I was talking to an acquaintance the other day and when she mentioned her young daughter Becca, I suddenly thought, “Hey, whatever happened to  Becky?”  You rarely hear of a Rebecca under the age of 13 these days who is called by that traditional diminutive.

This is something that happens with pet forms in general–they go through phases and changes as much as–or indeed more than–the mother name.  For example when you hear the name Elizabeth, you have no idea of her age–she could be 99 or 9 months old–but you can certainly guess that Betty is a Grandma and that Liz and Beth are probably young adults. 

Some other examples: Patricia’s nicknames went from Patsy to Patty to Pat to Tricia to Trish to practically non-existent.  The no longer popular Mary spawned any number of offshoots before it faded, including Mamie, Molly and Polly.  Katherine moved from Kate and Katie to Kit and Kitty to Kay and Kathy, back to Kate and Katie,  to the current Kat; and Edward launched not only Eddie and Ward but Ed, Ted and Ned.

But the prizes for the two names with the most mutable  pet forms and offshoots have to go to Margaret and Elizabeth, many of whose diminutives have become stand-alone names.  Here, in the roughest chronological order, is what Margarets and Elizabeths been known as over time:

MARGARET

PEG
PEGGY
MAGGIE
MAGO

MARGO

MAY
DAISY
MADGE
MIDGE
MAISIE
MARGIE
MEGGIE
MEG
GRETA

ELIZABETH

TIBBY
ELIZA
BETSY
BESS
BESSIE
ELSIE
BETTA
ELSA
BETTY
BETH
LIBBY
LIZBETH
ELISA
ELISE
LISA
LIZA
LIZZIE
LIZ
(But note that many, if not most baby Elizabeths these days are called Elizabeth.)

Names from television and movie Westerns sometimes got a lot more adventurous than Josh and Jesse. In fact, Westerns are responsible for reviving scores of antiquated classics that might otherwise have disappeared completely, along with introducing unconventional animal and word names as firsts. Some Western character names from the classic shows and movies of the 50s and 60s that sound fresh and new, if a bit quirky, today:

ABELIA
ABIHU
ALBEN
AMELITA
AMOS
ARTOLA
ASH
AXEL
BARKER
BARN
BEAR
BO
BODIE
BOONE
CICERO
CLAY
CLEM
LAMBERT
LINUS
MOSS
NEWLY
PERCY
QUINT
RUFUS
THAD
WADE
ZEBULON

The newest Western names draw heavily on the place itself, or on Western-themed words. Some choices that have been used in the post-Bonanza world:

Boys

AUSTIN
DALLAS
DENVER
HOUSTON
MAVERICK
RIO
ROPER
RYDER
WEST

Girls

ARIZONA
CHEYENNE
NEVADA
SCOUT
SHILOH
SIERRA

Either

CANYON
DAKOTA
LARAMIE
PHOENIX
RENO

Cowboy names first galloped onto the scene in the 1950s and 1960s, along with the cool Western TV shows and movies of the era.  A lot of these were Old Testament names that had not been heard much since, well, since the real Old West.  Some of the early choices that launched a trend that’s still going strong:

ADAM – - Bonanza

BARNABY — Wagon Train

BART — Maverick

BEAU — Wells Fargo, Maverick

BEN –Bonanza

BRENT — Maverick

BRET — Maverick

CALEB  — Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

CHEYENNE — Cheyenne

EPHRAIM — Seven Brides

FLINT — Wagon Train

GIDEON — Seven Brides

JARROD — Big Valley

JASON — Wanted: Dead or Alive; Here Come the Brides

JEB — Wells Fargo

JED – - Rawhide; How The West Was Won

JEREMY — Here Come the Brides

JOSH — Wanted: Dead or Alive

JOSHUA — Here Come the Brides

LUCAS — Rifleman

LUKE — How the West Was Won

MATT — Gunsmoke

SETH — Wagon Train

SHANE — Shane

SIMON — Rawhide

ZEB — How The West Was Won

Females and their names were in short supply in the Old West, split between hardy pioneer women and dance hall girls. Their names help you tell which was which:

ALICE — Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

BELLE — Wells Fargo

BIDDIE — Here Come the Brides

CANDY –Here Come the Brides

DORCAS — Seven Brides 

EVE — How The West Was Won

JULIE — How The West Was Won

KITTY — Gunsmoke

LIZA — Seven Brides

MARTHA — Seven Brides

MILLY — Seven Brides

SARAH — Seven Brides

Tomorrow: Names for thoroughly modern cowbabies.

Here, for the first day of Spring, some thoughts on flower names.

First came Lily, one of the trendiest girls’ names of the nineties.  Then Daisy began showing up on the chicest babies.  Rose became the middle name du jour.  And flower names, last a craze a hundred years ago, became the most fashionable group around.

Nameberry includes a wide range of flower names, from garden variety to hothouse blooms. Here, a rundown of the choicest:

THE TRENDIEST

DAISY — Charming and simple, Daisy started off as a nickname for Margaret, now more popular than the original.

