September Berry Baby Name Picks
By Linda Rosenkrantz
Wow! I think this might be the biggest and greatest month for berry baby name announcements yet! In fact, they were so numerous and with so many great backstories, that I couldn’t use all of them in full, and so I invite you to go over to the Baby Announcement Forum and check them out. You’ll find Eliza and Elodie and Elowen and two Heros among the girls and Orion and Otto in the boy column, and many other happy surprises in this group of September baby names.
And we also have some multiples:
Beautifully matched boy twins Logan Frost and Ethan Snow
and QUADRUPLETS Hero Florence Habersham, Asa Hugo Milledge, Theodore Bastian Powell and Penelope Beatrice Clayborn!
Here’s the complete list of submissions:
Girls
Apolline (Polly) Suzanne Cassett, sister of Ulysses Vincent Matisse and Floralie Camille Morisot
“Her middle names, as are in the cases of her older brother and sister, honor artists that my husband and I greatly admire and are a huge inspiration to me especially as an art teacher: Mary Cassatt and Suzanne Valadon.”
Catherine “Cate” Ophelia, sister of William “Liam” Balthazar, and Veronica “Vera” Seraphine
“Everyone loves her name, although with Prince William and Duchess Catherine recently announcing that they’re expecting another prince or princess, we did get a few comments about our sibset…We chose Ophelia as the middle partly in honor of my husband’s love of Hamlet, but mainly because I think it is one of the most beautiful names in the world—even more so, now that it is attached to our precious little girl.”
Eleanor Iris (Nora), sister of Elizabeth Coralie (Libby) and Charles Alexander (Charlie)
“My daughter is named after the generations and generations of Elizabeths in my maternal family, including me…The name besides being cool and spunky is really because I realized in that moment that all of these Elizabeths in my life are heroes, my heroes, and I wanted that passed down to Eliza..P.S. Just realized that Hero can also be a little nod to Hermione Granger. As a potterhead who grew up with the books I’m pleased as hell that my daughter shares a birthday with such an amazing character!”
Elodie Claire Seraphine, sister of Oliver Elliott Macario, Ariel Lucas Aurelio and Emilia Violet Citali
“Claire is a name I’ve loved since I was a little girl. I’ve used it here to also honour a great, great grandmother Clara who was one of the only survivors of one of New Zealand’s largest historic volcanic eruptions back in 1886. If she hadn’t survived, my daughters and I wouldn’t be here today. Seraphine…grew on me even more when I realized it is the name of the original form of the musical instrument that I specialize in playing. I also love its angelic meaning.”
Fern Mabel, sister of Abel Benjamin and Olive Claire
“It was very important to us that we chose her name to honor family members and with a lot of help by browsing on Nameberry we did it! Francis is my husband’s Great Grandfather (for Francine, so beautiful), Avalon is my Great Grandmother’s (for Ava, so lovely) and May was my Mother’s name and my middle name.”
“Born during the aftermath of our city’s worst storm yet, many family and friends joked that we should name our daughter Harvey or some feminine derivative of the name. Instead, Hermione is named for two other forces of nature: the saint, whose steadfast faith and strength evangelized better than words ever could, and the witch, whose courage and cleverness was integral to her friends’ survival and to the advancement of others’ welfare. Additionally, it makes my literary heart happy that Helen of Troy’s daughter and Shakespeare’s queen in The Winter’s Tale share the name. Our preferred nicknames are Hero and Minnie—the former another literary name…. Elowen is a Cornish word for an elm tree…I hope that, like a tree, she has deeply rooted beliefs but that she’s fearless in branching upward and outward.” (Special congrats here to Mama Sarah Linke, one of Nameberry’s very valuable contributors!)
Hero Florence Habersham, quadruplet of Asa Hugo Milledge, Theodore Bastian Powell and Penelope Beatrice Clayborn
“I was originally going to name the two girls Hero and Beatrice but my soon-to-be-husband reminded me of the Shakespearean connection, and that was off the table.”
“Irene sounds quite a bit like my name, Erin, and the alliteration is a nod to my husband’s alliterative first and last names. I love the meaning, “peace” of Irene and like that it’s a recognizable vintage name that hasn’t made much of a comeback yet. Iris is a flower with significance to my grandmother and mother, and the role of the goddess as a messenger fits with my experience of this baby’s personality during pregnancy.”
