Jul
09
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
From Nameberry.com
Summer is one of the nicest times of year to have a baby, the warm weather and slow pace making it that much easier to relax into new motherhood (and, from your baby’s point of view, into life). Here, some names that summon the season:
SUMMER
As a seasonal name, Summer may not be your top choice. It’s feeling a tad shopworn after coming close to cracking the Top 100 in 1977; it’s been above number 200 for the past fifteen years. Autumn is more popular but Winter is cooler.
Summer also has three excellent months names that include several usable variations. These are:
JUNE
The hip middle name du jour, was out of favor for many years but now is back in a big way....
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Jul
02
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
nameberry.com
We’re always coming across names on nameberry that we never thought of before, undiscovered gems that suddenly seem attractive and eminently usable for a real live person.
How come everyone flocks to Ava and Aiden, or even Avery and Atticus, when there are so many names like this hiding in plain sight? Beats us.
Here, the first in a series of names you might not have considered … but definitely should.
ABIJAH A Biblical name used in the Colonial times that can work for both boys and girls. Rhymes with Elijah, stands in for that name or Abigail.
AMORET Redolent of love, this unusual name comes from...
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Jun
22
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
In honor of the rapidly approaching Father’s Day, we present today’s guest blogger Brian Sargent, the stay-at-home dad of now-four-year-old twin girls and a third-grader and the author of lookydaddy.com.
My wife and I knew it would be tough to name twin girls, so we assigned ourselves jobs. My wife’s job was to suggest possible names for consideration. My job was to say I didn’t like them.
Not to be immodest, but I did my job well.
“Rebecca.”
“No.”
“Jocelyn.”
“No.”
“Hester.”
“You’re not even trying, anymore, are you?”
I did...
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Jun
21
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
nameberry.com
A Nameberry visitor commented recently that she loved ultra-feminine proper names with tomboyish nicknames. That’s a sentiment we echo.
If you’re torn between girls’ names with a conventionally female image and ones that sound more androgynous, these choices have it all. They give you (and your daughter) the choice between going totally girly and sidestepping conventional gender identity, at least when it comes to your name.
Some very feminine names with tomboyish nicknames are:
Alexandra — Alex
Allegra — Al
Antonia — Toni
Araminta or Arabella...
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Jun
09
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
We all know, thanks to Princess Diana’s infamous wedding blunder, that British people like to use lots of middle names. But it’s not just about quantity: The multiple British names feel inventive and surprising, chosen less for any conventional notion of flow and more for individual considerations of style and family.
Thalia Violetta Carlisle? I would bet the nameberry farm that not a single child in America was given that combination of names last year….or maybe any year. It’s quintessentially British, and it works.
In the examples of recent British baby names below, you’ll notice that lovely antique first names are combined with surnames are mixed up with nicknames, and that once in a...
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Jun
01
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
nameberry.com
The recent spate of celebrities having twins (they’re not really just like us, are they?) got me thinking about twin names. Now that you can no longer go for cutesy pairs like Merry and Joy or Tim and Tom, how can you find twin names that have a strong unifying element yet are distinct from each other, special in their own right?
One way: Search for names that carry a similar meaning, one that symbolizes something important to you or for your child, and then go on from that list to pick the two most compatible choices. I love playing with nameberry.com’s “search names by meaning” feature, which you should discover for yourself if you haven’t already. Clicking on any of the larger...
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May
27
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
nameberry.com
Maybe it’s because we’ve been planning our summer vacation, but the idea of exotic place names sounds very appealing right now. Options can be found all over the map. A selection we’d like to visit, figuratively and literally:
AFRICA: Most obviously, the name of the continent, but there was also a Celtic queen named Affrica.
BIMINI: Caribbean Island name is cute and casual. Pronunciation: bim-in-ee.
BRAZIL: Also spelled Brasil, this Celtic saint’s name also references the South American country.
CUBA: Cuba Gooding Jr. put this one on the map (sorry, couldn’t resist). Another option: Havana.
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May
18
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
nameberry.com
There are some names that, even now, after writing so much about the subject, I hear and think, “Wow, that’s a great name. I wonder why people don’t use that one more often?”
Sometimes, the answer is that a name was just too popular too recently for parents to appreciate its intrinsic wonderfulness: the lush Biblical Deborah is one that might fit in this category, though I didn’t include it in my 10 examples.
Other times, a name carries an unappealing association for enough people to keep it from becoming popular. And there are a dozen other reasons why a perfectly wonderful name just might not make it big — which can be good news for the...
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Apr
22
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
nameberry.com
Love a name but fear it’s overused? Think one name is stylish, yet want something even more stylish?
You’re not alone. Many parents are looking for names that are like those that have been popular and fashionable in recent years … but different. Something with a similar look and feel, but in an updated model.
For example:
ADELAIDE or ADELINE are the new ADDISON
BYRON is the new BRIAN
CHLOE is the new ZOE
CHRISTIAN is the new CHRISTOPHER
CLARA is the new CLAIRE
CORA, DORA and FLORA are the new LAURA and...
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Apr
19
Posted by
Lorain County Moms
I remember once meeting a completely adorable curly-headed little toddler named Percy. And suddenly the image of his name was turned on its head and for the first time I could see the hidden, quirky charms of Percy. It’s like when extreme he-man Bear Grylls called his son Marmaduke — one of the ultimate prissy-sissy names — all he could see ahead for his son was the cool nickname Duke (of course he did call his next one Huckleberry).
There’s a whole group of names like this that used to be described by antiquated terms we’d never dream of using today — like namby-pamby and pantywaists — sterotyped as such in old books and movies. Since that’s now such ancient history, I’m wondering, as I think of that cute little Percy, if any...
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