Photo by takomabibelot via Flickr.
She’s vaguely botanical, slightly invented, a little bit hip hop, too.
Thanks to Emily of It’s All In The Name for suggesting Nolia as our Baby Name of the Day.
Baby Name of the Day: Nolia
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Tag Archives: Grayson
Sunday Summary: 9/26/10
Image via Wikipedia
After many an inquiry and a few nudges, it’s official: Appellation Mountain is now on Facebook. There’s zero content, but should you stumble across the page, yup, it is the real deal.
Now, on to the name news!
Did anyone catch the baby name reference in Wednesday night’s Cougar Town? I can’t find a link to back it up, but I’m certain Jules told her therapist she’d already picked out a name for the baby she and relatively new boyfriend Grayson are (hypothetically, theoretically) going to adopt: Arthur.
I also had an awful name nerd moment. A newly pregnant colleague of mine asked me about the most popular baby names of the moment. As I rattled off Ava as a solid member of the Top Ten, her jaw dropped. Yup, she thought she’d discovered the uncommon Ava. I hate doing that to people, but then, I’d also hate to find out that my rare gem was shared by three other babies in the maternity ward, so I’m hoping she forgives me.
Elsewhere online:
- ForReal spotted some fascinating picks in Missouri. Avarie must be a respelling of Avery to combine elements of Ava, but my it looks awfully close to aviary. But then, we’ve got boys called Cage;
- There’s also a Soyer in ForReal’s post, probably a respelling to attempt to prevent others from mispronouncing Sawyer. I’m not sure that ever works;
- Speaking of names being butchered, Kristin Chase at Motherhood Uncensored blogged about the challenges of getting her family to spell her daughter’s name correctly: Margot. Apparently, they’re inclined to drop the silent t;
- Madeline Holler responded at Babble, noting that her kids – Beatrice and Earl – face similar issues. She also brings up the almighty mid-Atlantic accent, an affliction from which I will forever suffer;
- I don’t spend a lot of time at Dooce, but this forum thread is great: What baby name did you LOVE that your partner vetoed? Darwin – a name I’m working on for a post in the next few weeks – surfaced TWICE. Cordelia seems to be quite popular, though;
- Nymbler has released their August stats. Finn debuted in the Top Ten favorite names, as if there were any doubt that he’s really, really popular. They listed seven new names this time: Vesper, Xavi, Zaiden, Tenley, Jaxton, Sunniva, Eames. Xavi is a short form of Xavier – as in the soccer player from Barcelona, but I can imagine it being borrowed as a feminine form, too;
- The first day of fall means lists of autumnal appellations: Nameberry’s post included Jorah, Opal, and Ceres; Sebastiane inventively suggests apple names like Pomeline; and Elisabeth reprises her annual list at You Can’t Call It “It,” including exotics like Hazan;
- My favorite Nameberry post of the week: Nephele’s guest spot covering the rise of Greidys and Chastelyn;
- Some baby name books are amazing, others? Not so much. Check out the list of possible monikers culled from one collection by babynamelover. Academia? Isabello? Wow;
- This is pure fun: I love Nancy’s attempts to tabulate how many babies were named after recording artists. Her latest? Jodeci!
Just one starbaby note this week:
- Watch out, Peter Rabbit! Soap star Bree Williamson named her newborn son McGreggor.
If you have a Baby Name of the Day request pending, my apologies for taking longer than usual (and I’m usually not quick to begin with) to respond. Because I rely on a good ol’ fashioned dayplanner to schedule posts, I usually try not to go more than two months in advance. But I’ve almost filled up December 2010, and I’m debating how to manage the growth in name suggestions.
Well, that, and I have yet to buy a 2011 dayplanner, so I can’t go into January even if I want to.
As always, I’m grateful for each and every idea submitted. I would’ve stopped writing after three weeks if I had to keep thinking up names on my own.
Have a great week!
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: Gray
Girls can be Scarlet and Violet, but boys are a less colorful bunch. Here’s one that might reverse that trend.
Thanks to Leah for suggesting Gray as Baby Name of the Day.
Sunday Summary: 5/9/10
Happy Mother’s Day! I spent the morning indulging in an M-Day brunch at Max Brenner and then listening for kids’ names at the Union Square playground near my sister’s new Manhattan apartment. I heard Ezra and Sophie at Ladybird Bakery in Park Slope – near sister #2′s place – the morning before, but mostly the Big Apple was a big letdown in terms of name spotting. I was too busy to really listen. (But, no, dear sisters, that’s not why I come visit you in the Big City.)
