Christmas came early to Appellation Mountain, with a guest post on Nameberry leading to a shout-out from Lisa Belkin’s venerable The Motherlode blog at the New York Times.  Christmas also officially arrived in our town – a tree was lit in the City’s park, we had breakfast with Santa, and we spent a few hours at our parish bazaar.

But back to naming news, because those kids?  They’re not gonna name themselves!

• Or are they?  I loved Carolyn Robertson’s article at BabyCenter on what we actually call our kids.  At the moment, Clio is usually Bootsy, and Aly is O’Malley.  It is interesting how many kids played a role in creating their own pet names, and older siblings, well … we might not let the choose the names, but they sure play their part;
• As for the news that we’re naming our kids after TV characters? Yawn. Oldest news in the world.  I do find BabyCenter’s Top 100 interesting, because it is clearly less about the names we actually choose and more about the names we might like to use.  For example: four boys’ names have never left the US Top Twenty, but Joseph, James, John, and William all fail to appear in the Baby Center Top Twenty.  I can’t believe 2010 is the year we all decide to stop using the enduring classics for our boys;
• Here’s a cool thing about life in the 21st century: you can always find something with your child’s name on it, no matter how common or obscure your choice.  weeDecor released their Fall list of baby names, including a few gems: Sophie Bleu, Constantino, and Brenna are lovely, and I’m fascinated by Sumer for a boy.  As in Ancient Sumer?  Maybe his parents are archaelogists;
• My Nameberry Smoosh post prompted a debate on which is the most common addition: -lyn or -anna?  ForReal spotted Macelyn, Courtlyn, and Magdalyn – which makes me think that, while -lyn appears more common, that’s because she’s part of so many inventive respellings;
• A UK survey suggests that moms mostly make the final decision on a child’s name. Except they also report that a mere 15% of parents report arguing.  Maybe arguing is too strong a word, but I suspect more like 75% disagree to some degree;
• Nancy has brought us many a tale of a baby named after mode of transit, but this one is nicely subtle – see how Adele got her lovely name;
• Did you see Nameberry’s list of Dutch names for girls – I am madly in love with Malou.  And look – Noa is #10!  And check out the boys – Sem is #2.  The Old Testament Shem has never caught on in the US, but Sem seems strangely appealing;
• This is totally random, but it turns out that Caldrea, the high-end eco-sensitive cleaning products – is a smoosh of company founder Monica Nassif’s daughters’ names, Calla and Aundrea;
• Chanara – mom to the lovely Rosemary – muses on names for a second child here.  It it always interesting to see how our firstborn impacts our future children’s names.  Here’s wishing an early happy first birthday to Rosy!

And on to the rich and the famous:

• How did I miss this?  The hilarious Samantha Bee is mom to daughters Piper and Ripley and son Fletcher.  Thandie Newton has a Ripley, too, believe it or not.
• Let the debate begin.  What will be The Fate of Kate?  Will the future Queen Catherine inspire more parents to name their children Kate, or not?  Read all about it on Babble, at Swistle, and Baby Name Wizard, too;
• A starbaby herself Stella McCartney is now a mom of four, with the recent birth of daughter Reiley Dilys Stella, a little sister for Miller Alasdhair James, Bailey Linda Olwyn, and Beckett Robert Lee;
• Nina Garcia welcomed baby #2, a son called Alexander David, a little brother for Lucas.

While I’ll still post celeb births here if the name is stunningly different or eagerly anticipated, I’m putting some of the more routine announcements up at the AppMtn Facebook page, along with interesting links and intriguing name sightings.

As always, thanks for reading and have a GREAT week!