The Art of Naming

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. Nico
7. Levin
8. Julian

Girls:
1. Mia
2. Alina
3. Laura
4. Julia
5. Anna
6. Emma
7. Leonie
8. Lena

Italian-Speaking Switzerland:

Boys:
1. Gabriel
2. Alessandro
3. Leonardo
4. Matteo
5. Nathan
6. Samuele
7. Elia
8. Samuel

Girls:
1. Sofia
2. Alice
3. Emma
4. Elisa
5. Giulia
6. Martina
7. Giada
8. Giorgia

I think I would side with the French-Speaking list but they are all pretty great! Which do you like best?

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 (hopefully with some really great vintage names, if this cranky old lady has a say), and the children of the 2010s are brand-new grandparents.  "Let's go to Grandpa Leeum and Grandma Abygayle's house!"  Liam and Abigail are wonderful names in and of themselves, but they're not so wonderful with those unnecessarily complicated spellings.

Keep in mind that these are real spellings from real babies born in 2012. I'm not just making these up!

While I understand that we are free to express ourselves any way we want through our children's names, I only wish it would be taken more seriously.

Misspelling a name is not cute. It does not automatically make the child unique from his peers. Considering that names are used verbally so often, the "unique" Klohie really is no different than all of the girls named Chloe. The difference is that Klohie will have issues for the rest of her life having to spell it to everyone she meets, and all of the Chloes won't.

Even more confusing than that are the following real misspelled names. Some of them don't even seem like a name! See if you can guess what it is supposed to be:

Boys:  

Celebrating 60 wonderful years together: Rhyley Jaxxyn Miller and his lovely wife Serynity Kaydynse Miller. Nope, sorry, I refuse to picture it!

Izaiya
Koltynn
Graisyn
Zakori
Jysaiah
Kuper
Shaughn
Markeise
Sylys
Jailon
Icker
Daviyon
Kamaury
Khyri
Jaxsten
Akiles

Girls:

Awbree
Madylyn
Kleigh
Aerionna
Mikaelah
Miaya
Juliyanna
Skarlet
Lundynn
Jenesys
Trenidy
Jizel
Kynzley
Preslea
Deissy

Personally, I'd rather be unique by finding names that are actually rarely used. Its even better when they have a history behind them and one or two standard spellings.

There are many wonderful names that don't even rank in the Top 1000 like:

Minerva #3936
Eugenia  #4492
Andromeda #4565
Augusta #4693
Eloisa #4844
Helene #3851
Bryony #8661

Leopold #2184
Benedict #1736
Amadeus #2431
Viggo  #3680
Richmond #3952
Indiana #4032
Ewan #1245

I could go on and on. I'd much prefer these rarely used names to anything that has been tinkered with. Sophia will always be better than Sofeeya, even if it is the number one name in the country.

Above all else, remember that babies grow up to become a wide variety of people. What seems cute at the time may totally clash with who they become. For an extreme example (and some giggles) could you imagine this man named Braxxtyn or Gavynn or Loukas?

I would name him Isaac (not Izzak)

What do you think about this issue? Do you think it is fine that parents are running amok and refusing to use tried-and-true spellings? Do you think there should be some kind of baby-naming-movement that strongly, but lovingly, imposes correct spellings on new parents?  Where do YOU draw the line?

Let me know in the comment section below!

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 downhill.  It seems to be in danger of falling off the top 1000 chart in the next couple years at the rate it is falling. It fell to #949 in 2012 with only 211 boys born.

Source

As for Alfie, it may be #7 in England, but here in the States, it is no where near the Top 1000.  With a mere 13 births in 2012, Alfie ranks in at a very unpopular #6271. The name has always been sporadically used. There are no births on record for 2002-2005, and it is even worse before then, except for a slight peak from 1966-1978.  Alfie first appeared in the US in 1917, but it was rarely used. In fact, there were only 44 Alfie's born between 1917 and 1949, and none again until that peak in 1966.

I would use the combo Alfie James because I think its adorable.  Other ideas include Alfie Richmond, Alfie Theodore, Alfie Sebastian and Alfie Thomas.

What do you think? Are you a fan of these nickname names? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Sibling Name Ideas:
Other Nickname Names: Archie, Charlie, Freddie, Jamie, Teddy, Willy / Ally, Betsy, Evie, Jackie, Katie, Millie, Nellie

Sisters: Alice, Caroline, Elizabeth, Genevieve, Josephine, Katherine, Marion, Rose, Tabitha
Brothers: Andrew, Arthur, Edward, Frederick, George, Henry, Jack, Matthew, Peter, Thomas

Middle Name Ideas:
Alfie Theodore
Alfie Jonathan
Alfie Logan
Alfie Benjamin
Alfie Warren

As a Middle Name:
Nathan Alfie
Wilfred Alfie
Vincent Alfie
William Alfie
Daniel Alfie

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.

I love questions about popularity. I am always wondering if parents choose names because of how popular (or unpopular) they are. And with that, do they also avoid certain names because they're popular or unheard of?

The above poll focused on names that start with Isa-.  It is no secret that Isabella was the #1 name in 2009 and 2010 after seeming to come out of nowhere suddenly in the early 2000s. In fact, Isabella was rather obscure, not even on the top 1000 chart, between 1949 and 1990.

