The Art of Naming

The Girl Name of the Week comes to us in honor of this week's "Spanish Names For Girls" list. I have to admit that I had a very hard time choosing just one name to feature since so many of them stood out to me. I finally decided on Catalina, pronounced kah-tah-LEE-nah. It is a Spanish form of Katherine. Now, I've always seen Katherine-type names meaning "pure" but after looking deeper into possible meanings, I'm not so sure which is truly "correct."  Here are the original possibilities: From the Greek name Αικατερινη (Aikaterine)  From the earlier Greek name ‘Εκατερινη (Hekaterine) which came from (hekateros) meaning "each of two" which is similar to the goddess Hecate's name. From the Greek αικια (aikia) meaning "torture" which is obviously not ideal. From a Coptic name meaning "my consecration of your name." Eventually, these were put on the back-burner and Katherine solely became associated ...

Spanish names for girls are so lovely! If you are looking for a name with Latin flair, take a look at this list! Every one of these names would flow wonderfully with a Spanish last name, and some of them would even work with a non-Spanish last name. No matter what origin your surname is, you've got to admit that these names are beautiful!  Which is your favorite? Adabella Adelina Adriana Aitana Alba Alejandra Alicia Alondra Amada Ana Angel/a Aniceta Arabella Aracely Aroa Belen Belisma Benecia Bianca Blanca Calida Camila Candela Carlota Carolina Catalina Christabel Clementina Concepcion Consuela Cristina Daniela Delores Dulce Eliana Esmeralda Estela Estrella Eulalia Evalia Felicidad Fidelia Francecsa Gabriela Gloria Graciela Guadalupe Havana Ignacia Ines Irati Isabella Jacinta Jimena Juliana Karina Laia Lenora Liliana Lolita Lorena Lucia Lucinda Magdalena Maite Mariana Marisol Maritza Marta Mercedes ...

The Boy Name of the Week comes straight off the list of Spanish Boy Names: Javier! Javier is the Spanish form of the name Xavier. Both of these names come from the Basque place name Etxaberri which means "the new house". Over time, it became Exaberri, then dropped the beginning e and final i. The X was originally pronounced with more of a "sh" sound. With influences from English, French and Spanish, pronunciation varies. Javier is typically pronounced the Spanish way "hab-YAIR" with a sort of combined b and v sound. In Portuguese, it still has a "sh" sound in place of the X. French would say HAV-ee-ay, and in English it is most correctly said ZAV-ee-er even though famous characters like Charles Xavier from the X-Men comics have influenced the pronunciation of X-ay-vee-er. A notable Xavier was St. Francis Xavier, or San Francisco Javier in Spanish (1506-1552). Once he gained fame as a Jesuit priest and missionary, many places and people w...

Spanish baby-naming traditions vary slightly from country to country, but overall, they are very similar. These customs appear in Spain, Mexico, certain islands in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. The latter four are grouped together and called "Hispanic America." In Spain, people today tend to bear a single given name and two surnames, or perhaps a "composite first name" like Juan Pablo followed by two surnames. The first surname is the father's first surname, and the second is the mother's first surname. Occasionally, the father's and mother's surnames could be reversed, but every sibling must have the same two surnames in the same order. It is so important that if the parents cannot agree on whose surname goes first, it is taken to court for an official to decide. For example, if a man named Alberto Sanchez Hernandez and a woman named Maria Ruiz Gonzales have a son named Eduardo, the child's name would most likely be Edua...

I'd like to share this wonderful list of names that generally work very handsomely with a Hispanic last name. Most of these options are rather exotic and have a unique flair to them.  Which are your favorite? Adan Adrian Alberto Alejandro Alvaro Antonio Armando Arnau Arsenio Barto Benicio Bernardo Brendano Carlos Carmelo Castel Cayo Cesar Chavez Cortez Cristobal Cristofer Cristian Cruz David Desiderio Diego Dionicio Eduardo Efren Elian Emiliano Enrique Ernesto Esteban Ezequiel Fabian Federico Fernando Francisco Gabriel Geraldo Gilberto Guillermo Hector Hernan Hugo Iago Ignacio Iker Isaias Izan Jaime Jairo Javier Joaquin Jorge Jose Josue Juan Julio Lalo Lazaro Leandro Leonardo Luis Manuel Marco Martino Maximo Miguel Montego Napier Narcisco Navarro Octavio Oswaldo Pablo Palomo Pascual Pedro Placido Quinto Rafael Ramirio Ramon Raul Reynaldo Ricardo Rodrigo Ruben Salvador Santiago San...

