Baby Name of the Day: Polly

Polly (song)

Image via Wikipedia

Nameberry called her freckle-faced, but she’s picked up an edge in recent years.

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

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Baby Name of the Day: Indie

INDIE

INDIE by marksdk via Flickr

It’s a versatile nickname, likely to bring to mind a fictional daredevil archeologist.

Thanks to Carrie for suggesting her daughter Ingrid’s nickname.  Our Baby Name of the Day is Indie.

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Sunday Summary: 2/6/11

number 6

Number 6 by jontintinjordan via Flickr

This is all kinds of intriguing – check out The Board: An Unofficial Guide to The Bump’s baby name forum. First, because there’s great content.  I watched Rant 55: All Your Kids Are Named the Same Thing twice.  And, okay, I’m hugely flattered to be on their Best Blogs list. But it is especially interesting to see the conversations in a well-used discussion board rounded up and expanded.

Elsewhere online:

Which reminds me – stop by Nameberry tomorrow for the girls’ list inspired by Oscar nominees.

Amongst the famous, or at least famous enough to be mentioned in People Magazine over the last week:

Tune in this week for Ziva, Winston, Abilene, Monserrate, Rachel, and a special Saturday post for a reader who is due quite soon.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

Baby Name of the Day: Miette

Fancy Cupcake Collage

Image by Deborah Leigh (Migraine Chick) via Flickr

You might call your daughter Cupcake, but odds are there is something far more formal on her birth certificate.  But what if your first language isn’t English, and you just plain like the way Cupcake sounds for your daughter born in Borneo or Bahrain or Brussels?

Thanks to Emiley for suggesting an option that might prompt the same response from a French-speaking parent.  Our Baby Name of the Day is Miette.

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Baby Name of the Day: Elsie

Elsie Ferguson, Photoplay magazine

Elsie Ferguson, Photoplay magazine, Image via Wikipedia

If Sadie is stylish, is it any wonder this name is making a comeback?

Thanks to Photoquilty for suggesting Elsie as Baby Name of the Day.

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Sunday Summary: 10/31/10

Happy Halloween!  More proof that I truly have a one-track mind: let’s start with two name-related thoughts, prompted by my kids’ costumes:

  1. There will be more little boys named Anakin in the future.  Nancy tells us there were 117 in 2009 alone. Despite my insistence that Aly is Luke Skywalker, he keeps correcting me – no, Mommy – ANAKIN Skywalker.  “But he’s the bad guy, Aly.”  “No he’s not!”  A younger generation might very well find Anakin as wearable as Julian.
  2. What name do you use to get to Minnie as a nickname?  It’s a great nickname, but much too cutesy to stand on her own – moreso, I think, than Millie or Sadie.  The Shopaholic series has recently given Becky a daughter by the name.  Minnie Driver was born Amelia.  There’s Minerva, too, but that’s a lot of name for a little girl – almost too sharp of a contrast to sweet Minnie.  So what’s left?  AramintaMinnesota?  Ideas welcome!

Here’s a question for readers with daughters.  Did American Girl start sending you catalogs, as if they knew you were having a girl before the ultrasound results were in?  My first catalog arrived before Clio could roll over, must less request outrageously expensive doll babies.  Still, I do enjoy the names in the catalogs: Kaya, Felicity, Josefina, Addy, Rebecca, Kit, Molly, and Julie are the main Girls of the moment.  2010 Girl of the Year was called Lanie.  A number of the Girls have friends – Julie’s BFF is Ivy, and there’s also Emily, Ruthie, and Elizabeth.  So much better than Bratz.

And while we’re on pop culture, anyone else notice that the upcoming Nutcracker flick the little girl’s name has reverted to Mary?  The original ETA Hoffman story called her Marie, but she’s been Clara in nearly every adaptation since.

Elsewhere online:

  • What a lovely sibset over at Swistle, and you can help them name another daughter! Their current family consists of Ottilie Fflur, called Tilly; Adalia Seren, called Addie; Cecily Roma; Nolia Betsy; and Violet Lucina;
  • New at Nymbler in September:Brynley, Kiptyn, Snow, Galileo, Irelyn, and Posy. One of the contributors to Celebrity Baby Blog, before it was absorbed by People Magazine, had a son named Galileo, but I think they called him Leo.  About ten years ago, I knew a couple who used Ireland for their daughter’s middle name.  I like it full strength, but find the Irelyn spelling diluted;
  • For Real goes to Texas and you know it is going to be good! She spotted Abel Marcel, Hayes Gentry, Nicholai Luther, Landree Natali, Priscila Bethsabe, and Vierra Nichole. That’s the second time I’ve heard Gentry for a boy this week.  I don’t get it.
  • For Real also hit Tennessee where she found Isavela in the middle spot, plus River Gracily, Consuella Eliesa, Annalinne Rachel, and Atom Leegan. Is Gracily a Grace-Lily smoosh or a just an inventive elaboration?  It is pretty, even dainty;
  • At Nameberry, Pam raves about ends-in-s names for boys.  There are some really great ones.  I’ve known little boys called Magnus and Silas, and they wear well.  Plus, they can be more subtle than some of the ends-in-o options.

There were a number of celebrity births this week, but first, Jeremy Sisto’s 16 month old daughter is named Charlie Ballerina. How did I miss that?

Back to the newborns:

Over on the Facebook page, I think Stanley has officially been declared wearable.

Keep an ear out for interesting names worn by your Trick or Treaters, and have a great week!

Sunday Summary: 9/5/10

For those of you in the US, hope you’re having a happy Labor Day weekend!  There won’t be a Name of the Day post tomorrow, but there is something else headed your way.