Jane Marigold, sister of Polly Bloom, Linus Theodore, and Augustine “Gus” Basil
“..named for St. John Chrysostom. We also wanted a Marian name, so she’s “Mary’s Gold” as well as the “gold” reference to Chrysostom (“golden-mouthed” so called on account of his eloquence).”
Lakelin Grace, sister of Willa
Lydia–Wren Jubilee, sister of Liam Seth, Lyrik Avryll, and Lorelei–Ryan Frankie
Odilia Catherine Colette, sister of Lukas Benedict, Ivo William, Isabel Marjorie Anna and Oliver George
“If it weren’t for Nameberry I don’t think we would have come up with Colette as her middle name. We are Catholic and wanted our baby to be named after an inspiring saint but also have a name with an official name day in the Czech calendar as my husband and his family are Czech and we celebrate name days. We are very proud of naming our daughter after 3 very extraordinary, smart and strong women saints who we hope she can grow up to admire and have as role models.”
Penelope Beaturice Clayborn, quadruplet of Hero Florence Habersham, Asa Hugo Milledge and Theodore Bastian Powell
Poppy Ramona Carol, sister of Juno Heather Gable
“Her big sister Juno was a huge help in naming her and insisted her baby sister have the “prettiest and uniquest name.”…Her middle name of Ramona was inspired by the Ramona Quimby character which my daughter and I both adore and Carol is after my own Mom who turned 75 the day before Poppy’s birth.”
“Saffron is a little edgier than our other daughter’s names, but we love the meaning of how rare, precious and valuable saffron is and Elizabeth is a special family name.”
Sunny Margaret Elizabeth, sister of Bryce Ryker and Theodore Saige
“Sunny is a name my husband has had picked out for ages, Margaret is after her great grandmother and Elizabeth is after my sister. She is definitely a ray of sunshine in our lives.”
“Susannah makes me think of sunshine, and warm, happy days.”
Boys
Asa Hugo Milledge, quadruplet of Hero Florence Habersham, Theodore Bastian Powell and Penelope Beatrice Clayborn
Barrett Oliver, brother of River Eloise and August Jude
Ethan Snow, twin of Logan Frost
“Being named Janiyah, and having had to suffer from countless mispronunciations throughout the years, I wanted my boys to have fairly common, traditional names—I just didn’t want my children to go through the same thing I did, in terms of pronunciation issues.. Both Lorenzo and I called our mothers and asked what names they thought would go well with Logan, and they BOTH suggested Ethan. . As for his middle name, we decided pretty quickly on Snow, and even though I initially though it sounded too feminine, I soon realized how interesting pairing such a unique name with such a popular name was!”
Harvey Laurence, brother of Emmett Alan
“Like with our first born we wanted a strong boys name that sounded just as at home in a rodeo arena as it could in a courtroom.”
_“Horatio Felix has been the name I have wanted to give a (firstborn) son for 5 years now…Horatio was my 2nd great-grandfather, who spent 41 of his 82 years living and working abroad in China. To our family, the use of his name honors baby’s half-Chinese (DH), half European-American (me) heritage in addition to remembering a kind, patient, and adventurous man whose life history I have spent years piecing together and documenting as a family historian and genealogist. Horatio Felix, to us, means “happy time” or “happy season,” a positive and auspicious meaning we wanted to bestow on our baby. (_There’s more of this fascinating story in the Birth Announcement Forums.)
Logan Frost, twin of Ethan Snow
“I have adored the name Logan for as long as I could remember, and although I know it is extremely popular in my area, there aren’t too many little Logans running around. We decided on Frost because we are both very passionate about nature and embracing the earth, and we met when we were working at a Colorado ski resort, so winter word names seemed perfect.”
Matthias Karl, brother of Freyja Elisabet
“Matthias is an international choice that we feel suits his British-Icelandic heritage and will work nicely in both of his languages and cultures.”
Orion Ezra, brother of Alora Belle and Elodie Antoinette
“The more I see it written down the happier I am with it!”
Rex Charles, brother of Arlington Oscar, Calvin Arthur, Sylvie Miriam and Ellis Burke
“Rex is a name we have loved for awhile. It’s vintage and underused, which is just what we were wanting.”
Theodore Bastian Powell, triplet of Hero Florence Habersham, Penelope Beatrice Clayborn and Asa Hugo Milledge
There’s a lot to choose from this month! Which are your favorite names, first-middle combos and sibsets?