No 19 - blue paint by Kirsty Hall via Flickr

Happy Father’s Day!

Thanks to a gap between the end of the school year and the start of summer camp, we headed for Rehoboth Beach (Delaware, on the Atlantic) this past week.  We finally met our friends’ darling daughter Helen Claire, and there were a few interesting name spottings – Allaire, Harlow, Amalia, and a bitsy girl called Birdie.  But mostly I was amazed at how consistently I heard the exact same names, over and over: Emma, Ava, Abby, Noah, Taylor, Alex, Jake, anything that ends in -aden.  Nothing wrong with choosing a popular name, but I found myself thinking about how very refreshing it is to hear something even a little different - Beckett or Abel or Tate, Ivy or Luna or Ruth.

So in the spirit of surfacing options that are just a little bit different:

• Any name from Waltzing More Than Matilda’s 1930s list would be quite stylish in 2011: Iris, Alma, Josephine;
• Nymbler’s May 2011 most popular names list included the following five new debuts: Lake, Makai, Maple, Shia, and Reef.  Water names seem especially seasonal, but the inclusion of Maple makes me think that parents are really branching out into ever-more adventurous nature and noun choices;
• The comments on this NameLady post are fascinating.  Parents expecting twin sons want to give them subtle, baseball-themed names.  Is Ty too obvious?  Are parents really naming twins Clark and Addison after the address of Wrigley Field?  My favorite suggestion: Homer and Fielding – literary and sportif, all at once;
• Take the names of the reigning Swedish monarch, Carl Gustaf, and his family, translate them into Portugeuse, and you get this list from Nomes e mais nomes: Madalena, Doroteia, Ingride, Bertil;
• My favorite nymph name has always been Io, but this list from British Baby Names includes more than you can imagine;
• Could Dax be the next big thing?  For Real just spotted him in Alaska.  He’s part-Dexter, part-Max, but very modern, too;
• The list of birth announcements at Nameberry was just so much fun.  I spotted Caspian three times!

In celebrity news, both Natalie Portman and Josh Duggar welcomed sons this past week, and both declined to reveal their newborns’ names.  In Natalie’s case, it may be because she and husband Benjamin Millepied are adhering to the Jewish custom of first sharing their child’s name at his bris, eight days after birth.  As for the Duggars?  They’re hoping to lure us in for the big name reveal during tonight’s episode of their reality show.

Speculation about both families’ choices has been nonstop:

• For young master Millepied, will it be Anakin?  Or maybe Alef?  Elisabeth guesses that it will likely be an A-name, which tracks with Jewish custom – Natalie’s dad is Avner, and while names are rarely repeated, initials often are;
• On the small screen, Josh and Anna have announced that all of the grandduggars will wear M-names.  Big sis is Mackynize, so options suggested range from Michael to Maddox.  Or Maddyx.

Other notable birth announcements from the week include:

• Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition trainer Chris Powell has welcomed a son, William Cash;
• 311′s Nick Hexum welcomed daughter Maxine, a little sister for Echo.

Last week’s Nameberry post was how to name a boy, Pinkett-Smith style; this week, it is the girls’ turn.  One of my favorite categories of names has to be unconventional ways to honor your loved ones, so this was really a thrill to write.

That’s all for this week.  As always, thank you for reading – and commenting!  The conversations here and on Facebook never fail to surprise and delight.