New Babyberry Announcements for June
By Linda Rosenkrantz
What a bountiful crop of beautifully named new babyberries this month! This is a lovely group of June baby names.
First of all, one pair of girl-boy twins:
Holiday Kathryn and Hayes Nelson—alliterative but far from matchy-matchy.
The trend for nature-referenced middle names continues, with Fern, Iris, Bee, Rose, Snow, Fox (twice) and River all on board. A preponderance of vowel-starting names for girls, but only one—Oake—among the boys. And, as always lots of inventive and appealing first and middle name combos and sibsets. As well as some great backstories.
GIRLS
Adelaide Victoria, sister of Matilda
“We ultimately decided on the name Anais because when we met her we knew she needed a fun and upbeat name but very pretty at the same time so hence Anais. We are trying out the nicknames Ana, Annie and Issy and seeing what feels right over time, I just love all the possibility of nicknames.”
“The moment I saw her, I thought of my Grandmother Lina, who had the same deep blue eyes. I also wanted to honor my mother Laura, so Lila was the perfect combination of the two.”
Clara Victoria, sister of Lydia Katherine
“We love the similar vintage feel to both girls’ names as well as the fact that they are popular but not too popular.”
Eliza Fern, sister of Dashiell, Jedi, August and Lincoln
“We originally had 2 names: Violet Moriah and Briony Mariah and we were going to decide when she arrived. But when she was born, my husband kept pushing for Elizabeth, and when I insisted that it was too popular to go with her brothers’ names, he suggested we shorten it to Eliza. I eventually fell in love with how in love he was with the name…This is his first and probably only daughter, and I love that they will have that connection. Since Eliza Moriah wouldn’t work, he let me have my guilty pleasure name that I’ve loved since I was a child: Fern.”
“We call our daughter Frankie and it suits her perfectly.”
Freyja Elisabet
“We picked Freyja because it works perfectly in both Iceland and England, so practically it will be a great name for her to have, with family in both countries. Also because it is beautiful, of course. I’ve loved the name ever since I was a Norse mythology nerd.”
Holiday Kathryn, twin sister of Hayes Nelson, and sister of Jackson ‘Jet’ Eric, Maple Darling, Judah and Nathan
Iris Alexandra
Lula Adelaide, sister of Zadie Avalyn
Odette Josephine, sister if Margaret Honey
“Our grandmothers both had Jo in their names, hence the Josephine for a middle name.”
Phoebe Iris Margaret, sister of Juno Opal Yvonne
Selah Bee, sister of Evan Patrick
“She chose her first name in utero, after I told her “okay, baby, if you are a girl, show me your name” and then blindly felt my way through a baby book, stopping first at a page, and then feeling for the spot on the page that felt ‘right’.”
“We loved the name Susannah from the beginning—it is familiar but not common, classic, upbeat, and has a bunch of great nickname options. It also honors family as my mother-in-law and I share the middle name Sue and my mother’s middle name is Ann. So far we’re calling our little gal Zuzu, which fits her spunky personality.”
“Her first name is a nod to Tennessee Williams. His first name was Tom, which is also my father’s name, so I feel like we’re honoring him in a quiet way too. We wanted to give her a very feminine middle name to balance the boyish first name, and we also loved the musicality and alliteration that Cecilia provided.”
“…her middle name took a little longer to decide but we loved the short sparkiness of Thea Snow….Thea is from Arrow-DC Comics, and Snow is from Game of Thrones and Once Upon a Time.”
Willow Felicity, sister of Gideon Arthur
BOYS
Hayes Nelson, twin of Holiday Kathryn and brother of Jackson ‘Jet’ Eric, Nathan, Judah and Maple Darling
John–Patrick Thomas, brother of Caroline
“John is after his daddy (Giovanni) and Patrick is for my grandfather…at the beginning we thought we would name him Luke Elliot which I still do love, however in the end the strong family ties and biblical meanings combined with saints names and the classic feel that I feel John–Patrick has, won out for me.”
Judah Theodore, brother of Seren Beatrix
Luka Dean, brother of Gunnar James
Nikolai William Excalibur Crow, brother of Isolde Mauricette Marie Jose and Poet Wildflower Hecate
The first two have been settled for a long time—my favorite boy’s name since I was a teen, and my partner’s middle name. Our love of fantasy (and the undeniably cool sound) led to Excalibur, and Crow is a nice short, bold way to finish it up. Excalibur was a last minute addition. Now he and our girls all have a bit of mythology in their names.”
Oake Philip Moore, brother of Sloane, Greer and Rhys
Revell
“Reveling in Revell and so happy to use this family name.”
Rory Josiah,, brother of Daniel Isaac
“We live in Ireland where the name is a definite boys name, but used the anglicised spelling. His middle name was undecided until the last week before he was born, when my husband handed me a list of my Old Testament guilty pleasures and said these were ones he would accept! I have some lovely names like Boaz and Elias on the list but went with Josiah for its meaning, ‘God heals’ as my husband was very ill over the past few months and it felt very special.”
Roscoe William, brother of Sadie Eloise
Silas Matthew, nn Si or Bear, brother of Peter James
Theodore Mark, brother of Arden Sky
Viggo River, brother of Eve Ember
“Along with just liking the sound and underused quality of the name, we chose Viggo since it meant “battle, war” and my husband’s name Marcus means “warlike” which tied it together without being an obvious Jr. It’s also Scandinavian, which is a big part of my husband’s ancestry. The middle name River was to continue the natural element that is found in our daughter’s name, Eve Ember.”
“West is for the west coast, the home we’ve chosen for ourselves, but also because my inner ultra-nerd loved that in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, the West is the place where good things come from…Harlow is an old family name and my dad’s middle name, and sure enough my son and my dad have shared an almost mystical connection from the first hours…Evan is my husband’s middle name, and West also seems to have a special connection with his daddy…”
Wyatt is a name that we both loved from the start and we feel fits very well with our country lifestyle. Jerry is to honour my grandfather; the kindest, most honourable and hardworking man I know.”
Zander Zachary Fox, brother of Alyssa Jenna Rose, Francesca Sophia Grace and Thea Cassia Faith
Zadok Alexander, brother of Jerusha Rose
Do you have a favorite name or sibset from this month’s crop of new babyberries?