It’s been a quiet week here at AppMtn as we all enjoy the last sweltering days of summer. The stores are filling up with sweaters (and Halloween candy – already!) and television is premiering brand new can’t-miss-shows.
Which brings me to a trio of Project Runway related thoughts:
- Contestant Qristyl squeaked by for another week. With every second she spends on the small screen, I expect another mom-to-be to consider swapping out her kreativ K for a qreat’yff Q. Bring on Qaden, Qonor, Qaylee and Qadynz – Shudder;
- Then there’s the talented Shirin, who told us in her intro that her name means sweet in Farsi. There’s also an appealing legend about a seventh-century Persian Queen by the same name;
- She’s not showing on this season (yet) but Heidi Klum says that she has no name picked out for her fourth starbaby, little sister to Leni, Henry and Johan. In an interview with USA Today, Klum says she and Seal are “waiting for the lightbulb to come on” this time.
Off the Runway:
- Once again, the Toronto Star reports on a surprisingly lovely name – Phillipa Skye, nn Pippa. But there’s a catch – her last name is Walker;
- Legit Baby Names brings us Adelind, a nice alternative to Adalyn and the intriguing Korbinian;
- Nancy’s Baby Names has a list of interesting choices culled from Tropical Cyclone names. Call me shallow, but I’d rather be menaced by weather named Aletta or Zoelle than the boring Bill;
- Bewildertrix reports on a bumper crop of babies with unusual spellings, including some serious h-abuse: Khiara, Jhett Baiden, Zoeigh and Caleyb caught my eye. She also reported the rise of Nash;
- And then there’s this sibset: Harriette Pop, Archie Falcon, Jarvis Jello and Astrid Bean;
- True Blood’s Stephen Moyer has a daughter named Lilac – I can’t decide if I love it or find it completely over the top.
On a more scholarly note:
- A new article from Ancestry.com reports that 49% of all Americans are named after a family member;
- Then there’s the Menachem Mystery on Baby Name Wizard. First, I’ll admit I didn’t realize that the US Top 1000 stats were revised. But Laura Wattenberg spotted one more unusual quirk in the latest revision – Menachem appeared in the rankings, when he hadn’t appeared in the prior list. And this had happened year after year. In fact, a number of names popular among Orthodox Jews tend to rise during the revisions. There’s much conversation about why that might be in the comments, but here’s my second thing-I-didn’t-know. Can you actually leave the hospital in the US without naming your baby? I had no idea.
That’s all for now – thanks for reading!
oooo! I really like Lilac.
Yes, you can leave the (US) hospital without naming your baby. I think I remember that you have up to one year to file the paperwork, though maybe it varies by state.
I wonder: did Qristyl’s mom bestow her with such an unfortunate choice, or did a once-upon-a-time Christal/Crystal feel the need to distinguish herself from the pack with a creative (albeit ridiculous) spelling? Either way, it looks and sounds like it would appeal to a girl who still plays with Barbies.
I wondered the same thing, but I’ve yet to see an interview with her that mentions anything about her name. The interesting thing is that her birth – everything says she’s 42 – predates the debut of Dynasty and explosion of baby Krystles by more than a decade. (Dynasty debuted in 1981.) Crystal gained in the 1950s and 60s, though, so it isn’t unreasonable to see an outrageous alternative spelling.
But yeah, the Q? It hurts my eyes. Though she seems lovely.
Phillippa Skye Walker. That sounds like a bad joke.
Zoeigh just makes me grimace, as does Caleyb (although that’s at least better than Kaylub, which I’ve seen.)
Don’t get me started on the Qs.
An interesting summary, for sure. I kind of like Lilac, too…though would need some serious persuasion to name my own child Lilac.
I dated a guy who had a cat named Lilac, so that sort of kills it for me. Except I like Violet and Scarlett and Gray and even Azure – sort of – so why not Lilac? Hmmm …
Kaylub? Yikes!
Oh, I have to admit that Lilac is a serious guilty pleasure of mine, along with Lavender. Both were on my list for a period of time, but even though they’re now removed and permanently in the middle name category for me, the name on an actual child makes me swoon with delight! Just as long as they don’t go for another glaringly obvious color/flower name, I’ll be fine with their baby name choices. (Aside from tryndeigh choices, of course.)
As a project runway fanatic, when they showed the commercials introducing two contestants before the season began, I nearly choked when I heard of Qristyl’s name. Well, not so much heard it, as saw it. Crystal is bad enough. We do not need extremely tryndeigh spellings on already trendy names.
My apologies – not sure how I managed to turn off comments!