Vote by alancleaver_2000 via Flickr
It’s poll time again! Usually when we vote I’m secretly rooting for one or two of the names. This time? They’re all my favorites.
Here’s hoping you’re more decisive than I am!
The top two names will be profiled on March 27 and March 28, respectively. Voting stays open ’til Tuesday.
No 12 by kirstyhall via Flickr
I often have conversations about baby names with people who have no idea how I spend my free time. It isn’t something I try to do – just a place into which I stumble over and over again. Do you do this, too?
Out there in the baby name blog ‘verse, where it is safe to assume that everyone else is equally obsessed:
That’s all for this week. Oh, except that when my son learned that he’s getting a new classmate called Phoenix, he asked “Why is called that? Is he a magic bird?” It wasn’t a mocking question in any way – more a reminder that, at least at a certain age, a cool name really can be a badge of honor among kids. Given my son’s current preference for mythical beasts, I can see that he’d like to be called Gryphon – at least for a few more years.
As always, thanks for reading. Be sure to stop by Nameberry tomorrow for more name talk, and have a great week!
Image via Wikipedia
As I mentioned in the first installment of this series, I am truly fascinated by novel names. Every generation has them, and while it feels like we have more than ever, we can’t really know if that’s true.
In part one, what we have less of in 2012. There’s less pressure to Anglicize a name, encouraging parents to consider Matteo or Matthias, rather translating it to Matthew. Naming conventions and family traditions have faded, meaning that parents no longer look exclusively to relatives’ or saints’ names. And the need to put a formal name on the birth or baptismal certificate has lessened, meaning that we have Sadie and Sarah, Jonathan and Jack.
Now let’s turn our attention to what we have more of in 2012:
Circled Subway 5 by Rob Nguyen via Flickr
First, drumroll please … the winner of Nook’s Book is Elizabeth W. (I’ve already sent an email to your gmail address, Elizabeth!)
Have I ever mentioned that I have this strange and obsessive habit of naming all-girl octuplets? I’ve been doing it for so long that I don’t recall what initially inspired me. But I stumbled across a list from 2008 – written after Alex was born, but well before Clio arrived.
I also have a list I wrote more recently – funny how different the two are.
My list in 2008 was:
I suspect that I was trying to reach the nicknames Cleo and Elke with the first two names, but I can’t guess on the rest. And I have dashes after some, making me think that I meant to go back add a second middle name for all of them. And while I know why I chose most of the names, I’m surprised to see Madeleine and Wynne on the list.
Elsewhere online:
That’s all for this week. The next installment in the Annai to Zen series is up tomorrow, plus thoughts on baby names borrowed from the gridiron at Nameberry!
I wanted to do something special in honor of four years, and here it is: a chance to win a signed copy of the all new Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Names, the book by Nook of Names’ K.M. Sheard.
The subtitle – “For Pagans, Witches, Wiccans, Druids, Heathens, Mages, Shamans & Independent Thinkers of All Sorts” – sounds a little out there at first, but there’s an important point in that list. We tend to embrace the names of the victors. Powerful cultures, those with written records that were preserved and passed down, tend to also be the sources of most of our given names. Sheard’s treatment of names like Katherine acknowledges both the dominant story – the saint, the meaning “pure” – but also delves into the murkier past.
I’ve seen books try to take a pan-cultural perspective before, but Nook succeeds where others have fallen short. She includes Native American, Celtic, Saxon, Norse, Egyptian, and Hawaiian appellations, as well as modern word names and more conventional choices. I stopped counting after I found the first dozen names that struck me as both novel and perfectly wearable – that was somewhere around the letter C.
But this give-away gets better, because not only do you get this fabulous book, it comes complete with a bookplate signed by the author.
There are three ways to enter:
The winner will be drawn at random from all eligible entries, and announced in next week’s Sunday Summary. Shipping is limited to the United States this time.
Good luck!
Photo by debaird via Flickr
First, thanks for the warm response to Aly/Alexei/Alex‘s story from yesterday. I actually drafted it more than a year ago, when we were in the midst of the whole drama. (Who knew eye-rolling sets in at the age of six?) But it didn’t really have an ending so I set it aside for a while.
Next, I’m tearing my way through The Hangman’s Daughter, which features compelling characters named Jakob, Simon, and Magdalena. The story is set in seventeenth-century Bavaria, so the names are period-appropriate – I think. Magdalena, especially, is growing on me. On paper I don’t think I would ever name a child after a fictional character, but in fact, I can completely imagine being stumped for a name and then finding one in the pages of a book.
Elsewhere in the ‘verse:
That’s all for this week, but check back tomorrow for something truly exciting!
Baby Douglas, by PhylB via Flickr
I’m fascinated by new baby names – names that have virtually no history of use as English-language given names until now. And I’m equally intrigued by how we perceive them. Anneliese is a fast-rising import that I’ve heard called vintage. (Maybe in Berlin, but in the US? Not so much.) Caliber is a modern noun name, but does it refer to ammunition or high quality?
Celebrities add to the name pool, but so do bloggers and ordinary folk. In the past few months, Blue, Glow, and Boheme have all become possibilities for daughters, at least for the most daring among us. Boys can be named Bear or Fox - which seems wacky and modern, but is actually a centuries-old custom.
While this is often a signal to start lamenting the demise of so-called normal names, the truth is that a trend towards more diversity in given names is not new. The percentage of children receiving a Top 1000 name in the US is lower than in years past. But that just doesn’t simply signal more parents at the fringes. The number of children receiving Top Ten and Top 100 names has steadily declined through the ages, too.
But why is that, exactly? I’ve gathered up a list of my thoughts, and I’ll be sharing it over the next few weeks. First up: three things that we have less of circa 2012.
Image via Wikipedia
Four years ago I wrote my very first post ever here at AppMtn. I didn’t have a plan or a goal – just an obsession that I thought a handful of other people might share.
I’m working on something special for tomorrow, but for now, here are a few things that caught my eye this week:
That’s all for this week. As always, thanks for reading and have a great week!
Image via Wikipedia
It’s time for another round of narrowing down the many, many name submitted to AppMtn to determine which ones to profile! The top two finishers will be profiled on February 14 and February 15 of this year.
A quick apology to V – I’d originally written that I would include Gemma in this poll. You’ll notice that I have not done so. The good news is that I’ve already written about her here!
