New Year Babyberries: A girl Juniper, a boy Jupiter
A new year, and a fresh roster of beautifully chosen New Year names.
First of all, two sets of twins announced in January, one pair for each gender:
Beatrice Ophelia and Persephone Aida
Ivar Quinn and Kurt Damian
We continue to see a profusion of nature names, some inspired by their parents’ love of the great outdoors: River, Cypress, Snow, Juniper, Poppy, and Arbor, plus the perennials Rose and Violet. And check out some of the really imaginative and impressive sibsets.
Here’s the full list:
Ariadne Linnea River
“Ariadne has been my favourite name for many years, and we will be calling her Arya for short. Linnea honours my love of botany and my husband’s Scandinavian heritage, and River represents the important connection to nature that my husband and I share.”
Arwen Ruth Margaret
“Middle names inherited from her two great-grandmothers.”
Beatrix (Bea) Ophelia, twin sister of Persephone Aida
Blake Samantha Lucille
Colette Harlow
Cypress Natalia, sister of Roman James
“Cypress is a tree, like her brother Rowan James’s first name, and Natalia means ‘born at Christmas’, which we loved for its reference to her due date, which was Christmas day.”
Flora Marianne Snow, sister of Marvin, Max and Eulalie
“At first we were set on sticking to our theme of “M” and “E” names, but none of them felt like her. Marianne is after Leonard Cohen’s beautiful song.”
Francesca Anna May
“She looks very Italian, so we had to go with Francesca for her first Name! Plus, the name honors so many important family members on both sides: my dad (Francesco), uncle, late father-in-law, my husband’s grandfather (all named Frank), and my great-grandmother, Francesca. We plan on calling her Frankie, but we’re open to her full name or other nickname she may prefer as she gets older. There was a lot of debate about her middle names because the flow isn’t great and it’s basically a Japanese cartoon style, but my husband’s favorite person in the world was his aunt Anna May, and we decided that honoring her trumped the other issues.”
Juniper Anne, sister of Willow Marylee
Mabel Rose, sister of Charlie and Tilly
Margaret Eleanor, sister of Jane Madeleine and Henry Alexander
“We changed our minds daily on what her name would be but finally rediscovered Margaret, which was our original choice for our first daughter. We finally have our Margaret.”
Persephone (Posy) Aida, twin of Beatrix Ophelia
Poppy Mei, sister of Petra Kay
“We chose the spelling of her middle name because she is half Chinese.”
Violet Cecilia, sister of Quentin Charles
Grant Michael
Ivar Quinn, twin of Kurt Damian
Jupiter Lorcan, brother of Margaret Louise, Orion Lysander, Marcella Leda and Celestia Laurel
“Like his older brother and sisters, he’s got a middle name starting with L, and like the younger three, his name references space.”
Kurt Damian, twin of Ivar Quinn
Maclean Emmett Scott
“Nameberry gave us so many ideas, but we ultimately used Maclean as a nod to our outdoor-loving families (Norman Maclean, author of “A River Runs Through it and Other Stories” was our inspiration). We often shorten it to Mac!”
Quentin Theodore, brother of Arthur, Lucas, Hugo and Edmund
“We went with Quentin obviously because he is our fifth one, Theodore is a family name.”
Rupert Willow, brother of Larkspur Cynthia, Jasper Wyatt and Theodora Rosemary
“Our names are always inspired by art, literature, family and above all nature.”
Viggo Paul Christie, brother of Fletcher Isaiah and Cormac Joel
“Viggo was the name given to the youngest, most handsome boy on a Viking ship. Paul: he shares his middle name with each of his grandfathers. It means he also has a Christian middle like his brothers. Christie: My maiden. We wanted this in there as a strong tie to a strong, much loved, much admired family, so he’s got two middle names.”
Zakkai Lincoln Arbor
“After waiting a couple of days to try out our frontrunners and think about how uncommon we wanted to be, we went with our 1st choice…Lincoln was a different style of name in case our son doesn’t like his first name, and we figure that he has at least 3 other nicknames he can go by—Zak, Link or Cole. I used the second middle—Arbor—to honor my grandfather Arthur. We didn’t like the name Arthur, but the sound of Arbor is similar, and we love the meaning.”
Do you have a favorite name, first and middle combo, or sibset?