Jacquie's French names, ooh la la

My friend Jacquie likes French-inspired names. She has a little boy named Oliver and a fun last name that begins with "La." She asked me to do some research on girls' names as they are mostly set on a boy's name. In my research I learned that one of the major characteristics of French names is that they are often hyphenated and if you are introduced to a Jean-Luc, call him Jean-Luc as Luc is not a middle name. There is a sibset in my playgroup named Anne-Sophie and Juliette and I just love those names. The hyphen is really growing on me, I've always liked names like Mary Kate (who doesn't live the Olsen twins?) and French names roll off the tongue so much easier than English names with all their hard vowels.

My French list, with their ranking according to 2007's Social Security baby names list.

Adele (n/a)
Adrienne (751)
Amelie (758)
Avril (n/a)
Belle (n/a)
Camille (306)
Claire (66)
Charlotte (102)
Collette (n/a)
Coralie (n/a)
Elise (225)
Eloise (n/a)
Elodie (n/a)
Emmaline (n/a)
Estelle (n/a)
Genevieve (344)
Helene (n/a)
Isabelle (79)
Jocelyn (50)
Josephine (224)
Mallory (247)
Margaux (Margo) (n/a)
Mirabelle (n/a)
Mirielle (n/a)
Natalie (17)
Noelle (504)
Penelope (412)
Renee (709)
Sophie (82)
Violette (n/a, but Violet is 231)
Vivienne (n/a, but Vivian is 210)

So it seems that French names are not popular right now. I'll have to keep that in mind, even though we aren't French, I am sure my in-laws would love it if we named a girl Marie-Elise, accent marks included. They still have trouble with Ciaran (Kieran in the English spelling) and Bennett (which is phonetic).

Good luck Jacquie! I hope my list gets your naming juices flowing. Hyphen! Hyphen! ;)

Reworking the top 20 boy names

I took the list from the SSA's site, but it may be a little off as they do not combine multiple spellings--so Caden/Kaden/Kayden are all listed as individual names. So if you like something from the top 20 but are uneasy about your child being Alex S. for the rest of his life, here are some options. I will say that I do have a James (15 in 2007) and I've only met a couple little boys in the last four years that share his name. I know more little boys named Aiden/Aidan/Aden but it is not listed in the top 20. Aiden is 27, Aidan is 54 and Adan/Aydan/Aedan are in the upper hundreds.

And here we go.

1. Jacob
Colby, Jace, Jax
2. Michael
Micah, Malachy
3. Ethan
Ewan, Everett
4. Joshua
Jude, Judah, Elijah
5. Daniel
Dashiell, Dane, Dante
6. Christopher
Christian, Topher, Chase, Christoff
7. Anthony
Anton, Theo, Asher
8. William
Liam, Wills, Wilson
9. Matthew
Mathias, Mattingly, Mateo
10. Andrew
Anderson, Anders, Drew
11. Alexander
Xander, Maxim, Alton
12. David
Davis, Davin, Dayton
13. Joseph
Josiah, Joel, Joaquin
14. Noah
Moses, Thaddeus, Jerimiah
15. James
Jameson, Seamus, Lane
16. Ryan
Orion, Ryder
17. Logan
Finn, Landen, Brogan
18. Jayden
Jordan, Julian, Braylon
19. John
Ian, Sean, Evan
20. Nicholas
Nico, Nixon, Silas

Holy biblical names! Almost every name in the top 20 (minus Ryan, Logan and Jayden) is either a saint's name or from the Bible. I used James and Jude in my kids' names, so obviously I have a penchant for the apostles. If we have another boy some day, chances are we'd go more the Irish-Gaelic route and skip the top 200 if possible.

Camille's baby names

Woot woot! This is my first official email request. Camille said someone posted a link to my blog on a TTC site, that's very exciting to me. That means I am just a little tiny bit famous. However, my snob email is 99.5% spam so I missed her email until now. I just hope she's still pregnant. :)

Her oldest child is named Ethan Jay. If this baby is a boy, his middle name will be Aaron. Her husband likes two syllable names. She likes names that are a little different but classic.

If it's a girl, she wants a beautiful, classic but slightly different name--and something that looks good on a resume. I tried to stay out of the Social Security Administration's top 100 for both.

Her top boy names are Bryce, Cole, Brett and Blake.

Boy names
Zane
Reid
Blaise
Ashton
Beckett
Parker
Hudson
Holden
Dominic
Tucker
Maxwell
Dane
Bennett
Dylan
Weston
Wyatt
Noel
Miles
Samuel
Carter
...but my pick is Everett Aaron S. I think it sounds great with Ethan and it flows well with Aaron.

Girl names
Viviana
Elle
Willow
Cora
Alice
Elise
Lilia
Eleanor
Lola
Violet
Eve
Adele
Cecilia
Ashlinn
Lydia
Lorelei
Alia (ah-lee-uh)
Juliet
Amelie
Ariel

I think the girl names are all very romantical and pretty. Camille likes Ava, Alaina, Leila and Aspen so I worked from those inspirations. I can't pick a favorite of the girl names. Since most of them are two syllable names, I'd use a simple, sweet middle name like Anne, Jane, Rose, Hope, Grey or Grace and voila--we come up with gems like Willow Rose and Violet Anne.

Any winners, Camille?