I can’t tell if you can tell, dear reader, but I’ve been crazed lately.  Because yesterday?  Was the first-ever Benefit Consignment sale for my kids’ school.  Which I chaired.  And which was, if I do say so myself, quite the success.  I’ve been neglecting the housekeeping here at AppMtn, for which you have my sincerest regrets.  (But seriously, I could NOT sell one more candy bar.)  And it’s a great school, so it was worth every minute of sorting gently-worn 2T tees.

The sale did make me think of something – you’d REALLY better like your kids’ names, because at some point, you will almost certainly introduce yourself as “Jackson’s mom, Ellen,” or be greeted as “you must be Ivy’s mom!”  In some small way, your kids’ names become your name, too.

While I was otherwise engaged, it was a weighty week in the Baby Names ‘verse:

• First, check out a few quotes about naming over at Babynamelover’s blog – yes, there’s Shakespeare.  But there’s also Salman Rushdie;
• Heard the one about Le-a, pronounced Ledasha?  For a look at names, race and culture there’s Laura Wattenberg’s series on all of those urban legends about babies with outlandish monikers;
• I appreciated Nancy’s comments on the TIME magazine story Adios, Juan and Juanita – Jeffrey Kluger got it wrong, wrong, wrong – Juan and Juanita might be fading, but plenty of other Latino names are on the rise.  He dismissed the rise of Diego as  nothing more than parents inspired by Dora the Explorer’s cousin.  Only trouble?  Go, Diego, Go! debuted in 2005, and Diego’s rise started years earlier.

Perhaps the most intriguing thing was his “Juan and Juanita” construction.  Wonder if he’s aware it is a nod towards the Nameberry duo’s Jennifer and Jason?

On a lighter note:

• Bewildertrix spotted this sibset: new baby Frankie, a brother for Tiarn, Sam, Sunny, Jet, Elwood and Ace.  That’s two superheroes, a Blues Brother, a hippie chick plus two geezers and an Irishman – what a dinner table!  
• She also reported a Curtin and a Tasmine.  I love Tamsin, could really do without Jasmine and can’t help think of Tasmania when I see this one. 

Lights, cameras, babies:

• Grandduggar Mackynzie Renee arrived in Arkansas, the first of what could be a veritable tribe of offspring produced by the television mega-family.  Parents are Duggar firstborn Josh and wife Anna;
• Actors DB Woodside and Golden Brooks welcomed a daughter, Dakota Tao;
• General Hospital’s Tyler Christopher and wife Brienne Pedigo welcomed a son named Greysun James.  Nope, that’s not a typo – it’s “sun” with a u.

I’ll be catching up with Names of the Day and all sorts of things in the next week or two – but tune in tomorrow for Zane.  And, as always, thanks for reading!