IRIS — Former dowdy old lady name revived when Jude Law and Sadie Frost chose it for their daughter.

JASMINE — The most exotic of the popular flower names, with many spelling variations: Jazmin, Jazzmyn et al.  Related: Yasmine and cousins, along with the lovely British favorite Jessamine or Jessamyn, actually French for jasmine.

LILY — Also stylish as Liliana, Lilia, and in France, Lilou.

ROSE — The middle name of the moment, with many variations — from Rosa to Rosalia to Rosemary — that would make lovely first names.

VIOLET — The adorable daughter of celebrities Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck has brought this lush flower choice before the public eye.  In France, Violette is chic, while in Italian it’s Violetta.

BRITISH BLOOMS

The British are famous gardeners and have long been more hospitable to flower names than Americans.  Here, some heard most often in the British Isles.

BRYONY — Name of a vine with green flowers, also spelled Briony, popular in England and rarely heard elsewhere.

FLORA — Vintage name with considerable charm.

IVY — Starting to emigrate to the U.S., possibly because of its stylish initial “I”.

MARIGOLD — Posh British choice rarely heard elsewhere.

PETUNIA — Outside of the U.K., only heard in cow fields.

PANSY — Adorable  yet the teasing possibilities render this one an unlikely choice.

POPPY — Popular in Britain and beginning to be heard elsewhere too; a perfect companion for Daisy.

PRIMROSE — Prim and dainty yet offbeat, the quintessential British name.

EXOTIC FLOWERS

AMARYLLIS — The flower may be similar to a lily, but the name is considerably more offbeat.

ASTER — The little girl on TV’s “Dexter” has this name, which could become more popular with the rise of the whole flower genre.

AZALEA — The z will definitely keep it exotic.

CALLA — Another lily relative, also similar to the trendy Callie/Kaylee family of names.

DAHLIA — This one seems to be percolating and we expect to hear more.

LILAC — The two l’s, the similarity to Lily, and the beautiful color and scent of the original flower make this choice a winner.

LOTUS — Only for the seriously exotic.

ORCHID — Another hothouse bloom not for the shy.

TULIP — Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell used this as a middle name for one of their twins, and singer Tiny Tim picked it as a first several  decades ago.  An everyday flower that makes a less-than-ordinary name.

ZINNIA — Any z name is off the beaten track.

FLOWER NAMES THAT DON‘T SOUND LIKE FLOWER NAMES

AZAMI — Japanese for “thistle flower.”

FLEUR — International words for “flower,” which also include Flor and Fiorello/Fiorella, make inventive flower choices.

GELSEY — Persian for “flower,” a balletic choice.

IOLANTHE — Greek for “violet flower” — for those who want to make Violet a lot more exotic.

JACINTA — Spanish for hyacinth and more suited to use as a name.

LEILANI — Hawaiian name that means ‘heavenly flower” and also has stylish double L sound.

MARGUERITE — The French for daisy is newly chic there, as is Capucine, which means nasturtium in France.

ZAHARA — A Hebrew name meaning flower popularized when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt chose it for their daughter.

A return engagement by one of our all-time favorite bloggers, Abby Sandel of appellationmountain.net.

Call it the Great Naming Compromise of 2001.

Other couples sign pre-nups. My husband and I negotiated our children’s names before we cut our wedding cake. The agreement was simple. Our firstborn son would receive his father’s name; our firstborn daughter would be named after my mother. Given that he likes Emily while I prefer Calixto, this was no small compromise.

Our son Alexander arrived in 2004. Alexander’s grandfather was over the moon to have a namesake. And while our son wears at least four nicknames, sometimes in the same sentence, we’ve been happy with our choice.

Four years later, the ultrasound tech announced that baby #2 was a girl. We had a name, right?

Not exactly.

My mother’s name is Clarina. She’s named after her grandmother. Trouble is, Mom heartily dislikes her flowing, feminine name–and forbid me to pass it down. Back in 2001, we’d settled on Claire Caroline as a wearable, grandmother-approved interpretation.

As my due date approached, I worried that we’d inevitably need a way to distinguish the two Claires. My husband agreed that pre-emptive nicknaming is not a bad thing in a family with members known as Bird, Boat, Ritz, Ketch, Rohn, Stir and the Vees.

Only how do you wrest a nickname from Claire?

Our first thought was Callie. But would Callie be confused with Kaylie, Hallie and Kelly? Plus, our son often answers to Aly. Rhyming sib names? Not for us, thanks.

I pushed hard for Coco, but my husband got more of a “gorilla” than “high fashion” vibe.

After hours staring at Claire Caroline, the nickname emerged–Clio. My husband immediately agreed. Best of all, it matches with yet another family memory. My (late) father used to call me Cleopatra.

With just weeks to go, I decided that Clio needed one more syllable to make her name complete. A friend had mentioned avian names months earlier. As I looked over her list, I noticed Wren–the perfect way to honor my sister, known in the family as Bird.

Claire Caroline Wren arrived on October 2, and Clio suits her quite well. While I’m sometimes regretful that we limited our list, we learned that it is possible to marry creativity and tradition.