Category: Meanings of Baby Names
We’ll soon be celebrating US Dictionary Day. This unofficial holiday falls on the October 16th birthday of the Founding Father of American English, Noah Webster – this year he’d be celebrating his 260th.
In honor of the occasion, here are ten baby names inspired by dictionaries and the people who shaped them – arranged alphabetically, of course.
By Linda Rosenkrantz
There are many girls’ names that mean light. There’s the whole Lu-name contingent: Lux and Luz, Lucy and Lucia, Lucille and Lucinda, for starters. And the bright and clear Clara, Claire, Clarissa contingent. And all the Helen, Helena, Ellen, Leonora et al names that mean ‘bright, shining one.’
But there’s a subset of light-related names that shines even brighter, those with words like radiant, sparkle and brilliance in their definitions, and it’s these that names for girls that we’re looking at today.
Here are 9 brilliant names that will add an electric glow to your baby girl.
by Linda Rosenkrantz
Fall is in the air, and one of its most vivid visual symbols is that of the blazing colors of autumn leaves as they turn—the vivid reds and yellows and oranges. If you’d like to use the season of your baby’s birth as name inspiration, one focus for autumn baby names is the color orange —the fruit, as well as flowers, gems and people.
By Linda Rosenkrantz
It’s become a Nameberry tradition, almost since the beginning to celebrate occupational names on Labor Day. This year we’re not only featuring those whose original occupations might no longer exist in the modern world, though they’re all good, wearable, sometimes trendy names, but also some of the more current occupational word-names which seem to be popping up with increasing frequency.
Right now, the usual, perhaps overworked, suspects populate the upper reaches of the popularity list, with Mason at #7. Followed by the er-ending faves Carter, Hunter, Cooper, Ryder, Tucker, Archer, Sawyer, Gunner, and Tanner, all of which are in the Top 300.
But how about some of the more unusual ones that haven’t been heard quite so often? Consider these:
Their new daughter will need surgery shortly after birth. Time to find a strong name with the right meaning to encourage their little fighter!
Kristen writes:
We recently found out we were having our third girl and we were absolutely thrilled. Of course, I immediately dug up the master list we used for the last two, Daphne Evangeline and Adele Emmanuelle. We knew we wanted Elizabeth for a middle, but other than that we were at a total loss.
My husband jokingly calls our naming style “Old British Ladies”, but it seems we’re not the only ones with that taste. The remaining names on our list that we loved three years ago have either shot up the popularity charts (Hazel, Isla) or sound too similar to our daughters’ names (Elodie, Mabel).
But then we got some news that put name confusion on the back burner. Turns out our little lady has a hole in her heart. We’ve met with specialists and they’re optimistic, so we are too. In the meantime, we are back to hunting for the perfect name. Our search has definitely acquired some new parameters now. We’d like to give her a name that is inspiring, encouraging, the perfect name for a little fighter. We don’t know what the future holds, but we know that our daughter is already strong. But every name we’ve found with a meaning we like doesn’t seem to work. I love the idea of “strong protection,” but Walburga isn’t really doing it for us.
We’re hoping that the fresh eyes of naming expert can give us a few options.
The Name Sage replies:
