So I’ve been pondering which names to feature for the week in July when I choose all of the names … I’m considering writing about hated names, the ones that always make name nerd lists of “worst name ever” but remain wildly popular. Think Nevaeh. Or maybe Jayden. Do you think it would be interesting to read, or do you think you’d just have to look away, train-wreck-like?
Elsewhere in the world of all things onomastic:
- We all trumpet the arrival new heroines, wondering if their names will become the Next Big Thing. Doesn’t always happen, though – when’s the last time you met a Buffy or a Katniss or a Hermione? Could Merida be different? I spotted a serious Merdia merch push at Target this morning, and she’s already in Disney Parks. How do you rate Merida’s chances?
- Speaking of chances, I so enjoyed Angela’s musings on what it means to be #1. Thought-provoking quote of the day: If the pool of popular names continues to shrink and become increasingly volatile, will the top 1000 rankings carry any weight? And, of course, she’s right to ponder if all this chatter about names has an impact on the names we choose in the first place. It must, right?
- One other vaguely-related thought: apparently in Snow White and the Huntsman, Snow White’s name is … Snow White. Is Snow the next Winter? On the other hand, Charlize Theron‘s Evil Queen gets a killer name – Ravenna. Love it. Villain or no, I can hear Ravenna catching on before Merida.
- I’m obsessed with Karmin. Yes, I know I’m too old to be obsessed with Karmin and kind of late to the party, but it is my new grinding-through-paperwork-at-my-day-job jam. Apparently they were inspired by the Latin carmen – song, meaning that pop music has finally converged with my favorite opera. And yet, I’ve honestly never considered Carmen as a daughter’s name. She’s actually been in steady use for decades but never really peaked. Hmmm …
- Philomena is a family name, one that my aunt narrowly avoided. (She was the last child, and the first – and only – of her siblings to receive a straight-up American name instead of the officially designated Italian appellation.) Given the clunkers that my grandparents freely bestowed, I’m forever astonished that the lovely, lush Philomena gave them the pause. Perceptions really do change, don’t they?
- Here’s one I would have loved to have found on the family tree: Poncella. Okay, maybe not the name – but the story! Seriously, if you give birth in a taxi while stuck in bridge traffic, I do think that an out-of-the-ordinary name is required, and Olive Marie Poncella is great.
- Love all of these lion names at Eponymia.
- No, respelling Jackson won’t help. Not even a little …
- Over at Swistle, I’d say that this expectant mom should duplicate her former BFF’s baby name without hesitation. You?
- Eeek! Have you looked at the Top Twin Name combinations in the US? Go look. I’ll wait. I recognize that naming twins is a double challenge, but surely there was something other than Heaven and Nevaeh. Or Autumn and Summer. Or Jayda and Jayden. Or Jeremiah and Jeremy. And my personal least favorite? Mia and Mya.
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading – and have a great week!
Oh no! Don’t waste your brilliance and limited time on hated names!
Also, Merida is a city in southern Mexico.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida,_Yucat%C3%A1n
Two nice alternatives to Snow are Yuki and Neva.
Yuki (YOO-kee) is a Japanese girls’ name meaning “snow.” Neva is a Spanish girls’ name also meaning “snow.”
Here you can see a whole list of girls’ names meaning “snow” in different languages.
https://www.behindthename.com/bb/fact/22902
Definitely do “hated” names. 🙂 Then I’ll probably start liking them. 😛
I always want to read Merida, as Meridia (Meh-rid-ee-ah). I guess it’s more like Meredith but with the more popular “ah” ending. I do plan on going to see the movie for mine and my daughter’s joint birthday. 🙂
I do like Philomena. Though It would have to be Mena for a nickname and not Phil. I like how the spelling is more ‘regular’ than Wilhelmina.
The twin names that sound almost the same really get me. How do parents not get super confused and mixed up, thus confusing their children?! We have two boys with different sounding names: one syllable vs two syllable and different initials. Plus they’re different ages. Yet we still sometimes call them the wrong name. Why make it hard for yourselves by having twins with such similar sounds?
