Sunday Summary: Logic v. Love, Storm, Shuri, and Princess Adrienne

Many parents hope that their child’s name will come to them. A lightning strike of inspiration, followed by that moment when both parents agree that The Name feels exactly right.

Trouble is that only happens sometimes.

Most of the time it takes logic and compromise to choose a name. And falling madly in love with your child’s name? That can take weeks, or even months, too. With our son’s name, he was well into the double digits before his name took on that magical quality for me. Our daughter’s name felt tailor-made much earlier, but it was crafted over time, with lots of discussion.

It’s okay to find your child’s name that way, via negotiation and reflection. Most of us do! Names aren’t often storms, loud and bright and impossible to ignore. Usually they’re trees, growing and evolving over a period of time.

And yet parents – especially, but not exclusively moms – describe the process as frustrating and difficult. And it is!

But does some of the struggle come from our assumption that choosing a name will be more straightforward than it is?

I don’t have a good answer, and I’d love to hear your thoughts! What made choosing a name challenging? Were you able to choose a name quickly, or did it take time?

Now, on to the name news:

• I’d been thinking about how Black Panther will impact baby naming, but I hadn’t actually watched the movie. Until yesterday. I loved it, but then, I expected to. But it also changed my assumptions about the breakout names. Now I’m betting on Shuri. Because she’s brilliant, confident, and fearless – but somehow, she also manages to seem like an ordinary teenager, joyful and exuberant, but also frustrated by the grown-ups. It seems like the kind of character parents would see and think – yes! That’s how I can imagine my daughter. It’s all but unused in the US, so it will be easy to see if the movie makes an impact.
• Princess Madeleine of Sweden welcomed her third, and it’s a girl! The new royal arrival will answer to Princess Adrienne Josephine Alice, a sister for Leonore Lillian Maria and Nicolas Paul Gustaf. Now, look, I know there’s zip, zilch, zero connection between the names Princess Madeleine has on her short list, and whatever Will and Kate are thinking about, but … I still want to try to read into this. It’s just how my brain works. So … does this up the odds for Alice? Or is it like if you heard your old college roommate used your favorite name for her daughter’s middle? Would it change your mind? Okay, I’ll stop now.
• Also: if Storm rises, all credit to Storm Reid, the young actor who plays Meg in A Wrinkle in Time. My take on the movie? It’s a tough story to tell on the big screen, asking so much of young actors, and I thought it was done well. Gorgeous to watch, and faithful (enough) to the original story that I so enjoyed it. Or wait – will Storm and Stormi collide? And if they do, will it encourage more parents to use both names – or will it push them both out of consideration?
• Time for the annual Baby Name Pool. I just know one of you can win it!
• Oh, how I love my fellow name bloggers – and love it when they add to their families! Congrats to Kate of Sancta Nomina!
• How gorgeous is Flora? If Nora and Cora, Lily and Violet are all Top 100 choices, how can it be that Flora fails to crack the Top 1000? In the US, of course – it’s more popular in the UK.
• A little list of space-themed names. Yes, people are calling their kiddos Galaxy. On the right kid, that could be a crazy-cool name.
• A fun look at names ending with -ys.
• An Irish parenting site looks at the Irish names everybody else is using. Worth a read just for their description of Saoirse.

March Madness Baby Names 2018

• If you haven’t yet voted in the SemiFinals, please do! The girls’ contest is here.
• And the boys’ SemiFinals are here.

That’s all for this week! As always, thank you for reading – and have a great week!