Sunday, January 17, 2010

What's in a name?

Juliet:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
We need to come up with a name for this baby.

When we were pregnant with Bro we couldn't think of a name for him.  After failing to find something both normal AND uncommon for {{ahem}} Emily... we took a new route for the next baby.

We looked for a Celtic name for Brody (because Dear Husband is Irish(ish)).  Liam was too widely used (thanks to Jon and Kate + 8).  Keegan and Grayden were on our boy name list as well.  The night that we were scheduled to go into the hospital to be induced, we still didn't have a name and... then we found "Brody" on the internet... somewhere.  It was a name that neither of us had heard of at the time.  Unbeknownst to us... it is also the name of a popular hunk on a show called, "The Hills."  Recently, the name has soared in popularity (as you can see in the chart below).  Lovely!     



Popularity of names starting with BRODY
BRODY

And now, we are trying to find a name for a girl.

Here are the names that I like.



Popularity of names starting with KEELY
KEELY



Popularity of names starting with NORAH
NORAH



Popularity of names starting with STELLA
STELLA

What's wrong with "Darcy"? Why doesn't anyone name their girl "Darcy" anymore?



Popularity of names starting with DARCY
DARCY



Popularity of names starting with DELANEY
DELANEY

Someone also suggested Clementine.



Popularity of names starting with CLEMENTINE
CLEMENTINE

I heard "Dylan" on a food network show the other night.



Popularity of names starting with DYLAN
DYLAN

And, somehow, "Claire" made it into our list.



Popularity of names starting with CLAIRE
CLAIRE

I have to say, that these names are on my list. Dear Husband has a separate list consisting of VERY common names like Shannon and... I can't remember what else.

Seeing the stats on the names... I like Darcy the best. What's wrong with Darcy? Is there something I am missing here?

6 comments:

SusieQ said...

I like Darcy... Is Stephanie or Alexis on your list? Seeing your boy list, I'm glad it's a girl!!!

Fairy Grandmother said...

Norah is my favorite here by far! Well, Stella is a good one also. Of course I will love any name that you choose!

Jen said...

I love the name Norah!! Not to mention that you and DH danced to Norah Jones for your First Dance at your Wedding. I think it's a sign! My 2nd favorite is Keely. I have never heard that name before I think it's very unique. But my vote is for Norah if your taking votes lol. Norah in latin it means "Woman of honor" btw

mimbles said...

I'll toss in my affection for Norah too :-) There's a series of Australian children's novels by Mary Grant Bruce about a girl called Norah growing up on Billabong Station, a sheep and cattle property in Victoria, the fifteen books in the series were published between 1910 and 1942. My copies of some of them have pages falling out they were read so often.

I wonder if the drop off in Darcy as a girl's name has anything to do with associations with Mr Darcy of Pride and Prejudice fame? It's weird how fashions in names change so radically.

mkthomas said...

I really like Delaney. A LOT!!!

Ariane said...

I was considering Darcy as a boy's name until I saw the popularity of it. Well, that and the fact that I was told that I wasn't, in fact, having a boy, and that in all likelihood I was having a girl. But maybe the rise in popularity as a boy's name has squished the girly usage.

I'm afraid I have the most austere, fun-killing great aunt called Nora which rather biases my opinion on that one. Can't help you there.

In fact, you seem to have many of my great aunts' names in your list. One set of them were Irish in origin, so this is probably not too surprising.

I chose my daughter's name in a dream at 8 weeks pregnancy (or maybe just as I was falling asleep - some such). It's the hardest thing in the world to name kid. I wish you the best of luck!