Sunday Summary: 1.3.16A belated Happy New Year to all! My whole family made it to midnight for the second year in a row. Though, to be honest, I’m the one that really struggles – my husband and kids are natural night owls, but I’m a total morning person. But I really do love that final countdown and toast at 12:01.

Let’s kick off the year with name news:

  • In Kenya, tribal names are out of favor, thanks to discrimination. That seems rather sad, though I wonder if the flip side is more freedom for parents to choose names they love.
  • Meanwhile, Swedes are ditching their traditional Nordic names – but this article is about grown-ups trading in conventional names for fanciful ones like Blondinbella. While it isn’t as if every Nils and Olle is rushing to be known as Lion’s Paw instead, the office responsible for these applications saw a new record in 2015.
  • While we’re globe-trotting: the Finnish name Samu is big in Germany. Found via Clare’s fabulous Name News page.
  • The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuile...We watched The Man from U.N.C.L.E. a few days ago. If it had been a bigger hit, would Napoleon, as in Napoleon Solo, have caught on? 17 boys were given the name in 2014, which is far down from the name’s peak in the 1950s.
  • Speaking of movies, the one that kept me up until 11:48 on New Year’s Eve? Up. Can you believe that I’d never seen the movie? I cried in the beginning. And the middle. And the end. And then my husband paused the credits long enough for me to get all the Pixar production babies recorded, because, well, he knows me! Coming in a future post, but for now, oh how it made me love the name Ellie. And ponder the best formal name options, though the movie character seems to be just Ellie.
  • Add up the spellings, and Jackson is huge in Ontario. That’s because Ontario decided to combine spellings when they released their stats this year, so just as in the US, Jackson, Jaxon, Jaxson and company combined to take the top spot.
  • Stella Ivy Juno is my favorite, but there are so many good names in this birth announcement round-up from British Baby Names.
  • While we’re in the UK, let’s take a look at the names Elea is watching for the coming year.
  • Duana argues that Alicia shouldn’t feel dated. What do you think? Despite having known some amazing women with this name, it does strike me as kind of 20-something, and I’d be surprised to meet a baby Alicia. It you pronounced it more like Alicia Silverstone – ah LYSS ee uh rather than ah LEESH uh – it would fit right in with Olivia, Sophia, and all of those great ends-in-ia names for girls.
  • Charmed my the names Alyssa featured for the New Year: the hopeful, optimistic Promise and Pax.
  • I always enjoy the unisex name rounds-ups at Names for Real. And look – a boy Harper!
  • Laura’s look at Star Wars baby names is interesting … especially this take on Finn: It was already a cool name, (Star Wars) makes it even cooler. As I’ve written, that’s exactly what happened to Luke when the original movie debuted.

That’s all for now! 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.

You May Also Like:

What do you think?

1 Comment

  1. Interesting list! It’s sad that in Kenya discrimination is causing people not to choose names associated with their culture. The cultural aspect of choosing a name is so intricate and fascinating. As far as Alicia goes, I picture someone around my age, probably because people often mistake my name for Alicia (or Melissa). Thanks for the feature! Pax is one of my favorite names. I just hope that one day my Pax will actually be peaceful!