It's about that time of the year again- I mean, it's always that time of the year on my newsfeed. My social network friends have been reproducing yet again, and I always love to share their creative, quirky, classic, or trendy tastes in baby names.
I fact, I discuss baby names so frequently that I'm in a three-way negotiation in a fantasy football league for naming rights for my first child in exchange for Doug Martin. Sorry, Doug Martin. Those rights are too valuable.
It is hard for me to withhold my opinions on baby names. I've said before that I favor names with history, meaning, symbolism, culture, quirk, etc... and I always prefer REAL SPELLINGS. I am, needless to say, and English teacher. People always ask me to reveal my favorites from the list, but I covet my top picks too much to share them. I can share, however, that some of these names I really quite like.
Others, not so much.
I continue to see popular X and Z sounds, a few vintage classics, girls ending in "a" and "y" sounds, boys ending in "n" sounds, and a few of the made-up, kre8tive names and spellings. However, even the names that seem a little off-beat follow current trends of long "a" sounds and "son/ton/don" endings. You can probably spot the regional trends in this bunch as well; some locales follow a vintage-chic style while others take more liberty with sound/syllable combinations and and flirt with the boundaries of correct spellings.
Fine. I'm not very good at hiding my bias, but there are some surprises who have defied both stereotypes.
I'll let you decide. Without further ado, the names of the babes of my very fertile friends. How do you think they did? What are your favorites of the bunch? Can you guess my first place and last place picks?
Girls:
Adalyn
Aleah
Amelia
Annie
Anzley
Avery
Charlotte
Ellee
Emma
Evaleigh
Jada
Juliet
Kalen
Kailey
Kennedy
Kinley
Kylie
Laura
Paisley
Presley
Sienna
Sierra
Sofia
Makessy
Zoe
Zuri
Boys:
Adrian
Axel
Bentleigh
Crew
Giovanni
Hendrix
Hudson
Jacoby
Jagger
Jax
Jaxon
KaseyKellen
Leo
Logan
Maddox
Mason
Max
Miles
Tayson
Scott and I have a typology already planned out for our babies' names.
ReplyDeleteEither the first or middle name will be a family name; the other will be a name of a literary or historical figure that has been an inspiration to us. (Spelling will follow the convention of the family name or the literary or historical figure.) Assuming we have four children, we hope to cover all the branches of our family (my dad's and mom's sides, and Scott's dad's and mom's sides).
We have pretty much decided our top girl name and top boy name. Like you, I don't like to give them away (except when we called a certain family name so that none of my siblings would take it before we got to it), but I can say that none of them are on your list above.
Generally, while I think quirky, creative names are cute and fun, I see a name first and foremost as a gift to a child, not a statement of his/her parents' creativity. And while a quirky name can be a gift in terms of empowering a child with individuality, personally, I want this gift to have an intimate meaning and symbolism that can inspire and guide that child as they grow.
Sure, the people we will name our kids after -- whether real or literary -- will not be perfect. But that's the point. They will be real people, whose sincere weaknesses are part of what endears them to us -- just as we will cherish our children, weaknesses and all.
And on that note, I'm struck by how few *traditional* or "chic-vintage" names there on this list... I count about six in the girls list, and about four or five in the boys list. That makes me want to draw my names from family and literary history even more -- you get both uniqueness and symbolism. I mean, our grandmothers' names are Golda, Leah, Carol, and Margaret. Our grandfather's names -- Vernon, Dale, Ronald, and William. Now those are some sweet names.
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