There are many baby-blogs and celebrity-blogs and just general news sites that love to nitpick the monikers chosen by celebrities. The most obvious recent example is Kimye's baby North West. It basically "went viral" and everyone was talking about it. Unfortunately, due to its "punny" nature, most of the talk wasn't on the up-and-up. Contrary to popular belief and stereotypes, many celebrities actually choose normal and lovely names. However, those are the ones that tend to get overlooked. As a media-driven society, we only remember the odd ones that fuel jokes on talk-shows. Here are some celebrity baby name choices from 2012 that I think are great!: Girls: Beatrice Jean (Bryce Dallas Howard) Pearl Clementine (Jack Osbourne) India Rose (Chris Hemsworth) Adalaide Marie Hope (Katherine Heigl) Cecilia Delphine (Majandra Delfino & David Walton) Marlowe Ottoline Layng (Sienna Miller) Faith Evangeline Elisa (Kelsey Grammer) Theodora Ro...

The Girl's Name of the Week comes straight from this week's list of top baby names from Switzerland: Clara. It ranked at #8 in French-Speaking Switzerland. Clara is a Latin name that means "bright or clear." It originates as a feminine form of the Late Latin name Clarus which itself was the name of a few early saints. Saint Clare of Assisi made this name popular in the 13th century. She left her wealthy family to found the order of nuns called the Poor Clares. Clare was the most popular form through the middle ages, and Clara became hot in the 19th century. It has also been featured on my up-and-coming vintage names list according to the 100 year rule . It was most popular in 1918 when 5,778 baby girls were born! Source Somewhere around the 1950s, the name declined in usage. Around 2000, Clara began picking up steam again, hitting a modern high-rank of #136 with 2,311 births. In recent years, Claire has been the more popular sister, while Clara was ve...

It is always fun to take a look at what kind of names are popular in other parts of the world. Sometimes, us American bloggers get so caught up writing about the Top US names that we forget to look around. In 2012, there were 82,164 live births in Switzerland. 39,729 were girls and 42,435 were boys. Below are the top names for the babies born to parents who speak French, German and Italian but live within Switzerland. It is so interesting that these names can come from one country and yet differ so greatly between the three languages. One thing is certain, they all tend to favor the "L" sound in many of these favorite names!  Take a look at the top 16 names for each language! French-Speaking Switzerland: Boys: 1. Gabriel 2. Luca 3. Thomas 4. Noah 5. Nathan 6. Lucas 7. Samuel 8. Theo Girls: 1. Emma 2. Léa 3. Chloé 4. Zoé 5. Lara 6. Eva 7. Charlotte 8. Clara German-Speaking Switzerland: Boys: 1. Noah 2. Luca 3. David 4. Leon 5. Leandro 6. N...

In the never-ending quest to be unique, some parents today think the best way to do that is to use "kreeaytiv" spellings. I'm going to flat-out say it: spelling a name incorrectly is not cute.  Yes, I'm calling it "incorrect" not "creative." If you think I'm being harsh, I apologize, but I know that many of my fellow name-bloggers would back me up on this. Professor Kara is in the classroom. Ponder for a minute. What are you doing to your child? Yes, it might seem cute to see a baby named Braylynn or Kaedynn, but what happens when they grow up and need to apply for a professional job? There are people who argue that a name should have nothing to do with their intelligence and credentials for said job, but could you really imagine the President of the United States being named Aiedynn Kristhian Smith when Aidan Christian Smith would be so much nicer? Imagine 50-60 years from now when a whole new flock of babies are being born (hopefull...

I decided to choose the Name of the Week from the Top 1000 baby names chart from England/Wales in 2012. My choice is #7, Alfie.  England is big on nickname names which basically means names that end with -ie and have a longer, "proper form" as well.  In this case, Alfie comes from the name Alfred. Derived from Old English, Alfred is composed of elements that mean "Elf Counsel".  This name dates back as far as Alfred the Great in the 9th-century, and probably farther. He was the King of Wessex who notoriously fought against the Danes living in northeastern England. Beyond that, he was a scholar who translated many Latin books into Old English. The name Alfred became very rare by the end of the middle ages and wasn't revived until the 18th century. Another famous Alfred was Lord Tennyson, a British poet who lived from 1809-1892. Alfred peaked in usage in the US in 1928 when 6,244 baby boys were born, ranking the name at #33. Since then it has gone downhil...

I am always fascinated by the top baby names in England/Wales too! Their population versus the population of the US is roughly 19:105. So to see such different numbers is fascinating. But even more interesting than the math is the completely different style of names that the Brits prefer.     Source. Take a look at the Top 1000 baby names that are popular in England/Wales for the 2012 birth year!: