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The online resource for Baby Names with their meaning Your baby name or your name is extremely important. Your baby name is his/her life. It is how you identify him or her. It is how the world identifies your boy or girl. The more insight you have into the powerful influence of their name, the greater opportunity to enjoy the success they are capable of achieving. It is not known when humans first began using names though the practice is certainly very old, probably extending far into pre-history. Although all cultures and races use names, naming customs vary greatly from people to people Names serve several purposes. Most importantly they help distinguish us from one another. Imagine how difficult it would be to refer to people if we did not use names. Some names carry information about our roots, such as family or clan names. They are generally inherited. This Names Dictionary helps you benefit more out of your Scrabble rack. But the fact that this question is asked so often suggests there's more to the rugged and rakish (see this 2005 post on tradesman names). Some one-hit s-men: Adams Ambers Emmons Graves Jenkins Matthews Stokes And a selection of other evocative one-hit surnames: Alston Baldwin Blanchard Boone Bynum Calhoun Caswell Claiborne Colbert Dabney Ewart Farley Fuller Gaither Gilmore Greely Greene Guthrie Hanson Liston Livingston Lovett Marland Nugent Pembroke Pinckney Proctor Redmond Robley Sewell Shepard Singleton Snowdon Thorwald Tilford Waller Welby Whitfield Winslow Woodfin I've run the calculations and I now have the definitive list of the names is right or wrong. Each one is a precious part of a life story and identity. Is there a downside to choosing a formal version? Suppose, say, an Elizabeth wants stay Libby exclusively. That's seldom a problem. People are happy to call you whatever you call yourself. But suppose that Libby doesn't want what her parents want. Aha. This, I think, is the crux of the matter. "I want Libby on the birth certificate, otherwise she might decide she doesn't like it and wants to call herself Elizabeth instead!" May I gently suggest that is an argument in favor of full names, not against them? It's her name, not yours. If she ultimately decides that your preferred nickname doesn't fit -- or simply doesn't fit the occasion -- she'll be glad you left that choice in her hands. Now, the caveats. Plenty of nicknames have become so well established as given names that they've earned their independence. Molly, Drew, Eliza and Jack are just a few decades. Evelyn reached its peak in 1915, sharing the top 10 with other trendy names of the moment like Mildred, Dorothy, Helen, Ruth and Frances. But look at the original cursive records most are highly questionable. including some who passed the name on his resume, Joseph. He's hardly alone in wearing his full name like a suit and tie. Ever see Marty Scorsese or Chuck Heston listed in film credits? Martin and Charlton were deemed more suitable for the occasion. So what happens to JoJo once Joseph takes over? With any luck the nickname lives on with a special status, as a mark of intimacy or long-standing relationships. When I was little I always loved hearing older relatives call my mother Ruth, "Ruthie." The nickname showed they'd been with her since she was a kid like me; it was a name that was always spoken with love. Some people even go through multiple nicknames at different life stages. Our Joseph may be a JoJo with his family, Joe with the college buddies, and Joseph as an adult and they'll tell you they can't even imagine him as a JoJo. By the time he entered the working world he was introducing himself by the name of Cleveland Kent Evans. Dr. Evans is a well-known name researcher and past president of the American Name Society. Having him posting here is a little like having Curt Schilling posting on your Red Sox bulletin board. (Which reminds me, woo-hoo, Sox! OK, got it out of my system, we'll move on now.) On Sylvia, Dr. Evans noted: It isn't time yet for Sylvia to sound "fresh" again to young parents. Sylvia's high point of use since 1880 in the USA is turning 70 this year. Most young Americans know an elderly Sylvia, so they still associate the name with grey hair... As it turns out, quite a few worthwhile name dictionaries on the market (as well as quite a few stinkers.) I have no affiliation with any of them. But if I had to recommend just one book on English name origins to keep on your bookshelf, my choice would be: The Oxford Dictionary of First Names by Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges. This book was compiled by distinguished lexicographers, and it shows. Compare the entries on my name, Laura, in a typical name "dictionary" vs. the Oxford... Typical Latin, Laurel Oxford Italian, Spanish, and English: feminine form of the full name, Another option is the Italian spelling Silvia, which is also the French form of the Late Latin male name Laurus “Laurelâ€. St Laura was a 9th-century Spanish nun who met her death in a cauldron of molten lead. Laura is also the