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Our star intern Hannah Tenison wanders through some New England graveyards and makes some fascinating discoveries of some great historic baby names.

I recently moved to the Hartford, Connecticut area for the summer, and one of my favorite things about this state is its long history, because it yields so many fantastic antique baby names!  The area is not only beautiful, with green rolling hills and lush forests, but chock-ful of historical, peaceful cemeteries, as well.  As many a name nerd knows, cemeteries are ripe with fresh possibilities, and the older they are, the more likely one is to find truly rare names.

With this in mind, I set out to comb the best cemeteries in my neighborhood for the most unique and undiscovered gems. In my quest, I noticed some strong preferences for virtue, occupational, and Biblical names, as well as names referencing ancient historians or philosophers. For girls, anything long and feminine was game, and the “l” sound was particularly popular. For boys, parents seemed fond of either distinguished sounding appellations ending in the fusty “us,” or jaunty, oh-so-cute names with prominent “o” sounds.

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This week’s Berry Question of the Week comes from a Kansas mom named Amy, who is excitedly awaiting the arrival of a daughter to add to her trio of well named boys. Problem is, she’s waited so long to have a little girl that she feels the name she’s looking for can be nothing short of perfect. She writes:

My husband and I are having our first daughter after three boys and several years of trying for another without any luck. So this baby girl feels sooo special and I want her to have a name that’s perfect as she’ll definitely be our last.

The problem is that my husband and I just can’t agree on what we want. I have looked at SO many names and I feel like I’m running out of ideas- and I can’t even seem to stick with one style.

I like sweet and feminine, modern and spunky, hip and vintage, and word names. I can say I want something that’s not too common and that I’m not a fan of hybrid or invented names. My husband’s style just seems to lean to “no”. Aargh.

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