Things for which I am grateful: name blogger Xanthe Linnea is back with the story of her son’s name, Leo Nathaniel. And Emmy Jo shared Julius Arthur‘s name story, complete with absolutely adorable photos! They make for great reading. Plus, be on the lookout for another Reader Baby Name Story here next Saturday!
Another thing that fills me with joy: your boundless creativity, as seen in the Holiday Baby Name Game: Thanksgiving Edition. The suggestions were fabulous – I’ve winnowed it down to a few choices for the polls. Vote for your favorites below!
I’ve been putting more and more Real Life name spottings over at Facebook, but here are a few I couldn’t resist:
- Brothers named Cole and Kahle;
- Brothers Brandon, Bryan, and Bryce;
- Also an Emett – not a typo.
The first two sets run afoul of my How Close is too Close? tests. And while I’ve defended alternate spellings, Emett makes me want to backspace. I wonder if there’s a reason?
Elsewhere online:
- Nameberry raised the question of cool names we’ve spotted. The comments were amazing – North, Cosmo, Padget for boys, and Posie, Lulabelle, and Persia for girls – and that’s just a sample;
- Speaking of cool names, For Real spotted boys called Fox and Zen, plus a Wallace Gannon, which I kind of love;
- This was pure fun: Nancy’s round up of Happy Days-inspired baby names like Fonzie and Chachi. Really!
- Speaking of odd names, I’ve often said that being named Dweezil could not have been the strangest thing about growing up with Frank Zappa for a dad. Evidence that parents with unusual outlooks and vocations choose names accordingly: at DaddyTypes, Kenny Scharf designed this wild crib for his daughter in the 1980s. Her name? Zena;
- It goes the opposite way, too. Also via DaddyTypes, CPC Designs features super-cute, super-preppy little jumpers and such, made by a trio of friends. They have five kids between them: Charlie, Teddy, Paige, Cooper, and Madeleine.
The big Hollywood news was the birth of Benjamin Travolta. But with Pink among the currently expecting celebs, we can only expect a bumper crop of fabulous baby names in 2011.
Hope you had a great week, and for those in the US, a fun Thanksgiving.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week!
Rosemary Loyalty
My mom has a late November birthday, which often falls on Thanksgiving. I’d probably use a variant of her name, Linda, in any name I chose.
I have a very cool aunt Linda, so Linden has floated on and off our lists. I think there are a lot of interesting Linda options out there.
So, I think Alice Pomona is stunning. Absolutely fantastic. I also think Padget is really cool, but I also like it for a girl, a la Paget Brewster of Criminal Minds fame – I prefer Padget and Padgett for spellings, though Paget leaves “Page” open as a nickname, right, even though the pronunciation is different? Benjamin is a great name, but Benjamin Travolta leaves much to be desired for me. With names like Jett and Ella Bleu to their credit, couldn’t John and Kelly come up with something more exciting? I’m hoping little Benjamin goes by Benji, because that fits better, I think…
Anyway, I just had to mention my recent name sightings, even though I actually saw these written down as names on a Giving Tree for Christmas. So, we’ve got siblings Ke-mora and Ke-morion – um, that’s basically the same name! – and a boy called Juandaize, which is really just awful in my opinion. I’ve got absolutely no clue how to pronounce Juandaize, but I guessed something along the lines of jaundice – I’m only half-kidding…
Hmmm, I know a trio of brothers named Brandon, Bryan and Bryce… interesting. I remember the mom saying they didn’t intend originally to stick with all Bs, but once Bryce was born, it was a trend she they decided to stick with.
On the Thanksgiving name front, I had a hard time deciding between Ephraim and Arthur, but Ephraim won out. Arthur has been really growing on me lately! Alice Pomona is divine, though I find a few of the others really fun or lovely as well.
Regarding Emett: I’m not sure of the linguistic reasoning behind this, but this spelling changes the pronounciation for me. This seems as if it should be pronounced e-METT, rather than EM-met. Then it makes me think of ’emetic’…not such a good association.
I have the same reaction, Bella – my eye isn’t sure it is supposed to be pronounced just like Emmet, even though my brain insists that’s the only possible answer.
One of the moms on this season of 16 & Pregnant is Brooke and her husband is Cody…so they named their baby boy Brody since it’s a combo of their names.
I get the impulse behind it, and I don’t have any objections to Brody. But wow – I can hear myself tripping over Cody/Brody and resorting to “hey you!”
I have always thought it would be so neat to combine the husband and wife’s names to create a REAL baby name, not something like Renessmee. The one thing Stanley had for us that no other name did was the “stan” from Constantine’s name and the “ey” from mine. The “l,” we decided, comes out of love… just like our baby boy! 😉
And I love all the Thanksgiving names 🙂 Noble William really struck a chord with me. So, so handsome!
Love the explanation for Stanley!
I agree, I personally hate the name Renesmee though I can see Bella naming her that. I love your story about Stanley, that’s so sweet! My name is Sarah and my husband is Mike, so he has been advocating for Sam as an acronym for ‘Sarah And Mike’. I actually like Samuel but I’m not too keen on the nn Sam. Anyway, I think Brody/Cody are too close, but the idea is sweet nonetheless!
That’s so sweet, Whitney! I knew the “stan” came from Dad, but the part about the “l” is priceless. 🙂
I went to school with a group of brothers named Brian, Bradley, Bruce, and Brandon. I never thought they were too close.
I really like Padget for a boy.
I think it is the Bryce that gets me … Bryan and Bryce. I just can’t imagine re-using the “bry” sound. Wonder what the family would’ve named a girl? I love Brenna.
Brad married a Jenna — would’ve been funny if he had a sister named Brenna! 🙂