Welcome to this week’s edition of name news 8.18.24!
Advice: It’s Okay to Come Up With the Perfect Name MUCH Later
I adore my daughter’s name. Completely, absolutely love it. Happily, she agrees that Clio is the only name she would ever want.
Despite a five-out-of-five stars satisfaction level, I found myself thinking the other day: wow, she would’ve been a great Frances. And Frannie? She’d have been The Most Amazing Frannie.
My daughter is far past the moment when I could possibly re-name her. But often we have these impulses when our child is small. Maybe just months, or even weeks, old.
That’s a moment when choosing a new name is very possible. And it’s also a moment where some combination of exhaustion and self-doubt might convince us that we’ve made a horrible mistake.
Name regret is real.
But it’s not something we have to act on. Maybe it’s something we should even expect. If we love names, and spend any amount of time thinking about them, then inevitably we are going to hear names we love long after we’ve named our children.
And as our children grow and change, it’s also likely that we’ll hear names that might suit them at a particular moment, names that were absolutely not on our radar when they were born.
Sometimes these feelings require us to act, no doubt.
Other times, it might just be part of the long, strange journey of parenting, something to enjoy and even embrace as our children surprise us.
For more advice on naming, join the AM Baby Names Patreon community.
Consults Closed for Next Week; Check Calendar for Late August
Love the #namehelp posts, but don’t want to share your questions publicly? Thanks to your requests, the summer sale is extended and spots are open into early September. As of this writing, three spots are left.
Want to talk over a naming decision? Calls are open for later this month and early September.
And thank you for catching the very Bridgerton name I recommended to go with Penelope in this #namehelp question! If you’d like a public #namehelp post, please email your question to appmtn (at) gmail.
Featured Names Recently Updated
- Bernadette, a vintage revival that might just follow favorites like Abigail and Eleanor into wider use.
- Cormoran, a fascinating find from pop culture and folklore and the natural world, too.
- Scout, a literary name that feels equal parts significant and fun.
Favorite Blog Posts & Name Lists
I love this look at the changing ways we name boys, exemplified by Larry. Once heard in every schoolyard, now a grandpa – and great-grandpa – kind of a name.
On paper, the names Lila and Louisa don’t fit together. In reality? They’re kind of perfect. As are so many things about this gorgeous, colorful home tour from Living with Kids at Design Mom.
My list of rare nature names is updated … and I’m immediately thinking up more names that I could add to the list!
Maybe it’s because autumn is just around the corner? This list of names with fall vibes from The Naming Bee is all kinds of wonderful, mixing traditional Oliver with surprising Clove.
A fascinating look at how names differ between Red States and Blue States in the US. Also: it probably explains how a name can rank in the US Top 100 or even 25, yet you’ve never met a kid called Saylor or Briggs.
That’s all for this week! As always thank you for reading and have a great week!