French form of the full name, as Sophie is to Sophia. While it may sound nickname-cute in English it can stand on its own as a given name. Another option is the Italian spelling Silvia, which is also the proper spelling for the Shakespearean title of this post. Then to Silvia let us sing, That Silvia is excelling; She excels each mortal thing Upon the dull earth dwelling: To her let us garlands bring. I usually try to avoid taking sides in the great name debates. Traditional vs. creative, popular vs. unusual...there are valid arguments and stylish names on all sides. But when it comes to nicknames vs. full names on a birth certificate, I'm getting off the fence. All else being equal, go with the full formal version. "Why not name your child what you are going to call them?" For the same reasons that you have more than one kind of outfit in your closet. Different styles suit different occasions. Many parents put formal names on birth certificates knowing full well that they won't call their child by that name. We all know plenty of them -- the Deborahs called Debbie, the Josephs called JoJo. Picture JoJo's parents way back when, reveling in the fun-loving nickname for their lively little boy. Now, 30 years later, JoJo's family and childhood friends may still call him that. But ask the folks who know him as an adult professional. None of the names that appeared on the charts exactly once from the 1880s through the 1980s, and never since. Any guess how many? 860 names. It's a big number, but not really surprising given that we're spanning 110 years of baby naming style. The list reflects passing fashions, creative spellings, historical moments and waves of immigration. It's a fascinating collection of styles ranging from what-were-they-thinking to why-didn't-I-think-of-that. Today I'm going to continue offering my take on this odd and intriguing set of names. In a previous post I rounded up names based on familiar surnames, and some peaks and valleys of fashion potential. Today's focus is "meaning names" which take their impact from associations in the wide world outside of name dictionaries. and a few frankly shocked me as name inspirations. Check them out yourself in this arbitrary, capricious One-Hit Timeline of History. 1895: Trilby George du Maurier's novel Trilby, first published serially in 1894, was a popular sensation. Filled with romance, horror, plucky heroes and supernatural villainry, Trilby became one of the most popular names in America during the "Vagina" era. Try pronouncing Virginia a few times with an old-time Alabama accent. I'm not ready to concede the existence of babies named Vagina just yet. For equal time I took a look at the names of that time were too much fun to ignore. What would you name your heroes to keep them from sounding like time travelers from 2007? You could take the time-honored neologism approach, stringing together sounds to create a new namelike creation (think Lando Calrissian). You could morph a traditional name into a vaguely futuristic variant (Leia). You could push the envelope a little farther and imagine whole new fashions -- say a fad for Hungarian names, or names of chemical elements. Or you could be a crafty namenik and aim for a hundred-year style revival cycle. By that approach your characters in the year 2057 might be Jerry and Brenda. Craftiest of all, you could combine those approaches. After all, multiple fashion threads run through every age. 2007 is the era of Liam, Alejandro, Braeden and Jack. So let's call our 2057 friends Arlex, R!chard, Istvan, Cobalt, Doug and Cheryl. Not so good? Well, I never claimed to be a Hugo Award winner. So let me put you, instead, in the hands of one who is. William Gibson is a wildly inventive and influential science fiction author, the coiner of the term "cyberspace" and godfather of the cyberpunk genre. His first novel Neuromancer won not only the Hugo but the Nebula and Philip K. Dick awards for good measure. Neuromancer was published 23 years ago and could reasonably be expected to be showing its age by now. Yet the book still maintains an impressive measure of baby name generator popularity and reader impact. Let's take a look at the original cursive records most are highly questionable. Most, but not all. A couple of examples are crystal clear and at least one is validated by other records. So if you want to tell stories of bad baby names, Placenta looks like a go. For a solid boy's name tale, you might consider Felon. Several Felons reappear in multiple years' census reports, including some who passed the name on to a Felon Jr. I thought at first that it might be a variant on the Irish Faolan/Phelan, but as in life, there are Felons of all ethnicities. Today I'd like to share a map of a single name, a name I've been pondering since the state-by-state name rankings were announced in May. The boy's name Landon shows remarkable regional differences across the U.S. A top-five name in some states, it doesn't crack the top 100 boys' names today. Hmph. What's the fun in that? The most fashionable traditional names are those that were common in