English: A sculpture at the entrance to the pa...

Allons enfants de la Patrie!  Le jour de glory est arrivé!

Yes, July 14th is Bastille Day, the French equivalent (more or less) of Canada Day and the Fourth of July.  It’s a good excuse to think of all things French, and I’ve written plenty of posts featuring French names, so:

Hmmm … I need to write more about French names for boys, don’t I?

Elsewhere online:

  • Congratulations to the stylish Karla Quiz, Instragrammer extraordinaire, on the arrival of baby #2!  Daughter France Fox is joined by daughter Fair – Fernanda James.  (Oops – my first post called poor Fair a boy.  Thanks to Sarah for the correction!) Best wishes to the Quiz clan.
  • Are the -bert names ever going make a comeback in the US?  I’ve met an adorable newborn British Albert, and there’s a Herbert in this birth announcement round-up from British Baby Names. Plus, I always think of baby Cuthbert in Hester Brown’s The Little Lady Agency series.
  • Guinness!  Too World Record?  Too Brewery?  Spotted in For Real Baby Names, here.
  • Yay – they decided to use Margot!
  • Up at Baby Name Pondering: Fairlie.  Are we on the cusp of a -ley baby name epidemic?  Or are we already there?
  • Do you know this Tumblr?  Bare bones, but lots of interesting names featured, including Serafina.  Which reminded me: among the celebrity names that I expected to catch on – but never did – is the Garner-Affleck’s Seraphina.  Isabella, Alexandra, Seraphina … but she was still give to just 168 girls last year.
  • Please bring back Wolfstan and Belsante.
  • This line – Linus and Henley are a less-trendy take on Silas and Henry – is Duana at her best!  Plus she gives great advice to Henley’s mom on finding a name for his baby brother.
  • While I’m quoting lines I really liked this week, did you see Swistle’s thoughts on names that eventually feel datedEven classics go in and out of style: remember when the name William felt classic but not at all fashionable? Very few names escape this, just as very few clothing items stay in fashion decade after decade … The difference is between the things we come back to again and again, and the things we feel grateful we weren’t photographed wearing.  A valuable way to think about what makes a classic, I think.
  • Hello, Townes!  Isn’t he handsome?  And such a great name.
  • I could happily name quintuplets from this list.
  • Or maybe this list.  Peridot is my new guilty pleasure.

One quick announcement – all of the posts for the upcoming week are re-runs.  I had such a backlog of posts that were sadly out-of-date that I thought a few extra days of catch-up might not be a bad idea!  Plus, they’re great names – and should be fun to revisit over the next few days.

That’s all for this week – as always, thank you for reading – and have a great 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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6 Comments

  1. The baby named Guiness (!!!!) reminds me of a Banjo Paterson poem “A Bush Christening”, where the child is named Maginnis after a brand of whiskey.

    https://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/patersonab/poetry/christen.html

    Maginnis ends up being a most respectable gentleman, so the poet obviously didn’t think an eccentric name would ruin your future career prospects. Good news for young Guiness.

    PS To me Henley seems much, much MORE trendy than Henry.

  2. I was stalking Karla Quiz’s Instagram account too finding out what she was going to name her baby. FYI: Fernanda James “Fair” is a girl, not a boy. 🙂 I also saw that France Fox is actually Francesca Fox “France”, which makes me love it even more.

    Peridot is fun. I liked a lot of names on that list.

    Have a good week.

    Sarah

    1. Ack! Thank you – the James completely got me! And France = Francesca? I had no idea!

      1. No problem. I can see how her name could read boy.

        I think you’ll appreciate this site if you haven’t seen it yet.

        https://thebestgiftoflife.com/

        They interviews Mums (the bloggers are Australian) and best of all they ask about baby names in almost every interview and they have some of the best names. There’s a Adelaide Ashbury, a Tigerlily, a Havilah and more. Warning: Have some time to spare before checking it out.

        Here’s Karla Quiz’s interview, where she mentions how Francesca Fox got her name.

        https://thebestgiftoflife.com/inspiring-mum-karla/

        I also liked this one too. Their daughter’s name is Adelaide Ashbury and goes by the nickname Peachy.

        https://thebestgiftoflife.com/inspiring-mum-britta/

        Enjoy!

          1. I’m glad you like it Anna. I don’t usually endorse sites, but I thought us name bloggers would appreciate it. 🙂