Image by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

Devastated that Archer and Asher seem to be on everyone’s lists these days?  Like the sound of Conor but can’t imagine your son sharing his name with Highlander?  Ticked that Taylor has been borrowed by the girls?  Here’s a list of fresh, ends-in-r alternatives that you might like instead.  Only no guarantees that they won’t follow their style cousins up the charts!

Cedar – Free of Forrest’s preppy overtones and not as popular as River, Cedar is wild, but not too out there.  Ideal for parents seeking a masculine nature name without going as far as Tiger.

Calder – Like Jackson, this one bridges the artistic/cowboy vibe.  (Three Alexander Calders, grandfather, father and son, made sculptures, while Jackson Pollock flung paint.)  He owes something to current favorite Carter, and a little bit to retro presidential pick Calvin, too.

Catcher - Remember the Ewan McGregor/Renee Zellweger rom-com Down With Love?  McGregor played a caddish man-about-town called Catcher Block.  He’s popped up on birth announcements a few times in recent years, a blend of sporting terminology and literary cachet, thanks to The Catcher in the Rye.  Even though Salinger’s hero was, of course, named Holden.  A similar option could be Booker, also a nineteenth century hero name thanks to Booker T. Washington.

Baxter, Chester - They’re antiques that might seem more appropriate for a pet than a person at first glance.  But with Dexter white hot, why not these jazzy sound-alikes?  Tom Hanks has a Chester, nicknamed Chet.

Grayer, Greyer - The privileged, poor little rich kid in 2002 bestseller was named Grayer.  With Greyson and Grayson leaping up the popularity charts, this one seems poised to catch on, especially with rumors of a television adaptation coming soon.  Bonus points: there’s little chance than Grayer will be confused with nouveau gender-ambiguous options like Graycen.

McGregor, MacGregor – He’s one of the few Mac- names that remains solidly masculine, thanks his association with Greg.  A Scottish heritage choice, or possibly a

Prosper - A little bit Puritan, a touch Vulcan, he’s a wearable virtue name for boys.

Roger - At home on the mid-century Mad Men set, but also rich with medieval associations. Nameberry called him one of the 12 Neglected Boys’ Classics.  Another possible retro revival?  Walter.

Slater - Chances are you grew up with Christian Slater, or maybe indie rockers Sleater-Kinney.  Either way, this name sounds familiar.  He’s softer than Slade, more masculine than Shea.

Thayer - The name that started it all, a less-common version of Taylor.  I spotted it on a message board, the original post prompted by a character in ABC Family’s The Lying Game.  Surname names aren’t for everyone, but if you love them, Thayer bears consideration, as does another starts-with-T choice: Thatcher.

Are there other ends-in-r choices for boys you would consider?  What’s missing from this list?

Image by work the angles via Flickr

What a week!  Mariah’s twins receive a double dose of daffy, starbaby-certified names, and the Social Security Administration releases their 2010 data as their annual Mother’s Day gift to the world.

Speaking of Mother’s Day, I hope it is a happy one!

Elsewhere online:

• Girls Gone Child is expecting twins, and it looks like they are both girls.  She has yet to share her name list, but I cannot wait!  Her firstborn is son Archer Sage, followed by daughter Fable Luella.  With Fable, she did something absolutely impossible: put a completely new option on the table that sounds like it has always been a name.
• Waltzing More Than Matilda considers the idea of honoring someone with a name that is only vaguely related to the namesake’s moniker.  Apparently starbaby Flynn was inspired by Orlando Bloom’s grandmother, Evelyn – you can watch a video clip of his explanation in her post.  I’m on board with a stretch to honor a loved one; Waltzing isn’t so sure.
• Did you take For Real’s gender-bending quiz?  She’s posted the answers.  I scored a mere 4 out of 10, but then, so did pretty much everyone else.  I wonder if the parents considered that issue before naming a daughter Lyric Ryan or a son Winter Lee?
• I had no idea that some parents still avoid giving daughters middle names, on the assumption that someday she’ll marry and won’t need it anymore.
• Here’s another question: Nancy asks if more babies are being named Jersey, as in the reality show?  I remember someone from the Yahoo! message boards years ago saying that she had a daughter named Jerzee.  Or was it Jurnee?
• Haddie was one of the  Top Five brand new names at Nymbler in April.  She’s a logical successor to Maddie and Addie, boosted by a character on Parenthood.  The other four debuts were Raylan and Posey for girls, and Finch and Eisley for boys.

