House number 17 by temp13rec via Flickr
Happy Father’s Day! For those of you celebrating, I hope you had a fantastic Sunday. We spent part of our afternoon at the movies, and then at the large fountain in front of the theater, where I heard not one, but two parents call outJayden.
Then again, at least Jayden is a name easily recognized. There’s a family at our church with two kids, both with K names. The son is Kieran – a great choice that’s both current and rich with history. But I don’t recognize the daughter’s name at all, and I can’t seem to recall how to say or spell it. I’ve noticed that creative spellings of newly invented names frequently have that effect on me. Do you struggle with the same issue?
Elsewhere online:
- Tavar, Callan, Ridge, Stanley, Kellan Yates – more proof that parents are increasingly daring with their sons’ names, up at Name Soiree on the latest Stork Report.
- Nikhil: possibly the most perfect culture-spanning name for an Indian family in the English speaking world, though Vivek remains one of my favorites.
- Did you hear that Goodwill is launching a line of upscale resale boutiques? If that doesn’t intrigue you, how ’bout the name? Georgi and Willow. Fritinancy has the story. Of all the possible G & W name combinations, I wonder what possible combinations they discarded before settling on Georgi and Willow.
- Speaking of Georgi, some fascinating feminine forms from the nineteenth century appear in Zeffy’s most recent post: Lawrentia, Petronila, Wasillissa, Frederika, Cesarine, Alexvina.
- I loved this snippet at British Baby Names about triplets(!) born in 1740 and named James-Agnes, Charles-Emelia, and Henry-Margaret.
- I do like this Southern custom of passing down family surnames to daughters and sons equally.
- I’m fascinated by Waltzing More than Matilda’s post on Venus, and I keep thinking that Vesper is really a great possibility, in the first or middle spot.
That’s all for this week – as always, thank you for reading!
Nikhil just makes me think of The Namesake now [LOVE]…
I love Lawrentia, Petronila, Wasillissa, Frederika, Cesarine, and Alexvina. They seem like fairy tale characters (Petronila brings to mind Petrosinella, the title character of a Rapunzel variant, and Wasillissa is probably related to Vasilisa, aka Vasilisa the Beautiful, a figure of Russian folklore). And I love the nickname possibilities, especially Lawrentia “Wren” and Frederika “Rika”.
Just checked the rest of the names from the Baby Names from Yesteryear and was thoroughly intrigued by the name Penrose as it’s very close to a surname on my mother’s side of the family and a potential alternative to the increasingly popular Penelope.
Wren for Lawrentia is genius, but I’m still a sucker for the French Laurence.
I think Vesper is lovely, and much less startling than Venus … or her twin name, Lucifer.
I know a college-aged Frederika; she goes by Rika.
Nikhil *does* work well as an Indian name outside of India. Vivek, being basically phonetic as well as easy to pronounce, works too, although for some reason I’ve never been crazy about the name. I’m not sure why. I’ve known both Viveks and Nikhils, and of the two the Viveks were by far the nicer people.
Kieran reminded me of a family back in my hometown – cannot believe I forgot about them! Dad’s name is Kevin, Mom’s name is Connie, their sons are Kierstin, Kyler, Koltin, and they have a daughter named Kaileine.
I am a big fan of the surname-as-first name custom in the south. I’d carry it on except my current last name is not really first-namey enough. It’s a Scottish import and a compound word at that. Kind of a chewy mouthful for a small child. My mom’s maiden name I might include, but in the middle slot. But I know lots of girls, boys, men and women down here in North Carolina with one or more of their parents’ surnames as their first name.
Petrúnella is a name here an Iceland, though not a very popular one. 🙂