the past but dipped out of use 80+ years ago. They're familiar from history and literature but not tainted with the ordinariness of our own circle of acquaintance. That leaves them with the charming patina of antiques. Names like Thomas and James may be strong, timeless classics, but where's the spark that comes with "rediscovering" a forgotten classic? You can't rediscover something that never went away. In other words, the old-fashioned boys' names aren't old-fashioned enough. I ran into this problem constantly when I was choosing the sibling name suggestions for the Baby Name Wizard book. Girl after girl seemed to match the same handful of boys. You can only suggest Emmett, Henry, Jasper, Julian, Leo, Max, Oliver, Owen and Theo so many times as matches for dozens of different girls' names. So if you're looking for a little brother for Sophie and Isabel, it's not your imagination: boys' names really are harder. You aren't just restricted by your own tastes, you're at the mercy of the tastes of parents a century ago. They're books, they're movies, they're toys and costumes and a whole vocabulary that has permeated our times. Such a powerhouse of entertainment is sure to leave its mark on baby names too, Nope. You're still not likely to meet a little Hermione or Albus or Sirius, old friend Ronald continues to sink deeper and deeper out of fashion, and even Harry itself has continued its steady decline. The fundamental law of celebrity naming influence still holds. It's not about the fame, it's about the name. A minor reality tv star with a stylish name can wipe up the floor with a Harry Potter or Seinfeld or Madonna. J.K. Rowling's wizarding world has left no impact on American naming because that's not her game. She doesn't name her characters the way we name babies. To understand Rowling's names, it helps to look back at the last comparable global literary event. In 1841, eager readers crowded onto a New York wharf to await a ship from England bearing the final installment of Charles Dickens' serialized novel The Old Curiosity Shop. I remember reading about this in high school history class, where it was presented as an emblem of an unimaginably different age. Now, of course, we see that we're not really so different from the folks back then. It just took 166 years for the right book to come along. Some observers have taken the Dickens-Rowling analogy further. Each author, for instance, brought a new popular legitimacy to what had previously been considered "low" literature. But in this space there can be only one comparison: the names. In Dickens and Rowling names don't just represent people. They're drenched with mood and meaning, conjuring up scenes, backstories, and as often as not laughs. Many other authors have attempted the same thing, but it's a lasting justification. Knowing a biblical Jadon is out there gives parents a reassuring glimpse of the roots of a tree of fashion that we're climbing dizzyingly higher every day. Thousands of years after his first job, Jadon the Meronothite is performing another round of maintenance work: helping parents stay happy with the name they chose. Uh-oh. Now I'll never be able to choose a name. My husband and I loved debating girls' names but couldn't get too excited about any of the boys' options. (Our ultrasounds always said "girl," conveniently sparing us the decision.) Judging by mail from my readers the boy's-name block is a common experience, much more common than the reverse. Why do so many of us find boys' names harder? Perhaps we're narrower in our notions of what's acceptably "masculine" vs. "feminine." Perhaps we're more conservative, less willing to go out on a limb, The one-hit wonder names are a treasure trove of these cultural moments. Some of the moments were momentous, others pop-culture trifles. A few were completely unknown to me until the names themselves led me to them, and a few that were simply indecipherable. But somebody looked at them and saw Penis. It's a new twist on a popular name, or a combination of your grandparents' names, or the catchiest arrangement you could make out of your Scrabble rack. That's its origin and thus its meaning, right? But the fact that this question is asked so often suggests there's more to it. Think of it as a call for connection in an era of extreme individuality in baby naming. We all want to go out on a limb, but with the comfort of knowing the tree's roots are still down there somewhere keeping us grounded. So parents choose a name they actively dislike. If you love Libby but loathe Elizabeth, do what you've got to do. But if you're on the fence, I say err on the side of flexibility. An Elizabeth can always be Libby "for short," but a Libby can't be Elizabeth "for long." Baby names act as a cultural mirror, reflecting the mood and obsessions of every age. Sometimes it's a whole style, like the girls given boyish names (Frankie, Tommie) in the 1930s. Sometimes it's personality driven, like the Shirley surge in that same decade. And sometimes a specific historical moment is memorialized in names. The one-hit wonder list includes