The Art of Naming

Say you're looking for a long name for your baby boy and you can't think of much beyond Alexander or Maximilian. Fear not! Let this be your handy resource for long boy names! Every name on this list is 4 syllables long or more. There are definitely plenty of interesting, unusual choices and some international ideas borrowed from origins around the world. Which of these names are your favorites? Can you think of any that could be added? Share your favorites in the comment section below! Abelardo                     Adalberto Agapito Aleczander Alejandro Aleksander Alessandro Alexander Alexandro Alexzander Amadeo Amadeus Ambrosio Anacleto Ananias Aniceto Antonino Antonio Apolinar Archimedes Aristides Arsenio Bartholomew Bartolomé Bartolomeo Calogero Candelario Casimiro Catarino Cayetano Celestino Cipriano Ciriaco Constantino Constantinos Cornelius Damarion Deangelo Demetrius Dionisio Domitilo Dumisani Ebenezer          

As one year winds down and another promises to begin, we are all given a sense of a clean slate. 2015 will bring about the feelings of a fresh start and many will have high hopes for the future in the form of resolutions. These similar feelings can also be experienced during pregnancy as we anticipate the arrival of a brand new, tiny person. If you're expecting a child in January, you may feel inspired by the following New Year related baby names: Girl: Asha Aurora Beatrice Dagny Dawn Esperanza Eve Garnet Hope January Janvière Makara Mika Nadia Neoma Newlyn Neve Nova Novella Oriana Renee Roxana Taraja Zara Zora Zorina Boy: Abraham Anno Asher Aster Davian Felix Finn Gennaro Navin Neo Newcomb Newell Newman Orion Paxton Ridley Thaddeus Walid Whittaker Which of these do you like most? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

This month's birth announcement list is full of some pretty wonderful choices! If you had to name triplets using just the names below, (keeping the first/middle combinations as they are), which would you choose? Share your answers in the comments below! Adalyn Mae Amelia Belle Anaya Amore Anna Marie Autumn Giselle Brooke Lynn Cora Evangeline Ella Christine Emily Hannah Evelyn Marie Francesca Nicole Gianna Lucia Kalista Faye Lenaia Marie Lila Rae Lillianna Grace Lily Faye Matilda Jayne Natalia Maria Paityn Belle Rayne Alonna Riley May Sabrina Lynn Sadie Ann Sophia Jean Willow Brooke Aidan Timothy Blake Gregory Brayden Thomas Christopher Michael Daniel Richard Ethan Michael Everett Walter Jameson Thomas Jayce Matthew Joseph Morris Joshua Melford Jonathan Paul Leonidas Gilbert Lincoln David Mason Patrick Miles Joseph Nathaniel James Owen Frederick Samuel Benjamin Sawyer William Sky Landen Tyler Daniel William Owen Wyatt John Xande

It isn't officially winter yet, but the snow is already starting to fall in many places. There is something so magical about the white snow. If you're a fan of sipping hot cocoa in front of the fire and gazing out the window as the snowflakes flutter down from the night sky, you may find yourself in love with this list of wintery baby girl names. There's also plenty of holiday-related choices for you as well if you're expecting a winter or Christmas baby!  Which of these are your favorite? Adair                                         Alaska Amaryllis Angelica Aspen Belle Berry Bianca Camellia Carol Christabel Christmas Chrysanthemum Clara Coco Crimson Crystal Dancer December Demi Dorothea Eira Eirwen Eliora Epiphany Estelle Eve February Finola Fire Freesia Frostine Gabrielle Garnet Holiday Holly Hope Icelyn Imani Ivy January Jenara Josephine Joy Lucia Lumi Lux Mary Merry Marcissa Natalie Neva Neve Nevada

Even if the first day of Winter doesn't officially arrive until December 21st, you're surely feeling a cold breeze or two by now. This magical, snowy time of year puts people in a rather festive mood. If you're expecting a baby this winter, you're sure to find this list useful for a timely name. If you're expecting a baby boy towards the end of December, well, you'll probably really love this list for its holiday-related ideas!  Whether you like the chill in the air or the roaring heat of a fire, these baby names sure are wonderful. Angel Aster Aubin Balthasar Blaze Branch Chill Christian Colden Coldin Cole Crispin Darke Demitri Douglas Emmanuel Felix Frost Gabriel Glover Hail Jack Joseph March Melchior Nicholas Noel North Oakley Pax Pine Phelan Quilo Ralph Robin Rollo Rory Rudolph Rufus Snowden Storm Theodore Valentine Whittaker Winterhawk Yule Zev Zohar Which of these are your favorites? Can you think of a

