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Name-inspired news and notes for your Sunday reading.
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Did Cabbage Patch Kids, the 1980s-era pop culture must-have toy phenomenon, rewire our ideas about names?
This Romper article is titled “The Absolute Unhinged Joy of a Cabbage Patch Kid” name. I get it! As you almost certainly know, every doll came with a birth certificate and, we were promised, their names were unique.
No question, I was already addicted to names by the time I held my first Cabbage Patch Kid in my arms. But the dolls fueled my interest. Once it was possible to actually look at the dolls in a toy store, I remember carefully examining every box, peeking at the birth certificates.
But now I’m wondering: did the dolls somehow fuel our desire to give our future children unusual names? The tendency toward greater diversity was already underway, but maybe – possibly – the dolls ignited the idea that our kids could have names that were truly all their own? For me, I think the answer is probably yes … at least a little.
ELSEWHERE ONLINE
I’m loving listening to Stuart Mackey pronounce Irish names. Maeve is a Top 100 favorite. So what’s the next import? I’d love to put my money on Fia, but it doesn’t even rank in the US Top 1000 … yet.
While we’re in Europe, Nancy has the new top names in France. Some of them are familiar: Emma and Noah, Leo and Mia. But I think there are plenty that we could consider stealing. Leonie + Alix + Sacha + Ezio? Yes, please!
Sometimes fathers feminize their names and give it to their daughters … absolutely true, and this creator is 100% correct that we should be creative about naming boys after their mothers (and grandmothers and other amazing women in their lives). Waiting to meet my first Monico, and thinking about this list of suggestions.
UPDATING & THINKING ABOUT
Orla is the name that led me to Stuart Mackey’s reels. I blame Derry Girls.
Humphrey reminds me of Theo. Strong. Cuddly. Somehow equally both at the exact same time. Tragically underused, and yet I’ve never suggested it. (That I can recall.) Which is weird, because I’ve definitely suggested Montgomery.
Okay, I’m not sure you should name your daughter Iolanthe. But I’m also not convinced it wouldn’t be great, not in our moment of Calliope and Penelope and Thea and Isabelle and Lola. For what it’s worth, absolutely no one is naming their daughters Iolanthe, but maybe that’s another point in favor of the name?
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading and have a great week!