Here’s a quick round-up of some of the early SSA list analysis, with more to follow this week I’m certain!

• My initial impressions of the 2010 data for girls are here.
• Nancy has a list of new names on the Top 1000 list, plus some gems from beyond the rankings.  The boys’ list is here, and the girls’ list is here.
• Nancy also does some analysis of the fastest falling names.
• Laura Wattenberg analyzed the fastest rising names.  Teen Mom Maci and baby Bentley
• Wattenberg also updated her annual “Rhymes with Aiden“ index.
• And then there’s the non-analysis appearing in dozens of headlines like “So long, Susan, hello trendy baby names.”  Okay, that’s actually from Vancouver, but I anticipate reading dozens of these over the next few weeks.  Others have been touting the return of classics like Isabella.  Sigh.

In starbaby news, the arrival of Moroccan Scott and Monroe Cannon grabbed all the headlines, but we also welcomed:

• Antonio Sabato’s son, Antonio III, a little brother for Jack and Mina;
• Bryan Adams’ daughter arrived on Good Friday, and wears an Easter-themed middle to prove it: Mirabella Bunny;
• Jay Mohr welcomed a son and attempted to reclaim a name for Team Blue with Meredith Daniel.

Last week’s Nameberry post was Bridesmaid Names; tomorrow’s Nameberry post heads to the baby boutique for inspiration.

That’s all for this week.  As always, thank you for reading!

Trophy by ilovememphis at Flickr

It’s official.  The trophies go to Louisa and Nathaniel!

In the final round of play, Louisa bested Elodie, 229 to 140 votes, or 62%.

The boys’ round was more interesting.  Nathaniel, you’ll recall, was wrongly ousted in the Semi-Finals.  He was returned for the Finals, leaving us with a three-way contest.

And wouldn’t you know it?  Nathaniel came out on top, with 157 votes, or 43% of the total.  Archer was in second with 115, or 32%.  Finn finished up in third with 92 votes, or 25%.

Very few of the names profiled here rank in the US Top 100, but the winner of March Madness for the boys came in at #76 in 2009.  In fact, he’s been in the Top 100 since 1978, making him something of a staple.

Louisa is less surprising as a favorite.  She left the US rankings after 1969 and has yet to return.  But with her fashionable first letter and her oo sound, she’s definitely on trend.

Thanks for playing!  And what do you think of the outcome?

Basketballs by Hakan Dahlstrom via Flickr

There’s been controversy.  There’s been heartache.  I’m not sure if we’ve had a Cinderella story.  But it has been great fun to watch the names advance.

In last week’s action, Nathaniel beat Tobias, 54% to 46%, or 198 votes to 170.

Finn was the clear winner over Cian, 70% to 30%, or 257 votes to 108.

We’re down to the final round, but unlike your typical basketball match-up, there are three contenders for the title: the Colonial Nathaniel, the sharp Archer, the friendly Finn.  Please see the controversy link above if you’re wondering why Nathaniel is making a re-appearance!

Voting stays open until next Friday, and the winners will be announced a week from today.

Basketball - score by j9sk9s via Flickr

It’s the Final Four!

A few of my favorites have been knocked out.  (Au revoir, Huxley!)  But some of the matches were just impossible – at least for me.  I’m sad to see Dashiell fall, but Archer is great, too.

For the boys, there were no upsets in the last round.  But then, neither were there any close calls.  All four matches had a clear victor.

Something tells me that this will make the next round really agonizing … ready?

It’s the battle of the new, hot ending: the -er of Archer versus the ends-in-s of Tobias

It’s a Celtic match-up: Finn versus Cian

Billiard No. 13 by nemosocke via Flickr

First, an edit.  A few weeks ago, I said something along these lines: “If the kid is good looking a clunky name doesn’t matter.”  What I should have said was “if the person is confident …”  Beauty is a lottery over which we have no control.  (Though Seal and Heidi Klum’s kids are probably set.)  But confidence is something we can influence and develop.