I think Merida is charming and I can see it catch on. Though, you cannot really predict what name will become popular and what won’t. Fiona never caught on, yet Bella has. Jasmine skyrocketed after Aladdin. I remember it being a relatively unusual name, now she is started to get a dated feel. Think child born in the 90s. I think Katniss is awesome. We still need a bit more time to see if she will ever become the next big thing. I have always had a soft spot for Ravenna, but the evil queen connotations in the upcoming movie may deter parents from using it. I think Snow is incredibly sweet as a given name.
It would be interesting to see a hated name week. Nevaeh is interesting. I don’t hate her like other name-nerds passionately do. I can see the appeal and the sentiment behind it. An interesting note is that I recently ran into the name Enola. It has become somewhat trendy in France and of course in the States we think of the Enola Gay. It turns out, Enola was the Nevaeh of her time. She is “alone” spelled backwards and was somewhat common before the launch of the Enola Gay. Enola was invented by an author in a book about an abandoned Native American girl and later was erroneously listed on some baby name sites as being “Native American” for “solitary.” She has disappeared from the U.S. top 1000 and I wonder if it is due to its cheesy connotations of being a word spelled backwards or if it has more to do with the Enola Gay. In France, I think her recent usage may have to do with her similar sound to current trendy Breton names that like Enora.
Philomena has gone on and off my list over the years. I really love her French form of Philomene. So sweet!
I am beside myself with excitement for Brave, and if it’s as good as I expect it to be, Merida will be on the list posthaste.
I was also thinking about twin names today. I’d really like twin girls, in a perfect world where I get to plan everything. They’d be called Kate and Kelsey after a favorite song. But then I was thinking about the name Natalie, and Christmas, and decided that if I had a SECOND set of twin girls, in December, they’d be called Natalie and Ivy (as in the hymn The Holly and the Ivy). Just thought I’d share my musings.
I LOVE dream twins. In my dream world my twin girls would be named Guinevere and Hermione.
sshhhh dont talk about Ravenna. I live in a charming little neighborhood called Ravenna and think it’d be a great place name! Lovely name for the evil queen (better than Regina in Once Upon a Time) – I had never considered the black bird connection until the movie.
A hated names group of articles would be quite interesting to read, especially since the names you listed are only hated by those of us connected to the name blogosphere — plenty of parents obviously adore the names! Will your articles create converts of either group?
In a list of rather atrocious twin names, my favourites include Emily and Abigail, Reagan and Riley (although I might prefer alternate spellings), and Elizabeth and Katherine, for the boys I liked Andrew and Benjamin, Alexander and Nicholas, and Henry and William. My favourite girl-boy twin combination of names that I’ve heard recently is still that of my friends’ three-month-old twins: Seamus and Naomi.
I’ve been thinking lately about how certain names seem to suddenly become popular world-wide in a very short space of time. Last night we attended a potluck where my Alaric made friends with a little Chinese Kiwi Chloe. At around the same time Alaric was born last year friends of ours in India (who are Indian and have never lived outside of the country) had a little Chloe of their own. And of course we’ve heard of numerous new little Chloe’s/Khloe’s in Canada and the US. In a way it seems more reasonable that so many of my friends have Sophia’s and Samantha’s, because I grew up with a few of those myself, but Chloe almost seems to have come out of nowhere.
Ok, I confess that when I first commented I hadn’t taken the time to read the articles you listed because I was trying to do too much while flying out the door with the kids. First of all, I LOVED Angela’s write-up on being number one. I bookmarked it for future reference.
Secondly, thanks for linking to the article about baby Poncella — it’s from my hometown! I never knew that the High Level Bridge had the distinction of once being a baby’s birthplace. I can’t say I’d want to give birth there. Too scary. It’s not a fun bridge to drive on (although short).
That’s so crazy that Poncella is from your hometown and you never knew … Nancy digs up the most amazing stories!
I’d be interested in reading about the most hated names. There are plenty of names out there that are much, much worse than Nevaeh and Jayden.
I think you’re right. I can definitely see Snow catching on…especially as Snow White in the show ABC’s Once Upon A Time is called “Snow” plus, as you say, the two Snow White films we’ve had this year.