Category: Name Image
By Linda Rosenkrantz
Witches have haunted the big and small screens forever and are a perfect source for Halloween baby names. And while most of them are evil, scary, hideously ugly (Snow White!), even seductively witchy, there are some that are more kid-friendly. There are also some softer, gentler witches that are kind and funny and sometimes even Charlize–Theron-beautiful. Here we have a mix of both; what they have in common is their cool, all too human baby-worthy names. (Note: I could have filled the whole blog with those genius J. K. Rowling HP creations, but I managed to limit myself to just three.)
By Linda Rosenkrantz
Looking through the lists of recent celebrity baby names, there was one little trendlet that jumped out at me—maybe you’ve noticed it too. It’s a certain type of surname name with an aristo vibe, mostly with three or four syllables, many with a clipped British accent. I call them Fancy Shmancy, you can call them Distinguished Gentlemen. Here’s what I mean.
This week’s news includes unexpected sources of inspiration, Danish triplets, tips for learning unfamiliar names, and the dreamiest girls’ names you’ll hear all week.
Quirky inspiration: from The Crow to the King
If you love unusual stories of how parents found the perfect name, you’re in luck: we’ve got several this week.
First up is Jensen Ackles, the Supernatural actor. You may know that he and his wife Danneel are quite the snazzy namers: they have daughter Justice Jay and girl-boy twins Arrow Rhodes and Zeppelin Bram.
Jensen recently told the story of how they landed on Zeppelin. It’s inspired not by the band Led Zeppelin (although that no doubt gives it extra rock-and-roll cred), but by a knot. Baby Zeppelin was born with a loose knot in his umbilical cord. Later on, looking for ideas, dad browsed a list of sailor’s knots, spotted the zeppelin bend and had a lightbulb moment.
by Linda Rosenkrantz
They were once the belles of the ball. But then they gradually lost their luster and found themselves in baby name limbo.
Most of these girls’ names aren’t vintage enough to benefit from the 100-year rule. And many are recent enough to still bring up images of moms and aunts and grandmas. A few of them can be considered semi-classics, once as high as in the Top 15, yet none of them makes it even into today’s Top 1000.
But if you can manage to shake off the dust and look at them with fresh eyes, re-imagine their original appeal, I think you will find choices here that still have a lot of intrinsic life.
Urban Prairie is the hottest fashion trend, according to a recent article in The New York Times, typified by high-necked, ruffled, flowered dresses appropriate for, perhaps, watering sunflowers in the garden of your Brooklyn brownstone. One of the designers profiled in the piece was Katherine Kleveland of the line Doen, whose children are named Prairie, Wilder, and Shepard.
Those names are pretty on-the-nose as examples of Urban Prairie style translated to baby names, but we’ve got some other ideas of names that fit this major new trend.
Urban Prairie names are both sophisticated and innocent, country and city, traditional and edgy, plain yet fancy. Some names already rising in popularity could be counted as Urban Prairie: Cora and Elsie, Sawyer and Linus. But most Urban Prairie names are still so far out they’re very very in, like the 27 choices here.
If you want to see even more possibilities, check out this longer list of Urban Prairie Baby Names. What names would you add?