Elsewhere online:

• This NameCandy article on favorite MomBlogger baby names is great!  She included a few of my favorites, like Girls Gone Child’s Rebecca Woolf’s Archer Sage and Fable Luella;
• I was tickled to see Krickit at For Real Baby Names. My friend C. often says that if she had a late-in-life child, she’d name the baby Cricket.  Based on the names of her (nearly grown) kids, I’m sure she’s joking.  But Cricket has become a favorite of mine anyhow.  This spelling takes a cutesy name and makes it look more like the opening cry of a Beastie Boys song – Kick it!  I can’t say it is an improvement;
• Spotted in Iowa BAs – they’re not my style, but I think Gage and Cooper make for a good sibset;
• Could you really name a child Kabuki? Despite the appealing sound, comic book character, I think it probably crosses a line.  Kateri, on the other hand, I can understand;
• Speaking of crossing lines, Nancy tells us about marathoner Susan Olsen.  She crossed a finish line – then delivered the appropriately-named John Miles;
• I spotted Carmindy again. Is she catching on?  Can it be stopped?
• Will Louella, Calix, and Imre have to share their names?  They’re among those on the rise at Nameberry;
• I first stumbled across Libba Bray when I wrote about Philippa, and finally had a minute to devour A Great and Terrible Beauty.  It’s packed with great girl names: Pippa, Felicity, Gemma. In another book, she named a punk rock angel with spray painted wings Dulcie.

After last week’s trip to the Big Easy to source Mardi Gras names, I’m fishing for something different at Nameberry tomorrow.

It was a quiet week for celeb births.  The big news?  Martha Stewart is a grandmother.  Daughter Alexis welcomed a daughter of her own, named Jude.  The best comment on the Appellation Mountain Facebook page goes to C., who pointed out that Alexis “isn’t exactly a frilly traditional girl’s name, either.”

If you have yet to vote in the March Madness Quarter Finals, Girls and Boys, there’s still time.  Polls will stay open until Friday morning.

That’s all for this week.  As always, thanks for reading!

1905 Basketball Team from paukrus via Flickr

Thanks to everyone who voted in the first round of March Madness.  The results were fascinating!  We’ve gone from sixteen to eight.

The closest match-ups?  Liam lost to Archer by just three votes.  The biggest trouncing was Eamon, with 83% of the vote compared to St. John’s measly 17%.  My biggest disappointment was that Gray failed to make it out of the opening round.

But all that is in the past.  Vote now and help us whittle it down to just four!

The dashing Dashiell (1) versus the pointed Archer (8)

It’s the Celtic showdown: cheerful Eamon (2) versus friendly Finn (10)

Two rarities-on-the-rise face off: Huxley (3) versus Cian (6)

Possibly the most conservative names on the list: Tobias (13) versus Nathaniel (12)

Round One matches up the Top Sixteen names from 2010.  Vote for your favorite in each of the eight polls below, and check back next week to see who makes the cut for the quarter-finals.  We’ll crown the victors after the close of voting in the fourth and final round on Saturday, March 26.

The literary Dashiell (1) versus the wild Wolf (16)

The Irish Eamon (2) versus the ever-so English St. John (15)

A surname match-up: Huxley (3) versus Cohen (14)

Subdued color name Gray (4) v. Old Testament Tobias (13)

Otto the palindrome  (5) v. colonial cool Nathaniel (12)

Kelly green Cian (6) v. très français Etienne (11)

The Scottish Lachlan (7) v. the Glee-ful Finn (10)

Sharp Archer (8) v. leading man Liam (9)

Supernova Remnant via Flickr

The sci-fi novel is a 20th century classic, but is this one too far out for a son?

Thanks to Alyssa for suggesting the intriguing Ender as our Baby Name of the Day.

Ender sounds like a name.  There’s Anders and Anderson and Andre, all related to the timeless, buttoned-down Andrew.

The most famous Ender was actually born Andrew in a galaxy far, far away.  The protagonist of Orson Scott Card’s award-winning series is a fictional figure who was leading battalions by the age of twelve, so he never had to navigate a modern-day middle school lunchroom with an unusual appellation.

Ender Wiggin gets his name because his beloved big sis Valentine can’t pronounce Andrew properly, and it sticks.  Card originally published a short story in 1977, and expanded the idea into a novel in 1985.  The novel was revised in 1991, but the bones of the story remain unchanged.

The world is roiled by intergalactic warfare and deprivation.  Despite a strict two-child policy, Ender is a third-born, destined for Battle School.  (Think Hogwarts, but with far more deadly intent.)  Ender turns out to be a modern-day mix of Sun Tzu and Alexander the Great.

