As the search for appellations français continues, here’s a rarity that just might appeal.
Thanks to Photoquilty for suggesting Estée as our Baby Name of the Day.
Baby Name of the Day: Estée
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Tag Archives: Esme
Trends for Girls from the 2010 SSA Results
The Social Security Administration released their Top 1000 names today. Here are a few quick observations from the data:
- -lynn is catching on quickly, with both Gracelynn and Braelynn debuting in the Top 1000. (Their -lyn versions already ranked.) Raelynn, Adalynn, Adelynn and Evelynn all climbed.
- Speaking of Addie, she’s the big winner for 2010. Addilyn, Adele, and Adelina were all new to the rankings.
- No, Isabella is not about Twilight. But the rise of Rosalie and the debut of Esme owe something to Stephenie Meyer’s paranormal romances.
- Ashley continues to fall, but Tenley was the highest debut for girls. Mckinley and Kinley also rose more than 200 places. Hadley and Kenley weren’t far behind.
- It’s good to be a Disney princess (Tiana), a Teen Mom (Maci), a reality show star (Giuliana), or a singing cheerleader (Quinn). All four names were among the fastest rising in 2010. A wronged wife (Elin) and a departed actress (Farrah) also inspired parents.
- A surprise French revival: Aimee, possibly thanks to the continuing interest in French names sparked by the birth of Vivienne Jolie-Pitt.
- Mini names like Kai, Mae, Ali and Gia fared well.
- Eloise is a hit! She soared to #530.
- Keep an eye on Sloane, too. She rose to #593.
Baby Name of the Day: Ismay
By Eddy Van 3000 via Flickr
The literary Esme hovers just outside the US Top 1000, but this similar-sounding name remains truly obscure.
Thanks to Olive Green for suggesting Ismay as our Baby Name of the Day.
Sunday Summary: 1/9/11
Number 9 by Jon Tin Tin Jordan via Flickr
I had lunch with a mom-to-be friend of mine last week. Dad has already veto’d her #1 pick for a son – Nehemiah – and she’s not on board with any of his ideas. She’s not due for a few more weeks, but her doc is already murmuring things like “measuring big” and the pressure is mounting. I’m going to share this great advice from Swistle with her: it isn’t about finding the perfect name, it is finding the name that most satisfies both parents – almost like averaging the parent’s scores. (You give Nehemiah a 10; he gives it a 4. That makes Nehemiah a 7. The question is whether you can agree on a name that ranks an 8 or higher.)
Elsewhere online:
- Let’s say he’s from India and she’s from Poland. What do they name their three Canadian-born kids? For one family, the answer is Anjali Isabel, Lucas, and Philip;
- Ooh, look – For Real spotted a baby Elowen! And also a little Ezmae, which clears up Esme’s pronunciation, but at a cost;
- Here’s a fun way to slice and dice the US Top 1000: Nameberry published the Top Ten Names for each letter of the alphabet over the last 130 years. Check out the Girls’ List and the Boys’ List. The lists for the lesser-used letters like U and X are especially intriguing;
- Nymbler released their most popular names for November, plus their Top Five New Names: Briseis, Enya, Lumen, Ayelet, and Ashe. Ashe is for a boy, suggesting that parents are over Ashton, but not ready to reclaim Ashley. Asher, too, is rising, so no wonder Ashe is attracting attention. And look at Ayelet, riding the Scarlett, Juliet, Bridget tide!
- Speaking of trends, Nancy suspects that Ruby could be the new top name in Australia;
- Quick, what do Ada, Elle, Emme, Otto, Renner, and Bob have in common? They’re all palindromes! Find more with Baby Name Wizard’s comprehensive list;
- Elisabeth pointed out the new Target Baby promo, featuring birth announcements in Times Square. She spotted some great ones flipping through the photo gallery. To her list, I’ll add Soren, Caeleb, Ned, Paxton, Despina, and Abbey.
