Tag Archives: Caleb

Baby Name of the Day: Citlali

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Mask of Tlaloc, nahua god of the rain (Nationa...

Mask of Tlaloc, Nahua God of the Rain; Image via Wikipedia

There’s Luna and Stella.  Skylar and Haley, too.  How would this celestial appellation wear on a child?

Thanks to Claire for suggesting Citlali as our Baby Name of the Day.

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Baby Name of the Day: Caleb

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Sable Puppies

Image via Wikipedia

How can a Top 100 boys’ name borrowed from a faithful Biblical figure be so very controversial?

Thanks to Kelly for suggesting the surprisingly complex Caleb as our Baby Name of the Day.

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Baby Name of the Day: Calyx

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Gerbera calyx

Image by cod_gabriel via Flickr

She’s a frills-free mythological choice with a certain flair.

Thanks to Taylor for suggesting Calyx as our botanical Baby Name of the Day.

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Baby Name of the Day: Camden

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Camden Town

Image via Wikipedia

Cross Cameron with London and you’ll end up with this rapidly rising choice.

Thanks to Tracy for suggesting the only name her husband likes.  Our Baby Name of the Day is Camden.

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Sunday Summary: 8/29/10

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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:

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!

Sunday Summary: 5/30/10

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For those of you in the US, Happy Memorial Day weekend!  There will be no Baby Name of the Day on Monday, May 31.

But never fear!  There’s news aplenty to occupy your quiet hours:

  • This post at Swistle raises one of my favorite questions: how close is too close? Can you name your daughter Dorothy and your son Theodore?  It seems awfully close to me, and it would be nearly impossible to name a third child.  But both names are great;
  • Speaking of my favorite questions, The Stir raised the question of misspelled baby names. Comments ran the gamut from those who hate, hate, hate them to the mother of four kids named Corynne, Caleb, Caidy and Cayleigh.  They raised the question thanks to a rant at CafeMom prompted by a birth announcement spotted for a Madicyn.  I think there’s a lot going unsaid in these conversations, but mostly, I find myself leaning more and more towards defending variant spellings;
  • Which reminds me – I didn’t realize Cyndi Lauper had kids, much less a tween son called Declyn;
  • For Real spotted a birth announcement for Sweden Piper.  It’s a far more inventive place name than Brooklyn or Savannah and I guess they can call her Swedie – Sweetie – for short.  Whether that makes the name extra fabulous or seriously problematic, I cannot say;
  • I stumbled across this post from a mom of ten (soon to be eleven!) who listed all of her kids’ first and middle names.  It’s an interesting assortment:  Morganne Natalia, Brennan Geoffrey, Lliam Donal, Bonny Dianne, Gavin Xavier, Dierdre Marie, Ronan Wainwright, MacKenna Elyse, Grayse Dawn and Avalon Noelle.  I’m particularly impressed by Wainwright – it’s a reboot of the family name Wayne;
  • Which reminds me – this is one of my favorite lists of all time is Linda’s Rubes, Hayseed and Bumpkins at Nameberry.  The range from nearly mainstream choices like Gus and Jasper to up-next picks like Chester, Rufus and Silas to wow, out there options.  I can’t quite picture a baby named Floyd;
  • I’m not suggesting you give your child an Inuit name inspired by the beluga whales at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.  But it is an interesting list, and if Maya is so popular, maybe Naya could catch on.  Just don’t tell your daughter about the connection until she grows up to be a marine biologist;
  • I lived in Western Pennsylvania for years, not so very far from the West Virginia border. Laura Wattenberg’s post on the name Dreama struck a chord – I did, indeed, know a Dreama and she was from WV and named after her mother.  No idea why, though … I once asked Dreama and she wasn’t sure how her grandmother settled on the name, either;
  • ABC Family’s latest show about the secret life of American teenagers is Pretty Little Liars, based on a series of young adult novels.  The characters’ names?  Hanna, Emily, Aria and Spencer.  Spencer is played by an actress called Troian.  If the show is successful, it could have an impact on baby names in 2010;
  • I’m a huge fan of the name Rebecca L of Girl’s Gone Child chose for her daughter, Fable.  Sebastiane gives us the intriguing Estonian equivalent, Valme;
  • Sebastiane also rounded up some of the most intriguing names for saints from across the globe.  If truly unusual but not invented is your wish, this is the list for you.  I can just hear it now: meet my sons Fragan, Malo, Ot and Lot, and their sister Elined;
  • In the wake of the rankings announcements, CNN attempts to put a fresh spin on the name conversation by asking Does Your Name Shape Your Destiny? They trotted out some reliable experts and some solid facts, but the important point they missed, I think, is that our perceptions of specific names are not fixed.  Barbara and Linda were once the height of fashion, today’s Olivia and Ava.  Now they’re your aunt’s names.  Someday, they may be back in style right in time for you to do a double-take when your daughter announces her name for a daughter.

In starbaby news:

Next Saturday we kick off our Reader Baby Name Stories.  I’m SO excited to share what you’ve shared!

Have a great weekend, and see you on Tuesday.  Thanks for reading!

Sunday Summary: 1/24/10

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Before I move on to the weekly sum-up, one quick piece of business:  I only approve comments written in English, regardless of whether or not I understand the comment.  (Make that especially when I don’t understand the comment.)

