Happy Valentine’s Day!
Lately, I can’t get Dulcie off of my mind. And I love the idea of Dulcinea, but is it just too much? It’s on my list of baby names inspired by candy.
While we’re talking Valentine’s Day, I wrote about rare girl names the mean love – and your additions to the list are great! Amoret is probably my favorite, but I think it would only be a middle name possibility for me.
And while I didn’t write this post for Valentine’s Day, I think it’s a great moment to revisit daring flower names and pan-botanical names for girls!
Now, on to the non-hearts and flowers name news:
- A huge congratulations to the wondrous Anna and Waltzing More than Matilda for five years of blogging success!
- The Name Lady shares some excellent tips on sibling name patterns. I’m divided on patterns – in theory, I find them unappealing. But I’m forever discovering ones in real life that work beautifully.
- While we’re elsewhere in the English-speaking world, British Baby Names has birth announcements for a Constance and a Florence Christobel. Swoon!
- Some fabulous, February-inspired baby names from Bree. Love the idea of Primrose, and maybe even Fevrier.
- Ooh, I like Embla. But then, I love names like Lorna and Elska with lots of unexpected consonant combinations.
- I agree with Romper’s Autumn Jones – it’s not the end of the world for two children to share the same name. And yet, I doubt that we’ve heard the end of name theft accusations.
- Namespotting: a guy named McKay. It reminded me of this Nameberry post: New MacBaby Names for Boys.
- I’m the least relaxed person ever, but I do like the names on this Brit + Co post about peaceful baby names.
- Emily has songs about Joe up this weekend. And I shared this pic on Instagram on Friday!
- The lovely Clare at Name News has been pulling together the top names in various parts of France. Some fascinating finds, including one place where Tom – just Tom – is trending.
- Love names + hand lettering? Meg’s Pinterest board is for you.
That’s all for this week! As always, thank you for reading – and have a great week!
How is Dulcinea pronounced?
I have a quick spelling question, I’d appreciate it if anyone had any input!
I’m going to give birth to my second daughter any day now. Her name will be Vasilia. The more “authentic”, I guess, spelling would be Vasileia. The original Greek name is ΒασιλÎια, with an epsilon at the end before the iota alpha. I like the way it looks but my concern is that people will pronounce it vasiLAYa (it’s vasiLEEa). I also want to keep the spelling as simple as possible, since it’s already an unfamiliar name and I don’t want to make my daughter’s life more difficult. Any thoughts? Thanks!
I think your spelling will reduce incidence of the -LAYaronounciation, but I would pronounce Vasilia as Va-SIL-iya, like Basilia.
Unfortunately, I can’t really do anything to prevent that! I wish diacritical marks were used more commonly in English.
I think Vasilia is the best choice. While I’m sure you’ll have the occasional challenge with pronunciation, that’s true for any less common name. My impulse is to say it vah SILL ee ah, since Olivia and Sophia end with the same sound. Still, I don’t think I’d have any trouble remembering that it’s vasiLEEah.
Thanks for the reply! I’ll keep the spelling as we planned 🙂
Thank you Abby!
I have been seeing more babies named Dulcie, and I feel that this vintage name is having a bit of a revival.