If you don’t have a beloved Gran of your own to name your baby after, how about looking for some outside inspiration from a pop culture Nana?  Here’s a list of TV grandmothers, from the maternal to the monstrous (looking at you, Livia Soprano), the chic to the crotchety, whose names were seen as elderly at the time of their shows’ creation—from the 1950′s to the present—but which have become totally baby friendly today.

Here, the Nameberry picks of the 20 best Grandma TV baby names:

Adele   True Blood

Thanks in large part to the single-named British singer, Adele popped into the Top 1000 last year at Number 627 and we expect to see it ranking considerably higher on the new list to be released next month.  Molly Ringwald used it for her daughter in 2009.

Bea  That ‘70s Show; Bee  The Andy Griffith Show

Bea and Bee have come a long way from Opie’s Aunt Bee (who was actually a surrogate Grandma, but let’s not get technical), because of the newfound popularity of Beatrice and Beatrix. 

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Today’s Question of the Week was inspired by a comment on our Facebook page, noting that names that end with the letter A were a “family tradition” for that berry.

How interesting!  While family name traditions are more conventionally thought of as calling all the oldest child Joseph or Elizabeth or giving children names that start with the same letter, there really is no strict definition to what might constitute a naming tradition.

So we put the question to you: What are the naming traditions in your own family?

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If you look at the list of popular boys’ names—and some girls’ too—you start to feel that almost every conceivable surname has become a first.  Occupational names like Mason and Sawyer, patronymics like Jackson and Addison, Irish surnames Nolan and Quinn, Old Hollywood glamour last names such as Harlow…the list goes on.

Of course the ideal scenario for coming up with a fresher choice would be to discover some surname surprise on your own family true, but that isn’t always possible.

So are there any more original choices in this category of surname baby names still to be discovered?  Of course there are…in all the above modes and beyond.  Here are a few ideas to get you started; some have been lightly used over the years, but they all rate consideration for wider use.

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In her second blog for Nameberry, celebrity mom and name lover Natalie Hanson, who has five children with musician husband Taylor, reveals how and why they chose the adventurous Wilhelmina for their second daughter’s name.

Hello Berries! Last time I wrote to you, I shared that I was expecting a little girl and that we were searching for her perfect name. Our daughter arrived in October, and we named her Wilhelmina.  Wilhelmina is a form of William, which means “resolute protection”.  Right now I am so in love with this strong and beautiful name, and even more in love with the girl who bears it!

The story of Wilhelmina’s name starts in October 2010, two years before her arrival, when I came across the name Wilhelmina on a Nameberry list!  My first impression of the name was how strong it sounded. It was like the “Isabella” you wouldn’t want to mess with.

I decided to pass the name along to my sister-in-law, Jessica, who is a fan of strong, Germanic-warrior sounding names. Jessie appreciated the suggestion and told me it reminded her of Willa Cather, the author of Oh, Pioneers!, a book she had read a few years before.  Her choice of books did not surprise me, as I have always thought of Jessie as a sort of “pioneer woman”.  She is one of the strongest, hardest working, most loyal women you could ever know.

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Baby names seem to get stranger every day, but what are the weirdest baby name tales of all time?

Crazy baby name stories come from Hollywood and beyond, stem from misguided parents, illogical bureaucracies, and influences beyond human understanding.  They involve money, ego, publicity, lawsuits, and the forces of destiny.

Here, the top ten weirdest baby name stories we know.

1. The Family Named George

George Foreman may be multi-dimensional in his professional life, but the championship boxer/food grilling visionary has a one-track mind when it comes to baby names. Foreman named all five of his sons George after himself – they’re George Jr. and Georges III, IV, V and VI — and also named one of his six daughters Georgetta.  How does the family tell all those Georges apart?  Georges III through VI are called Monk, Big Wheel, Red, and Little Joey.

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