The Art of Naming

The baby name Dagny is our featured name, taken from our list of names ending with the letters "-ny". Dagny is an Old Norse name for females. It comes from Dagný, which was derived from the elements dagr meaning "day" and ný meaning "new". If you ask me, "new day" is an adorable meaning, and it would be especially sentimental on a rainbow baby. It is often used in Scandinavian countries, including Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.  Another form includes the Latvian Dagnija. This name first appeared on record in the US in 1893. It has never had significant popularity and it has never been commonly used. If you're looking for a truly rare name, Dagny is a safe bet.  The most births in a single year that were earned by Dagny is 80 in 2013, which is its highest popularity peak on record. There were only 37 girls named Dagny in 2016. This name has never ranked within the Top 1000 in the US. It did rank in Iceland in 2007 at #75. It

From our new series, Darby is today's featured "-by" name. Darby is both a masculine and a feminine name. It originally comes from the name Derby which is an Old Norse name meaning "deer town". Derby is the name of a town in England which lent itself to becoming an English surname as well. That's where Darby comes from. There is an interesting proverbial phrase used by the British called "Darby and Joan" which refers to a married couple who are celebrated for their mutual devotion to one another. It is used to describe a couple that are content to share a quiet life together. This saying was first mentioned in print as a poem by Henry Woodfall in 1735 which featured John Darby and his wife Joan as the main characters. Another poet named St. John Honeywood wrote something similar as well shortly after. These two poems aren't the only mentions for Darby and Joan since it is a common phrase. As a name, Darby was first used in the US o

The name Evander has two possible backgrounds. The first comes from the Latin Evandrus which comes from the Greek Ευανδρος ( Euandros ). This means "good man".  This background is the most widely accepted on baby naming sites. The second possible origin says that Evander is the anglicized form of Iomhar which is the Scottish from of Ivor. Ivor comes from the Old Norse name Ívarr meaning "bow warrior". Ivor was carried into Great Britain by Scandinavians in the Middle Ages. According to Behind the Name , in Roman mythology, Evander was an Arcadian hero who founded the city of Pallantium where Rome would later be built. He was responsible for bringing the Greek pantheon, laws and alphabet to Italy. This Evander also appeared in Virgil's Aeneid , a Latin epic poem written between 29 and 19 BC. The most well-known modern-day association with the name Evander belongs to boxing champ Evander Holyfield. There is also a Canadian hockey player named Evander

The Girl's Name of the Week also comes from my Australian research. The name is currently ranked at #130 in Australia and gaining popularity! The lovely name is Freya. Freya is a Nordic name meaning "a noble woman". The Norse goddess of love, beauty and fertility was named Freya.  However, this is not the usual spelling in Sweden and Denmark. In those countries, it is spelled Freja and in Norway it is Frøja, but Freya is the common spelling of the goddess's name in English. This moniker has been rather popular in the UK for quite a while! It ranks at #16 in Scotland, #19 in England and Wales, #53 in Northern Ireland and #61 in the Republic of Ireland. In Victoria, Australia, Freya is currently ranked at #130. As for the United States, this name was first seen in 1931 on 5 baby girls.  It wasn't until 1939 that it saw more regular usage, however many years had single digit births or none at all. Finally in 2007 the name hit the triple digit mark with 109 b

Our "Fan of the Week" Kiira chose a super cool girl's name straight out of Norse Mythology. Love it! The name is Eir. Eir was a Norse goddess of healing and medicine. The name means "mercy" or "protection, help" in Old Norse. If you're wondering how it is pronounced, you can listen to it here .  To my ear, this Icelandic pronunciation almost sounds like "ayvf."  I've also heard it said sort of like "air" on a character in the video game "Guild Wars 2," Eir Stegalkin. No matter how you may pronounce it, this name is rare. And I mean RARE. Upon researching the number of births that Eir has had in the US, well, the results came back "No matches were found." Aha! Nobody in the States has ever used this name. Well, at least not the minimum requisite of 5 babies per year in order to be recorded. Despite these statistics, there's actually quite a bit of information on the name on Wikipedia , which