For several years now, word names have been singled out as being at the extreme edge of cool—we may have been guilty of pushing that edge ourselves at times.  But I’m starting to wonder if it’s time to pull back a little, and put the brakes on.  Celebrities have tried to outdo each other to sometimes eye-rolling effect in the effort to find a ‘unique’, attention-grabbing word name : I’m not naming names but I might mention a few words like zeppelin and pirate and peanut.

Of course there are word names and there are word names and probably the most acceptable and appealing are the centuries-old Virtue names created by the early and most zealous Pilgrims to display their righteous religiosity.  Though  such excessive male phrase-names as Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith and Fly-fornication are long gone, the simpler girl virtue names have not only survived but some are now downright trendy: Grace, Hope, Faith, and, more recently, Felicity, True and Honor.

Other worthy examples include:

AMITY

CHARITY

CLARITY

COMFORT

MERCY (more…)

Maybe there are certain kinds of names that you really like–flower or color names, say, or virtue names– but you’re reluctant to use one of the more obvious examples, the epidemically popular ones, attractive though they may be.  Well, there’s no reason you have to limit yourself to those few; more and more parents are digging deeper into those appealing categories and coming up with  newer sounding choices.

Take flower names. If you want to move beyond Rose, Daisy, Lily and even Poppy and Violet, you might consider these more exotic blooms that are beginning to come into their own:

AMARYLLIS

ASTER

AZALEA

HYACINTH

IRIS (not exotic, but long neglected)

JONQUIL

LILAC

LOTUS

MARIGOLD

PRIMROSE

TULIP

Similarly with gems–Ruby, Crystal and Jade aren’t the only jewels in the case.  Consider:

AMETHYST

EMERALD

OPAL

PEARL

SAPPHIRE

TOPAZ

TURQUOISE 

And speaking of Turquoise, there are also some richly hued colors beyond Scarlet and Siena: (more…)

Visitors to the Flower Fairy Names nameberry message boards have recently been treated to personalized anagrams of their names by Nephele, who’s turned ordinary appellations into charming, creative names worthy of flower fairies and elves. Here, she writes about the Flower Fairy legacy and names.

It’s certainly no news to names enthusiasts that flowers and herbs can be a great source for inspired baby-naming. Familiar flower names such as Jasmine, Lily, and Rose are perennial favorites. Less familiar flower names such as Celandine and Tansy also make lovely choices.

Such names inspired poet and artist, Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973) for her classic series of little books titled The Flower Fairies.  Barker illustrated, with accompanying poems, the beloved flowers of her English countryside and gardens, personifying them as fanciful fairy-children.

It is Cicely Mary Barker who has inspired me to bring my anagramming craft to Nameberry, to see what sort of “Flower Fairy Names” we might discover among some of our forum members here.

(more…)

Nameberry commemorates Earth Day with this guest blog contributed by Elisabeth Wilborn, creator of one of our favorite blogs, You Can’t Call It “It” .  Elisabeth, a writer, artist, and mom,  lives in Brooklyn, New York

Milkvetch. Wallflower. Toothwart.

Yes, the Earth is indeed a wellspring for baby names.

Actually I skipped those. Here are a few favorites culled– believe it or not– from endangered species lists. Morbid as that may seem, I promise they’re quite nice! Famous conservationists and a few other notables help bring it back down to Earth. I’d love to see Audubon or Fossey as firsts or to meet an all-American infant Sigurd.

Truly though, the names are of minor importance. Gasp! The most we can hope for is that our children do better than we did.

FAMOUS CONSERVATIONISTS

John James Audubon

Rachel Carson

Jeff Corwin

Jacques Cousteau

Dian Fossey

Buckminster Fuller

Jane Goodall

Julia Butterfly Hill

Steve Irwin

Aldo Leopold

Chico Mendes

John Muir

Frederick Law Olmstead

Sigurd F. Olson

Peter Simon Pallas

Henry David Thoreau

EMBLEMS OF THE EARTH

GIRLS

Anona- Roman goddess of the harvest

Avani- Sanskrit, “earth”

Ceres- Ancient Roman, “to grow”, Roman goddess of agriculture

Demeter- Greek, “earth mother”, Greek goddess of agriculture

Flora- Roman goddess of flowers

Francis- Italian saint reknowned for his connection to animals

Gaia- Greek, “earth”, and the goddess of the earth

Georgia, Georgina, Georgianna- Greek, “farmer”

Kun- Chinese, “earth”

