Happy New Year! The holidays are always a great chance to catch up with people you haven’t seen for a while. I discovered an old friend is now dad to a daughter called Ada Maple. And I heard that several friends-of-friends and cousins-twice-removed are expecting. In every case, I made sure to offer my sincere congratulations before asking if they’d thought about names.
At least, I think I did.
Let’s start with something different: a reader question. What do you think of the name Ranger? There are a few possible ways the parents might use it. Check out the poll below, and feel free to leave a comment.
A few other boy-name thoughts:
- I’m curious to see The Green Hornet rebooted with Seth Rogen as slacker-turned-hero Britt Reid. Reed and Reid are both near their all-time highs for use in the US. If the movie is a hit, betcha we’ll hear them more;
- I’m also wondering if Britt could catch on for boys. It was also the name of one of the lead characters on short-lived FX series Terriers. Conventional wisdom says that Britt is a Scandinavian girls’ name, related to Bridget, as in Swedish actress Britt Ekland. But he’d fit right in with Gage and Cole;
- Along those lines, I raised the idea of Hale for a son over on the AppMtn Facebook page. I was mostly think of Kale/Cale when I asked the question, but Emily G. pointed out that Hale also conjures up Nathan Hale;
- ForReal unearthed a ton of new surnames and surname sound-alikes being use in the first spot. How ’bout Danner, Corbett, Deagan, or Whitten?
In other news:
- The continuing round-up of year-end baby names yielded one truly interesting list. Washington State’s TDN.com reported the top baby names at St. John Medical Center: Kaiden and Addison. Also epidemic in Longview, WA’s nursery schools? Karlee and Brycen;
- Speaking of surprising names, the first baby of 2011 for Florida’s Treasure Coast is a tiny girl with a big name: Le-Royalti Jacqueline Le-Grace. They’re calling her Pinky;
- And the Mitzi goes to … check out Elisabeth’s take on Celeb Baby Names 2010 over at You Can’t Call It “It”. Nameberry also weighed in on Celebrity Baby Names this year;
- I stumbled on this list of Hippie Baby Names. Juniper, Ivy, Sage – I’m on board. But Chai? I’m stuck – is it daring and wonderful or just plain bizarre?
- It’s so nice to hear Stanley get some love, even if it is mostly in the UK – for now;
- Jezebel’s article on gender-neutral naming is a bit off – I’m not sure the Canadian prof quoted everywhere really did his research, or maybe he’s only looking at few decades’ worth of info – but the comments are worth a scan.
A few celebrity babies arrived just in time to be up at midnight on December 31:
- Elton John is a new dad to Zachary Jackson Levon;
- Dierks Bentley welcomed a daughter named Jordan Catherine, a sister for Evalyn Day;
- And, of course, Alanis Morisette is a new mom to a son named Ever Imre.
That’s al for this week. As always, thank you for reading, and have a fabulous first week of 2011!
Regarding the name Ranger, none of the poll choices quite fit my answer. Ranger isn’t my style at all, but I don’t think it’s any stranger a name than Hunter or Cooper or Thatcher (all of which parents are using now). It’s not too much. And if it’s what the parents plan to call him, there’s no point in tucking it in the middle slot. I’ve never understood the reason parents deliberately plan to call a child by his or her middle name (except in those rare instances when family tradition dictates a certain first name must be used or when the parents are trying to avoid a bad set of initials). If the parents are concerned that their son may not like going by Ranger in his professional life, he always has the option of being R. Elliot Judson or whatever, which sounds very distinguished.
I voted for option 1: “Ranger’s great. Use it in the first spot.” I don’t think Ranger is great, but it’s perfectly acceptable if the parents love it.
And I say this as someone who does know a cat called Ranger, but I could still picture it on a little boy.
My parents dog is named Ranger. I think it’s a really good name for a huge brown Chesapeake Bay Retriever, not so much for a human. But then again, our #2 for a boy is Rex, so…
Britt reminds me of Brett from Fight of the Conchords, he was from New Zealand and pronounced his name like Britt.
Ada Maple is beyond cute! Maple is such a great middle name, it almost makes me wish that my husband was from Canada so I’d have a reason to use it!
Isn’t it Britt Hume, the newscaster?
I can stand behind Ranger, with Walker, Tucker, Carter, etc. I also like Hale as a stand-alone name. Hal usually is a nn, I think.