Baby Name Announcements in May: Mabel, Maris, Margo and Margot
By Linda Rosenkrantz
A particularly international list of babyberry arrivals this month, including such names as Etain, Iseult, Mairead, Pérola, and Evadne in first place and, as middles, Gearóidín, Kallista, Emilia and Yehuda.
Two pairs of all-girl twins:
Etain Theresa and Iseult Eileen and
Plus two Margots and a Margo!
The complete list of berry May baby names:
Girls
Daisy Seraphina Pearl, sister of Robin Alexander, Bernard Otis Leo and Celia Violet Irene
“As many berries have come to know, my husband Paul passed away last year…Her middle name is to honor Paul and for that I would like to say a special thanks to @katinka for helping me to decide on Pearl…’Pearl for its close resemblance to your husband’s name and its symbolism as a rare, beautiful and precious thing that comes unexpectedly from the darkest depths.’”
Dolores Eve “Lola”, sister of Harry Quentin
We chose her name out of our love for movies and film history and wanted her name to carry a special film noir, old Hollywood feel, greatly inspired by the talented and incomparable Bette Davis and Dolores del Rio. We chose the middle name Eve over Moon and May/Mae because of its meaning of “life,” which is profound and beautiful.”
Etain Theresa, twin of Iseult Eileen and sister of Naoise Gwyn and Sadhbh Catherine
“The first names are from Irish mythology (we’re Irish and live in Ireland). The second names are their great-grandmothers’ names, one from each side.”
Evadne Lily, twin of Margot Iris
“Despite some of the controversy we heard about this combo, my husband and I simply LOVED it…we went with our instincts and what we adored.”
Fallon Bessette
“Bessette is a family name that I found cute for a middle name.”
Helena Coral, sister of Ondine Mary and Eudora Luna
“Helena honors her grandaunt Elaine and Coral honors grandaunt Colleen who raised my husband and have always been his shelters and guiding lights. We wanted to honor my mother so much and it was a challenge because she doesn’t like her name and I wanted the essence of her in my daughter’s name. Nell did that for us—short, simple, gentle like a summer’s breeze and cornflower blue like my mother’s eyes. Perfect.”
Iseult Eileen, twin of Etain Theresa and sister of Naoise Gwyn and Sadhbh Catherine
Jane Gearóidín, sister of Ralph Patrick and Carr William
“Jane felt feminine and classic, but also bold and underused. It was also my beloved grandmother’s middle name. Jane’s Celtic middle name, Gearóidín, means “she who rules with a spear.” It’s a nod to our Irish background…and an attempt at giving her some street-cred with her bruising big brothers. We’re using the British/English pronunciation: GEAR-uh=-din.”
“After Job lost his children, health, home, everything, he had a little girl and named her Jemima. She is a daughter of hope. Milly is my husband’s beloved grandmother’s name. We call her Mima for short.”
Mabel Sally Eliza, sister of Beatrix Mary Kathryn
“…big sister Bea is already calling her Marble which I think is a brilliant nickname.”
Mae Keller, sister of Lucia and Maxwell
“Mairead was a name I chose a long time ago—I found it in a book series I loved as a kid. It just happened that our Mairead was conceived in Bar Harbor, where the author of the series lived. Her middle names she chose herself. We had a list of names we liked and while I was pregnant we asked her which she liked. She kicked when my husband read these two so we figured these must be the ones she wanted!”
“We decided to go without the “t” as we were keen to avoid mispronunciation as we have family all over Europe, some in places that pronounce Margot with a hard t.”
“Margot fit all our criteria in terms of being a name that works well for a little girl or adult, isn’t necessarily in or out of style, looks good on a resume someday no matter what she chooses to do, pronounced the same in multiple countries, and isn’t common but not so unusual that nobody has ever heard it. (It also pays tribute to Maya Angelou…a friend of ours named their daughter Maya, so that wasn’t an option…but Maya Angelou’s real name was Marguerite, and we went with a derivative of that.)”
Margot Iris, twin of Evadne Lily
Maris Jan, sister of Remy Aurora, Maeve Carolyn, Zara Addis and Wynne Ellis
Pérola Emilia, sister of Áurea Helena and Otto Valentim
“Choosing Pérola’s name was very hard as I had already used up my all-time favorite with my first daughter in the 90’s. Even though word-names are not common in Brazil, Pérola has been rising in popularity and was recently used as a child character’s name in a telenova, which made it more familiar and well-accepted as a name.”
Scarlet Anne, sister of Oliver, Beatrice and Greta
“Named after her great-great-great grandmother…Pronounced See-nah.”
Siena Rose, sister of Maximilian Jake
“My husband and I visited the Italian town a few years ago and decided to name our daughter, provided we had one, Siena.”
Sophie Ruth, sister of Isla Mae
“Vera is an old family name that we fell in love with, and Catherine is a well loved, and well used name on both sides of our family.”
Boys
“Our last name is Spanish, so we went with an Irish name to represent my background. Plus love the nicknames Des and Desi.”
Dov Yehuda, brother of Meir Nachum, Sagi Tuvya, and Noam Binyamin
Eero James Twilight, brother of Levi Wilder
Fitzgerald Rooney, brother of Evangeline Louise, Casimir John and Ignatius Hayes
Oscar Robert, brother of Benjamin Alan and Eleanor Catherine
“Oscar was always a name we had on our list with the first two children and we finally decided to go for it.”
River Hendrix, brother of Halle Blossom, Edie Zale, Lila Marym Willow Ivy and Jude Donovan
Rowan Daniel, brother of Emery Franklin, Olive Georgina and Bonnie Lenora
Thaddeus Gough
“We wanted names with strong histories to thm. Thaddeus is mostly in honour of Thaddeus Stevens, a radical 19th century politician who was at the forefront not only of abolitionism, but equal rights across the board. Indeed he was one of the first politicians in the world to bring forward a petition for women’s rights…Gough is for Gough Whitlam, a progressive Australian Prime Minister.”
Truett Boone, brother of Grady Blake
**And as always, we’re eager to hear your favorite names, first and middle combos, and sibsets!