Babyberry Report for May: Hetty, Sullivan and Moon
By Linda Rosenkrantz
At the risk of repeating myself, May was once again a fantastic month for babyberry naming, with yet another wide variety of creative choices. The May baby names for girls included a poetic Poet and vintage revivals Elsie and Hetty, a boyish Wylie, novel nickname Livvy, and floral middles Blossom and Bluebell. Among the many cool sibsets are Magnolia and Moon; and Ivan, Vivienne and Evelyn (love those _v’_s!). And so nice to see the prevalence of family homages.
There was one set of twins this month, the beautifully named boy-girl pair Casper William Carnegie and Ramona Elizabeth Islay, each with one particularly meaningful middle.
So here they are, with the raisons d’etre behind some of the choice choices.
GIRLS
“Allegra is named to reflect my favorite girl’s name (I first encountered from a children’s show 20 years ago) and shares a middle name with one of her paternal great great grandfathers.”
“We were searching for a French name, one preferably with the nickname “Ana” and after a long, long time finally fell in love with Arianne. Roselle is after my SO’s grandmother and it all just fell into place for us.”
CLEMENTINE BLUEBELL, sister of Elijah James
“We agonized over her middle (Clementine was an easy choice!) and I think a little bit of me also felt it was a bit ‘out there’ and I secretly worried people may be mean. Finally we decided—actually it’s as beautiful and delicate as she is, seasonal and has a nice rhythm with our one syllable surname.”
ELODIE LEORA, sister of Sylvie Arabella
FIONA EMMANUELLE, sister of Miriam Elodie
We chose Fiona in part because of a family tradition of F names and Emmanuelle because we wanted a French name (with the added bonus of sharing an initial with DD1 and mom).”
HETTY JOSEPHINE, sister of Thea Fae
“We only had to look at Hetty and know she was never meant to be an Elsa (no matter what the nameberry poll said! Lol)”
“We love the simple spelling, pronunciation and meaning (Shining Light). We love Eleanor, but as a teacher I see way too many “El-“ names and wanted something different. Rose is my middle name and I have always loved it. We may shorten her name to Nora as she grows, but I love saying Lenora in full right now! We were inspired after seeing “Lenore” on a suggested list. Do you know any little Lenoras? We feel like we might have hit the balance between recognizable, traditional, and yet uncommon.
“Her first name has been my favorite name since I was a little girl–the first time I heard it I knew that if I ever had a daughter, she would be called Maeve. The tentative middle name was Aurora based on berry feedback–but then hubby, as we were in hospital about to do the social security form, suggested Opal–name of a distant aunt and his favorite stone, I fell in love immediately,
MARGUERITE ADAIR, sister of Conrad James
“Down the road we may call her Maggie or Margo, but right now we are keeping it Marguerite in full.”
McKINZLEY GRACE, sister of Madelynn Marie
“I really wanted to name her McKinley or Kinsley, but hubby liked McKenzie better. We decided to name her McKinzley because it was the perfect compromise! We also looked it up and it’s a real last name surprisingly!
MOON AAILYAH NERIDA ROSE, sister of Magnolia +?
“DH and I fretted over name for months…Middle names were almost as hard as first names–so she ended up with 3! Moon shares the middle name Rose with big sister Magnolia, who turns 1 next week.” Her other sibs are Magdelayne, Melisande, Mordakai and Moses.
ODETTE MARY, sister of Atticus Henry and Finley Harper
“Petra has been an uncommon name I have always adored. My husband and I read the Ender’s Game series together a few years ago, which is what endeared the name to him. Kay is named for my mom, who died when I was 18. Her real name was Katherine, but she was known as Kay. I had originally planned to use Katherine, but my husband started calling her baby Kay (my fn is Kaylyn) before we had even chosen a first name, and it just stuck.”
RAMONA ELIZABETH ISLAY, twin sister of Casper William Carnegie and sister of Quentin
“Elizabeth is both our grandmothers’ names and Islay is a place special to us both.”
“Ruby was a name we found and loved from an old family genealogy book. Ann is after my grandmother and Saint Ann. Also it turns out to be a pretty fun song from the 60s but we did not know that till after we named her.”
WYLIE BEA, sister of Augustus J.
“We liked the unisex, uncommon name of Wylie. While we know several Rileys (and Rylees), this had a more western ring to it. And Bea pays homage to my maiden name “Brandon.”
BOYS
CASPER WILLIAM CARNEGIE, twin of Ramona Elizabeth Islay and brother of Quentin
“William is Mark’s dad and Carnegie honours Andrew Carnegie.”
EMMETT GORDON EDWIN, brother of Connor Mark
“Edwin was my grandfather’s name who passed last fall. So glad I used it! Gordon is my husband’s name and he always wanted to keep the family tradition. Emmett we have loved since high school.”
FELIX ALISTAIR KNIGHT, brother of Edward, Adelaide, Isaac, Oliver and twins Sebastian and Eleanor
“And in case anyone is curious, the girl’s name we had picked out was Louisa Eyre.”
IDRIS TERRICK, brother of Adler Grace
“Terrick is a combination of his daddy’s name (Terry) and his grandfather (Rick).
IVAN JAMES, brother of Vivienne Elizabeth and Evelyn Jane
“Ivan is dad’s name and James is in honor of my late father. I think Ivan is a strong and handsome name plus I’m pretty sure he will be the only Ivan in his preschool class.”
JULIAN FREDERICK, brother of Rosalind Estelle and Vivian Lucia and (SIDS angel) Elliot Downing.
“Julian means “downy” which was a form of Elliot’s middle name, and it’s also the patron saint of travelers (we love traveling). It was also the only name my husband and I could agree on—we have vastly different naming styles. The middle names of the kids all honor (in derivative form) my side of the family since we don’t do hyphenated names and his middle name Frederick honors his grandpa who has the middle name Alfred.”
LEWIS IRWIN THOMAS, brother of twins Clara and Sebastian
“Lewis is after author C. S. Lewis (we’ve been reading Chronicles of Narnia to my other kids during the pregnancy, husband is a long time Lewis fan.) Irwin and Thomas honor dad and grandpa, respectively. I had originally wanted to name him Louis (French pronunciation), but my husband didn’t like it, so this was or compromise as it was the ONLY name we could agree on.”
“We chose Nathan as baby’s name because it is strong and recognizable. Where we live, it’s not as common as in other areas. Kenneth is my father’s name.
NOAH BENEDICT, brother of Everett Jude
“We were undecided on his middle name until he was born, and because of the popularity of Noah, decided to go with something a bit more unusual.”
“His first name is one we chose and loved, and Alfred is after his paternal grandfather.
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Do you have a favorite girl choice? Boy? Sibset?