Category: Spellings, Sounds and Initials
By Kelli Brady of NameFreak!
Apart from the letter ‘U’, ‘O’ is the least likely vowel to be used at the beginning of names. In fact, there have been zero ‘U’ names in the Top 100 since 1880. On my blog I have already looked at I names, and putting together posts on’ A’ names and ‘E’ names is a daunting task at this point, so, without further ado, the ‘O’ names!
In 1880, there were three ‘O’ boy names in the Top 100: Oliver, Oscar and Otto. While Otto fell out after 1898 and Oliver became sporadic from 1897 until it fell out after 1903, Oscar stayed on top through 1925. Otis also made some appearances in 1899, 1905 and 1909, but from 1926 through 2001 there were no ‘O’ boy names in the Top 100. In 2002, Owen appeared and remains so currently. Oliver returned to the Top 100 in 2009 and also remains.
A berry named Iamamiam gets credit for this question: What are your favorite unusable names?
Over on the forums where this question was first posed, answers include Hypatia and Paine, Alaska and Aristotle, Lucifer and Lucrezia.
Reasons people wouldn’t use the names they love? Association with a tragic story or character is one problem. Difficulty of spelling or pronunciation is another. And then there are those high-drama names that feel like they wouldn’t fit into the modern world.
What are your favorite names that nevertheless can never be used?
Bonus points for telling us why not.
Baby girl names have been trending toward the long and elaborate for some time now, with selections like Isabella and Elizabeth, Olivia and Sophia winning out over the kind of brisk no-nonsense names — Anne, Gail, Lynn — that dominated a couple of generations ago.
But there are some popular names that are short and sweet. I’m thinking of Emma, Ava, Mia, Ella. And some parents are starting to feel this simple style carries a more modern brand of femininity.
You might want a short, sweet name for your daughter’s middle. Or maybe you want a short and sweet first name to balance a longer or more complicated last name.
How short is short? We’re going to cap it at four letters.
Our ideas for fresh baby girl names that are both short and sweet include:
As many of you know, I’m a good half Greek, but as not too many of you know, the other half of me is Choctaw and Cherokee Native American. Today, I’ll focus on Cherokee names and naming rules and next time we’ll look at Choctaw.
Cherokee has its own alphabet and its own naming rules, much like any other language. For example: There are no Cherokee sounds for the letters B, F, P, R, V, X, Z, SH, or TH. Cherokee speakers replace them with the lettesr QU so they would pronounce Rebecca “quay-quay-gah”. SH becomes S, TH becomes T, R is sometimes L or QU (Mary would be may-lee), and KR/CR/CHR becomes QU so Chris becomes quiss.
In Cherokee, syllables end in vowels so if your name ends in a consonant, like Megan, you become Megana.
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