baby names

[flea]

Born to the Park Mommy clan:

Jasper, older brother Emmett (not sure of spelling). Since to me Jasper evokes a 90 year old New England bachelor farmer, I find it especially amusing that his father's last name is strongly ethnic Ukrainian, and his mother's equally strongly Italian.

Elliot (not sure of spelling), a girl to be called Elly, older brothers Jonah and Evan. Scrubs notwithstanding, I still consider Elliot a boy's name, and there are tons of things to name your kid if you want to call her Elly.

I also met a 3 month old Florence recently, older sister Laura.

Names in Casper's class at school, almost all approaching 2.5 years: Olivia and Delancey (identical twin girls), Isabelle, Stephanie, Jasleen (girl), Chase, Connor, Evan, Ian, Kabir (boy), Lee (boy). Jasleen's father is a Sikh I think, and Kabir's mother is South Asian, and Stephanie's father is British, and I think everyone else is white Americans.

Names in contention for the Armadillo, at least in my head right now:

Flora, Louisa, Laura, Caroline, Shyanne just checking to see if you were reading, Mary/Maria/Maryanne?, Margaret except that's my boss' name, Sasha except that's RF Dad's name ugh, Alice.

Paul, Peter, Ant(h)ony, Joseph but for the misfortune that will be obvious if you know mr. flea's last name and think of Friends, Edward/win, Jeremiah I wish it's an ancestral name and I love it although it's weird but I really dislike Jerry, William but the world is too abundant in Wills right now and I don't like Bill.

Comments

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

First of all, Olivia and Delancey?? Those do not go together at all.

Also, I used to work with a guy who went by Jay. His given name was Jerry, which was a family name. Well, he looked back a little further and found that, of course, Jeremiah was the actual family name. He was pissed.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

See, I LOVE Jeremiah! But it is possible I am too into my antique New England heritage.

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

Sorry -- I meant he was pissed that he had been named Jerry when there was a perfectly good ACTUAL family name like Jeremiah! (It was like, his great-grandfather was named Jeremiah, went by Jerry, so his grandfather had just been named Jerry.)

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see, Jerry I just flash on Jerry Lewis, and there's no excuse for that.

[smonsterbite.livejournal.com]

Is Jemmy too obnoxious an option?

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

William can go to Liam. I REALLY like that option.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

I think you can only get away with Liam if you have a vaguely Irish or at least generic last name. Polish, NSM.

[susanw.livejournal.com]

I love Jeremiah, but I don't think there's any way to avoid Jerry--even if you didn't use it, friends/teachers/etc. would eventually.

William is out for us because the first syllable of our last name is "Wil", but it's one of my favorite names for other people. I like Will, Billy, and Liam, but loathe Willy and think Bill is too plain. These are pure gut reactions I can't completely explain.

Annabel's class at daycare is 18-24 months. The other girls I can remember off the top of my head are Yokasta and Annika. Boys are Christian, Han, and Riane (pronounced like Ryan, but with an "ee" instead of an "eye").

I love Laura, Caroline, and Mary/Maria/Maryanne, though for the latter I prefer the Sense & Sensibility Marianne spelling. Also Paul, Peter, and Anthony. I'm getting fond of "Ed" names, though I like Edmund and Edgar better than Edward/Edwin.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Yokasta is Greek, I hope, but I still don't think I'd name my daughter that! "Yes, and this is our son, Oedipus."

I am now imagining a child named Marianne Elinor (another name I love, and in that spelling) who wouldn't know whether she was to be stoic or emote all over the place!

[susanw.livejournal.com]

Yokasta's last name is Hispanic, but I don't know anything else about her. Her parents never pick up/drop off when we do, and we're too new to have been to enough events to know other parents.

Hee! on the Marianne Elinor. Of course, on some levels Annabel sounds like it should belong to a dainty, ethereal, fair-skinned child, and yet it seems to suit our Annabel just fine despite her being the opposite of all that.

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Yokasta? Good lord. And I'd think Riane was a girl's name (particularily because of the e at the end). And what Jesse said above about "Oliva and Delancey" not going together. Madness!!

I hate when there are names I love that have horrid nicknames, or names that have great nicknames but the full name is eh. Like Jeremiah(yay!)/Jerry (boo!), or Edward (bleah)/Ned(yay!)

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

Edward (bleah)/Ned(yay!)

Hey!

Calling a kid Ned ensures that he'll be saying "Hidily ho, neighborinos!" when he grows up.

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Oooh, crud! I was thinking of a friend's older brother, and never had associated it with Flanders! Darn, another (nick)name ruined!

(It's not that I don't like Edward, just that I like the nicknames better--Ed/Ned/Teddy)

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Dang, I had not thought of this. I like Ned!

[susanw.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I often wonder what Riane's parents were thinking. The first few weeks I heard it as "Ian" and thought that the "Riane" I'd noticed on the sign-in sheets was another child entirely.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Sasha can be short for Alexandra/ia, which also lends itself to other nice nicknames.