Luna- Roman goddess of the moon

Perpetua- Latin, “continuous”

Terra- Latin, “earth”

Zoe- Greek, “life”

BOYS

Adam- Hebrew, debated meaning; man formed from the Earth

Asa- Hebrew, “healer”

Chayim- Hebrew, “life”

Enki- Sumerian, “lord of the earth”, god of water and wisdom

George- Greek, “farmer, earthworker”

Pax- Latin, “peace”

Vitus- Ancient Roman, from the latin for “life”

Zephyr- Greek god of the west wind

ANIMAL

Akialoa

Bear

Bison

Caribou

Cheetah

Condor

Cougar

Crane

Delphine

Eagle

Eider

Gazelle

Lynx

Nightengale

Ocelot

Peregrine

Rhea

Warbler

Wolf

VEGETABLE

Anemone

Aster

Azalea

Birch

Buttercup

Cicely

Clover

Columbine

Crocus

Cypress

Elm

Fern

Huckleberry

Hyssop

Indigo

Juniper

Maple

Oak

Phlox

Plum

Primrose

Rosemary

Rosette

Sage

Sedge

Snowdrop

Sorrel

Spruce

Thistle

Verbena

Willow

Yarrow

MINERAL

Bay

Earth, Eartha

Jasper

Marina

Obsidian

Ocean, Oceane

Onyx

Peter, Petra

Ridge

Slate

Solstice

Stone

…and finally Montana… much to the chagrin of Pam and Linda I’m sure.

If poets and songwriters can draw inspiration from springtime, why not baby namers?  The fresh, green, uplifting season offers plenty of ideas.  There are the names of the season itself and its months, for starters:

SPRING – The mid-century actress Spring Byington, who played the grandma on a television show of my youth, was one of my early influences in the world of baby naming.  I’d never heard of anybody named Spring, but the whole idea was intriguing.  If you could name a baby Spring, why not….well, just about anything else?  Still an unusual, sprightly choice, and a lot more acceptable now than it was in the 1960s.

MARCH, APRIL, and MAY – May (or Mae, or Mai for that matter) is definitely the most fashionable of these choices, lovely as a first name or a middle.  March is the only one of the three that might work for boys, and makes an adventurous first for girls.  April (or Avril or Abril) feels a bit tired.

Original names from around the world that mean spring:

BAHAAR – Hindi, for girls
CAROUN – Armenian, for girls
CERELIA – of Latin origin, for girls
GEN – Japanese girls’ choice
HARUKI – Japanese for boys; Haruki Murakami is a wonderful novelist
JAREK – Slavic boys name that can stand alone or be a diminutive for any name that starts with Jar-
KELDA – Girls’ name with Norse origins
PRIMAVERA – Italian, for girls
RABIAH – Arabic girls’ name
VASANT – Sanskrit boys’ name
VERNA — another Latin girls’ choice.

Another possibility for a spring baby is names that mean new:

NAVIN – A Hindi name for boy
NEO – The name of Keanu Reeves’ Matrix character is used for boys and girl
NEVILLE – Stuffy French boys’ name jazzed up by Neville Brothers
NEWLAND or NEWLYN – Boys’ name Newland is most famous as the protagonist of Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence; Newlyn is a forward-looking girls’ version
NOUVEL – Shiloh Pitt’s middle name, for a French architect, can work for girls or boys
SIGNE or SIGNY – This Scandinavian girls’ name means “new victory”
XAVIER et al – This newly-hip Basque name meaning “new house” is Javier in Spanish and, for girls, Xaviera or Javiera.
ZELENKA – Czech girls’ name that means fresh and innocent

Green is another inspiration for spring baby names.  Among the names that mean or connote green, most for girls:

BERYL – Old-fashioned pale green gemstone name that’s beginning to enjoy some fresh life itself.  Berilo is the attractive Spanish male version.
CHLOE – Name meaning “young green shoot” that’s tops throughout the UK and Europe and is rising in the US as well.
EMERALD – Ultimate green gem name
JADE – Stylish and edgy choice that hasn’t really lost its gleam
MIDORI – The name of both a Japanese violinist and a green liqueur
PERIDOT – Another green gem name, for the adventurous
PHYLLIDA or PHYLLIS – Names that mean “green bough,” with Phyllida way out in front in the style race.
VERDE or VERDI – Could work for either boys or girls

Since we’ve done a lot on flower and spring nature names recently, we won’t walk the garden path again, beyond saying that names such as DAFFODIL and TULIP certainly connote spring.