Speaking of daughters, why would you call yours Chalcedony? There must be a story there;
- The NameLady takes on the question of Calypso in “Is My Favorite Baby Name too Weird?” It goes without saying I’m on the side of the (mostly) positive comments. I’m also surprised by the Name Lady’s comment that “the -o ending … is a tough sell for girls’ names.” Really? From Margo to Harlow, I feel like it is reasonably accepted, if not exactly expected;
- Speaking of -o, how ’bout naming your daughter – or son – Snow? Sebastiane has a list of international variants;
- On a similar note, UK-based Bounty suggests that babies born during the holiday season might be named Sparkle. And you thought Calypso was different!
Among the famous and the fabulous:
- Vince Vaughn is a new dad, to daughter Locklyn Kyla;
- I enjoyed Amy Adams’ explanation of her daughter’s name, Aviana, inspired by Adams’ birthplace, Aviano, Italy. That’s a great story!
I’ve taken to putting more celeb birth announcements over at Facebook.
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading!
Haha, Gaylorg would have been even more interesting as BNoTD 😉
How about Gaylorg for BNotD?
Ugh. Gaylord, not Gaylorg.
Well technically Harlow was a boy name first, so even that’s not a given to read “girl”. I do agree “o” ending names are generally associated with girls, and “a” wth girls.
I meant “o” ending – boys not girls. Silly typo
Ah, but only if we assume all surnames were originally masculine! Plenty of surnames are related to feminine given names, and there are traditions of passing on the mother’s maiden name to a child, regardless of gender. That said, the majority of the Harlows I can find in the US Census records were male – but again, the majority, not all.
That said, Harlow isn’t necessarily the greatest example of a widely-accepted name for girls that ends in -o. Margo and Cleo have more history.
Locklyn? Sigh. I had hoped that Lachlan would stay on the boys’ side, but the lure of the -lyns is too strong!
Kyla is pretty, though.
I think Kyla is after the mother.
I do like Snow in the middle name spot as well but am afraid it sounds too unisex/surnamey. I do love Sniezka. I’d use that in a heartbeat if I intended to raise my children in Poland, that is.
I recently saw Easy A as well, and realized that not only is Olive an anagram for “I love,” it’s also an anagram for “O, Evil.” I don’t think that’s a reason to knock it, though.
our little calico kitten is named olive… i like the “i love” anagram, but the “o, evil” anagram is probably more appropriate for her. she’s famous for her middle of the night ninja attacks, and for swiping your sunglasses off your head from her perch atop the fridge. oy. cute little devil, though. 🙂
Maybe Riley-Boy was a new registrar who filled in the wrong box?
I do kind of love Snow as a middle name though. Emmeline Snow, Lucinda Snow, Matilda Snow. I definitely like Snow as a middle name, but it sounds quite surname-y.
I kind of think that MUST be it, Awkward Turtle. Or something like that …
And Snow in the middle spot has quite a bit of appeal. If Rose and Rain work, why not Snow? Though I do know someone who named his daughter Amber Rain, and I always thought “Yellow Rain?” …
As long as it’s not Yellow Snow! 😉
The daughter of my mom’s ex-fiancé was named Sparkle. Her dad said he chose it because when she was born, her eyes sparkled. I think he was influenced by the 1976 movie Sparkle, in which Irene Cara played the title character.
Thanks, Panya – in all of my late night TV movie watching, somehow I’ve missed Sparkle! But that makes sense.