Please tell me that I’m not the only person who watched My Fake Fiance, the first pairing of Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence? It was raining, the baby was fussy … wait, never mind. Someone else must’ve tuned in – enough of us for ABC Family to greenlight a new original series called Melissa & Joey. The series premiered this week, and this time I didn’t watch. But I did Google enough to learn that Joey is a manny to Mel’s orphaned niece and nephew. The boy is called Ryder and the girl? Her name is Lennox! The actress playing Lennox is named Taylor, so maybe Lennox isn’t so outrageous. Plus, there’s the china. And a very minor Agatha Christie character was a girl called Lenox Tamplin. But if this one starts appearing embroidered in pink, it’ll be a surprise.
Speaking of character names:
- Jason Bateman plays Wally in The Switch. The cute kid answers to Sebastian, but that’s a solid Top 100 pick these days. Will Bateman breathe new life into Walter and Wallace?
- The Nanny McPhee sequel gives us kids called Norman, Megsie, Vincent, and their London cousins Cyril and Celia. The young actors’ names are interesting, too – Asa Butterfield played Norman, and Eros Vlahos played Cyril. Aggie – the baby from the first Nanny McPhee flick – also features in the plot, though she’s all grown up. In the 2005 movie, Aggie was played by twins named Hebe and Zinnia. That’s quite a pair!
While we’re on the subject on sibsets:
- This month’s issue of Real Simple featured an office makeover for a mom of five girls: Tabatha, Mabel, Annabelle, Evalyn, and Rachael, plus baby boy Leo;
- Babynamelover brings us a great set of TWELVE from the Telegraph: The birth announcement for Florentina Emilie revealed that she’s a sister for Georgina, Christopher, Charlie, Clementina, Gabriella, Montgomery, Cordelia, Angelina, Seraphina, Decima, and Delphine. I love that they used Decima for baby #10;
- Nameberry explored celeb sibsets that tend towards the quirky and creative. Tamerlane, Kansas, and Judah for a girl make the lists.
Elsewhere online:
- Names for Real spotted a Prairie Taylor. Muppet aside, I stand by my comments from the post about Meadow – this is one nature name I thoroughly enjoy;
- Here’s an intriguing smoosh: Sebastiane spotted a Hannabeth in Alabama;
- There’s a fascinating analysis by Nancy on Strong Names/Weak Names for boys, backed up with mucho data from 2009. It’s a much more productive approach than insisting that Kelly is a boy’s name. (Except that I still think it is. In fact my new hair stylist is a guy called Kelly from Texas. But I did hair stylist, not auto mechanic or lion tamer.)
- Leelee Sobieski calls daughter Louisanna by the nickame Louie – that’s no surprise. Except that she spells it Lewi, which I don’t get.
And lastly, the name was released for Paz Vega’s third child, son Lenon, a little brother for Orson and Ava.
But here’s the important news: next week is re-run week here at Appellation Mountain. I periodically try to update posts from 2008 because, you know, time marches on. But I’ve never done so in a systematic way. So instead of a new post, look for a week’s worth of revamped, revised, and re-invigorated names.
Things get back to the normal – meaning new posts – on Monday, August 30.
Thanks for reading, and have a great week!
I never heard the slur either, I pronounce it like it rhymes with Phoebe. I don’t like it.
Lennox is masculine to me. I cannot see it on a girl.
Isn’t Hebe pronounced Hee-bee, as in, the flower name? Rhymes with Phoebe?
Hebe is a shrub, pronounced similar to Phoebe:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebe_(genus)
But you are right, I’d never heard of the ethnic slur Hebe before:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs#H
That’s enough to make quite a cute botanical name no-go for me:)
I don’t like Lennox on a girl, I think of Lennox Lewis, the olympic boxer…and he’s a boy.
Kelly is a boys name. End of. Kelly Slater is a feminine/weak guy? No. He’s a champion. There you go.
Kelly Slater is certainly doing something to put Kelly back on the list for boys, but I still think MANY parents hesitate to use a name that has been so popular for girls. I’d say the same thing of Ashley and Shannon, though in the case of Shannon I know a combat veteran who answers to the name – I don’t believe he’s ever had any trouble.
I agree with photoquilty about Hebe; it’s an anti-Semitic slur. I probably first heard it on All In The Family.. Not sure how the name is pronounced, but the slur is short for Hebrew, so it sounds like heeb.
Does anyone else know Lennox as a brand of air conditioner, like Trane or Carrier?
Sorry, but Hebe is simply an anti-Semitic slur, in my opinion.
I did watch Melissa and Joey and rolled my eyes at Ryder, but (ashamed to admit it) kind of liked Lennox on a girl! Did anyone else notice that Joey’s hairline seemed applied? I think he’s truly bald; he doesn’t shave his head.
Today the h admitted he likes Harper (!!!) For a girl. OMG if we ever have another baby and it’s a girl, this is SO on my list. 🙂
I still love Walter and Walt – Wally never. To me, it’s a nickname for Wallace, anyway, and bleccch, yuck!
Ouch – I had never heard the slur. All I got from the name was Greek goddess.
And now I HAVE to watch an installment of M&J just to check out the hairline situation …
I think Ethan and Sam would love a little sister. 🙂
I didn’t watch My Fake Fiance, but we did watch the new show…
Lennox felt very contrived, a luxury brand on a (former) rich girl.
Baby name collecting at yesterday’s community rummage sale:
Arthur and Hamilton were disappointed we’d sold the telescope. (3 and 7?)
Addelyn bought my step-daughters’ Barbies. (Around 4)
Archer was very bored and desperately wanted his mother to know that. (5 1/2)
Peggy and Paige were very naughty. (Twins who are both a terrible two.)
Rachel (about 3) was buying clothes for her baby brother Carson.
Interesting – that does feel forced. Though I was thinking that I do like Heidi Klum’s nickname for her daughter – Leni. Except Leni is really Helene, and I think that’s a better formal name for the birth certificate.
Great names! Love Peggy and Paige as a twin set!
Rachel and Carson? I wonder if their parents are environmentalists …
I’ve been seeing Lennox in birth announcements as well. Mostly on boys– I think?
Babynamelover is going back into some serious archives (which is fine!) Little Florentina must be two by now. I recognized the names. Wonder if there is a 13th sibling?
I totally dig Prairie, Hebe, Zinnia, and Kelly on a boy. I also know a male Kelly– definitely the hairdresser type, though not a hairdresser specifically.
I will cop to seeing “My Fake Fiance,” although I am kind of horrified with myself for a) watching it and b) admitting to it in a public forum. I’m also not too impressed with Lennox on a girl – we had that on our boy long list (mostly for mn candidacy), but decided it was a bit to “bruiser” for us – we are, more or less, big nerds. Despite the fact that I’m personally more likely to by the china than watch a fight, I still primarily think of Lewis (on our shorter list of firsts for our boy), and therefore find it very odd on a girl.
Walter and Zinnia, however – yes!
yeah, buy, not by, the china…
JNE, one of the reasons I was happy with Alexander, despite his popularity, was because it was just such a neutral name. I figured we’d have a baby bookworm – as it turns out, he’s athletic enough that I sometimes think he was switched at birth. But that’s the great thing about names like Alexander (and Oliver) – unlike Gunnar or Jaylon or (even my beloved) Gideon, there’s a lot of space to make them your own.
Zinnia is really growing on me!
And hey, I watched MFF, too. Someone had to!
Ooh, revisit “Verity” please!