Michele's name list

This request was sent in by a reader in Grand Rapids, Michigan (my home state!). She found the link through my friend Willo's earth friendly site.

Michele has a little girl named Avery Roselea and it due with a surprise this summer. The new baby's middle name will be Michael for either sex so she wants a feminine girl name to balance it out. Names she likes are Lillian (Lily), Adeline (Addie), Carter and Everett.

Girl name suggestions:
Alia
Amelia
Annalise
Audrey
Carolina
Cecilia
Clara
Eleanor
Ellery
Eve
Gemma
Georgia
Hazel
Ivy
Juliana
Juliet
Lena
Lila
Nora
Olivia
Stella
Vivian
Willa

Boy names:
Anderson
Atticus
August
Blake
Camden
Carson
Chandler
Cooper
Dawson
Declan
Eli
Harrison (Harry)
Hunter
Merritt
Owen
Parker
Preston
Prescott
Sloane
Travis
Trenton
Xavier

Any winners?

Twilight Names

I have a confession to make; I didn't like it. I'll admit that I was biased going into it as I had read a million reviews and I knew the plot from hearing people talk about it. I kept waiting for my mind to be blown and I kept waiting to care about the characters. Edward bothered me with his PMS, Bella acted a fool and has self-esteem issues (I am so clumsy, I'm not pretty, I'm not good enough, etc). Maybe it gets better in the next three books.

I liked the vampire names though--Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie are all great names.I liked how the modern kids had names like Jacob, Jessica and Mike.

Is it true that Bella and Edward name their vampire baby Renesme? I know it's a combo of Renee and Esme but that doesn't make it right.

Flame away.

New lists coming soon--one for a reader in GR, an US Weekly compilation and names that I predict will make their way back onto the lists.

The History of the Snob

It all started when my mom had my little brother, and then my other brother, and other, and then my sister, and then another brother...I am the oldest of 11. There is an almost 18 year gap between myself and the youngest sibling. I remember being so upset that my first sister's name ended up being Bridget. I wanted something cool, like Samantha or Jessica because after all, it was 1989. And so my parents named her Bridget (for a great grandmother) Christena (my mom's name, also my grandmother's middle name, so sometime back in the 1920s the great grandmother balked at Christina).

If you recite our names fast enough, it sounds like a spell-- or roll call at your local Catholic school circa 1950. Theresa Moira, Shaun Michael, Ryan David, Garrett Patrick, Bridget Christena, Patrick Rory, Catherine Aquinas (after St Thomas Aquinas), Derek Daniel, Thomas Cormac, Rosemary Monica and Brendan Alexander.

With each pregnancy she would pull out the baby name book and start leafing through it. She was convinced that we all needed saintly names so out came the Saints of the Catholic church encyclopedia as well. I pushed for names like Cecilia and Rose while my step-father argued for names like Monica (during 1996, too!) and Tabitha.

I wore the name book out; the spine weakened, pages fell out and peanut butter grease stains dotted the pages. I decided my name was lame, Theresa means 'reaper' in Greek. What is that? At least I had two saints to claim as my own, St Therese the Little Flower and St Theresa of Avila. During Catholic school we celebrated feast days (which I just can't see happening nowadays with the plethora of Emerson/Addison/Madison/Jaden/Hayden names) and I got the pick which date I wanted, naturally I chose whichever one was soonest. Patience has never been a virtue of mine.

When I became pregnant with my first child I found BabyCenter which soon led me to the baby naming polls. You would not believe some of the names and the catty comments and fights that happen over naming babies--even the hypothetical not yet conceived ones. I made a poll with names I liked, mostly Irish, and braced for the aftermath. My boy picks were Roan Morgan, Finnian James, Jude Cieran and James Fitzgerald (my grandmother's maiden name). My girl picks were Sofia Jane, Meara Quinn, Aidan Elisabeth and Norah something. I think James and Sofia won. However, I remember someone making a comment on my poll saying that if I really wanted to use the proper Gaelic spelling of Kieran I should spell it Ciaran. This is what I was thinking when James finally emerged after a loooong labor with a c-section on top. They told me it was a boy and he had a head of black hair. So here I am, crying and exhausted and thinking about something a stranger said on my baby name poll in regards to the spelling of my child's name. And I took her advice.