On to the names:

  • I’ve finally spotted it on Yahoo!Answers – the dreadful, but inevitable marriage of Ryan/Riley and Wyatt: Ryatt.  All of a sudden, Rylan sounds as classic as James;
  • Then there’s this post:  What about the baby name Reznor?  Yikes;
  • ForReal Baby Names spotted a Brewer. Sure, Brewer’s an occupational surname name a la Archer and Carter.  But this one seems hard to wear – or maybe too easy to wear around the college years;
  • Also via ForReal:  if Erykah Badu can have name her daughter Mars Merkaba, why not Aries Antonia?
  • Thanks to Sebastiane for pointing out that Liv is more than just a short form of Olivia – she’s an Old Norse name with a different derivation;
  • Nancy wrote a thoughtful post on Chinese names.  They’re about to limit names that can be bestowed upon a child – and get this, it will be retroactive!
  • Guest blogger Jill Barnett wrote about Colonial names at Nameberry.  Her lists are interesting, but there’s also a fun literary fact in her post.  Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women were inspired by her and her sisters, as were their names.  Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy were actually Anna, Louisa, Elizabeth, and Abigail May, called May.  I find Amy/May anagram especially intriguing;
  • Speaking of fictional sibsets, the trio in Jackie Chan’s new comedy, The Spy Next Door are Nora, Ian and big sister Farren.  Not sure if the movie gives a reason for bestowing a Karen/Fallon mash-up on the firstborn.

In starbaby news, all via Celebrity Baby Blog:

Lastly, one year ago today I wrote about Isabeau.  And two years ago today?  Well, January 23 was the first ever post at AppMtn: Ava and Harlow.  

So thanks to each and every one of you for the past two years!

Sunday Summary: July 5, 2009

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For those of you in the US, I hope you had a firecracker of a holiday!

The big starbaby news of the week was the reveal of Tobey Maguire’s son’s name: Otis Tobias, little brother to Ruby Sweetheart.

Other celeb news:

Elsewhere in the blogosphere:

Next, a few things on my mind:

  • The following question keeps popping up in searches leading to this site:  Can I name my daughter Kylie and my son Kyle?   Yes, yes, you can.  But you just flat out should not do so.  It’s too close, too cutesie and if you ever had a third child, you’d be forced to choose from a very small list of names indeed.  (I think she’d have to be Kyla or Skyla, and he’d be Kyson or Kyler.  Or feel horribly left out.); 
  • My vocabulary keeps expanding, thanks to name sites.  I’ve recently discovered the Aussie slang word bogan, the equivalent of the British chavvy or American trashy.  I think.  Apparently, phonetic spellings like Taylah for Taylor are a thing, or so blogs a Doc Down Under during her pediatric rotation;
  • A UK blogger mentioned that a BBC3 documentary on a 14 y.o. mum called Kizzy mentioned that she named her son Kaylib.  Not Caleb, not Kaleb, but Kaylib.  As if having your childhood immortalized on reality TV wasn’t bad enough;
  • Could the name Merlin make a comeback?  That’s right, a comeback – he appeared in the US Top 1000 regularly from the 1890s through the 1960s.  It first crossed my mind while watching Bravo’s The Fashion Show, with the Honduran Merlin.  Even if he doesn’t strike it big in the design world, there’s the BBC’s Merlin, now showing on NBC this summer.  If Arthur can make  a comeback …
  • Another Bravo-influenced thought, couldn’t they have found better-named kids for their real-life-Gossip Girl, NYC Prep?  The cast includes PC, Sebastian, Kelli, Taylor, Jessie and Camille.  I realize you can’t rename full-grown human beings, but I’ll take GG’s Rufus, Lily, Serena and Blair anyday;
  • Lastly, a look back – on July 5, 2008, the Name of the Day was Jasper.

That’s all for this week!  Tune in next week for Flannery, Dahlia, Gregor, Brisa and Clifford.

 

Hurricane Names

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It’s not really baby naming news – it’s meteorological, potentially catastrophic even.

And yet I can’t resist posting the 2009 list of Hurricane Names.

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Sunday Summary: 2/15/09

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Happy Valentine’s weekend.  We’ve had a bumper crop of starbabies this past week:

In other news:

  • If you haven’t already checked it out, go review the Valentine-themed names at Nameberry.  I thought they might be joking when they mentioned Jetadore.
  • Then I checked out Nancy’s Baby Names and her list from Alberta, Canada.  Sure enough, there’s a Jetaime!  Also a (male) Gonzo and a (female) Harloquinn.  Shudder.
  • Speaking of shuddering, the six older Suleman kids names are:  Elijah Makai, Amerah Yasmeen, Joshua Jacob, Aiden, Calyssa Arielle and Caleb Kai.  Elisabeth did a nice job explaining the octuplets’ names, but Bek gets points for being the first to post them in a comment – thank you!  The six boys are Jonah, Jeremiah, Josiah, Makai (or is it McCai?), Isaiah and Noah; the two girls are Nariah and Maliah.  I’m not sure, but the girls’ names might be spelled NaRiah and MaLiah.  (I’ve been squinting at the website.)  Guess we’ll know for sure when they get a book deal;
  • A piece of site news – I’ll continue to post Names of the Day seven days a week through April 30.  After that, I’m cutting back to Monday through Friday.  As the site grows, keeping up with comments and email takes up more and more time – and frankly, it’s the most fun!  I hate looking at comments and realizing that I’ve missed out on great conversations.  :)  Plus, this will give me more space to work on some draft articles that are gathering dust.

Speaking of other articles, visit Nameberry on Friday.  (As if you don’t visit all the time anyhow.)  I’m scheduled to guest blog!