Image by jcoterhals via Flickr
She’s an intriguing rarity – easy to pronounce, with hints of a medieval past, and a very attractive meaning.
Thanks to Clio for suggesting Kerensa as our Baby Name of the Day.
Baby Name of the Day: Kerensa
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Tag Archives: Brooke
Baby Name of the Day: Cindal
Image by cobalt123 via Flickr
Any name as popular as Cynthia is bound to have spin-offs. Here’s one of the more obscure.
Thanks to Aimee for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day: Cindal.
Baby Name of the Day: Willow
Willow tree in Magdalene College Garden, Cambridge; Image via Wikipedia
She’s a nature name gone Hollywood.
Thanks to Nicole for suggesting Willow as our Baby Name of the Day.
Baby Name of the Day: Rupert
Rupert Bear; Image via Wikipedia
He’s been worn by princes, saints, and one unmistakable red-headed actor.
Thanks to Fran for suggesting Rupert as Baby Name of the Day.
Baby Name of the Day: Tate
Tate Britain gallery; Image via Wikipedia
Tate is modern, but is our Baby Name of the Day meant for boys or girls?
Thanks to Lili for suggesting this rising star.
Baby Name of the Day: Blythe
She’s as cheerful as Felicity, as brief as Blair.
Thanks to Rocking Fetal for suggesting Blythe as Baby Name of the Day.
Sunday Summary: 8/29/10
My week at the beach was spent listening for names (well, there was ice cream and sand and a giant waterslide called the Hippo) but I didn’t hear much. There was a Veronica nicknamed Vera, but mostly it was the pleasant Top 100 assortment of Ethan, Dylan, Emma, Riley, Noah, Chloe, Caleb, Jackson, Zachary, Ellie, and the like. I also heard a girl called Cooper and another girl named Gracen or Graycen or maybe Gracyn. Thanks for checking out Rerun Week while I was slathering on sunscreen!
In the meantime, a new neighbor has arrived and her kids names? Be still my heart: Nella and Arlo. I haven’t actually met them (she joined a listserv for local moms) but I might hug her.
Also in the real world, the incredibly talented Brooke at Dinkypopsnomore is now mom to two! The incredibly photogenic, more-stylish-at-3-than-I-am-at-37 Temperance is big sister to Verity Blythe. See the post about her name here.
Elsewhere online:
- Here’s something you don’t know about me: I rarely drive. I have a license, but we’ve arranged our lives so most of the time, our car stays parked. And I plain like mass transit. So Nancy’s recent post about a baby named Queenie after a bus company? That could be me;
- I understand Ever and Everly. A kid called Eternity would not be a surprise. But Never? ForReal spotted one, and it just seems off;
- Did you see the great Nameberry post on TV character names? Ask a parent if she’d be willing to name a child after a TV character and you’ll often get a refusal, maybe a snicker. But they do filter into wider use. So get set for birth announcements reading Landry, Horatio, Brick, Remy, Cricket, and Astrid. One not on the list: Dwight, Jason Lee’s character on his new show, Memphis Blue. Rainn Wilson’s salesman/beet farmer on The Office has put a dent in Dwight – he left the US Top 1000 in 2004 – wonder if Lee can revive him?
- The Globe and Mail has an essay by a parent who really can’t decide what to name son #3. It’s a common struggle, but what’s particularly interesting is the drama caused by their common surname: Jones. Nearly any popular choice has a notable bearer: George Jones, Tom Jones, and so on. After naming firstborn son Jack they learned that Jack Jones sang The Love Boat theme song. I always thought it was the long, unusual surnames that posed problems, but I guess it goes both ways;
- Here’s a fun list of model names from Babble columnist Ceridwen Morris. But Nameberry did it first, and even compiled a list of super-stylish names supermodels gave to their offspring (before, we assume, slipping back into some fabulous get-up for a photo shoot with baby on hip like a designer bag.) Yannick or Mingus, anyone?
- I haven’t checked in with the Toronto Star’s Kristin Rushowy in months. A few recent posts: a boy called Timo Wolf, a girl named Tanys Aurora Alexandra Piia, and a cautionary tale about pronunciation issues when you name your cute Canadian kid after a Hindu goddess.
