A challenge many of us face when choosing names: we all want the same thing. A name that’s familiar, not common. A name with history, but not stuck in the past.
And so I love the way Theresa Zoe Williams at Sancta Nomina put it: “up-and-coming yet grounded.” She singled out names like Emmet and Everett, but the list is long.
Just not that long.
If there’s a challenge, it’s figuring out exactly where we want to be on the up-and-coming ladder. Peaked? Plateaued? Early stage, but full of promise?
Lots of us are trying to catch lightning in a bottle. We want to find a name just before it really hits mainstream. But after no one will dismiss it as weird, either.
That’s pretty much impossible to do – but we still try.
And I’m beginning to think that the secret to happiness in our name choices is acknowledging that we’re after something lots of people want, and that’s okay.
How did you think about popularity/trends when choosing names? Does “up and coming, yet grounded” sound like a style sweet spot for you, too?
ELSEWHERE ONLINE:
I cannot resist a good set of name quotes. We’ve talked about Iris before, but I’m fascinated by Kin. In fact, I just added it to this list.
Speaking of single-syllable name and middles, how good is Brynn Marais? It’s from this Swistle post.
I don’t love every name on this list, but Aviatrix is awesome. And, more importantly, the idea of a list like this is brilliant. What are the most out-there names that you’d ever consider?
And if that list has you wondering how far the universe of names extends? Laura does some math and figures that the answer is pretty much infinite. And not in some theoretical kind of way, but in an awesome, data-based way.
Which reminds me, I fell down a YouTube rabbit hole the other day. I should do this more often, but SJ Strum has some amazing lists. Love this Rustic Romantic one. She had me at Thoreau.
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That’s all for now. As always, thank you for reading + thinking of you!
