I was half asleep when Pregnant in Heels debuted on Bravo, determined to stay awake long enough to see Elisabeth on television. Oh, and check if my guess about the baby’s name was right. I figured odds were 50/50 that I’d be asleep before the opening credits rolled.
About ten minutes in, I was wide awake, sitting in the dark with a pencil, scribbling down notes. Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the episode, you may not want to read on.
The Number 30 by Herman Turnip via Flickr
It strikes me that I’m now into my fourth year of writing at AppMtn. My first post was Ava and Harlow, back on January 23, 2008. I’d learned the mechanics of blogging for work a few years earlier; I now manage yet another blog in Real Life, and it looks like it is about to be joined by another. Nothing I’ve written professionally has given me anywhere near the joy I’ve gotten out of writing here, and I credit that to you. (Yup, even you lurkers. I can’t hear you, but I can see you – and it’s nice to know that you’re here, too.)
On to the news:
Stop by Nameberry tomorrow where I’ll be talking about names I found while culling through the list of Oscar nominees. (C in DC, thanks for the inspiration!)
Speaking of The Glamorous Life, please welcome the following sure-to-be-paparazzi-stalked tots to the universe:
Which reminds me, Clio is obsessed with Gwen Stefani and Akon’s single “The Sweet Escape.” How do you say no to a toddler who asks for “more Woo-hoo song, peeeeez?”
Speaking of requests, I’ll be doing another rerun week in April. Should you stumble across a post that you think needs some freshening up, feel free to suggest it via email to appmtn (at) gmail (dot) com.
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading!
Is there a baby names arms race?
I happen to be writing from New York City, just a week after the Health Department released their 2009 stats proclaiming Isabella and Jayden top of the charts. Yawn.
But then the Wall Street Journal’s Metropolis blog interviewed Baby Name Wizard’s Laura Wattenberg on the results. Two things stood out: first, Wattenberg is a master of linguistic analysis. She declares that today’s parents prefer names lacking “two consecutive voiced consonants.” Buh-bye Robert and Alfred, Nancy and Betsy.
But this quote grabbed me: “Individuality has become a prized virtue and there’s a kind of competitive landscape — a baby name arms race — where parents are determined to make their child stand out.”
It is true that even the most common given names are given to fewer children with every passing year, whether that name is Mary or Isabella or Ava, John or Jacob or Jayden. But I’m not sure that we’re intentionally competing for a stand-out name for our kids … more in a future post.
Elsewhere online:
In celeb news, I was so busy speculating about Egypt catching on, and what Beyonce might name her maybe-baby, and how crowd-sourcing works because second-born Bowen Brees has a much better name than elder son Baylen … well, I missed the arrival of Lance Armstrong’s daughter, Olivia Marie, a little sister for Luke, Isabelle, Grace, and Max.
And, of course, Matt Damon and wife Luciana welcomed daughter Stella.
Celine Dion has also welcomed her twins – two boys! – but names have not yet been released. Please leave a comment if you hear anything!
That’s all for this week. As always, thanks for reading!
New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees crowd-sourced the name for his second son via Twitter. His requiements? The name had to start with B, as in wife Brittany and firstborn Baylen Robert. And, preferably, it had to be different – not in any baby name book.
The name they picked? Bowen Christopher. New baby arrived on Tuesday. Congratulations to the family.
My reaction to the name? Bowen appeals to me far more than Baylen, and I can see it catching on. What are your thoughts?
Image via Wikipedia
I’m not sure exactly what’s going on upstairs as I write – I can hear both children laughing, and the Dora Halloween special is definitely on television. My husband must be in the room with them, but I kind of think the toddler is in charge.
Beyond describing my background noise, I say that because I’ve often wondered if the name Dora will catch on years from now. I doubt that many parents named their daughters in honor of Olivia Newton-John, but having spent their formative years singing along to Grease, is it really a surprise that they later embraced the name? Sometimes a public figure just raises awareness of a name, subtly adding it to the menu of possible options.
Then again, I’ve yet to meet a little Ernie, and we all grew up with Sesame Street. So I’m not certain we’ll all have granddaughters named Dora.
On to the name news:
In celeb news:
That’s all for this week, but if you’re starved for Sunday Summary-esque commentary the other six days of the week, you can find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/AppMtn. It’s a great place to post names that you’ve spotted elsewhere – I’m starting to keep an informal list in the discussions area.
As always, thanks for reading!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Which reminds me, a new ABC series called Happy Town will premier in late April. The character list includes a Henley. I’m not sure about the plot or the character, but I find myself wondering: could -enley be the new -iley?
In 2008, Project Runway contestant Kenley Collins made it to the finals. It’s too soon to say if she’ll become a household name in fashion, but her given name debuted at #998 in the US Top 1000 in ’08. And we just talked about Tenley, she of Olympic figure skating/The Bachelor fame. The sound is close to gender-spanning Finley, but unlike Riley/Kylee/Mylie/Bryleigh/Skylea, I’m not sure there are as many -enley options. (Though my husband proposed in Schenley Park …)
If you just can’t get enough reality TV, here’s one more: Elisabeth at You Can’t Call It “It” tipped me off to my sure-to-be new addiction, 9 By Design, set to debut on Bravo in April. The family of impossibly stylish NYC house flippers extraordinaire has seven kids, including two sets of twins. The New Yok Post described the show as Jon & Kate Plus 8 meets Sex and the City. Sign me up! Oh, and the names? Bob and Cortney Novogrtaz are parents to:
I remember them from an early issue of Cookie Magazine, back pre-baby Major when they were living in a house with a basketball court on the roof. How many days ’til April 5?
In other news, some of you might recall that I was in the midst of a blizzard last weekend. A family a few blocks away welcomed a baby at home on the worst day of the record-setting storm. She’s Regina, a little sister for Gregory and Gloria. The new baby’s name full is Regina Caeli, and that’s not just some nouveau riff on Kaylee. Regina Caeli – pronounced CHAY lee – translates to Queen of Heaven, and it is a prayer to Mary.
Since I’ve been talking about reality stars and local celebs, let’s start with the famous folk first:
Elsewhere online:
Of all the weird social media phenomena to emerge in recent years, I’ll admit I’m most fascinated by fictional characters with blogs. Who writes them? Isn’t it hard to avoid revealing upcoming plot twists, or over-developing the character who blogs? Anyhow, The Office’s Pam and Jim have a baby blog, with a recent post on baby names. Someone thinks Michael and Scott would be great names.
I’m off to stop the kids from eating all of the candy out of their chocolate hearts before lunchtime. Wishing you a sweet day, and thanks for reading!
