Christmas Baby Names: More, please!

Christmas Baby Names: More, please!

Last week our guest blogger Elisabeth Wilborn offered a great yuletide menu of names that was both inclusive and imaginative, covering all the bases from religious to seasonal to spiritual.  At the risk of being accused of overkill, I thought I’d offer a few quirkier ideas, which are tied less directly to the holiday.

One of them is to look at some first and last names that have appeared in classic Christmas movies, ranging from the vintage It’s a Wonderful Life to the more recent Elf. Some examples:

BAILEY ……..It’s a Wonderful Life

BELLE ………A Christmas Carol

CLAIRE …….Scrooged

CLARENCE ..It’s a Wonderful Life

DUDLEY ……Christmas in Connecticut

ELIOT ……….Scrooged

FAN ………….A Christmas Carol

FELIX ……….Christmas in Connecticut

FRED ……….Miracle on 34th Street

GEORGE ……It’s a Wonderful Life

JACOB ………A Christmas Carol

JEFFERSON ..Christmas in Connecticut

JOVIE ………..Elf

MARLEY …….A Christmas Carol

PRESTON …..Scrooged

RALPH ……….A Christmas Story

TIM …………..A Christmas Carol

VIOLET ……..It’s a Wonderful Life

ZUZU ………..It’s a Wonderful Life

Another possibility, even more of a stretch, could be various shades of the Christmas colors, red and green:

ALIZARIN

BERYL

CARMINE

CELADON

CRIMSON

EMERALD

JADE

NILE

SCARLET

VERDE

VIRIDIAN

Then, in addition to the Cedar and Pine that Elisabeth mentioned, there are several other Christmas tree names:

BALSAM

CAROLINE

CYPRESS

DOUGLAS

FRASER

SAPPHIRE

SPRUCE

VIRGINIA

And finally Christmas-season baby namers can consider one of the more exotic variations of Mary or Joseph:

MAIRE

MAIRI

MALIA

MANON

MARIELLE

MARIETTE

MARIKA

MARISKA

MARJAN

MIRJAM

MITZI

MOIRA

or

GIUSEPPE

JOOSEF

JOSE

JOSEBA

JOSEF

JOZA

JOZIO

Oh, and what about Santa‘s reindeer’s names?  Where did those funky names come from?  It seems that the Night Before Christmas poet Clement C. Moore gave a lot of thought to his choices,  picking names that imply speed, grace, power, and strength.  We wouldn’t recommend Donner or Blitzen or Prancer.  Comet, Cupid, Vixen–barely possible.  A little more conceivable: Dasher and Dancer.

About the Author

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.