Something that often strikes me: names are free.
Obviously.
And there’s not really any way to have more of them. I mean, yes. You can give your kiddo three or seven or a dozen middle names. Even more. But that’s sort of just a curiosity, a wait-what kind of moment that will follow your kiddo through life.
One person. One name.
It’s incredibly equalizing.
And yet it’s also limiting. And that’s the stressful part. No, you don’t need to pay an upcharge for extra letters. But you do need to figure out how to sort all of the thousands of options into just one single name combination.
That’s where you come in! If you haven’t weighed in on a #namehelp post – either in the comments here or on social, please consider doing so. Parents tell me, time after time, that it really helps to get a reaction from others – particularly the kind, thoughtful, and constructive reactions AM readers provide.
ELSEWHERE ONLINE
That’s not a name. That’s a wifi password. My daughter is super into Irish names right now, fascinated by the spellings. So I got a kick out of this Facebook reel.
Speaking of language, if you live in near/Miami, are there noticeably different names? Because Miami English is very much a thing. It follows that names would be slightly different, too.
Nancy has the most popular names in Quebec for 2022, plus some rarities. Read her breakdown here. The rarities include lots of indigenous names, which are such a thrill to see in use.
A quote from bestselling author Gillian Flynn: I didn’t name my daughter after Veronica Mars, but I didn’t NOT name my daughter after Veronica Mars. I totally hear that, and so often that’s the way it works. We’re not naming our children after that particular fictional character exactly, but the name is only on the table because of how that character shapes our perception of the name.
Speaking of television, I’m a big fan of Good Omens. The second season is streaming now on Amazon Prime, and word is that a third season is very possibly/maybe coming. And so I had to check: have any children been named Aziraphale? The answer: possibly, but not enough to meet the threshold required to appear in US Social Security Administration data. (That’s five boys or five girls born in a single year.) Crowley, though? Ten boys were named Crowley in 2022, a new high. Could it have anything to do with David Tennant’s character? Maybe …
That’s all for this week. As always, thank you for reading – and have a great week!
