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Covering the week of January 25 to 31st, Abby Sandel–  creator of the wonderful AppellationMountain blog– unearths some treasures in the male Oscar nominee names announced this week.

The list of nominees for the 83^rd Academy Awards came out last week.  Even though the only category in which I’ve actually seen all the contenders is Best Animated Feature Film, I’ve been digging through the nominees to find the most intriguing name options.

If you’re more into old Hollywood, check out the first guest post I ever wrote for Nameberry, 2009’s Red Carpet Names, Boys’ Edition. I have a soft spot for Clark.

Here are my picks for the most award-winning names from this year’s list of nominees:

• Atticus, as in Atticus Ross, Trent Reznor’s long-time collaborator.  The duo is nominated for their work on “The Social Network.”  (Hat tip to C in DC for pointing him out!)
• Jem, the unusual nickname for James favored by Jeremy Renner’s character in “The Town.”
• Laser, the given name of the younger Hutcherson kid in the much-nominated “The Kids Are All Right.” (shown in illustration)
• Aron, the slimmed-down Scandinavian variant of Aaron worn by real life mountain climber Aron Ralston.  James Franco could win Best Actor for his portrayal of Ralston in “127 Hours.”
• Bastien, from French filmmaker Bastien Dubois, nominated for “Madagascar, a Journey Diary.” Best Animated Short Film doesn’t get much press, but Dubois’ given name – a short form of Sebastian – could catch on.
• Hendrix, from Guy Hendrix Dyas, nominated for production design on “Inception.”  If x-names  from Felix to Jaxon can catch on, why not Hendrix?  Dyas isn’t exactly a household name, but there’s Jimi Hendrix, too.
• Leonardo DiCaprio is a household name, and his character from “Inception” – Dom  – could fit right in with Jack and Cole.
• Lastly, there’s a pleasing pair of English appellations from “The King’s Speech.”  Geoffrey Rush played Lionel Logue, speech therapist to King George VI.  There’s also Cosmo, as in the given name of the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Lionel and Cosmo strike me as quite stylish names for small boys, even if the characters are rather serious.

While we’re talking Hollywood, Nancy of Nancy’s Baby Names spotted this quote from Nicolas Cage.  You’ll never guess what he wanted to name his son, known as Kal-El.

Other famous babies making their debuts this week include Mike and Lahika Tyson’s son Morocco Elijah and Coco Reese Lakshmi, a daughter for No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal and girlfriend Erin Lokitz.   We also learned that model Doutzen Kroes and DJ Sunnery James gave their son Phyllon a happy middle name – Joy.

Next week we’ll look at the Girls’ List of Oscar-inspired names, and find out if Best Actor nominee Javier Bardem and equally talented wife Penélope Cruz reveal the name they’ve chosen for their little star.

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Today’s Question of the Week: Is there a name from a book you read when you were younger that made enough of an impression on you that you’ve loved it ever since?

(After all, at least some of those hundreds of new babies being named Atticus must have some connection to that inspirational lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird  and all those recent little Holdens to that cynical adolescent Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye—whether conscious or not.)

So think back—can you trace your long-standing attraction for a particular name to an impression it made on you at an impressionable age?

Anyone out there who actually has used such a name for their child?

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Maybe contemplating the name Rufus sparked my revelation.  Or it might have hit me when I encountered an Otis.  Whatever the inspiration, I suddenly realized that my most-loved boys’ names end in the letter s.  Yep, almost all of them.

Amias?  One of my all-time underappreciated favorites.

Amadeus and Miles?  Music to my ears.

Augustus, Octavius, Cassius, and Aurelius? Love, love, love, and love.

What is it about s-ending names that hold such appeal?

It’s true, I prefer their soft, sybillant ending to the harder –er ending that’s so popular right now for boys’ names.  Besides being more gentle, it feels a bit more surprising, intrinsically distinctive.

Many of my favorite classic boys’ names end in s: Thomas, James, Louis, Charles, and Nicholas.  And trendier choices of decades past, from Chris and Curtis to Dennis and Douglas to Ross and Russ to Jess and Wes, helped whet the overall appetite for s-ending names.

Some of the names that end in s are fairly fashionable today.  These include:

• Atticus
• Dallas
• Elias (my favorite of all the male El- names)

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