Fall brings with it the return of network television, which means lots of new character names to consider.  Hellcats – heavily advertised in the Mall at Annapolis – will feature a Marti, plus fellow cheerleaders Dan, Lewis, Savannah, and Alice.  Marti reminds me of Marni, Kristin Bell’s charater in upcoming chick flick You Again.  I wonder if Marti/Marni will catch on, along with Sadie and company?

Speaking of the Mall, in about three weeks the good people at Pottery Barn are going to deliver a piece of furniture to me.  His name is EmmettA post I wrote way back in early ’08 was all about the names Pottery Barn gives to their product line. Who names their rugs and desks and bookshelves?  It must be an interesting job, and should there ever be a need, I think we could crowd source names for consoles and side tables right here!

Which brings us to the news of the week:

In starbaby news:

And remember, if you want to submit a Reader Baby Name Story? Now is a great time!

That’s all for now – thanks for reading, and I’ll see you soon!

Sunday Summary: 8/8/10

It doesn’t matter if I’m at the dentist or the drugstore or Disney World, I’m always listening for names.

One of my favorites namespotting locations is Franklin’s, our local brewpub/restaurant/toy store – is there any better combination? – because, of course, we’re all chasing our children around while we wait for a table.  The other night, I heard a dad calling Raleigh – but wait, no – he was calling Rally.  After a few more rounds of “Rally, no you can’t have that fill-in-the-blank,” dad resorted to his son’s full name: Ralph.  I’ve always wanted to like Ralph, but between The Honeymooners and the lack of a nickname and my sense that I’m not cool enough to pronounce the name Rafe, well … all of a sudden, Rally rescued Ralph for me.

Here’s a debate that I’ve long since quit, but find fascinating nonetheless: a thread on Nameberry’s message boards devoted to LEGITIMATE Alternate Spellings – emphasis theirs.  Beyond the futility of telling people they can’t spell their daughter’s name Kaydence – because, really, they can and they do – I’m amazed at how much wrong information is out there.  A few I noticed:

  • Rachael was dubbed a hyperforeignism.  (That’s SAT-speak for attempting to apply the rules of one language to another and falling flat.)  I prefer Rachel, too, but Rachael has a long history of use, probably by parents familiar with the perfectly English spelling of Michael;
  • While some embraced Katharine, one dismissed her as nothing more than an imitation of Hepburn.  But that’s not so – plenty of Katharines pre-date the twentieth century, and in the nineteenth century she’s fairly common;
  • On Greer vs. Grier: “since it’s a surname, there can’t really be a legitimate spelling.”  Surnames have been subject to the same forces as given names – respellings, adaptations into other languages, inadvertent manglings, multiple spellings applied to the same person over the years.

Spellings matter.  Charlotte’s charm is sacrificed when she’s respelled Sharlytte, and I’m never sure is Mya sounds like Maya or Mia.  And I don’t know that there’s much point in taking a really popular choice like Madison and swapping out letters to arrive at Maddasynne.  But attempts to draw a hard bright line are futile.  Language is ever-changing, a rushing stream, and the more I learn about names, the more I’m convinced that they’re a slippery fish.  Which making writing naming rules something like trout fishing with your hands.

It also hits close to home – my cousin S. just welcomed a daughter named Alivia.  It wouldn’t be my choice, but she’s a much-loved addition to the family, and all of a sudden, I couldn’t care less if she were named Chardonnay.

Ahem.  I’m putting my soapbox away – promise – to look at what else was out there this week:

  • ForReal Baby Names spotted this one: Phantom Jack.  Usually I like an offbeat noun name, but Phantom seems sinister;
  • Here’s a second one from ForReal: For all of those newborns named just Alfie or Bess, this one surprised me: Elissia KathKate, sure.  Kathy, of course.  But Kath feels incomplete;
  • I loved this post at Swistle.  The parents of Oberon Elwood are looking for a name for their daughter on the way.  I loved their idea of Ursula, nicknamed Zuzu, but there were lots of great options suggested, like Thisbe;
  • You really should click through to this post at You Can’t Call It “It” just for the Mighty Mouse graphic.  Okay, and for the list of three-letter names for boys, of which there are more than you imagine.  Asa has recently become one of my favorites;
  • Here’s a great story from Nancy: the parents were rushing to the hospital, but baby #4 arrived en route, in the front seat of their Toyota Corolla.  Instead of Cecilia Violet, their daughter was named – wait for it – Cecilia Freeway.  Cecilia will never be able to give her full name without telling the story of her birth, but at least it is more subtle than naming her Corolla;
  • Nymbler’s July list is out: Lucy and Violet entered the Top Ten favorite names for the first time, and the five new search names were Annabeth, Adalaide, Arbor, Kensley, and Moxie.  It’s easy to see the appeal of the spelling Adalaide, and Arbor is a natural addition to Willow and River.  And I guess Penn Jillette gets the last laugh if Moxie becomes as common as, say, Sadie.

The big starbaby news was the birth of Amy Poehler and Will Arnett’s son Abel, a little brother for Archie, but there’s also:

That’s all for this week – as always, thank you so much for reading!

Baby Name of the Day: Romy

She and BFF Michele went to their high school more than a dozen years ago.  Today you might just find her on the playground.

ROMY 2008 TV awards at the Hofburg in Vienna; photo by Manfred Werner

The name I have in reserve for a (no-I’m-not-pregnant) second daughter is today’s Baby Name of the Day: Romy.

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Baby Name of the Day: Sally

She’s Charlie Brown’s little sister, Lightning McQueen’s best girl, and Don Draper’s  damaged daughter.

She’s also the person who helped me set up my very first blog.  Our Baby Name of the Day is Sally.

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