Here is another excerpt from our latest book, Beyond Ava & Aiden: The Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby

In Colonial times, as many as twenty percent of the slaves in the Carolinas bore African names, most notably day names, which relate to the day of the week on which the person was born. The West African day names, often translated to English cognates such as Judy for Juba or Joe for Cudjoe, are:

SUNDAY – QUASHEBA (female); QUASHEE (male)
MONDAY — JUBA; CUDJOE
TUESDAY –BENEBA; CUBBENAH
WEDNESDAY — CUBA; QUACO
THURSDAY – ABBA; QUAO
FRIDAY — PHEBE/PHIBBI; CUFF/CUFFEE
SATURDAY — MIMBA; QUAME/KWAME

Names were also chosen that signified months of the year, seasons and holidays. Some of these that have survived on the roles include: MONDAY, FRIDAY, CHRISTMAS, EASTER, MARCH and JULY.

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Just when it seemed that the stormy seas of extreme celebrity baby names were calming down (you can see our comments on this at Celebrity Babies Blog), a new crop has come along  introducing a whole bunch of innovative choices, ranging from the ridiculous to the semi-sublime:

BARDOT (first name of David Boreanaz’s daughter) Following in the footsteps of Harlow and other  Hollywood sirens and sex kittens of the past(Dad Boreanaz admitted being inspired by a Brigitte Bardot poster), Bardot could easily fit in with the growing group of o-ending girls’ names: Juno, Lilo, Willow, etc.

BETSI (middle name of Ioan Gruffudd & Alice Evans’ daughter Ella).  Much to my surprise, I find this new take on an old name—I’m not usually a big fan of changing y’s to i’s— appealingly fresh, cute and perky.
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Beyond Ava & Aiden hits the bookstores today,  the first complete all-new edition of our landmark book, Beyond Jennifer & Jason, totally revised from beginning to end, with a brand new title and lots of brand new features.

Like what?  To recapture the freshness, lightness, humor and user-friendliness of the original, we went back to our basic four-part structure of Style, Image, Sex and Tradition.  Out went the Popularity section, since so much of that information is now accessible instantly online.

We’ve added fresh advice and approaches to the challenges of naming a daughter and naming a son, new categories like Green Names, Powerboys and Metrodudes, Baby Gods and Goddesses, and Mixed-Marriage Names–hundreds of the kind of subjective lists we invented, pointing out not only current trends, but where they come from and where they’re going.

Finding the right name for our baby was a major challenge.  (The naming of The Baby Name Bible had been such a torturous process that we documented our struggle in an article in Publishers Weekly magazine.

We knew it was time to let go of our original title, since Jennifer and Jason are now the parents of the new generation of babies.  But which alliterative pairing to choose?  Among the many considered and rejected: Beyond Emily & Ethan, Beyond Addison & Aiden, Beyond Adam & Eva, Beyond Jayden & Jada, Beyond Miley & Max.

And then the latest popularity lists decided for us, with Ava and Aiden pulling ahead of all their trendy compatriots to become the Jennifer and Jason of today.

We can’t wait to hear what you think of the result.  And to give you more of a taste of what’s in the new book, we’ll be  posting excerpts every Friday through the summer, starting this week.

Our friends over at The Cradle, a fresh, stylish resource for expectant and new moms, are running a 26-day giveaway. Through May 15th, every new Cradle member is entered to win the grand prize package of a Micralite Toro Stroller and a lillebaby EveryWear Carrier. Plus, each day, The Cradle is giving away daily prizes that include:

• Skip Hop Vine Floral Crib Bedding Collection

• Gift certificate for Vincent Shoes

• Maelee diaper bag

• Half hour consultation with The Baby Planners

• Roundhouse baby carrier

• Babytime Bags hospital bag

To enter the daily sweepstakes and be eligible for the grand prize drawing, join The Cradle (it’s free) and enter the promotional code “DailyPrize” .

Members of The Cradle have access to the site’s many great features, including message boards, a weekly pregnancy calendar, a birthday calendar that helps you keep track of what you need to be doing throughout your pregnancy, plus baby gear deals and discounts.

Cradle members can also create free pregnancy web pages, send out e-birth announcements, and join or start online groups with other expectant and new moms.

Plus The Cradle’s excellent baby name database is built from our book The Baby Name Bible: check it out for a different way to search for and rate your favorite names.

For more information and to take a peek at the daily prizes, visit The Cradle’s membership giveaway page.

REMINDER: If you haven’t done so already (only one entry per person), don’t forget to enter Nameberry’s Mother’s Day Contest.  Send your choices for the Top 10 Girls and Top 10 Boys names of 2008 to contest@nameberry.com by May 7th.  First entrant to get both lists right will win autographed copies of four Rosenkrantz-Satran name books–including an advance copy of the not-yet-published Beyond Ava & Aiden.

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and to baby name fanatics that means one thing beyond cards and flowers: that the release date of the latest figures from the Social Security Administration is only a few weeks away. We’ll soon know whether or not Emily and Jacob have finally been overtaken for first place and which names have made the biggest leaps and suffered the greatest drops. Will some of the Classic Boys be replaced by newer choices? Who will win the Ava-Isabella-Olivia-Sophia race?

Nameberry’s First Mother’s Day Contest wants to know what you think. Send your rankings for the Top Ten Girls and Top Ten Boys to contest@nameberry.com, and the first person to get it right will be rewarded with a quartet of personally signed book prizes, including an advance copy of our newest, not-yet-published BEYOND AVA & AIDEN.

Just to remind you of last year’s top names:

1. EMILY………..JACOB
2. ISABELLA…… MICHAEL
3. EMMA………. ETHAN
4. AVA…………. JOSHUA
5. MADISON…… DANIEL
6. SOPHIA……… CHRISTOPHER
7. OLIVIA……….ANTHONY
8. ABIGAIL………WILLIAM
9. HANNAH……..MATTHEW
10. ELIZABETH…. ANDREW

THE PRIZES

First and foremost, the winner will get the very first look–six weeks ahead of publication–of BEYOND AVA & AIDEN: THE ENLIGHTENED GUIDE TO NAMING YOUR BABY, with our latest assessments of what’s hot, what’s cool, and what’s new for the coming years, with all-new, up-to-date lists and trends, personally signed by both Pam and Linda.

In addition, you will receive autographed editions of three of our classics:

THE BABY NAME BIBLE
COOL NAMES FOR BABIES
COOL IRISH NAMES FOR BABIES

THE RULES

Only one entry per contestant.  Contest closes at midnight PST on May 7, 2009.   Winner must list the 2008 U.S. Top Ten Girls’ Names AND the Top Ten Boys’ Names in the correct order, according to the Social Security Administration list.  If no one guesses the correct order, Pam and Linda will choose a winner from the entires that come closest. Nameberry reserves the right to announce the name of the winner.

So enter today—and good luck!!