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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What do you think?

13 Comments

  1. My first thought about Damaris is that Mara means sadness, and so I associate Damaris with sadness too even though there’s no connection. It also sounds like demerit.

  2. Damaris is pretty, though I would venture a guess that she’s not more popular because the Da- suffix sounds like the beginning of a lot of names popular for African-American males. That could just be me though…

    The ONLY smoosh name I would ever think of doing would be based on our initials: Sarah And Mike = SAM. But Samuel is too popular for me and I dislike Samantha. I love the Twilight series but Renesmee is a gross name. Esme Renee, though sing-songy, would have been much better. Or Carlie Renesmee. Or Edie Jacoba. At least they call the baby Nessie, that’s cute.

  3. Damaris is one of favourite names! 🙂

    I blame Renesmee (perhaps unfairly) for the tidal wave of parents doing “made up combination names” which seem to have started around the same time as “Twilight”. If I see one more post of someone saying “My name is Alison and my husband’s name is Gary; should we call our baby Aliry or Gason?”

  4. (Shudders) I hope Renesmee really doesn’t take off. I haaaate Twilight and Stephanie Meyers. But that isn’t why I don’t like the name. It just makes me think of Captain Hook’s idiotic and evil little sidekick, Smee. And it just doesn’t feel good on my tongue nor does it look good. I’d want to punch Renesmee if I ever met her. Wow. Never knew a name would invoke such strong emotions in me.

    1. I hadn’t thought of Smee! It’s true! I didn’t think it was possible to dislike Renesmee more than I already did, but that takes it to a new level.

  5. Louisa May Alcott actually commented on the IE trend in her 1870 book An Old Fashioned Girl. Apparently it was a fashionable thing for well-born girls to spell their names or nicknames with ie as in Fannie, Pollie, Minnie, etc to try and look more French. Alcott thought it was very silly. 🙂

  6. Damaris is beautiful, although I could see some parents being put off by the first syllable, and others by the meaning as stated on nameberry: “sweet heifer

    Thanks for the links reminding us that names can mean so much more than pretty sounds or interesting historical facts. Whenever I have feelings of regret that I didn’t push harder for my own choice (Rosamund) when naming our daughter I try to remind myself that, to me, Rosamund is mainly just a pretty sound, while RoseAnna was the name of my mother-in-law. For Mark, Rosamund simply wasn’t an obvious enough tribute to his mother.

  7. I think I’d prefer Anna Nova, Ananova feels like a contraction of Anorexia Nervosa.

    Damaris is lovely, it really should make a comeback!

    I’m looking forward to the last Twilight movie, not that I want to see it… I’m just tired of the sparkly vampires. When do the vampires get to be scary again? Back on topic… the Twilight baby should have been Meena.

    1. Oh, gosh, Julie – you have a point about Ananova and Anorexia Nervosa. Yikes! I think the whole thing has too much N. Alanova or something might be nicer, but I prefer the two separate (i.e., Alla Nova).

      Damaris is gorgeous! But, it reminds me of Damian, which still feels creepy to me. Hm…

      And, I didn’t read the Twilight books, but I thought I saw somewhere that had Renesmee been a boy, Bella would have named ‘him’ Edward Jacob, E.J. for short. Which makes me wonder why she didn’t go with a female Jacob variant, as in Jacqueline, for her daughter. Jacqueline Edolie Isabel would have been nice, or Jacquetta Charlotte?

      1. Or Jacoba. I have a crush on Jacoba, I’m just not sure yet whether prefer it with a hard J sound or the softer Y sound at the beginning.

  8. Damaris is wonderful. Patrick Wolf has a song called Damaris which I really like, but the name in itself is very dear to me. I always wondered why she’s so neglected 🙂 And I love the sound of Ananova as well, I would go with Anna Nova as a double first though, I don’t like homespun smooshes…. ^^

    On Renesmee, I would just like to say that naming her Edm

  9. Damaris definitely deserves more love. I always find it quite up lifting a a middle name i.e. Sophie Damaris or Lucy Damaris.

    H names definitely have a cosy, autumnal feeling — perhaps because the the hearth, hazel and harvest. Hestia was also the goddess of the hearth, which feels appropriate.