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Name-inspired news and notes for your Sunday reading.
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I’ve been trying to learn Spanish for years. Better get busy though. Super Bowl LX is on February 6, 2026 and halftime performer Bad Bunny says I have four months! (Tengo cuatro meses! Did I say that right?)
Also this week: we live-streamed a Kneecap concert from Dublin. They rap in Irish, and it … works. 2024 biopic Kneecap isn’t exactly for family movie night, but it hooked me on their story.
Regarding the band’s unlikely rise, journalist Colin Sheridan wrote, “That’s the thing: languages don’t survive through tidy plans, they survive through mess, scandal, and sheer audacity. Latin died because it behaved. Irish lives because it rebels.”
Except of course, Spanish is a successor to Latin – romantic, vibrant, a little unruly. Undeniably surviving.
Rules are boulders. Language is water. Water always wins.
Like music, naming is another way we revive and reinvent language. We stream “El Apagón” or “C.E.A.R.T.A.” because we like the music. The vibe. That’s the way we name our children, too. Meaning and history and all that matters, but ultimately, it’s about finding a name that strikes a chord.
Speaking of names, here’s proof that maybe my Irish-Spanish crossover moment is meant to be: turns out that Belfast-born Kneecap rapper Mo Chara’s real name is Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh. And if you’ve been paying attention, Liam is one of the most popular names for boys in Spanish right now.
So here’s to a world with more children named with the languages of our ancestors in mind, names that revive and preserve and reinvent our history. Especially that last one.
ELSEWHERE ONLINE
I’m not a basketball fan, but this list makes me think I ought to pay more attention. The 117 names are worth a scan; so is this quote they include from poet W.H. Auden: Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry, they are untranslatable.
Welcome baby Disney Mae. Thanks to Jennie for keeping us up-to-date with this family. Influencers Josh and Aubree Jones caused a stir when they announced the name of baby seven, daughter Disney Mae. She joins Trendy, Zaylee, Sunny, Truly, Journey, and Rocky. Josh wanted his children to have unique names because, as Joshua Jones, he experienced a jarring case of mistaken identity.
Speaking of Disney, Nancy has a deep dive on Mulan. I feel like I didn’t know any of this! Also, now having an urge to re-watch the 2020 live action version.
UPDATING & THINKING ABOUT
Russell is one of those names I might’ve called dated twenty years ago. Except now? It’s very much a warm, just-retro-enough name that (yes, this is my third Disney reference) brings to mind the scout from Up, possibly my favorite movie of all time.
And while we’re at the movies, Jovie sounds like a Josie-Ivy mash-up, or possibly an invention based on obscure forms of John like Jovan and Jovana. But no. It’s straight from 21st century holiday classic Elf. Surprised at how much I love this name.
One more from the movies: Rocky. Except this story is Jovie’s exact opposite. Long before Sylvester Stallone ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, this name was in use, as both a nickname and a given name.
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading – and have a great week!