Two polls were recently posted on our Facebook page and we've received quite a few votes, but we could always use more for the sake of the data!  If you have a moment, vote for your favorite names within the US Top 100 chart. The polls are embedded below and your answers are completely anonymous! Loading... It will take a bit of scrolling to view them all but don't give up! Loading... Thanks for voting! Don't forget to share this with your poll-loving friends!

You and your partner just found out that you're expecting a baby girl and you couldn't be happier. Immediately, baby names pop into your mind and you're determined to find one that will honor your beloved grandmother. The only problem is that you totally and completely hate her name. Oops! It's difficult when you love someone so much that you want to honor them but, in your mind, their name leaves little to be desired. You simply cannot picture yourself yelling at little Thelma across the playground and you couldn't handle saying Dolores a hundred times a day. These names work beautifully on your grandmother but they are not right for your modern daughter. What can you do? Here are ten exciting ways to reinvent, revamp and retrofit your loved one's name in order to fall in love with your choice while still honoring them. These will be in the order of most relevance to the person's actual name. The lower you go on the list, the less obvious the ho

Along with dozens of other names , Elsa comes from the name Elizabeth .  Of course, Elizabeth comes from the Greek form of the Hebrew name Elisheva. It means either "my God is an oath", "my God is abundance" or "pledged to God". Elizabeth has been extremely consistent in its popularity over the years, having always been in the Top 30 since 1880. The lovely German Elsa is also very consistent in its popularity since 1880 in the US. Since the release of the wildly successful movie Disney's Frozen in November 2013 featuring a Queen Elsa, the baby name Elsa is expected to leap up the charts in 2014.  Before Frozen, Elsa originally gained popularity as a name among English speakers because of Wagner's romantic opera Lohengrin in 1848. Elsa was the name of the heroine in the opera. I chose to feature Elsa as part of Scandinavian week because, while it is mostly used in Germany, it also has usage in the Scandinavian countries, particularly Sw

This edition of World-Wide Wednesday focuses on the baby names of Scandinavia. This includes the three kingdoms of Norway, Denmark and Sweden. These three countries are also categorized as Nordic countries along with Finland, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe islands. There is plenty of overlapping influence between the countries that sometimes is translated into their baby names. Most baby name sites group all of these together as one overall "origin" called Scandinavian names. In general, surnames, or "heritable family names", weren't used often in Scandinavia until rather recently in comparison with some other countries. In Denmark, an act was passed in 1526 that made families of nobility have to begin using a heritable name. High class people followed suit during the next few centuries and finally everyone else did later. They followed a patronymic naming tradition that gave the father's name to the children with the suffix "-sen" added to t

Welcome to Scandinavian Week! You may have seen the polls that I made on the sidebar of the blog and maybe you even voted for your favorite Scandinavian names for each gender. After a tie-breaker, the winning male name was Magnus. Magnus is a Late Latin name meaning "Great" but it is heavily used by Scandinavians, particularly those from Sweden, Norway and Denmark.  It became popular in those countries because of the 11th century King Magnus I of Norway. It was said that King Magnus I may have been named after another ruler, Charlemagne, who was also known as Carolus Magnus, or Charles the Great.  Others who bore the name Magnus include a 7th century saint, 6 more kings of Norway, and 3 kings of Sweden. In the middle ages, the name Magnus gained usage in Scotland and Ireland. Manus is an Irish variant of the name. There's also the Finnish variants Manu, Mauno and Maunu, and the Danish Mogens. Interestingly, from Magnus sprang forth the Medieval English name M