Plenty of famous folk announced their good news this week, including the arrivals of:
- Kristoffer Polaha’s sonJude, a little brother for Kristoffer Jr. and Micah. Mom is Julianne Morris;
- Jason Schwartzman and wife Brady Cunningham went for the offbeat, choosing Marlowe Rivers. Note to Natalie Portman and other pregnant celebs – Carlo/Carlow/Carlowe is still available;
- What do a pair of news anchors name their son? Carter Evans and Courtney Friel went with Cash Hudson. To the best of my knowledge, neither covers Wall Street or Metro New York;
- Top Chef alum Nikki Cascone will be pureeing lots of veggies in about six months. She’s a new mom to Jackson Robert. Cascone said that the tot’s name came from Sons of Anarchy. Great show, but I’m partial to the name worn by Jax Teller’s son – Abel;
- And, of course, there’s a new member of the royal family. No official announcement has been made, but prayers were offered for Peter and Autumn Philips and their new daughter Savannah.
Speaking of congratulations, let’s end on a high note: you can now buy the first eBook from Nancy Man, Strong Boy Names. Based on the preview, it isn’t so much a list of Gunnar/Cannon/Slade as much as it analyzes more conventional masculine choices that are rarely borrowed by Team Pink. Actually, this might be the baby shower gift I give to my friend who won’t be naming her son Nehemiah …
That’s all for today. As always, thank you for reading, and have a fabulous week!
Baby Name of the Day: Amance
Church in Amance, France; Image via Wikipedia
Today’s choice is a rarity, a name all but gone – but Jennifer overheard her in a park a few weeks ago.
Our Baby Name of the Day is Amance.
Sunday Summary: 10/17/10
I’m on a reality television kick. (Right, well, it’s worse than usual.) How can I not, with names like Truely on Sister Wives and Bret Michaels’ daughters Raine and Jorja on his new series. Will the trio of real life monikers become the new Destiny, Skye, and Alivia? Or will the trends take us elsewhere?
Speaking of celebs, this week we welcomed Egypt, a son for Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, plus twins GideonHarper, a son and daughter for Neil Patrick Harris.
Elsewhere online:
- From the Telegraph UK comes a fascinating report: parents consider, on average, twelve names for their child, and more than a third of all couples quarrel about the final choice. My reaction: Just twelve names? And not 99.9% of couples?
- I loved Sebastiane’s post on Jenny – it is a great reminder that nicknames attach to different names over the years;
- Remember my post about Archer? The Name Lady talks a mom-to-be off the ledge after she frets that Archer is getting “too popular” – while the Name Lady assures her, the only thing is that the mom’s fears might be right. While there aren’t that many, there might be more than you expect in your circles. Our friends and family and even colleagues often tend to have similar naming styles. I know two boys named Finn, another two called Kai, plus two girls called Esme. None of them seem remarkable to me, though they’re not common in statistical terms. I imagine that happens a lot – I also don’t know a single Nevaeh;
- I’ve been pondering the emerging trends for 2011, and the one that seems clear is this: the rise of single-syllable names for boys. It’s been coming for a while, but look at this list For Real compiled from Montana: Cade, Quade, Gage, Drake, and Clive. Over in Minnesota, there’s Jence, Joab, Jude, Tate, and Clark;
- Are we really going to name our children after the rescued Chilean miners? Or are names like Esteban and Lilianett (the wife of a miner) irresistible even without the happiest ending outside of a Disney movie?
- This is fascinating: remember Elisabeth’s post on twin girls Ellis Catherine and Claire Emerson at You Can’t Call It “It”? Check out the same question at Swistle. I still like the original set just fine, but it is fun to see two different bloggers tackle the same question.
