Here it is – the modern day parents’ baby naming dilemma, put to music. Bizarre, crazy, but all too true.
We’re in midst of Halloween festivities here. In the midst of nursery school trick’or’treat I noticed that Clio’s classroom now includes two boys with the same name – Benjamin – who are constantly referred to by FirstLast. BenSmith and BenJones. Never just Ben. While my son Alexander is one of three in his school, all of whom seem to favor the nickname Alex, much to my dismay, they’re not actually in his class. It’s one of the things that the singing dad above aims to avoid, but it can be tough.
- Unless, of course, you go with something completely unexpected, like one of these Celtic Cool names from British Baby Names – Jory, Lorcan, Macsen, Treeve; Aderyn, Eleri, Emblyn, Kerensa, Tressa, Ysella. If I had any claim to any Celtic heritage, I’d be all about them. Then again, Jory could make a fun short form of George;
- Speaking of short forms – and back to Ben – how ’bout Beau for Benjamin? Photoquilty mentioned it on the AppMtn Facebook page. Name Must Stay has a list of Benjamin-substitutes that might be worth a look, too.
- Think Gatsby is too much? How ’bout Thackeray? I suspect he’ll get the same reaction, but Bree’s write-up at Midwinter Names has me convinced he has potential.
- Another spotting of Bru, this time in New Zealand, courtesy of For Real Baby Names. I don’t get it. I don’t hate it, but it seems … incomplete.
- This question at Swistle is intriguing. The parents are trying to name baby #4, a little sister or brother for Mackenzie, Dylan, and Keira – girl, boy, girl. Delaney and Addison are on their short list, but it is Riley that has them vexed – is too gender neutral with Dylan, another gender neutral name? Hmmm … funny how the gender line shifts. I’d say pretty much all of their names are gender neutral.
- How much do I love Leonard Cohen‘s daughter’s name? Nancy mentioned it recently: Lorca. Not Laura, not Lorna – modern, poetic, distinctive, and meaningful to the parents.
- Nomes e mais nomes reports that actress Diana Chavez has welcomed a daughter named Pilar. I do enjoy birth announcements from foreign countries, and Pilar is a name that I really admire. And no, I’d never heard of Chavez before today, either, but I assume she’s familiar in Portuguese-speaking countries.
- Nook of Names profiled Rosamund. One of my favorites! I prefer the Rosamond spelling, quirky medieval misinterpretations and all. Rosalind, mentioned in the comments, is another lovely option.
That’s all for this week. Celeb news and more appears at Nameberry tomorrow. Here’s hoping for some great trick-or-treater names this year, and Happy Halloween to all!
I know someone with two daughters – one has a popular name, think Emily for example, and the other one a more old-fashioned name that’s less common today, think Rowena.
“Emily” has always been the only Emily in every class and daycare etc, but first day “Rowena” trots up to school, another mummy says, “Oh a Rowena! How lovely! I’ve got a Rowena too; they can sit together in class, how nice”.
There’s no accounting for these statistical anomalies!
I love how frequently the unexpected takes place while the expected fails to occur! Growing up, my brother, Philip, and I had the uncommon names (I was named when Charlotte was basically at its lowest point in North American history), while my sister Emily’s name was already dancing around the outskirts of the top ten. However, when we were all dropped off for our first day of public school in 1991, we learnt that: my class had another Charlotte, Philip’s class had another Philip (same last initial, too), and Emily was the only one with her name in the preschool.
Even more oddl
There’s almost no way you can guarantee your kid will be the only one in their class – except by giving them one of those “out there” names that parents don’t want to give!!! (according to the song) 🙂
Thanks for posting that video, it was fun! It reminds me of the NameCandy post on the name everyone wants: unique, not the same, familiar, but not “out there”.
I love Thackeray! It will always make me think of Thackery Binx – my family rewatches Hocus Pocus every Halloween. I also like the William Makepeace Thackeray connection; I’ve been toying with Makepeace in the middle spot. Too much?
I have a good friend named Jorie. Her parents are Dutch and she was named after a male friend of theirs.
So happy to find another fan of Thackeray (and Thackery Binx)! I thought I was all alone 😀
I’ve actually put both Makepeace and Thackeray on my list of names but haven’t gotten the courage to suggest it to DH, who thinks all names should be three letters or less. I just think both names have wonderful sounds and associations. Not to mention- Thackery/ay is a legimate first name from the days of the pilgrims, not just a name found in fiction.
I’ve always thought Leonard Cohen’s choice of Lorca was really inspired.
Bru (brew) makes me think the parents met on a booze cruise.
Lorca Cohen is also a mom to a celebrity baby. She’s the mother of Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen, her daughter with Rufus Wainwright. Lorca us stunning.
A friend has a Jory (I believe he was named after a hockey player but Google is failing me.) It’s an unexpected way to anglicize Joris or Jorgen.
*is* stunning.
Thanks for mentioning me again Abby!
I really love Lorca, probably because I adore Lorcan. They always remind me of wolves.
Lorca is so light to say, but all I can think of is the rather heavy “Blood Wedding,” which I read in high school and I’m not sure if I could name my child Lorca… pretty name, but that’s a sort of downer association for me.
Bru = Babies R Us to me. Cannot imagine it on a child.
