As I write this, a friend of mine is in labor.  Not only has she not found out if it is a boy or a girl, she and her husband are keeping their final name choices secret until they meet their new little person.

Readers, the suspense is killing me.

In the meantime, I’m amusing myself with a few links:

• The award for best crowdsourcing this week goes to Nameberry’s post on Twin Names.  Are so many twins really given matchy-matchy names, or do the Donnie/Ronnie and Jane/Joan combos just lodge in our memories.  Should you consider naming your Kimmie and Jimmie, I’ll direct you to the lively discussion following December’s How Close is Too Close: Ten Factors to Consider post;
• For Real Baby Names reports that a Hope Montana was born in Alaska.  She also spotted a newborn Klovis Michael – a girl!  I think a boy called Clovis Michael would be pretty cool;
• Bewildertrix spotted a birth announcement for a boy named Pip Shaw. After so many newborns called Archie and Gracie, I’ve stopped ringing my hands about how the names will wear when Archie and Gracie are in their golden years.  But Pip?  Pip is a bit much.  Or make that not quite enough;
• Laura Wattenberg has been looking back at her predictions from five years ago here and here.  I think I’m most impressed that her blog has been up for five years;
• But if I’m not mistaken, the longest running blog in our niche is Nancy’s Baby Names.  This week, Nancy has story of British alpine skiier Chemine “Chemmy” Alcott’s unusual name;
• Speaking of unusual, Sebastiane brings us Modest and Modeste at Legitimate Baby Names;
• If you’re going to name your baby after a perfume, babynamelover points out that Flora is Gucci’s latest fragrance;
• Everyone’s an expert these days.  Even photo site Shutterfly is weighing in on the most popular baby names, announcing that Addison and Emma are big for girls’ birth announcement orders, while “the more traditional William and Dylan were the most popular boy names.”  I’ll give you William as a classic.  But Dylan?  He didn’t even appear in the US Top 1000 until the 1960s.  More traditional than what, I wonder;
• Rachel Liebold’s tale of arguing over possible baby names sounds so much like my own story that I think she might be me. Except that she agreed not to discuss it until they found out their baby-on-the-way’s gender and me, well … I could never do that;
• While we’re talking about things I could never do, did you read Alana’s story about naming a baby in Iceland?  It was reprinted at Nameberry. I could handle having to pick a name off a list, I suppose, but waiting weeks, even months until after the baby arrives to real the name?  Wow.

In starbaby news, besides the arrival of Padma Lakshmi’s daughter Krishna Thea:

• Gary Busey and girlfriend Steffanie Sampson have welcomed a son, Luke Sampson.  Gary also has two grown kids, Jake and Alectra, from previous relationships;
• It’s not news, but I was intrigued to learn that alpine skiier Bode Miller’s daughter is named Neesyn Dacey.  I haven’t a clue about the origins of her name – anyone have a guess?

Lastly, I usually disagree with the Name Lady, but I laughed out loud when I read her recent column of questions from her inbox.  My favorite is this:  “I chose my daughter’s name when I saw it graffitied on a truck when I was pregnant with her so I don’t know it’s history. What can you share about this name?”

I’m laughing so hard I actually forgot about my friend and her as-yet-unnamed-newborn.

That’s all for now.  Have a great week, and thanks for reading!