As usual, the real Mother’s Day gift comes from Uncle Sam. The Social Security Administration has released the Top 1000 baby names for babes born the year prior. It’s pretty much impossible to collect all of the interesting commentary on the topic, but here are a few highlights:
- Laura Wattenberg’s analysis of the fastest rising and falling names is fascinating. Adios, Miley and Jaslene. Hello, Caylee and Khloe;
- Also from Laura, check out the fascinating case of Maximiliano;
- Nancy spotlights the fast risers and fallers, too, and correctly pins the success of Cullen on the Twilight franchise;
- Nameberry has their comments here – and more to come, I’m sure!
In non-statistical news:
- As someone who grew up with a Philadelphia accent, drinking Flahrida arrange juice for breakfast, I’m sensitive to how very easy it is to butcher a name. Maybe that’s why I’m always amused by posts like this one at the Baby Name Wizard about Sawyer;
- And there’s this mention of Gazelle, pronounced Giselle. Gazelle is a bit much, but it must be really frustrating to have an unusual name with a phonetically baffling pronunciation;
- As a first name, Riches would be surprising, but I’d go searching to see if it were a medieval variant or obscure feminine variant of Richard. But For Real Baby Names reported a baby Riches paired with Dior in the middle spot. It’s probably not a family name;
- The Stir covers Gray as a Baby Name of the Day. So it’s not just me. (And Joy!) I recently met a couple who named their son Graydon because Grayson was too trendy. Methinks all of the Gray names might be white hot;
- More proof that Gray is gaining – Nymbler’s Most Popular Names for April were as follows: Charlotte, Amelia, Oliver, Ava, Benjamin, Grace, Henry, Owen, Ella and Liam. And the Top Five new names? Gracyn, Zaden, Grayer, Clodagh and Ming. Ming? The Merciless? Well, Kimora is in the US Top 1000. And it is a traditional name in Chinese;
- I was delighted by this article from Kenya posted at Nameberry earlier this week;
- And another irresistible tale comes from the parents of Esther Claire. They were behind a pair of little old ladies out shopping and heard one say to the other, “Oh, Esther!” And it stuck! They call her Essie for short.
Our only celeb birth of the week is author Sophie Kinsella, mom to four boys: Freddy, Hugo, Oscar and Rex William.
I’m off to unpack luggage and wrangle overtired into their pajamas. Hope you had a fabulous Mother’s Day and thank you for reading! See you next week.
Baby Name of the Day: Dawson
The evergreen David has never left the US Top 50. How would this surname spin on the classic wear today?
Thanks to Urban Angel for suggesting Dawson as Baby Name of the Day.
Sunday Summary: 1/31/10
Let’s start off our Sunday with some controversy. The NameLady recently answered a reader’s question: Are there rules for nicknames?
Her answer was basically yes. Julia can be Julie and David Dave, but take it much farther you really should just put the nickname on the birth certificate. (In this case, she advised her reader to put Catie on the birth certificate.)
I disagree. And I said so.
Much to my delight, other readers come out strongly in favor of nicknames, too.
In other, (mostly) non-ranting news:
- The Vancouver Winter Olympics are fast approaching. The 5 y.o. wants to watch ski jumping. Me? I’ll be name spotting, thanks. Angele Sionna gets a jump on our favorite sport with her post about Sandrine;
- I don’t always agree with Swistle, but she is dead on with her answer about a name’s meaning;
- How do you know Elodie is about to catch on big time? She starts getting favorable reviews by Yahoo!Answers users who also like similarly trendy choices Dakota, Caiden and Grayson;
- Ariel is a lovely name, if you can overlook the red-headed mermaid and Disney princess juggernaut. Names4Real’s Aerial presents something of a curious spelling choice;
- When one word name is not enough, why not upgrade to a whole sentence, like Victory Faith or Echo Melody? Both combinations were spotted by the intrepid Names4Real;
- Want proof that Aerial, Victory and Echo have always been in good company? Check out Nancy’s list of unusual baby names from the nineteenth century and earlier, including Zackquill, Zealous, Reverdy and Bland;
- And then there’s Nameberry’s crowd-sourced post: What Unusual Names Have You Heard Recently? Responses included Tamantha, Foxen and Wych;
- When it comes to eye-poppingly unusual choices, Bewildertrix never disappoints. This week, she stumbled across a baby Sylar. I share her reaction: Wait, as in the supervillain on Heroes?! On the positive side, I enjoy seeing Hugo make regular appearances, and I especially like the Hugo and Hattie sibset she turned up;
- Sebastiane wrote about current Israeli favorite Shira. It should be a lovely, interesting choice, but I get a distinct “Princess of Power” vibe from her.
In celeb-spotting, all via Celebrity Baby Blog:
- The big news was the birth of Axel Ferrell. I realize it is absolutely none of my business, but I always wonder when a middle name isn’t released – are Will and Viveca not into them? Or just not sharing;
- Ditto Emily Mortimer’s new darling daughter, May. A sweet, simple name, but is that it? Big brother is Samuel John;
- Desperate Housewives alum Neal McDonough and wife Ruvé are parents for the third time. Daughter London Jane joins sibs Morgan Patrick and Catherine Maggie. I loved Neal as the Tin Man in Syfy’s reboot of the Wizard of Oz, so I’ll give him a pass on that inconsistent naming style.