I kind of like Shyanne, although it would immediately lend itself to playground namecalling. :-)

How about Jeremy? Also can be short for Jeremiah. Or Jedediah/Jed?

[smonsterbite.livejournal.com]

Ooo! Jeremy is good.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

And goes to Jem (which I like, if we can avoid associations with the 80s cartoon - "truly outrageous") much more easily than Jeremiah. But it's less inherently cool and weird, sigh.

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

I like Flora/Laura and Marianne v. much. And Edward is a family name -- my brother's in fact (he always goes by Ted) -- so I'm unreasonably fond of it.

There are a ton of Liams out there at the moment, including three of the Blue-Eyed Boy's friends.

[gchick.livejournal.com]

Because Theo and I think alike (and work intervened) she beat me to the Jeremy suggestion. I think you're right that Jeremiah is doomed to nicknaming, but somehow I never hear Jeremy shortened.

Too bad about Mariah Carey, because it's a Mary/Maria variant I like when it's not on her.

You're right about Joseph, and I always think of Sasha as a boy name since the world's cutest nephew graced us with his bratty presence.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Skanky ho Carey has RUINED Mariah! So sad. But now I've though of Marina, although you'd always have people wondering if it was Mar-EYE-nah or Mar-EE-nah.

I am a leetle bit tempted to go for Joseph ON PURPOSE for the joke. But, no.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of partial to Edward.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

So am I. One of my favorites when I babysat was Eddie ("The Teddy," not that he needed a mafia name). Edwin is a family name, in an obscure sort of way.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Elaborations on what seems to be your trains of thought:

girl: something you would plausibly find in an Enid Blyton novel, weeding out the overused classics. Further suggestions: Gloria, Victoria, Vivian, Madeline, Agatha (okay, that's too fussy), Dora, Eleanor/Elinor, Iris, Violet, Rosalind. I am still assuming y-names like Dorothy and Polly are out.

boy: Classics preferable, possibly with a smattering of RAF names. (The boy-classics have a much more narrow range of overuse, it seems.) How about George, Harold, Josiah (no you can NOT turn this into Jed), Jonathan, Samuel, I suppose Earl still hasn't come back into fashion, Matthew, Mark/Marcus, Stephen, avoid Sebastian like unto a plague, I don't think you've ever been partial to Benjamin, and Obadiah.

Okay, that last was just so I could call it Armadillo the Bold!!

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Actual trains of thought:

girl: something you might find on a woman born in 1910. Of your suggestions, I like Madeline and Eleanor and Rosalind but the first two are too popular and the 3rd too much like Casper's name. Don't like the rest.

boy: classic but not too popular or too fuddy-duddy. Of your suggestions, Matthew and Mark/cus make my extended list, George has good associations but is too stodgy (though Georgina could work), Ben is too popular, Earl is that dumb guy with a moustache on the TV show, don't like the rest, except I would so totally name a kid Josiah or Obadiah you have no idea. It's just the Jeremiah takes precedence. (Hm. Josephine for a girl also nice.)

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Josephine, okay. I say Georgette over Georgina, but I think they're both precious. Same for Harriet or Henrietta. If you lived in Britain, maybe, but you don't, and therein lies danger and the collecting of commemorative plates. Just say no!

Women being born in 1910 were named Gilda, Millicent, Mildred, Una, Dorothea, Noreen, Else, Annie, Peaches, Barbara, Paulette, Joyce, Hilda, Lillian, Thelma, and Akira Kurosawa. (Okay, he was born that year.)

Wiki

The fact is, you don't have a lot to choose from, with male classics. Most will either be too popular or too stodgy, depending on the passage of time. Blame all those stupid people who kept naming their children William or Thomas or John.

Although, if you're willing to go with REALLY classic classics, how about: Ajax, Barnabas, Calvin, Erasmus, Frederick the Great, Galen, Hadrian, Louis, Maximilian, Newton -- a good flip through Bartlett's Quotations might find you your man.

Dude, did you know there was a Pope named Lando? Apparently he was Pope for only six months (in 913).

names

[mightyurchin.livejournal.com]

Peaches - now that's the ticket!

I think one can go too far with trying to avoid names associated with famous and/or unlikeable people. For pretty much any name, you can come up with some bad association, so unless it's an evil or annoying person you think about often and/or is very prominent in your consciousness, forget about it. Your child will own that name for you.

This came up when my sister & her girlfriend decided to name their dog Pauly, which suited the little guy very well. Then someone remembered Pauly Shore and the name was temporarily changed. My point was - how often do you think about Pauly Shore??? And it's true that now when I hear the name Pauly, I think of the dog, not the comedian.

Re: names

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

My old student when I was pregant with Casper and I used to come up with joke names. My favorite was when we were suggesting R&B singers, and Peabo was mentioned.

I think about Pauly Walnuts, but then I haven't met the pooch. Nor ever watched the Sopranos, but whatever.

My mother turned in her MA yesterday - you're next!!