I used to spend lots of time at Yahoo! Answers, dismayed at the number of posters planning to name their triplets Maddasynne, Mykailee, and Madduxx. Or so they said. Now I try to stay away, but every now and again, I slip. During my last lurking foray, I found a lengthy list of names one poster had suggested to one of those generic “What are some good baby names?” questions. (Actually, I think it was more like “Help!!!!! I need som cute behbeh names ‘cuz me & my BF can’t decide? LOL!”)
Usually the lists are forgettable at best, but these fascinated me. What do you think of:
- Yorick
- Probus
- Lael
- Fabian
- Sorian
- Jeriel
- Vilas
- Dorcas (yup, on the boys’ list)
And for the girls:
- Mimosa
- Edna
- Jonquil
- Aubretia
- Zabeth
- Danessa
- Ofira
I don’t expect to see any of them in the US Top 100 – or even 1000, really – soon, but it was such an extraordinarily eclectic list, I had to share.
In real life, there’s a new kid in my ‘hood called Zephyr. Which kicks off a whole week of eclectic, I think:
- ForReal spotted a baby girl named Fig Ava;
- Also, in Oklahoma, ForReal found a boy called Tayden, and a girl called Maebry. I love the sound of Maebry, but the spelling feels forced. I’m not sure what would improve it – Maybrie? Maebrie? Hmmm … maybe Maebry is best;
- BabyNameWizard posted a long, long list of backwards baby names. Is the world ready for twins named Kavon and Novak? How ’bout Aric and Cira?
- Pamela Redmond Satran’s article on Baby Boy Names and gender at The Daily Beast sparked a firestorm of comments. Even the relatively neutral were highly opinionated: “Children are best named after a beloved relative or friend, or even after a historical figure, biblical character or other admired person. We would do well to lose the baby naming books.” Really? Somehow I think this commenter has never named a child. Which reminds me, my son Aly was at a class with a same-aged girl called Allie on Saturday, and the world did not end;
- Nameberry’s list of Water Names included Bay, a name that seems to surface more and more often. Here’s one that is not on their list, possibly because it has never been used as a given name: Cascata. It’s the Italian equivalent of cascade or waterfall. Cascade feels a little too brand name (it’s dishwashing detergent in the US) to use for a child, but I’ve always thought Cascata had potential;
- I finally watched an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The names aren’t stunningly unusual, though there’s a healthy dose of gender-bending in their choices. Two of the Housewives are called Kyle and Taylor, Taylor’s daughter is called Kennedy, and Camille has a daughter named Mason. But Kyle’s four daughters have attractive names: Alexia, Sophia, Portia, and Farrah. Oh, and I think Lisa has a daughter called Pandora, but I’m not sure if I caught that right;
- Nancy wrote about babies named Celebrity. No, not babies named Lennon or Lady Gaga, but babies named Celebrity. It has happened.
Celebrities were also good enough to catch the theme:
- Vera Farmiga named her daughter Gytta Lubov, a little sister for Fynn. I’ve yet to hear the name pronounced by the proud parents, so for now, it is all speculation if she was inspired by the Sanskrit name that rhymes with Rita, or the Old Norse Gyda, which sounds more like GUH theh. We’ll have to wait until
- Ne-Yo welcomed a daughter named Madilyn Grace. Yes, it is quite the ordinary name. But when Dad answers to Ne-Yo and mom is Monyetta, there’s a chance the name will be equally outlandish. Their fairly pedestrian pick is the surprise!
That’s all for this week. If you’re craving a Sunday Summary-esque fix midweek, find AppMtn on Facebook, too. Oh, and stand by – Nameberry is releasing their 2010 stats tonight 2011 predictions (oops – thanks for the correction, British American) at midnight!
As always, thank you for reading and have a great week!
I have a good friend from germany and her name is Gyda, she pronounces it to rhyme with Rita with a slight harsher D sound than a T sound.
Aubretia looks pretty. How exactly is that pronounced?
Dorcas is NMS at all for either sex.
Many of those seem way too out there. Probus?
Yes, you did catch that right. Lisa Vanderpump Todd on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills has a daughter named Pandora and a son named Max, surprisingly bland compared to her daughter’s name! Apparently she has an adopted son named Cedric, but I’m not totally sure on that one…
I also thought I’d mention that Ne-Yo’s name is really Shaffer Chimere Smith. Madilyn Grace Smith is quite generic, though still fairly attractive!
And, for some reason, Mabry – I think this spelling is fine, though it could cause pronunciation problems – reminded me of a new favorite, Amory. I think it is worth a post on your blog!
PS I just caught the post on Nameberry, and it is quite interesting!
Oh – India Hicks has an Amory, doesn’t she? It is a great name. If you email me at appmtn (at) gmail (dot) com, I’ll definitely put him on the calendar.