Lastly, to all of those parents thinking that Flynn was the perfect, simple, unusual, swashbuckling, Irish surname for a son’s first name, the name never to be shared by another, I regretfully inform you that the hero in Tangled, Disney’s upcoming Rapunzel reboot, is called Flynn. Yes, he was originally named Bastion. And yes, Flynn was awfully close to the white hot Finn anyhow. Regardless of the movie’s success, this is Disney, and suspect Flynn will rise. Of course, he’s never been in the US Top 1000. But Disney plus the single syllable trend that seems to be accelerating? Make that he has been in the US Top 1000 yet.
That’s all for this Sunday. Check out the Facebook page for more Summary-esque chatter during the week.
As always, thanks for reading and have a fabulous week!
Sunday Summary: 4/4/10
Happy Easter! I’m organizing our neighborhood egg hunt today. Somehow I’d lost count of how many kids have moved in/been born in recent weeks, and so I ended up filling 120 eggs last night.
Which is why this post is later than usual. It’s also why I didn’t catch the fact that I’d set Hannelore to post on the wrong day. Sorry ’bout that – she’ll be back as Baby Name of the Day tomorrow, 4/5.
In other, better organized corners of the blogosphere:
- Elisabeth at You Can’t Call It “It” and Pam and Linda at Namberry offer up lists of names for children born on Easter. Some true rarities appear on the two lists: Ostara, Lissa, Nicodemus. But me? If I actually gave birth to a daughter on the holiday itself, I think I might just name my little Cadbury bunny Easter;
- Speaking of Nameberry’s Pam, did you catch her fabulous list of Top 50 Hot Names of the Future on The Daily Beast? There he is, on the boys’ list – my beloved Huxley. Plus Dante, Nico, Beau and Asa. It’s official – I’m not nearly as original as I thought I was;
- More proof! Over at 7×7.com, an article on The Frisco Kid pegs Huxley as a liberal Mission District name, along with Calder and Coyote, while Cow Hollow – my youngest sister’s former stomping grounds – is home to kids called Boden, Webb and Grace;
- CafeMom’s The Stir has Archie profiled as a Baby Name of the Day;
- Over at Legit Baby Names, there’s the pretty Dainora, plus Nissan isn’t just an import. He’s a Hebrew given name, too;
- Laney Russell‘s mom wouldn’t be here if not for the two paramedics who saved her life – and inspired her name;
- Names4Real spotted a newborn Coco Imogen in Australia. Is Imogene Coca unknown down under, or is little Coco in for a lifetime of wishing her parents had gone with Isobel or Evangeline;
- Of course, Coco Imogen is nuthin’ compared to Tequila Marie, also via For Real. Pretty sound, yes. And girls are called Brandy. I once met an Amtrak bartender called Champagne. (True story.) While I don’t think unusual names are necessarily burdensome, I do think Tequila is … well, not the best choice;
- ParentCentral Canada profiles a baby called Cedric Xavier – a name that seems weird to parents, to the post-Harry Potter generation will probably seem effortlessly cool;
- Laura Wattenberg’s post on The New Belle Epoque was interesting – and she’s quite right. I can imagine Elizabella catching on in a big way. But Sarabella? Maybe if she grows up to be a brain surgeon.
In all things related to the glamorous set:
- Okay, I kind of love Bret Michaels. It’s like eating a row of marshmallow Peeps – you know there’s nothing redeeming there, but you just can’t stop. I had no idea he had daughters, but a recent interview with Celebrity Baby Blog talked about his life as dad to daughters Raine and Jorja Bleu;
- Andrea Roth of FX’s Rescue Me welcomed a daughter, Ava Reese.
In other news, a few days ago a blogger called Crystal wrote “It looks like the ‘hot’ baby names right now aren’t as Twilight-centric as they were last year (thank GOD, there is nothing creepier than naming your baby Esme, people).” She’s not yet a mom herself, and that’s what interests me.
I don’t think there’s much connection between the rise of Esme and the Twilight novels. And the rise of Esme is so far a quiet event – I know two, but both were inspired more by JD Salinger than Stephenie Meyer. And both predate most of the Twilight hysteria. So does Michael J. Fox and Tracey Pollan’s youngest daughter, Esme Annabelle, born in 2001.