I didn't think to include Isabelle on the poll, but she's not nearly as popular as Isabella. That -a ending makes all the difference.  Isabelle ranked at #126 in 2012, while Isabella is #3.  Alternatively, Isabel ranked right behind Isabelle at #134. I wonder how many of you would have voted for Isabelle or Isabel.

What about other options that don't have a bell chained to it?

The lovely Isadora is my personal favorite. I would use this over Isabella any day! And the rare and unique Isabeau was the third option on the poll.

These three names have differing popularity on actual babies, but on The Art of Naming, there was one clear winner. Here are the poll results:


This tells me that most of you would prefer to be right in the middle of the popularity scale. Here is where the names ranked in 2012:

Isabella ranked at #3
Isadora ranked at #1497
Isabeau ranked at #10664


Isadora comes from Isidora which is the female form of the male name Isidore.  Isadora comes from Greek elements meaning "Gift of Isis".  As you can see above, Isadora is not even close to ranking in the US Top 1000. It wasn't used at all from 1958-1968, but it has been around since the 1880s, even ranking at a high of #654 in 1882. But that ranking only accounted for 9 births. I get the feeling this name will continue to slowly gain more usage over the next few years. There was a record 148 babies born last year with this name.  Read more about this name here.


Which of these names do you like best?

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 mentions poetry and prose. Read it if you'd like!

What about the popularity of the name in other countries? The earliest this name has been traced back to is 1917 in Norway.  The most recent information I could find on the number of births per year with the name Eir was in 2009 and it goes like this:

Norway: 80 females as a first name
Norway: 130 females if counting both the first and middle names.
Sweden: 7 females as a first name
Sweden: 30 females, including middle names.
Sweden: 3 males had it as a middle name.
Denmark: 5 female first names
Finland: 5 female and 5 male middle names.

In Finland, records show that there have been less than 25 males and less than 25 females who have ever had the name since 1899. Interesting!

Eir is definitely a rare name all around. While I love the idea of it, I'm pretty sure it won't work very well on a modern American child, but only because of pronunciation issues. It is definitely cool and unique otherwise.

However, another form of Eir that is potentially used in Norway and Sweden is Eira. You can hear the pronunciation of it here. It is a little easier to say and I think its slightly prettier because of the fashionable -a ending. It sounds like "eye-ir-ah" to me but with some rolling of the sounds that I'm not sure how to describe in written word. Just go listen to it! :)

What do you think of this "buried treasure" of a name? Do you have any guilty pleasure names that you totally love but will probably never use? I think Eir is on my list now.

Thanks again, Kiira!

Sibling Name Ideas:
Sisters: Aoife, Axelia,  Catriona, Dahlia, Dagmar, Elin, Freya, Hanne, Karena, Linnea, Maren, Ottilia, Sigrid, Sorena

Brothers: Alder, Auren, Connall, Dyre, Gael, Hans, Johannes, Knute, Leif, Nils, Ragnar, Sorren, Thane, Viggo

See that poll above? I asked you what I thought was a very difficult question, but surprisingly, the answer was a very easy choice to make.

The clear-cut favorite Em- name on The Art of Naming is Emmeline. In fact, just turn the poll upside-down to put the names in the correct order! Here are the official results:


This was a Popularity Question. I wanted to know how many people would prefer sticking to something popular like Emma or Emily, and how many people would opt for the bolder, rarer choices like Emerald and Emmeline, with Emilia tucked safely in the middle.


The name Emerald does indeed come from the word for the green precious stone, which is the birthstone of May. The emerald supposedly imparts love to the bearer, which can only make the name that much more desirable. In 2012, there were 145 baby girls and 6 baby boys born with this name. The girls ranked in at #1518 in the US.

Emilia has been gaining popularity for decades and has finally crossed the 1000 births-per-year milestone with 1,207 girls born in 2012. It ranks in at #268 in the US; both of these statistics are record-highs. Emilia is the feminine form of the Roman Family name Aemilius  which was derived from Latin "aemulus" meaning "rival".

Like Emilia, Emily comes from the same Roman Family name and has the same meaning. It was brought to England in the 18th century. It was thought to come from the German Amelia, since Princess Amelia Sophia (1711-1786) was called Emily, but the two names are unrelated. Emily was always moderately used, but began its ascent to the baby-name throne in the 1970s, hitting the #1 spot in 1996. It was finally usupred by Emma in 2008 and has been sitting comfortably at #6 for the past 4 years.

Emma is not as popular as Emily in modern times. It was only the #1 name in the US for 2008. However, Emma wins the popularity contest around the turn of the century. It ranked in the top 10 from 1880-1897 and had its own baby-boom around 1920. It lost a bit of steam from the 50s to the mid-80s, but definitely gained momentum again by the 90s. The 2000s and the 2010s continue to produce thousands of baby Emmas and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. I happen to love the name! However, Emma is not related to Emily. It is originally a short form of Germanic names that began with the element "ermen" meaning "whole" or "universal".

Which did you vote for? If popularity was not an issue, which name would you choose based on sound and meaning alone?  Emma is my ultimate favorite, but because of popularity, I would choose Emmeline instead.  Let me know what you think!