As you read this, I’m in New Orleans, celebrating the wedding of my dear friend Nicole. Turns out her middle name is Rhunette. Let’s see if I can work in a subtle inquiry about that one in between “congratulations” and “yes, I’d love some more champagne!”

In any case, this is my first trip away without a laptop since … wow. Since forever. I can’t decided if it will be more disorienting to be away without kids or away without connectivity.

Either way, if there are any last minute celeb births or wacky news stories ’bout kids with wild names, I’m missing them.

Still, I thought you might enjoy a few things:

I’ll be listening for unusual baby names over my vacation – and, of course, thinking about Tiana, the soon-to-be newest member of the Disney Princess Mafia, in the New Orleans-based story The Princess and the Frog.

Have a great week and, as always, thanks for reading!

About Abby Sandel

Whether you're naming a baby, or just all about names, you've come to the right place! Appellation Mountain is a haven for lovers of obscure gems and enduring classics alike.

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  1. Coronation Street is a soap opera in the UK… the names might be hipster here in the states, but many are pretty ho-hum in England- most all are in their top 50.

    Tiana is not my kind of name, but then, few of the Disney princess names are, so that’s no great surprise.

    Rhunette has a very cool 50s vibe to me for some reason… it’s definitely an interesting name.

    Theda is lovely.

    Not loving Georgia Gracie. Georgia – yes, definitely. Gracie – no. I’m not one for these “add an ey, ie, ee and make it a cutesy nickname” type names.

    Hope you enjoyed your escape to the big easy, Verity!

    1. It was a great trip, JNE!

      I hear you on Gracie. One of my sisters has suggested Gracie as a given name for a (possible) future niece. I cringe. But she thinks her (husband’s) last name is too plain with Grace. We’ll see.

  2. Rhunette is quite interesting, I wonder if its a Cajun name. I’d love to hear more info on it 🙂

    1. Me, too – but I couldn’t find a few minutes to ask the bride! I’ll have to see if I can dig anything up …

  3. Freya and Alfie are very ‘safe’ choices. I wish Alfie would just go away already. I hope it doesn’t rub off here!

    I just had to add the lovely Theda Bara but more so as there might well be a little Kiwi Theda arriving next year. I greatly prefer this contraction to Theodora/Theodosia.

    Tiana is usually Tianna here in NZ or Tiarna/h in Australia. Arrr
    it be that bogan RRRRR and H.

    Kelly best come back. It’s either Kelly (not honouring me at all but rather rectifying a mistake) or Ashley as second middle. Both have been used for a couple of centuries on dudes and if I had the gonads, I’d like Ashley up front.

  4. Tiana? Yuck. Disney can have that one.
    I’m not sure what Coronation Street is, but those names are hipster names for sure!
    Love Georgia, not so in love with Gracie – especially as a middle name. Gracie is a nickname, I thought.
    I grew up with a girl named Jordan. She’s 31-32 now. When we met, I thought Jordan was the coolest name ever for a girl (I was 16). When my cousin named her daughter Jordan in 2002, I thought, ‘Oh, that must be the new trend”. I was over it. 😉
    I still feel girls’ names should be in between frilly and sharp. I like a happy medium – not too boyish: Ryan; not too princessy: Arabella. I tend to really like names that fall in the middle somewhere. Georgia is one of those.