In starbaby news:
- Let’s hear it for the double palindrome power of Ava Katherine Otto, a new daughter for country singer James Otto and wife Amy;
- Actor Matt Walton – he plays Eli on One Life To Live – has an Ava, too, plus a brand new son called Greyson James. Greyson is the new Jayden. Add up all the boys called Greyson and Grayson, plus the girls wearing a variant of sound-alike Gracen, and you have the formula for a gender-neutral, hard-to-gauge usage name that every parent thinks is uncommon. Too bad, because I do love Gray;
- Army Wives’ Catherine Bell has a new son called Ronan, a little sister for Gemma. That’s a nice sibset, a pair of names that are underused, but not outlandish;
- And the big news is the birth of Florence Rose Endellion, a daughter for UK Prime Minister David Cameron, his wife Samantha, and three older siblings: the late Ivan, plus Nancy, and Arthur Elwen. For a humorous and insightful look on place names popping up on birth certificates, there’s this News & Star column. Capri and Dublin, yes. St. Bees Flimby Pie? Probably not;
- Lastly, the best use of Twitter for baby naming since Erykah Badu live-tweeted the birth of her third child and claimed she was calling her Twittymilk surely goes to Neil Patrick Harris’ twins teaser. That’s an instant sibset I can’t wait to learn.
As always, thanks for reading!
Baby Name of the Day: Grace
She’s the ultimate virtue name, a choice that is both simple and versatile.
Thanks to Melissa for suggesting Grace as Baby Name of the Day.
Name of the Day: Lark
Sunday Summary: 10/18/09
First, congratulations to reader Photoqulity for a successful showing of her work Fuzzhead by DP at the Newport News Fall Festival of Folklife. Her bibs rock!
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
True fact: I can recite the original text of Where the Wild Things Are. From memory. (And yet I regularly forget my PIN number. Go figure.)
Parlor tricks aside, it sounds like Spike Jonze has managed to turn Maurice Sendak’s beloved classic into an appealing children’s movie. Best of all? He got to name the monsters! Fritinancy linked to an interview with Jonze and Sendak about christening the five Carol (male), Alexander, Ira, Judith and Douglas. But we all know that the name to get the biggest boost from this flick is probably the already popular Max – he of the wolf-suit, who could soar in the 2010 rankings.
Speaking of heights, unless you were under a rock, surely you caught the not-flight of Falcon, the boy who ran up a bill with NORAD in a balloon built by his daredevil Dad. (Except not. It turned out Falcon was on terra firma the whole time.) No, you’re not imagining it, either – Daphne du Maurier penned an all-but-forgotten novel titled The Flight of the Falcon back in 1965 – but her main characters were Aldo and Armino. Falcon has brothers named Bradford and Ryo, and the whole family recently featured on an episode of Wife Swap.
While we’re talking television:
- On FOX’s high school musical Glee, quarterback Finn suggested a baby name to cheerleader Quinn: Drizzle. Quinn was not impressed;
- On the baby shower episode of 18 Kids and Counting, grandma-elect Michelle fixed Mackynzie’s name on the sheet cake after the bakery biffed the spelling. The first, I’ll bet of many such incidents.
In real life, non-reality-TV baby names:
- Bewildertrix wrote about the Boo phenom. I have yet to spot it in the US, but apparently there’s an epidemic of girls with names like Daisy Boo elsewhere in the English speaking world. And she spotted a Kherington – as in Fame! Of course, hers was a middle name – Brooke Kherington;
- In News from the North, parentcentral.ca reports on a new baby named Briese Lively. The first name is a friend’s surname, pronounced Breeze. I can’t help think that Briese would’ve benefitted from a more restrained pick in the middle spot;
- From Canada to Russia, with love … Nancy posted about the most popular names in Vladivostok, Russia, where the As have it – Anastasia, Alexandra, Anna, Alexander and Artem share the top spots, along with Vladislav - can you imagine being Vladislav from Vladivostok;
- Speaking of global names, Laura Wattenberg posted on the Global Hit Name You Haven’t Noticed - Matthew. And Matteo, Matthias, Mate, Mathieu …
A few other notes:
- Actress Nia Long’s son (he’s eight) is called Massai Zhivago. Call me crazy, but I love it;
- Real World alum Rachel Campos-Duffy (back from Season Three, San Francisco, when we were all watching) grew up and became an occasional guest host of The View, the political conservative they call on when their regular reality-star-alum/political conservative isn’t available. I might not agree with her, but I like the names she and husband Sean picked – and they’ve had a lot of practice. Baby #6 is on the way – the first five are Eva Pilar, Xavier Jack, Lucia-Belen, John-Paul and Paloma Pilar;
- Now that’s how to name twins! Arrested Development actor Jeffrey Tambor and wife Kasia have welcomed Hugo Bernard and Eli Nicholas, little brothers for Eve Julia and Gabriel Kasper. Then again, dad has plenty of experience. He’s 65;
- SNL’s Bill Hader and wife welcomed daughter Hannah Kathryn.
But the big starbaby news of the week is the arrival of Lou Sulola. Check out Nameberry’s Pamela Redmond Satran’s slideshow up at The Daily Beast, listing the many celeb babies given names that range from gender-neutral to gender-bending.
And lastly, I’m headed to New Orleans for a friend’s wedding this weekend. The Names of the Day posts will continue as planned, but if I do post a Sunday Summary, it will be brief!