Lastly, I keep meaning to share this snippet of conversation I had with two colleagues, after one had went to visit a friend’s new baby:
V: What did they name him? E: Bryce. V: Now that’s a buppy name! E: Bryce Roosevelt. V: Roosevelt? That’s old school buppy!You might note that I am uncharacteristically speechless throughout this exchange.
Buppy = Black Urban Professional, and up until that moment, I was completely unaware that such a category of monikers existed. (Though if I had thought about it for a second, I guess I’d have imagined it would.) When I pressed my colleague for a list of buppy names, she shrugged. Clearly this was not as interesting to her, though she did concede that Morgan is the default buppy choice for a daughter.
So I’m dying to know more about buppy names, but I don’t think I can ask E. anymore without risking her ire. (And she orders the cookies for meetings, so I don’t dare.) If anyone stumbles across a list, please share.
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading!
Sunday Summary: 9/20/09
There’s a theme to this Sunday Summary, methinks:
- First up, Hope Edelman guested over at Nameberry about seeing a name scrawled on a mailbox late in her pregnancy, and knowing that someone (other than the graffiti artist) was sending her a sign. Check out the whole story – Maya’s name was truly meant to be;
- On the small screen, Mad Men’s Betty Draper had a strange hallucinatory dream while in labor and decided to name her baby boy after her dearly departed dad, Eugene. Don doesn’t seem to be on board – tune in tonight to see what happens. And thank your lucky stars that you didn’t give birth in the 1950s;
- In the Names of the Future column, Laura Wattenberg considers Ily - pronounce it like Riley, without the first R. Don’t get it? Text ILY to your better half – I Love You. Get it? Kind of sweet, if terribly lightweight. And just one-L short of an espresso maker;
- Katherine Heigl and Josh Kelley put Nancy Leigh on the birth certificate! Schwoo! And the baby is adorable, so if they want to call her Naleigh? Oh well. I understand the urge to honor loved ones while still giving your a child a name of her own. Plus, Nancy Kelley is deliciously retro – it sounds like she should be solving mysteries in a kilt;
- In this week’s Toronto Star column, the parents named their daughter London Elizabeth, for a few reasons – including the fun fact that the parents met in London, Ontario.
The theme? It’s all about how we make our choices. Often a name that seems atrocious, or just plain blah, seems different when you know the whole story.
In celeb news:
- I’ll admit I don’t know anything about Colombian singer Juanes, except that he picks fabulous baby names. He and wife Karen have welcomed son Dante, a little brother for Luna and Paloma;
- Swimmer Amanda Beard welcomed son Blaise Ray. I like the saintly Blaise, but it does seems like a curious pick for any parent with a career based on speed;
- Real Housewives of New Jersey cast member Teresa Giudice and husband Joe have welcomed a daughter, Audriana. It’s an inevitable smush of Audrey and Adriana. Big sisters are Gia, Gabriella and Milania.
Elsewhere online, Nymbler announced their Top Ten for August. Never any surprises there: Charlotte, Ava, Benjamin, Amelia, Finn, Grace, Jack, Henry, Oliver and Claire occupy the top spots.
New debuts, on the other hand, are endlessly fascinating:
- Khloe: How, oh how, did Khloe Kardashian konvince parents to spell Chloe with a K? Sure, it’s defensible. But it doesn’t seem very sophisticated.
- Gypsy: A little bit stripper, a little bit Fleetwood Mac, a whole lotta huh? as a given name.
- Gracen: Is this a girls’ twist on Grace – a sister for Madalyn and Addisyn? Or an alt spelling for Grayson?
- Bodhi: He’s a starbaby choice, and a Sanskrit term for enlightment – could he also be the new Kai?
- Fable: The fabulous Rebecca Woolf of Girl’s Gone Child named her second child Fable Luella. It’s the new Story, but more obviously feminine, boosted by her similarity to Hazel and Mabel.
Lastly, please note that Sebastiane – she of the truly unusual, usually international baby names, has moved! Legit Baby Names can now be found here. (That’s http://legitbabenames.wordpress.com/ if you prefer to type it into your browser, old school.) Stop by and bring your box cutter! I’m sure it will take some time to transfer all of her fabulous content.
That’s all for this week. As always, thanks for reading!
Names from Twilight: Not Just for Vampires Anymore
Into every generation a vampire romance is born. That’s usually not big news in baby naming circles.
But the current hot series about the undead – Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight – could influence baby names for the next generation.