As of 2008, Esme remains outside of the US Top 1000. The average person might connect the vamp matriarch and your little girl, even if you were blissfully unaware of the story until after you’d signed the birth certificate. Edward, on the other hand, could make a big jump thanks to the vampire of the moment. But he’s such a classic that it probably won’t register for anyone outside of a few baby naming sites.
And that, dear readers, is why I’m so glad you’re here. Have a fabulous week!
2009: Most Popular Girls’ Names at AppMtn
If you’ve reviewed the Top 20 Boys’ Names of the Day, you might recall that it was a mix of names that are, indeed, rising in use for our sons and those that are probably mere curiosities.
The girls’ list tends more towards the wearable, but there are a few surprises.
Name of the Day: Nola
She’s a big screen favorite and a world famous destination, too.
Thanks to Tara for suggesting Nola as Name of the Day.
Sunday Summary: 8/23/09
What have I been doing with my life? Because until a few days ago, I was not on FaceBook. Clearly, I need to rethink my priorities. Within minutes of joining, I’d discovered that an old friend is now the proud parent of two wonderfully named daughters – Esme and Eleni.
Elsewhere online:
- Jen of Blissfully Caffeinated, mom to Caroline and Avery, writes of her quest to find the perfect baby name for daughter #3 over at Nameberry. I do think that naming your first is easier than the encore performance;
- Nymbler July stats are out! Their Top Ten remains stable, but check out the Top 5 Brand New Names: Elia, Shepherd, Torin, Wynter and Berlin;
- EcoSalon has a just-for-laughs A-to-Z of what to name your EcoBaby. At least, here’s hoping Prius and Yurt don’t bust into the US Top 1000 anytime soon;
- On the other hand, Bewildertrix has spotted Reef. More than once. I suppose it is a logical outcome of Rhys and River;
- Legit Baby Names brings us Milica, one of those delightful Slavic choices that will be butchered in these parts. The pronunciation is meh LEET sah – but much like we rhyme Danica with Annika instead of the more authentic dah NEET sah, I imagine Milica would find her name rhymed with Alicia;
- On to my favorite list of the week: Hipper than Hipster at Nameberry – and yup, Fern is on the list;
- If you follow Mad Men, know that Betty and Don Draper are expecting #3. It’s not exactly the kind of show where we’ll hear the happy couple discussing baby names, but I am curious to hear what Sally & Bobby’s little sib is called;
- The Toronto Star gives us possibly the best-named baby they’ve ever covered – Jade Violet Alisa. The story is lovely, too;
- If you have lots and lots of free time, go play this game.
In celeb baby news:
- Tom Cavanagh, who was working to revive Edward as a bowling-alley-lawyer well before Twilight, has another classically named child – James Joseph, a brother for Alice Ann and Thomas Patrick;
- I neglected to mention this one earlier. Let’s say you were the frontman for an indie band called The Killers. Would you name your son Gunner? Brandon Flowers and wife Tana did. Big brother is Ammon.
Lastly, have you heard of the Portia Hypothesis? It suggests that female attorneys with masculine names are more likely to succeed in their profession. You can read the abstract and download the most recent working paper here. It’s an interesting theory – and the researchers do indeed find evidence that supports the hypothesis.
But I’m not sure it has much to do with naming a child. Before you decide that your Francesca really ought to be called Crosby so she can get into Harvard Law, remember this – the study applied to women of an age and professional stature able to be considered for judgeship. Odds are they were born in the 1960s or earlier – as were their male colleagues. Your daughter, born in 2009, will face a very different world in countless ways. But surely one of them is personal names – instead of Bill and Bob, the bench will be filled by Josh and Noah. That should make space for girls with many different types of names – the frilly, the no-nonsense, the classic, the nouveau. Surely someday there will even be a judge named Nevaeh.
That’s all for this week – thanks for reading!