dozens of common English words, as well as your baby name. Click here, for us to suggest you a baby name. Astrology & Horoscope by FindYourFate.com Most often the gift racks are a few years behind the times. (Too many Melissas, not enough Mias). But they're getting better and better now that more name statistics are available. At one store I spotted two gift racks side by side, clearly from the same manufacturer. One held light-switch covers printed with butterflies, rainbows, and names like Haley, Jasmine and Hannah. The other held small flower pots printed with inspirational sayings and names like Haley, The other held small flower pots printed with inspirational sayings and names like Barbara, Nancy and Joyce. The gift company had two different markets down pat. (Or realistically, one market: Melissa, Kristen or Stephanie buying one gift for her mom, one for her daughter. Because nobody really buys themselves that stuff.) What happens if the manufacturer gets it wrong? Talk about short shelf life...the wrong baby name can mean those "grrl power!" stickers were out of date a decade before they were printed. So today, I offer a cautionary tale for the world's personalized-gift industry. I recently found myself in a deep, deep discount store--the job lot/salvage variety. You know, the kind of place where rolls of paper towels (banana scented) go for pennies on the dollar, and where you can pick up a t-shirt celebrating your team's divisional title long after they're eliminated from the playoffs. Displayed across one wall were ceramic name plaques ready to personalize a child's bedroom door, marked down to just 19 cents each! Drawings of crayons, cars and ice-cream cones accompanied the names: Gene, Betty, Alice, Ralph. Gosh, I wonder why they didn't sell? The plaques spanned nearly a century of name style, from Walter and Bea to Todd and Dana. The bulk, though, were names of the 1920s through '60s: Joy and Guy, Tammy and Jerry, Jean and Glenn. Here's the lineup, as recorded on the back of an envelope from my pocket: When were these things made, anyway? A look at the names of that time were too much fun to ignore. And now for a few more names: - Welcome, Constant, Bliss (all boys) - Sweetie, Lovie, Doll (any guesses which are boys?) - Icey, Nicy, Spicy, Vicy (girls; Dicy appears in multiple years' lists) To be continued.... Suppose you wanted to set a novel in the mid-range future. What would you name your heroes to keep them from sounding like the past. First things first. Your cousin did not go to school with twins named Lemonjello and Oranjello, and your brother-in-law did not give a speeding ticket to anyone named S***head ("shi-THEED"). That's that, case closed. Naming lore is full of the fake and famous: non-existent lousy baby names passed on relentlessly as fact. As I was writing a book chapter on these urban legend names, I took pains to confirm that the names didn't exist. There are no Lemonjellos or Oranjellos in government records. (Someone did once manage to sneak a "Lemonjello Snarfblat" into the Tempe, Arizona phone book. A snarfblat is an intentionally ludicrous fake word from Disney's Little Mermaid film.) As I poked through the records, though, I encountered some real-life surprises -- names I had assumed to be tall tales that seemed to be borne by real people. But were they? Digging deeper made me realize that even a census record isn't necessarily "proof." The wild names are out there, but not as many as a glance at the data would have you think. Take the name Vagina. Looking at Ancestry.com's database of the U.S. Census through 1930 (including scans of the original handwritten surveys), Vagina was once a modestly common first name. 16 women named Vagina are listed in the 1900 United States Census, 16 in 1910 and 23 in 1920. Proof positive? Not so fast. None of them are the same women. The Vaginas of 1900 all mysteriously vanished by 1910, and the adult Vaginas of 1920 are nowhere to be seen in earlier years. What's the story? Well, census records were recorded by door-to-door surveyors asking residents for information. It happens that most of the "Vaginas" in the records were rural Southerners...and the name Virginia was one of the silly questions. If you created the name yourself then surely you know where it came from. It's a new twist on fake names: howlers entered into a seemingly official record because the word came a little too hard. In celebration of the masters of the genre, here are some memorable Dickens-Rowling names. If you can't sort out which is which, perhaps it's time to start your reading with Harry Potter book 1. Abel Magwitch Anastasia Veneering Arabella Figg Chevy Slyme Dolores Umbridge Elphias Doge Filius Flitwick Flora Finching Horace Slughorn Humphrey Belcher John Podsnap Kingsley Shacklebolt Lucretia Tox Luke Honeythunder Millicent Bulstrode Montigue Tigg Mortimer Lightwood Mundungus Fletcher Ninetta Crummles Paul Sweedlepipe Peg Sliderskew Pius Thicknesse Rufus Scrimgeour Stan Shunpike Stubby Boardman Volumnia Dedlock Wackford Squeers Wilkie Twycross Willy Widdershins Zephaniah Scadder. |