We have doubles of Patrick in my son’s preschool – they are always called by last initial: Patrick X. Patrick Y. But truly – even off-the-SSA-list unpopular names won’t guarantee your child is the only one in his or her class. My daughter doesn’t have an Emily, Ava, Emma or Madison in any of her classes (with both schools, that’s 30 kids – there is an Isabella, though), which are the top 5 girl’s names from the year she was born. However, she does have an Isadora, which has never showed in the top 1000 names, yet had we gone through with our plan (or had she been born a couple weeks early, before we changed our minds), my daughter would’ve been the 2nd Isadora and faced with the Isadora Lastname issue. As it is, she (nn Immy) and one of her closest friends, Emmie, are often confused anyway – many a time I have had the wrong child delivered to me at the preschool pick-up line. Emmie mom lamented to me that she had chosen her child’s name partly because it was not popular (I believe she is actually an Emmeline). I guess that is the hazard of the nn. Still, I like that our kids can fit in or stand out and the switch of a nn or full name – right now Immy likes that she’s got a name almost the same as her friend… and if they want to be ‘different’ in a few years, Emmeline and Imogen are not really all that similar. That’s the same for the Alexanders of the world – more than one nn insures that it is at least a possibility to go without out being Alex Lastname forever.
Very, very true! Now that you mention it, there aren’t any girls named Emma, Ava, Emily, or Madison in Clio’s class, either. As for Alex’s nn? Since he rejected Alexei – which Clio still uses, and I still dare every now and again – I’ve tried Xan, which he just ignored. Lex seems to be acceptable, but it isn’t very different …
I mentioned what? I know a mom of a Beau (fn) Benjamin (mn). Not a Beau (nn) for Benjamin. Did I write something else? Sorry to mislead you.
Also, in college, where I majored in creative writing (did I ever share that with you?), I wrote a short story about a character named Thackeray. It was a fantasy story and pretty much sucked. I totally ripped off the dragon from The Neverending Story. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything by Thackeray; I just liked the sound of the first syllable. Thack. Thack. But I don’t think it’s wearable. A lot of names in fiction shouldn’t be used in real life. IMO, of course.
Also, Jory was Cathy’s son in V. C. Andrews’s ‘Flowers in the Attic’ series. I don’t think I would be able to get over that association, no matter how much I love that series. And I do love it.
My apologies. That wasn’t you. Your comment was in response to my link to Mer’s post suggesting Beau as a nn for Benjamin, here: https://merdenomsnames.wordpress.com/2011/10/29/name-spot-of-the-week-the-missing-notebook/
Oops.
That’s right – I forgot about Flowers in the Attic. Isn’t there some story behind Jory?
Jory’s also a character in Game of Thrones. He’s a disgraced knight.
He was named for Cathy’s husband (and his father) Julian, and she called him Jory for her baby brother Cory.
“A lot of names in fiction shouldn
That’s a quite a compliment, Diana! I’d never really thought about it – but some of the names I write about are better suited to fictional characters than real people. BTW, love the name of your unicorn hunter. Astrid is such a great name for a strong female character.
Oh, I’m going to have to get your book for my daughter, Astrid. Not only does she live for books with strong girl protagonists, she would be over the moon to have the primary character share her name!
I’ve seen a Bru on an MTV show, I think it was Scream Queens. He was an actor helping the girls out. I actually don’t mind it.
Jory and Ysella are great names, I’ve heard about them before. Not too big a fan of Benjamin, and I don’t see how Beau works as a nn. I think Jory and Beau are more interesting than George and Benjamin, for sure. But then that’s my style, overly popular names don’t appeal to me very much.
Riley has them vexed because of Dylan? Well I seem to have spotted a Mackenzie Harper, and an Addison on the suggestion list. Unisex is what they’re naming customs are all about. I do think Riley works better on a boy though, and it goes perfectly with Dylan.
Speaking of Pilar, if you’ve been watching Project Runway this season, the winner Anya has a brother named Yves, and also mentioned several times that she also had a brother who passed away, named Pilar – she dedicated her final collection to him.
Not a fan of Lorca – reminds me of an orca. Not a fan of Gatsby or Thackery either, but for different reasons, they’re too out there for me.
Also, Thackery just reminds me of Zachary with a lisp.
Altho, Thackery jutht remindth me of Thachary with a lithp.
Also, Bru as a first name seems incomplete to me as well. The only time I’ve seen it is when it’s a nn. A Bruce I know goes by Bru sometimes. Also, in one of Judy Blume’s novels (for adults) there’s a character whose last name was Brudenger, so he went by Bru.
I adore Thackeray and it’s actually on my short list. It brings to mind Anne Thackeray Ritchie and her father, William Makepeace Thackeray. Also, in keeping with the halloween spirit, in the movie Hocus Pocus, the cat is Thackery Binx. Another spelling option. 🙂
One question- I view your site on my mobile phone and have been using the mobile site but the other day I switched to the regular site to look up something, and I can’t get back. The “View Mobile Site” option doesn’t seem to be activated. What else can I do?
That’s a mystery, Kat – sorry ’bout that! This is a wordpress.com site, so you should have the option to choose between the two versions (mobile/full) at the bottom of each page. If you tell me what kind of device/operating system you’re using, I’ll look it up in the forum or email tech support.
I’m using a Blackberry Torch. Thanks!!
Thackeray always makes me think of Hocus Pocus to me as well.