So Shaffer Chimere and Monyetta had a daughter called Madilyn? Would’ve loved to have heard their conversations about names!
Pandora and Max – wonder if Max feels shorted? Or fortunate?
Yea, India Hicks does have an Amory, but I was actually referring to the title character (Amory Blaine) from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise. But, you’ve got me interested now, so I looked up all of India Hicks’ kids:
India Amanda Caroline Hicks is the daughter of Lady Pamela Carmen Louise (Mountbatten) Hicks and her husband, David Nightingale Hicks. Oh, Nightingale has immense middle name potential, doesn’t it? Anyway, India and her husband, David Flint Wood, have four children – Felix Austen Flint Wood, Amory John Flint Wood, Conrad Lorenzo Flint Wood, and Domino Carmen Flint Wood. Domino is an interesting choice for her daughter, yes?
L
Domino is very Bond girl, but I do like it! Great names … wonder if they’re family choices or if she chose them out of the blue?
I love Lubov in the middle, however Gytta is said! I’m a total sucker for those Russian names!
Mabary was a surname of one of my classmates growing up, and it had a run-together pronunciation close to MAY-bree.
Of all the boy and girl names you listed, I only like Jonquil, because it would fit in with Flora, Daisy, Rose, Lily, Iris and Violet.
Tayden, Novak, Kavon, Cira, Aric, Fig, Lubov, Pandora and Celebrity are all terrible to me. Gytta seems like a nickname to me, closest to Gitta for Brigitta.
I like Mason, but not for a girl. It seems awfully manly to me.
I do like Bay as a middle name for a boy or girl. It’s also a nice nickname for Baylor. I also like Camille, Portia, Farrah, Kennedy, but they are unlikely to make my short list. I don’t care for Alexia…I’d use the full name Alexandra and shorten it to Ally, Alex, Lexy or Xandra. Kyle is lovely for a girl, but I probably feel that way because I have a cousin Natalie with the middle name Kyle. Lisa is a dated but lovely nickname for Elisabeth.
I know a little girl whose middle name is Lael. It can be found in the Bible, but on a boy. The rest of those names well . . . I’d use most of them as my name of the day, but I’m hardly surprised any more about what names I find out there.
I read this book and one of the characters was named Fig so I was surprised to see it on a real life baby. Plus, I think Fig would make an adorable nickname or a great name for a pet. 🙂
Have a good week!
Sarah
That yahoo list certainly makes for interesting suggestions. On the girl’s list, there was supposed to be a 4 year old Mimosa in my daughter’s preschool last year, but then the scheduling changed, so we never got to meet her.
My Mum tells me that her Mum wanted to name her Jonquil (in 1951 England), which would have been quite the unique choice. My Mum’s grandma wasn’t thrilled with Jonquil and my Mum ended up being Joyce instead (because her grandma said she would bring joy – and my Mum wishes she’d been named Joy, instead of Joyce.)
Kelly – the Nameberry Facebook page status says: “Stay tuned: Our big Baby Names 2011 trends predictions go up at midnight on nameberry.com!”
Thanks for the clarification – I don’t go to their Facebook page very often (so I didn’t know about that) and the way Abby worded it made it sound like they were doing a ranking of names over the past year rather than next year’s predictions.
Jonquil is pretty, but I’m not sure how it would wear. It’s quite a formal feeling name, isn’t it? I guess you could be Jonni or Joni for short.
What is that list Nameberry is releasing? I know they periodically do a list of the most searched/best ranked names there, but they usually do that on a quarterly basis (and logically thus would wait until after December 31 to post the results for the whole year).
P.S. Abby, if you haven’t seen the e-mail I sent you today it has a list of some more NOTD ideas.
I completely flubbed the list explanation – thanks to British American for the fix!
Of the Yahoo list I like Lael and Edna…Fabian is okay, but the others are really out there.
My guess is that Gytta is Gitta respelled to remove “git” from the name and to match her brother’s quirky spelling. If that’s true it’s pronounced GIT-tah.
Julie, that’s a good guess.
I’ve come across Mabry before, as a Maebry update…
I think it’s a surname variant of Mayberry. Nameberry has it listed as a form of Mab, but that makes little sense to me…. 🙂
Mabry is cleaner and less over-the-top than Mayberry and looks less made up than Maebry to me, and it’s on my list. ^^ I think I might add Mayberry as a middle name option.
It also reminds me of Mabyn, a Welsh saint name meaning ‘youth’ 🙂
Now that is perfect, Dearest! Ancestry.com links Mabry to Mayberry, too … I don’t see it as a form of Mab, but hey, maybe they all connect.
I do like Maebry, and I think Mabry looks more authentic. But I don’t hesitate to pronounce Maebry with a long “a” – and I’m not as confident about Mabry.
Cool name, though – nice to know it has roots!