With my second pregnancy I pulled the books out as soon as I found out. I spent the better part of nine months with my friend Jess, who was due two weeks before me, pouring over names (German for her, Irish/English for me) and eating my weight in bagels. She ended up being a week late and I was 10 days early, so our guys are only three days apart. She had a Maddox Oberon and I ended up with a Bennett Jude. We were both insistant that we would never nickname our boys. Bennett has more nicknames that I can count, the most used being Benny Boo, Benny Judy and Bennett Ciaran--all bestowed by James. Apparently James thought Ciaran W___ was a swear word because when he used to get ticked at me he'd scream "MOM CIARAN W___!!"

I like all names, I really do. I've never met a Sophia, an Emily, an Aiden or a William that I didn't like. I'm sure I'd even love little Bronx Mowgli.

Names for Rebecca

Rebecca is a sister of my good friend Emilie. My husband and Rebecca were both in Emilie's wedding many years ago. Rebecca and her husband have a little girl named Charlotte Elizabeth and they are awaiting a surprise in March. Some names they like are Ella Ruth, Molly Louise and Lillian Louise. Those names definitely flow with Charlotte Elizabeth which follows the formula of old-fashioned + classic. Yes, I think of formulas for names. My kids have biblical/classic + ethnic and surname + biblical.

For inspiration I researched Charlotte and took note of the name's journey though babynaming history. I started in 1880 and watched it move over the decades, peaking in the 1940s at 59 and sinking in the 1980s to 299. It has been a constant name and it's one of my favorites. Charlotte's Web is a favorite book around here.

I also used nymbler and babynames.com to find some additional boy names by meaning. I think the boy names would all work well with a classic like Thomas, James, William, etc. I'm not usually a fan of people using the same letter but C is an exception since you could have a Charlotte and a Caroline and the alliteration isn't there.

Girl names:
Alice
Amelia
Anna
Anne
Audrey
Catherine
Eleanor
Eliza
Eva
Evelyn
Genevieve
Georgia
Jane
Jocelyn
Josephine
Joy
Lola
Lucy
Margaret
Norah
Penelope
Ruby
Theresa
Vanessa
Viola
Violet
Vivan

Boy names:
August
Chester
Cole
Cooper
Dawson
Edward
Everett
Forrest
Garrett
Greyson
Henry
Jack
Julian
Keaton
Leo
Lewis
Maxwell
Oliver
Preston
Stephen
Stuart
Theodore
Vincent
Wesley

I like to search by meaning sometimes on the babynames.com site--that's actually how we found Bennett. I looked up names that meant 'blessed' and it popped up and we both liked it. So I played around a bit for you.

Love:
Conner
Davis
Gallagher
Madan/Madden

Small (wee tiny baby small):
Knox
Paul
Vaughn

Dark:
Blake
Duncan
Kieran
Morris
Sullivan

That's how I settled on Ciaran for James' middle name, it means 'little dark one' in Gaelic and he had a ton of black hair. We didn't have a name for him until he popped out. The morphine had kicked in as well so I consented to a family name as long as he could get a good old fashioned Gaelic middle name like mine (I'm a Moira).

Happy naming!!

Catherine's List

Catherine found The Snob through a websearch. She likes classic names in the vein of Emily, Charlotte, Anna, Abigail, Nathaniel, Benjamin and James. Her daughter Olivia Wyn is two and mystery baby is on the way. Wyn is a family name and she will most likely use it again for the second baby. I tended to like mulitsyllable names with Olivia and I tried to avoid names ending in 'er' since their last name does and names like Hunter Weber are just too 'r' heavy for my liking.

Olivia was consistantly in the 200s from 1880-1980, but it started to climb in the '90s on into the 2000s. I used the Voyager website to try to find names that have been consistant, yet not trendy, and would compliment the pretty antiquity of Olivia Wyn.

Ada
Amelia
Audrey
Cecily
Caroline
Cora
Elisabeth
Eva
Frances
Hazel
Iris
Maggie (Margaret)
Mallory
Meredith
Natalie
Neva
Polly (I love Polly!)
Rosalie
Ruby
Sophie
Stella
Susanna
Theresa (Tess as a nickname?)
Una
Victoria
Violet

Andrew
Archer
Arlo
Bennett
Brooks
Byron
Caleb
Charles
Conrad
Dashiell (we've watched The Incredibles a lot lately)
Dominic
Edmund
Eli
Felix
George
Grant
Henry
Jacob
Jackson
Keaton
Leo
Lewis
Malcolm
Orion
Oscar
Rowan/Roan
Samuel
Victor
Vincent

Catherine, I know you liked Emily and Owen going into this list and my unprofessional advice is go with what you love. If you like Emily and are nervous about the popularity, check my list of Emily variations. Good luck and happy baby naming!

