New Babyberry Report for January: Moses, Maren & Matilda
By Linda Rosenkrantz
Here it is, our report on the babyberries reported in the forums in the month of January and, as we’ve come to expect, there is the usual impressive array of classic and creative individual names, great first and middle combos, and cool sibsets.
Unlike December, when there were no multiples, this month we had not one but two sets of boy twins:
Arlo Sebastian & Ezra Valentine and
Arthur Florian Edward & Frederick Robin Jude
And speaking of Arthur, that was the only name used more than once, signaling the strong return of this once gallant Camelot name. ‘A’ was also the most popular first initial for boys, while for girls, M-beginnings took the lead.
I was interested to see one of the male virtue names, Loyal, used by a Berry as a middle, the imaginative Maple as a nickname for Marguerite, a big brother named Escher, and two separate paths to the nickname Cal. And of course, in the always intriguing comments made by these new parents.
Here they are—the complete list of January baby names chosen by our Berries:
GIRLS
Adrienne Mikayla, sister of Livia Christine
“Mikayla is after two aunties, Monique and Kayla.”
“Camille works well for “Daddy’s” family as most of the women also have French names. For her middle name we decided on Rose, which is my mother’s middle name and was my Grandmother’s favorite flower (which is why my grandfather selected it when naming my mom).
Cassia Viviane Noor, sister of Antoine Raphael
“Cassia was named for St Cassia(ne), a brilliant Byzantine musical scholar and theologian…Viviane was chosen as the French form of Viviana, wo is the patron saint of Los Angeles. We also quite liked the meaning: “life, lively.” Noor is an Arabic name we have long loved; it means “light,” You can see more of the story behind Blade’s choices here.
Eloise “Ellie” Matilda, sister of Avia Nicole
“…Matilda was a late idea from my husband as we saw Matilda the musical in New York over the holidays and we both fell in love with the name because it was different and unexpected!”
Harmony Laurel, sister of Eden Willow
“Harmony is something of an unusual name but my husband is a music graduate, violin teacher, ex-barbershopper (as am I) and church worship leader so we think it fits. Only drawback so far is no obvious nicknames. Any ideas?”
Indira Coral, sister of Azula Rosemary
Linnea Noelle, sister of Emerald Grace, Scarlett Hope, Avalon Joy and Naomi Faith
Lola Sage, sister of Ivy Grace
Maren Annalise, sister of Wesley George
“Hubby wanted the middle to honor me (which I thought was very cute), and since my name is Anna Katheryn, we were pretty set on Katheryn as a middle. That is…until a genius berry gave me the wonderful suggestion of putting a spin on my first name and using that instead, pairing my guilty pleasure name Maren with the name Annalise.”
Marguerite “Maple” Davis, sister of Bayard “Bay”
Matilda “Tilly” Quinn, sister of Escher Noam
Maya Noelle, sister of Niamh Bridget, Mairead Sarah, and Annabel Blake
Rachel Christina, sister of Holly Victoria and Lucas Albert
Reeve Lauren, sister of Calla Mae
“She was born 3 days before her great-grandmother Tessie’s 100th birthday. Katherine is after her mother’s sister and best friend.”
BOYS
Aaron Steven, brother of Levi Joseph and Eva Michelle
Amitai Idris, brother of Eliana and Lila Adi
Arlo Sebastian, twin of Ezra Valentine
Arthur Florian Edward, twin of Frederick Robin Jude
Arthur Philip, brother of Matilda, Eloise, Walter, Ramona and Bernadette
“Axel we chose for its uniqueness without being too out there and Christian is my MIL’s maiden name.”
Calvin Frederic, brother of Margaret ‘Maisy’ Milton
“Other names we considered for Cal were Arlo, Cormac and Archer for the first name and Gabriel and Lorenzo for the middle.”
“We call him Cal for short.”
Ezra Valentine, twin of Arlo Sebastian
Frederick Robin Jude, twin of Arthur Florian Edward
“He is named after a dear childhood friend who gave his life in the Marines, and his great-grandfather who he didn’t get to know but who started the family farm that he will get to grow up on.”
Moses Von, brother of Elinor Alyce
“Before WWII my husband’s family dropped the ‘von’ from their last name as they wanted it to seem less German. We wanted to give our son his last name back.”
Philip ‘Pip’ Loyal, brother of Mercy, Gilead and Abel
Phoenix Jackson, brother of Talaria Persephone
Reuben Xavier Leon, brother of Naomi
“We loved the way that Reuben sounded with our daughter’s name, Naomi, familiar without being too popular. Xavier is a nod to my favorite soccer player, Xavi Hernandez and Leon (Lion in Spanish) was a name I have always wanted for my son.”
Do you have a favorite name/combo/sibset?