Table of Contents
Name-inspired news and notes for your Sunday reading.
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It’s easy to be dismissive of naming trends and where we find them. “She named her baby after a reality star,” is never said as a statement of fact. It’s said with a sneer.
And yet, I think there’s something significant happening here:
- In order to choose a name, we have to know that it exists. Even really creative namers tend to search more deeply, recombine existing name elements, and/or consider unexpected words as names. Most of us are listening and cataloging possibilities – long before we’re naming children of our own.
- Often, hearing an unexpected name becomes permission to consider it a name. It’s not that your neighbor named her baby after that athlete/reality star/fictional character. Not really. It’s that hearing Calais, Locket, or Dutton transformed it in her mind from something she’d never considered to an actual possible name for a child, and eventually her child.
That’s the magic that happens for all of us, all the time.
Finds from last week
The Yellowstone finale is tonight. Few shows have been as wildly influential when it comes to names as this neo-Western blockbuster. A generation of kids called Tate, Lainey, and Dutton owe their names to the series.
The Name of the Year is … what!? As always, Laura convinces me that Shaboozey is exactly the right pick for right now, and that the story is important to tell.
Loved this ask a Labor & Delivery nurse reel about their favorite names now … Clementine, Magnolia, but also Liam, Maverick. Assuming the spellings should be Semaj and Lainey on two of them. (Because, again, Yellowstone … or, more specifically, the singer who appears on the series.)
Okay, I know I’ve talked a lot about Wicked, but with the second part of the movie due in a year, I suspect it’s going to stay in the pop culture imagination for a chunk of 2025, too. I’m planning to re-read the Gregory Maguire book, which started this all. Which is when I discovered a) this really gorgeous gift edition that is probably too pretty to read; and b) a Little Golden Book titled I Am Elphaba. So … will this sound like a name to children who are growing up with the movie now? My sense is that it’s too much of a defining character name to catch on, but when the 2024 data comes out in May? Elphaba will be one of the first names I’m searching.
Updating & Thinking About
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Fiery, flowery Fiorella. One of those Italian heritage picks that we’re just not hearing in the US … but it could be an inspired choice.
Forrest, because the best names are two things at the same time. A preppy, buttoned-up surname name and
Vesper steps out of ancient myth but feels completely modern.
Lastly, I’ve just added some post-Christmas slots for phone calls if you’ll have some free time and would like to chat about your naming decision. See the updated calendar here!
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading – and have a great week!