It's called snob for a reason

Juno: So have you and Vanessa thought of a name for the baby yet?
Mark: Well, sort of. Vanessa likes Madison for a girl.
Juno: [aghast] Madison? That is so... gay.
--Juno

I must admit that I choked on my Coke Zero the first time I heard that. It sums up my feelings exactly for trendy baby names. There are many popular names that I like but there are just as many trendy names that make me cringe everytime I hear them. A friend of mine knew someone that was pregnant and had a top secret baby name--it ended up being Madison. It made me laugh. If it weren't for the move Splash, I wonder if it would have stayed on the down low. Madison first appeared on the charts in 1980s at 538, jumping to 29 by the '90s and it's been in the top 10 since 1999. It's very similar to Tiffany, which came out of nowhere in the '60s to number 311 and skyrocketed to 11 by the '80s. They are both generational names--though Tiffany is still hanging at 212 on the charts (I have never met a baby Tiffany).

It's much more common to be uncommon with names now. When I grew up I all my friends were named Sarah, Katie, Erin, Michelle, Jennifer and Jessica. I've known Jennys, a Jenni, Jens, Jenns and once in a blue moon, a Jennifer. I like it's base name, Guinevere, best. And no 'Gwen' names are in the top 1000--no Guinevere, Gwen, Gwyneth or Gwendolyn, which is odd considering Gwen Stefani and Gwyneth Paltrow.

This leads me to my next issue with modern names--the Y. Unless it's a classic name like Lydia, Sylvia, etc I cannot stand when people insert random y's into names. It does not make it feminine. It makes it misspelled. I will tolerate the occasional Kathryn or Hayley but Madisyn, Mariyah, Camryn and Kristyn just look off. Kre8ve spelling just isn't my bag. Maybe it's the English major in me but unless you are using an ethnic spelling, a surname or a family name it's just wrong. And don't even try to tell me that you had a great grandma named Madysyn. You did not. Her name was Ethel. If you want to call a kid Maddie so badly then name her Madeline, Madeleine, Madelena (how pretty is that name?) or use Mattie with Matilda, Mattea or Mattingly (I know one!).

I have less issue with boy names simply because they are harder. It's also harder to screw up a boy's name--you can only misspell Michael so many ways, unlike the endless opportunities with girls' names.

You can always add an 'a' to a common girl name (Caroline to Carolina) and if you want a Lily you can use Lily, Lilian, Liliana or Lilia. It's not so easy for boys. It's almost impossible to find a usable yet uncommon boy name not in the top 1000. I've tried. So far we have one classic (James) and one surname inspired (Bennett) but if we have another boy I just don't know what I will do. You can pretty much guarentee that it will be English/Irish influenced, with a meaning we love and hopefully not in the top 100.

Also, babycenter has up its list of the top 100 of 2008 according to their members--they are usually pretty spot on since their members are mostly pregnant or have young children. Check it out.

Sarah D's baby names

My Michigan mama friend Sarah needs a list for her baby boy that's due this May. She has two gorgeous girls named Colleen and Jillian. She likes English/Irish influenced names and her last name rhymes with the word 'diamond' so I had to cross Neil off my list. :) And no C, D, K or J names, so there goes all my Duggar inspirations.

The middle name options are James, Kyle, David and Andrew. I like the look of the double letter names so his would match his sisters' names, so I tended to chose names like Brennan and William. Happy babynaming!

Alton
Ardan
Barrett
Beckett
Bennett
Benton
Blake
Brendan
Brennan
Eamon
Elliott
Emmett
Evan
Everett
Finn
Ferris
Garrett
Gavin
Griffin
Harper

Harrison
Henry
Holden
Ian
Landon
Langston
Malachy
Malcolm
Marlow
Mason
Merrick
Mitchell
Morris
Nolan
Oliver
Otto
Owen
Parker
Patrick
Paxton

Quillan
Quinn
Reid
Rhett
Rider/Ryder
Rockwell
Rory
Sander
Sean
Sloane
Spencer
Sullivan
Tanner
Teague
Thad
Theo
Travis
Tucker

Vince
Vinson
Walker
Wesley
Weston
Wilder
William
Zane