Recently, I was looking over the post I made last year regarding Colonial names . Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I thought I'd cover colonial names a bit more. Colonial names are full of history and laced with virtues and biblical associations. Sometimes these names are even comprised of long phrases . You probably won't see many boys named Comfort or girls named Modesty today, and something like The-Peace-of-God or Fight-the-good-fight-of-faith probably won't work well for official documents. This led me to wonder what the most usable, wearable names that were favored in early America might be. With much thought, scrutiny and consideration, I narrowed it down to my top 5 boy names and top 5 girl names that date back to the colonial era but can still sound fresh and usable today. Girls: Charlotte The lovely Charlotte is the French, feminine form of the name Charles which is typically listed as meaning "free man".  Modern parents love this n

Welcome to my new segment "Get To Know!"  Recently, I've had the opportunity to meet a few fellow name bloggers and I decided it'd be lovely to let you get to know them too. The naming community is such a wonderful place! If you truly love names, it never hurts to follow more bloggers to get your daily name fix.  Today, I had the honor of interviewing Meagan from TulipByAnyName .  She is most known for her work discussing interesting names on her YouTube channel. She is also one of the six  Name Sisters who run a great YouTube channel collectively.  Beyond videos, Meagan also has a successful blog and Instagram account that revolves around names. Most recently, she's become a new contributor to Nameberry's Berry Juice Blog , too! She is involved in lots of exciting name-related projects! Let's take a moment to learn more about her own personal name tastes and experiences with names: 1. What are your first and middle names? My name is Meaga

This compilation of birth announcements came from a couple hospitals in Indiana, USA. This batch seems to be rather conservative and traditional. There aren't any wacky or odd names that stand out. If you could only name your child one of these names, which would you choose? Girls:  Abigail Rae Adlee Dawn Alisa Ray Allison Renae Alyssa Gale Anna Jean Annabelle Rose Aria Marie Athena Lee Autumn Lynn Avery Kay Bailey Alexis Breanna Lee Cassandra Marie Cora Mae Daisy Faith Delaney Carol-Sue Emory Louise Evelynn Jane Gabriella Pearl Gracie LouAnn Hadley Caroline Harper Rayne Kiara Rose Layla Lyda-Jean Leyla Brianne Irene Madison Faith Maisie Claiborne Mila Jean Molly Suzanne Rebekah Joy Hadessah Reece Addison Saria Jane Savannah Nadine Skylar Rose Mae Sophia Fern Sydney Amara Zoey Kiana-Marie Boys: Benjamin Scott Bryan Manuel Bryce Andrew Caleb Duane Christopher Scott Cooper Andrew Cruz Michael David Samuel Elijah Lewis Elijah Mich

To complement Tuesday's post regarding the best V names for girls , and last week's post about the best V names for boys , I chose to feature the feminine name Savannah which contains the letter V. Savannah isn't just a city in the state of Georgia, USA. It comes from an English word that indicates a large, grassy plain. Originally, Savannah comes from a Taino (Native American) word zabana. Variants of the name include Zavanna and Savanna. It's a place name and a nature name. Savannah gained usage as a baby name in the 19th century. It has also been on record in the US every year since 1880 but its usage was very minimal until it suddenly boomed in the 1980s. This increase in births-per-year is most likely a result of the 1982 movie "Savannah Smiles". There were only 43 births in 1981, 118 in 1982 and in 1983, there were 434 Savannahs born. That means the name went from ranking in the 1100s to being #466 in just one year. The year 2000 had a record-h

The letter V has a certain appeal to it that has been captivating modern parents, especially the Av- and Ev- names. This is a compilation of the best girl names that contain the letter V. It may seem long, but trust me, I narrowed it down quite a bit. There just happens to be a lot of lovely name options with a V in them! Which of these do you like best? Alivia                 Alva Ava Avabelle Avah Avalee Avalie Avalina Avaline Avalon Avalyn Avalynn Avani Avari Avaya Ave Avelaine Avelina Aveline Aven Averie Averil Averley Avery Avia Aviana Avianna Avie Avielle Avigail Avila Avis Aviva Avonlea Avra Avrielle Avril Belva Bev Beverley Beverly Bevin Chava Chavela Chevaune Chevelle Chevonne Clavel Clove Clover Dava Davalyn Daveigh Daveney Davette Davia Daviana Davida Davina Devan Devanie Devany Devanya Deven Devere Devereaux Devin Devina Devlyn Devon Devona Devony Devora Devra Dove Elva Elvera E