December Birth Announcements: Betty Nightingale and Darwin Orion
By Linda Rosenkrantz
The Nameberry birth announcement year ended with a cornocopia of bold and sometimes brilliant real-life choices. In the month of December alone, there were berrybaby girls with the first or middle-names Nightingale, Harbor and Galilee and boys with the appellations Cove, Gaines, and Swayze, not to mention a sib with the middle name of Oleander.
Included were three sets of twins (after we painfully eliminated several pairs of troll twins):
Arthur Simon and Clara Victoria
Leandro Tristan Yves and Thiago Sasha Cove
Vintage reappearances included Betty, Mary–Ann, Dolores, Alphonse, Maurice and Herman
Here’s the complete list of Berry December baby names, as posted on the Birth Announcement Forum:
GIRLS
Adelaide Fawn, sister of James Oleander and Rosemary Sylvie
“Our kids go primarily by their middle names as their first names are family honor names.”
Athena Rio Marguerite, sister of Toby Oliver Louis
“We love that it’s easy to pronounce and spell, and won’t be misheard as something else (which was a potential problem with some of our other names), that it’s heard of but not overused (certainly not here in NZ anyway!), and of course we love the goddess connection! Marguerite was decided well before we even conceived her, we wanted a French name to go with her brother (I lived in France for 5 years and often speak to them in French) and it’s the French form of Margaret which is the name of both my grandmother and my hubby’s grandmother.”
Betty Nightingale
“She is “just” Betty after her great grandmother, as my name is for my great grandmother. Nightingale has a lot of great possible meanings, so she has many ways to grow into it. Mostly we liked the combination of old and new which is memorable, unexpected, and yet still reasonable to spell.”
Clara Victoria (‘Plum’), twin sister of Arthur Simon
“We ultimately decided to go with names a little more conservative and traditional than we planned and decided to use more kooky nicknames. Clara’s nickname is twofold a) because I named her after the Nutcracker character and the Sugar Plum Fairy dance and b) because of the Victoria plum.”
“We went with the Italian spelling because of our Italian background but also once we picked Ivy we thought spelling Giorgia with the “I” flowed a lot nicer.”
“I wanted something quirky and imaginative and it also honours her dad’s Mediterranean sea culture. Aurelia is also the name of my husband’s mother.”
Heidi Louise, sister of Siena Jane
“Heidi is a nod to my German ancestry, and Louise loosely honors my cousin Lucy…which all fits in quite well with Siena Jane’s name in that it’s a European first name, paired with an honor middle.”
“We chose Imogen because we fell in love with the nickname Immy but wanted her to have a more formal name if she chose to use it.”
Kiana Rosalie, sister of Noemi Xochitl
Marguerite “Margot” Autrey, sister of Emmet and Lyla
“Marguerite is a family name on my mother-in-law’s side going back generations. And we love Margot, so that is what we will call her, but I like the family history of Marguerite. And Autrey is my mother’s family name. It was nice to be able to represent both of her grandmothers in her name.”
Milana Julia, sister of Evelina Dolores and Cecelia Rose
“We love that all three girls have first names with nickname possibilities. And, all middle names are after their various grandmothers. For almost the entire pregnancy we thought she was going to be Vincenza. But, once she arrived, we decided that Milana (which I found on Nameberry two days ago!) was the only name that suited her!”
“I saw Galilee Pearl in someone’s signature…I loved it and so did my husband but we were afraid it would be difficult to pronounce and our eldest daughter gets frustrated and hurt that most people mispronounce her name. Thank you to whoever has Galilea Pearl in her signature list, you helped give our baby the name she will have her whole life.”
“We chose Scout because we wanted something unique and feisty yet still easily recognizable. So far people either love it or hate it which is pretty much the reaction we expected. Her middle name was chosen to honor a variety of Marys and Anns on either side of the family, We chose to go with the hyphenated spelling in order to keep the original names intact without variation.”
Sienna Belen, twin sister of Noah Silas
BOYS
“Papa chose Alphonse years ago (he likes boy names with strong “z” sounds) and mama chose Elliott (my oldest favorite) but decided to use one ‘L’ to get to his Spanish nickname ‘Elio”… I am glad his papa chose a name for him that has an old classic feel to it, honors French and German roots, and is nowhere near popular in the U.S.”
Arthur Simon (“Bear”), twin of Clara Victoria
Arthur’s nickname derived from the meaning of his name “bear”.
“I wanted something uncommon enough that he (hopefully) won’t share a name with 2 or 3 others in his class. We picked the name Blair as a compromise for my fiance’s infinite love of the name Bear. He now has his “Blair Bear” and Wilder just paired nicely and adds to his somewhat “wilderness” themed name.”
Darwin Orion, brother of Terra Gwendolyn and Emrys Alistair
“In the end we went with Darwin Orion, which happened to be a combo I had picked out when I was pregnant with my first.”
Finn August, brother of Ezra Wolf
“I liked that it had an Irish vibe because my grandmother was Irish. August is my husband’s middle name, as well as Finn’s great grandfather, great uncle and my husband’s cousin’s first name.”
Fraser Thomas, brother of Vivienne Rose, Gemma Louise and Alastair Rhys
Gaines Joseph, brother of Colson Reid
Leandro Tristan Yves (“Lander”), twin of Thiago Sasha Cove (“Iago”), and brother of Valentina Mae Stella
“Leandro is a name that goes pretty well with Thiago, and its mythological roots made me love it even more (and gave me the name Hero for a middle for a future child.)”
Maurice Herman–David (“Reese”)
“Maurice is my father’s middle name. Herman is my husband’s paternal grandfather’s middle name. David was my paternal grandfather’s name.”
“Nathaniel is named after my father…and my grandfather Irving (whose Hebrew name was Yitzak, which is Hebrew for Isaac).
Nikolai Pavel, brother of Mariel and Corah Rose
“We live in Europe, but I’m American, so we needed a name that works in both cultures and languages and Nikolai fit perfectly… And of course, it is just a bit Christmasy for our Christmas baby.”
Noah Silas, twin brother of Sienna Belen
Swayze Aleksander, brother of Natasha Louise
Thiago Sasha Cove, twin of Leandro Tristan Yves and brother of Valentina Mae Stella
“Thiago is DF’s long loved name, and I loved it too in the end. Cove is an unexpected, one-syllable name that just hit me one day scrolling through Nameberry, and loved it immediately.”
“Toby is a diminutive of Tobias, which is Hebrew for “God is Good.“ But we found the formal name too stuffy; Toby stands well on its own. Dov (pronounced Dove) is a Hebrew word for Bear. Toby’s older brother is Ari, which is a Hebrew word for Lion, and we liked the similar animal themes.”
Did you find a favorite here–a name, a first-middle combo or sibset?