December! I truly do love the holiday season – every second of it, from animated holiday specials to the end-of-the-year reviews, decorations and music and cookies and wrapping presents and … well, you get the idea. And yet it has never really occurred to me to change a child’s name based on the season of his or her arrival. My son’s due date was Christmas, but we never seriously considered a middle name like Rudy or Noel. Our daughter arrived in the glorious Fall, but somehow we never seriously thought about a seasonal choice for her, either – Harvest or Leaf, maybe?
I’m always impressed by parents who are flexible enough to let the season or circumstances of their child’s arrival inform the final name choice. And many do!
Two posts from last year are on this theme:
There’s also a great round-up of winter baby names at Nameberry. I think I’d be more likely to use a seasonal name for a child, if only because once you know your due date, it is reasonable to mull over summery or wintery or what-season-have-you possibilities in advance.
On to the name news:
- With all this talk about seasonally-appropriate naming, I’m still delighted to see that this family used August for their November arrival.
- I’ve been watching the 2005 season of Dr. Who. Someone mentioned Billie Piper here a while back, the actress who played Rose Tyler, the Doctor’s companion that season. She’s married to fellow actor Laurence Fox, and their sons’ names are glorious: Winston James and Eugene Pip. Hoping they have more …
- Jolene strikes me as not-quite-ready for revival. But I’ve heard younger moms talk about her positively – credit Dolly Parton’s song, I suppose. (Worth clicking through to the YouTube video if only for Dolly’s lavender bell-bottomed jumpsuit!)
- Zoella feels much more like a 2014 baby name – Nancy points out that it may have been boosted by a beauty blogger. Though it’s also a logical elaboration of Zoe, a smoosh name from mega-popular names Zoe and Ella, and a name that saw some use back in the 1920s – meaning the 100-year rule could be kicking in.
- Brothers named Holden and Huckleberry, a little Clark, and sisters called Layla, Elyse, and Ruby, all after songs. So much to love about the Nameberry birth announcement round-ups, especially now that they’re coming out every month!
- Which reminds me, I think Huckleberry might be the new Atticus – the oh-so-daring name of the moment. Of course, Atticus has gone mainstream – will Huckleberry follow?
- Would you veto Cherry as a baby name? I understand all of the reasons to avoid Cherry, but I wonder if this answer is too dismissive. Possible compromises include naming her Cerise or Cereza – French and Spanish for cherry. Or Charity, a name that sometimes led to the nickname Cherry. Or maybe Charlotte or Cheryl or probably lots of another names. When parents are really hooked on a name, I think it is worth considering whether there is any possible way to make it work instead of insisting it shouldn’t be done. Too many parents get talked out of The Name, and end up with a lukewarm compromise.
- Other times, the universe conspires to make a name work. In this Kristin Rushowy profile, the mom fell in love with Hawaiian baby names long before she met and married a Hawaiian. Kismet!
- Which reminds me that I once wrote about Kismet as a baby name. Kind of love it …
- Fantastic middles in this ForReal round-up: Langston, Blue, Wade, Love, Essence, Glory.
- Oh, I like Duana’s message in this post, where she talks about the difference between people who think about name choices and those who think about everyone else’s opinion. And she argues in favor of using Guinevere, so definitely worth a read.
- Thora, Tilda, Axel, Bo – lots of great names in Elea’s Scandi Familiars post. Oh, and Elsa and Greta and Stellan and Leif …
That’s all for this week.
As always, thank you for reading – and have a fabulous week!
Cherry always makes me think of the Pecksniff sisters in Martin Chuzzlewit: Charity and Mercy, known as Cherry and Merry. There was a lady on an online birth board of mine a while ago though who had twin girls and called them Cherry and Pepper, which, whilst not to my taste, were full of character.
Caridad is also a beautiful form of Charity.
Cereza is very similar to the Spanish word for beer, cerveza.
I absolutely love Billie Piper’s sons’ names – I’d love to see what she would pick for a sister to Winston and Eugene.
And I was very disappointed in the response to Cherry – it didn’t seem very professional to say “all my friends think it’s a stripper name so you can’t use it”. I think Cherry actually started as a short form of Charity, so seems like it could easily work as a short form of other names.
Or, thinking of the author called Plum, pet form of Victoria, what about … Cherry, pet form of Jubilee? Or is that going too far? 🙂
Oh, a nice point about Plum/Victoria. I think Cherry/Jubilee works, except they’re both sort of stand-out names, aren’t they? I think if they were trying to tone down Cherry, she should be short for something more conventional. I’ve had Charity/Cherry on my mind recently, so yes, that is probably what I’d suggest. Though I think lots of Char/Cher names potentially work.
“Stripper name” is quickly becoming my least favorite phrase. So dismissive! I could have sworn Nancy did an analysis of adult film stars’ names and determined that they were actually pretty mainstream, but now I can’t find it …
I love the name Jolene, especially in the middle (Doveva Jolene <3 ). And I dig Huckleberry, but don't think he'll reach Atticus heights.
Cerise "Cherry" works for me, but then I tend to think of The Outsiders when I hear the name Cherry.
Doveva Jolene is gorgeous!
And yes, good point about The Outsiders.
On the subject of “seasonal names” I thought I’d mention the sibset I made up for the “fictitious birth announcement” game on Nameberry. The existing siblings were two boys named Nicholas Christopher and Rory Patrick (can you guess what holidays they were born on?). The announcement was for the new girl – at my (fictitious) workplace they had “70s day” on the day she was born – so to continue the theme I bestowed a name that would fit – Amy Michelle. Being a “semi-former” Amy I thought you might like that one!
Love everything about that, Kelly – and especially that your workplace has a 70s day! 🙂