23 by cobalt123 via Flickr
Have you ever been someplace where you were supposed to be thinking about something entirely different, but your mind wandered and you found yourself pondering names instead?
Please tell me I’m not the only one.
I was at a memorial service for a lovely man on Saturday, a man whose life was jam-packed with adventure and achievement.
When I saw the name Phyllon, my first thought was “phallus.” >_< But Sunnery's a nice name! Never saw that before…
Phyllon’s full name has been revealed: Phyllon Joy Gorr
Congratulations on Maria Sigrid, Julie! What a fun and feminine name for her!
Lyndsay, I think Novalie or Novalee would be really cute for you – Dash and Nova. Or Lee. And, yes, Where the Heart Is really is a wonderful movie, partly because Natalie Portman is in it and can really do no wrong. It just occurred to me that Natalie and Novalie are very, very similar!
So, I got this idea to go through the names in my university registrar for people in my actual class, and I stumbled upon some nice ones. Elana Opila, Gabriel Rubin, Bradford Gerald, Cora Lorraine, Marie Isadora, Baltazar Clayton, Waldemar Luis, Ira Howard, Melody Angeline, Parker Ashby, Marc Guillaume, Rush Terrell, Jacques Jermaine, Luisa Margarita, Winnie Pearl, Rebecca Antoinette, Phoebe Penelope, Wallis Rebecca, Carolina Beatriz, Marshall Pride, and Celina Raffaella all caught my eye.
What neat names! My favorites are Winnie Pearl, Cora Lorraine, and Baltazar Clayton. I’m very surprised by Wallis.
And, yes, I get distracted by names, too. I spent my brother-in-law’s university graduation (and it was a long one) reading through the hundreds of names mentioned in the program, putting stars next to the interesting ones, and poking my husband to make him look at them, too.
Ah, graduation programs that list all of the graduates’ names! That’s one of my favorite things.
That is a fascinating list! Marshall Pride … sounds like an order. Celina Raffaella is gorgeous. It’s fun to know that so many people have such extraordinary names!
I found it interesting that The Globe and Mail stated, “celebs guide the more adventurous parents”. If they’re being guided by celebrities, are they really being all that adventurous?
I wonder whether other regions in Canada will follow suit with the community name-mapping idea? It would be fascinating to see the trends in our neck of the woods.
It’s not star-baby news, nevertheless I think it awesome…
We adopted a little girl! Maria Sigrid joined our family on January 5th.
It’s not it.
Congratulations! And I love her name, by the way; did you choose it, or was that the name you adopted her with?
Maria was originally her middle name.
We changed it for multiple reasons, but mostly because it was S____er and our surname is Sch___er.
Congratulations!
What wonderful, wonderful news, Julie! And what a great name.
Congratulations!
I’m so curious why Novalie is rising in Sweden. My best friend considered it for her daughter who is now six, but that was in America. And I’ve never told anyone, but it’s been on my list, too! I’m actually surprised it’s not more popular here. Where the Heart Is is one of my favorite movies and it just seems like such a nice name when they say it in the movie.
So Owen Wilson’s baby is Robert Ford Linton Wilson? I’m surprised he’d use Robert as the first name. It’s nice though, but I do hope they call him Ford. If he’s anything like his father, Ford will really fit him. I love that name!
When my husband’s step-grandmother died, from where I sat for the service I could see hundreds of names. I think they were people who had been cremated. There were some amazing names there and it was SO distracting! You are definitely not alone. You can’t tell normal people about that though, they just don’t understand!
I’m going to solve the “Robert” mystery for everyone–it’s Owen’s father’s name: Bob Wilson. He used to be a communications exec at EDS here in Dallas, and my good friend worked with him for many years. So, little Ford was named for his grandpa.
“Ford” makes me think of both the car company and Harrison Ford. It’s presidential, too. Plus, Ford follows the surname trend, but it’s uncommon. It also follows his family’s trend of short first names: Bob, Owen, Luke, their brother Andy, his son Joey, and now Ford.
I felt bad about my initial reaction to Ford Linton after I read Linton was the mom’s dad’s name. Robert certainly is unusual nowadays!
Not sure if this came up on the FB page, but the recently-elected new mayor of Toronto, Ontario (Canada) is Rob Ford. So this baby name has gotten more mention than most on local TV/radio! Can’t say that associating the name with the new major is leaving a great taste in my mouth.
Novalie rising in Sweden? That is an unexplained occurrence! Hm…
Abby, I just wanted to point out that Samantha Harris’ new Hillary Madison Hess is a baby sister to Josselyn Sydney Hess, not Sydney. Samantha refers to her as Jossie. I admit to being shocked by the name at first, but Josselyn and Hillary are cute together, I think, and it is unexpected. Madison is what I don’t like about it – something like Hillary Kathryn feels more appropriate.
Phyllon is odd, but cool. I’d never think to pronounce it Fillen, myself – I’m seeing more of a [PHI-lon], with PHI rhyming with high and lon rhyming with John. I still don’t know how to pronounce Doutzen, though…
Pippa! Oh, Pippa. The name makes me think of my mother. I like it, and it’s cute, spunky, fresh, and playful, but does anybody else think it’s an odd fit for Emily Procter? Obviously, I don’t know her personally, but it feels slightly outside of what I’d imagine her naming comfort zone would be. Cute name, though!
Thanks Lemon – I’ve corrected it!
And yes, Novalie has me stumped. I was searching YouTube, thinking I’d find a song title, but instead I found videos of cute little blond babies, uploaded, no doubt, for the grandparents to watch.
I like Pippa! Of course, I especially like it as short for Philippa.
I’ll confess that, when I sent out my email announcement that I’d had my daughter and announced her name, it was accompanied by a pronunciation of Imogen (for the Americans, not the Brits – I sent out two separate emails). I have a hard time begrudging a name based on having to mention to the uninitiated how to pronounce it (that said, I’m not sure I like Phyllon anyway – I want to say FILE-on despite the explanation!)
For the record – my mind wanders frequently, even when inappropriate… and yes, names are definitely a distraction-approved topic for my synapses.