A few years ago, I was talking to a parent about a name for her new baby. Her older child had been named, as she put it, “after a bird.” (It wasn’t in the Top 1000 then, and still isn’t … though it’s not as rare as it was then.) The thing was, she said, […]
READ MORE >>SUNDAY SUMMARY
Sharing all the baby name news from the week!
Every Sunday, the Summary rounds up the most newsworthy name-related stories, along with the occasional blast from the past. We'll examine trends and themes, surprising celebrity choices, and names in the headlines, too.
Sunday Summary: Typos!
Did you see this story about a Gabrielle who found out that, thanks to a typo, her legal name was actually … Babrielle? It’s not the first story about a birth certificate mistake. In fact, comments on the original post are packed with tales of a Bethany/Bethang, Cameron/Carmon and so on. Typos are easy – […]
READ MORE >>Sunday Summary: Someone Always Cares a Little More
Here’s something that I didn’t know in my twenties that is painfully obvious to me now: In any relationship, for any given issue, someone always cares a little more. Sometimes the dividing lines are clear and obvious. Marry an interior designer, and chances are she’ll have lots of thoughts about which couch to buy. But […]
READ MORE >>Sunday Summary: Paris and Phoenix; Ireland and Holland
It’s a little bit of a riddle: how do you name your kid after yourself without actually naming your kid after yourself? Recent weeks have given us two stand-out examples. Paris Hilton, who used to say she planned to name a future daughter London, instead welcomed son Phoenix Barron Hilton Reum with husband Carter Reum. […]
READ MORE >>Sunday Summary: AA and OO
There’s something about repeating letters. Sometimes they offer visual appeal – think Scarlett or Everett. Jenn might’ve added an extra N in a bid to stand out in a crowd. Other times, they indicate an appealing sound, or might even emphasize a preferred pronunciation or tie to a particular heritage. There’s no doubt about how […]
READ MORE >>Sunday Summary: Rowdy, Kendrick, Boudicca
Are you watching the Super Bowl tonight? Football isn’t for me, but we’ll be tuning in for the halftime show featuring the incomparable Rihanna. Born Robyn Rihanna Fenty in Barbados, she’s been known only as Rihanna since she released her first studio album in 2005. (Though her other endeavors, including the trend-setting beauty line, are […]
READ MORE >>Sunday Summary: 6 + 3 = 9
But so does 5 plus 4. And 7 plus 2. Also 8.1326 plus .8674. You get the idea. The same is true in naming: there’s more than one way to think about things. Your way is right for you; someone else’s way works for them. That’s not to say that 6 plus 4 makes 9, […]
READ MORE >>Sunday Summary: Familect Names
Do you have a familect? Chances are good that you do. It’s a set of words or phrases that only make sense in your small group. Even though I’ve known that my family – both the home I grew up in, as well as my own household – has a complicated, convoluted familect for years, […]
READ MORE >>Sunday Summary: Year of the Rabbit
I don’t follow astrology. But I do notice it, particularly around the Lunar New Year. So yes, I have rabbits on the brain this week. As fictional creatures go, there are quite a lot of them – which seems right. And while some of them – sorry, Flopsy and Mopsy – probably shouldn’t inspire your […]
READ MORE >>Sunday Summary: Tradition is Just Peer Pressure from Dead People
I can’t find the original source for this quip: “Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people.” But we should talk about it. Because in this week’s #namehelp and in a recent Swistle post, questions related to family naming customs came up. My take on family names comes down to this: You are never under […]
READ MORE >>- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 74
- Next Page »