Sunday SummaryLet’s start with a huge, great big, tremendous thank you!  It was so exciting to see the great responses, on Facebook as well as here on the blog post, for the first Name Help post.

I knew you would be a wealth of thoughtful resources – and you absolutely were!  I’ve always loved answering questions from expectant parents via email, but I knew the community had so much more to add – and, frankly, I’ve struggled to keep up with emails over the years.

Which reminds me – there are over a dozen requests for name help in the cue at last count, and I’m slowly working my way through them all!  We’ll absolutely tackle your questions as quickly as possible, but please bear with me – hopefully I can figure out a super-efficent way to get all of the requests on the calendar.  Because when you’re ready to talk names, well – you want to talk names now, right?

Elsewhere online:

  • Namespotting at The Art of Naming: Elisabelle.  On the heels of Alyssa Milano’s Elizabella, I wonder … will we keep seeing more spins on Isabella and Elizabeth?
  • Hezekiah is the kind of name that would have struck me as bananas fifteen years ago.  But now?  I agree with Alexia Mae – Hezekiah sounds downright perfect.  But I’d be all about Zeke as a nickname, and there are tons of other ways to get to Zeke.  Zechariah, Ezekiel … and just Zeke on the birth certificate, too, of course.
  • Leontin and Melusine – the lion and the mermaid.  Such an enchanting, ever so French, sibset.
  • Would you name Mollie’s little brother Oliver?  I’d avoid it, but only because I know nicknames are absolutely irresistible in my family.  In another family, maybe no one would think to call them Mollie and Ollie? Hmmm … reminds me of this list.
  • No, I don’t actually read entire book series just for the names.  But I’ll admit that Deborah Harkness had me hooked with the All Souls trilogy partly because of the amazing names she chose for her vampires and witches and demons, too.  Oh, and the twins’ names?  Spoiler alert!  Rebecca Arielle Emily Marthe and Philip Michael Addison Sorley.  Tons of significance to those choices.  And, um, today’s Summary may or may not be late because I read the entirety of the third and final installment in the series this afternoon.  But not just to find the names.  Ahem.
  • Confession: I’ve never seen an entire episode of Twin Peaks.  I know, I know.  Where are my priorities?  So I was surprised to see that the names were so broadly influential.  Then again, I’ve read and heard so much about Twin Peaks that I feel like I’ve seen it … so no surprise the names got a boost, too.
  • When someone says “I hate creative spellings,” I get it.  I’ve been known to raise an eyebrow at needlessly complex re-workings of standard names.  And yet.  There’s a lot to think about when it comes to spelling, and I can’t imagine saying something so dismissive as “I hate them.”  Jennifer Moss dismisses them here – and yet the BabyNames.com database is packed with them.  Which is as it should be.
  • The name Lake Loretta just makes me smile!  The unexpected first name, the longer, retro middle.
  • I’ve been fascinated by the name Grayson for a while now.  Gray has long been on the fringes of my shortlist, a potential middle name to honor a family member.  I once criticized Grayson as yet another spin on the go-to name pattern: long ‘a’ vowel sound, ‘n’ ending.  But a sharp-eyed reader pointed out that Grayson had more history than Graydon and other mix-and-match inventions.  Elea’s write-up made me like it even more.

That’s all for this week!  As always, thank you for reading, and have a fabulous week!

About Abby Sandel

Whether you're naming a baby, or just all about names, you've come to the right place! Appellation Mountain is a haven for lovers of obscure gems and enduring classics alike.

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4 Comments

  1. On the subject of creative spellings, there’s a British family with 16 kids. They just had a new grandchild born, named Ayprill and announced it on their Facebook page. I was surprised at how many people commented criticizing the choice of spelling. It’s not my preferred spelling but I did feel bad for the parents, reading all the negative comments.

    The first time we met a kid named Greyson, my husband jokingly nicknamed him Grayskull from He Man. :/

    1. I suspect my husband would have the same reaction to Greyson! Though I’m pretty sure kids don’t have a clue about He-Man today – it’s not still a thing, is it?

      Agreed on Ayprill – not a spelling I would choose, but the correct thing to do when someone says “Welcome to our granddaughter, Ayprill” is “Congratulations!”

  2. I know a little Hezekiah. He’s about six. His father is named Solomon so it seems fitting for their family.

  3. Just a note on creative spellings. I have never been a huge fan of the name Nevaeh. I think it’s because it’s backwards. My organized mind wants to turn all the letters back around. I actually just came across a Navayah, and *sigh*. My mind is at ease. I actually really like the name with that spelling!