The school exists because mankind is locked in conflict with an insect-like race called the Buggers.  The school’s games are prep for real-life confrontations, and Ender’s final exam turns out to be the real deal.  Ender breaks the rules and unknowingly annihilates the entire Bugger race.  This makes him a hero, but ultimately he’s conflicted about the destruction and dedicates his life to making amends.  Unlike some of more problematic fictional figures – Draco, say, or Bellatrix from the Harry Potter series – Ender’s character might seem less controversial.  (The author of the series, however, has been a lightning rod.)

There are a few other possible origins for Ender:

• Ender is in use in Turkey.  Look it up in a Turkish dictionary and it means extremely rare;
• Endre is a Hungarian version of Andrew, pronounced YEN dre;
• It’s possible to get to Endre from the Old Norse name Eindride, meaning solo rider, and also referring to Thor – but see Dearest’s comment below, and tread lightly if you’re thinking of use Ender in Norway;
• There are about a dozen female Enders in US Census records.  I’m without a good theory for their origin!

Whether it is the novel or another source, Nancy tells us that 40 boys born in 2009 were given the name.

If it were nearly any other fictional name, I’d say that Ender was a contender.  He has the -er ending of popular picks like Tyler and up-and-comers like Archer.  His nickname-free, masculine style would appeal to many parents, as would his word-name status.  On sound alone, he meshes with a host of E- names that are under consideration for both genders: Ember, Ever, Embry.

But “end” is not exactly on par with more uplifting, vaguely new age spiritual word names like Journey.  In our culture, end implies destruction, finality, death.  There’s something vaguely threatening about it, too – think of a bad guy shouting “end him” in a fight scene.  That negative undercurrent seems likely to keep Ender from catching on.

File Ender with Anakin – no matter how appealing the sound, the fictional figure makes names like these tough to wear.

Painting from Koehler's Medicinal Plants (1887); Image via Wikipedia

It’s a gender neutral nature name, gentle and smart all at once.

Thanks to Photoquilty for suggesting Sage as our Baby Name of the Day.

Sage occupies a middle ground between the twentieth century girl’s staple Paige and nouveau names for boys like Gage.  On sound alone, it is difficult to guess if Sage goes to Team Pink or Team Blue.

While botanical choices almost always lean feminine, that’s less true for spices – think of Basil.

The herb gets its name from the Latin salvus – healthy – via the Old French sauge and Old English sawge.  It has been said to remedy of host of ailments, and was once common in kitchen gardens for both cooking and for use in home remedies.  Apparently, an old saying went like this: Cur moriatur homo cui Salvia crescit in horto? In English: Why should a man die while sage grows in his garden?

Despite this noble description, sage’s other meaning – wise – comes from a completely separate source: the Latin sapere.  The idea that a sage is a wise man traces to the fourteenth century, and was originally applied to a group of seven Ancient Greek philosophers and rulers.

But dig a little deeper, and there’s an appealing nuance to sage.  It isn’t just about book smarts, but about taste and judgment, too.  The Latin sapere originally meant “to taste.” Sap – liquid from a plant – shares the same root.  This almost puts sage in the same category as modern virtue names like True.

The Seven Sages names would be wildly different today: Cleobulus, Thales, Periander, anyone? – but Sage has been gaining use for decades.

New York Giants’ quarterback Sage Rosenfels and Sylvester Stallone’s son Sage Stallone – now an actor, just like dad – were both born in the 1970s.  But so was female ESPN correspondent Sage Steele.

Sage entered the US Top 1000 for boys in 1991. It would be two years before Sage charted on the girls’ side.

But as of 2009, Sage ranked #761 for boys, and appears to be falling.  On the girls’ side, Sage stood at #396, and shows signs of climbing.  You may come across Saige and Sayge for either gender.

Despite evidence that Sage has gone to the girls, I suspect we’re one or two high profile Sages away from that being definitive.  Should Pink or the Jolie-Pitts choose Sage for a son, that would change things.  For now, the most high profile use of the name I can think of is Rebecca Woolf’s son, Archer Sage.  It’s a great combination of the masculine and the less agressive.

Overall, Sage is a shape-shifter, equally at home on a son or a daughter.  A humble nature name with intellectual overtones, a single-syllable, twentieth-century discovery with complex, ancient roots.  There’s much to love about Sage.