Pumpkins at Halloween (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It’s still a few days ’til Halloween, but our mailbox is flooded with holiday catalogs. This trouble me none – I’m a planner. Plus, the Land of Nod catalog had such fabulous, wonderful names, it was like a sack of Halloween candy and a stack of Christmas gifts combined. My favorites:
- The vintage gems: Mabel, Harriet, Florence, Gloria
- The spare simples: Jayne, Brie
- English lasses: Marnie, Milly
- The exotics: Seraphina, Dominique
- Little hipsters: Lena, Ginger
- A few I just plain love: Annika, Gracie, Jessa
Elsewhere online:
- Isn’t Elgin intriguing? The birth announcement indicates that it is a family name.
- Best Halloween boy name ever – all 365 days of the year.
- The upside of Frankenstorm Sandy? It reminds me that Sandrineis a gorgeous, underused name.
- Thanks to Zeffy’s post, I’m in love with Brazilian girls’ names. She reports that Isadora is big. And how gorgeous is Andressa Gabrielly? Or Katrielly Danubia? Pietra and Paola are lovely, too.
- Speaking of Katrielly, the newly canonized Kateri Tekawitha is my pick for Saint Most Likely to Inspire Parents. Nancy has the full list of new saints. 41 girls received the name in 2011. Betcha that doubles in the next few years.
- They’re no Thurman-Bussons, but Elea reports that the Vinces of Downham were bestowing three middles on their daughters back in the 1850s. Abigail Bethuel Cleopatra Bernice, anyone?
- Dexter Quinn, Emerson Jack, Graham Asher, Jude McCullogh – lots of amazing boys’ names in Alabama!
- Looking for a really unexpected nickname for Penelope? Histornamia points out that Neppie was once common.
- I love this game: go to Nameberry, check out the tag cloud, and name twins based on the names currently listed. Mine from this morning: Edith and Mabel.
- An insightful post from Laura at the Baby Name Wizard about the elusive stand out-fit in name. I’m especially fond of Lesson 3.
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading!
I have been obsessed with Kateri (pronounced Kuh – teer – ee) since I heard it on a little girl about a year ago. I’d never heard of it before. There is a chance that the parents could have been influenced by Native American culture. I love that it is extremely rare but the sound is a lot like many popular girls names. I recall the girls brothers name being Micah. The combination is different, but I think it works!
I’m not sure what the nameberry thing is exactly, but I’m guessing the names that pop up that people are currently searching?
My twins: Violet and Talitha
When I saw your comment on Sandrine what I first saw was “Sandrineis” and I thought, hmm, never heard of that, then I tried considering it, and uh, yeah, I rather like it. I know it’s kind of, strange, I guess, but I like it. I like Sandrine as well, of course.
I’m liking Elgin. It reminds me a lot of Elkin but with a softer sound. I can’t seem to get away from El- and Al- names for boys.
My Nameberry cloud combos for twins…
G/B: Rosemary & Sebastian
G/G: Melisende & Viola
B/B: Sayer & Finn
I like the look of Katrielly. I’ve seen Katriel (for a boy) and Katriela as the feminine variant on Israeli lists. I really like it. It also reminds me of Razili.
Much more unusual than assorted forms and genders of Gabriel and Raphael.
I asked the sports fanatics my living room “Isn’t there a basketball player named Elgin.” And my FIL said “Elgin Baylor, worse GM in the NBA… but the best player the Minnesota Lakers ever had.” And since name-spotting (and web surfing) are the way I can watch the World Series, I need to make the suggestion of baseball names for a future Friday List.
Hank, Cy, Harmon, Robinson, Clemente, Nolan, etc.
Baseball names would be a great idea!
I’d like to second that suggestion
If I was able to have another girl: Sandrine. (My husband, who hates it, (drine sounds chemical to him) would need a lot of convincing so it’s probably just as well aren’t having another.) Maybe it’ll be big next year?
Meh, being from the Chicago area, Elgin just does not cut it for me.
That is so weird about Neppie. I was just doing some research on her, what a coincidence!
I have always had a soft spot for Kateri. Weird, since I tend to dislike all other Catherine/Katherine names.
I agree, Elsa Penelope & Pearl Isolde are quite fantastic.
I have so much fun with the Name Cloud on Nameberry, recent favourite combo I made has to be Elsa Penelope & Pearl Isolde.
Sandrine has caught my attention recently as well, and for some reason Sabine is all over Nameberry recently, I quite like that.
Elsa Penelope and Pearl Isolde is a gorgeous duo!
The boy’s names in the Brazilian top 100 are fascinating- I’ve never seen a list where names like Caua, Caio, Vitor Hugo, Kaique, and Renan were next to Kevin and Anthony!
Love Bram, especially when it’s Bertram with Bram for short, which makes it even more suited to the season. 😀
The Vinces of Downham have some intriguing names. I especially like
Zadoc, Solomon, Theresa, Clotilda, Cleopatra, and Hazelepone (which led me to one of my favorite name lists The Biblical Nameless on Wikipedia). Is it just me or does this period (the 1800s) seem to have a greater amount of people bestowing multiple middle names than most? Much love to the multi-middles.
Twins: Lorelei and Catherine *Rory and Cat*
Great post!