The Art of Naming

To round out our week of examining French baby names and customs, here is one of my favorite choices for a girl! You voted for Colette on the poll that I had on the sidebar of the blog and she won with 40% of the vote! Colette is the short form of Nicolette which comes from Nicole, the French feminine form of the masculine name Nicholas. All of these related names (and believe me, it is a huge family tree ) come from the Ancient Greek name Nikolaos . They all mean "victory of the people" from the Greek words nike meaning "victory" and laos which refers to "people".  There are many names that come from this tree but let's focus on our lovely French name of the week, Colette. Famous namesakes include Saint Colette from 15th century France. She was a nun who was known for giving her money to the poor. There was also a French author known as Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954). There are several more that are listed on Nameberry if you'd l...

Featured French Names: Olivier  & Colette This month's edition of World-Wide Wednesday will focus on French baby names.  The French were originally very limited in what names they could use for a child because France was very strict as far as which names were and were not allowed. Traditionally, babies were only allowed to be named after Roman Catholic saints . Sometimes a child acquired the name of the saint who's National Saint Day fell on the day they were born. Today, that practice is not commonly used anymore, however most French people are still given the name of a saint or a version of a name of a saint. The Saint's Day associated with their name is then celebrated throughout their life as a second birthday. The most common saint names that were used include Jacques (James), Jean (John), Michel (Michael), Pierre (Peter), or Jean-Baptiste (John the Baptist) for males; and Marie (Mary), Jeanne (Jane), Marguerite (Margaret), Françoise (Frances), or Élisabeth...

I selected four French boy names and threw them in a poll on the blog. You voted and Olivier was barely the winner with 14 votes, sneaking past front-runner Laurent in the 11th hour. So let's take a look at the French name Olivier as we kick off French-Week! Stay tuned for our World-Wide Wednesday post about French naming customs too, and a girl name on Friday! Parents are in love with Oliver today. Nameberry describes it as "energetic and good-natured, stylish but not nearly as trendy as twin-sister Olivia, with a meaning symbolizing peace and fruitfulness." The French Olivier may have pronunciation problems in the US along with sister Olivie, however there are also other similar options such as the Spanish Olivero and the Italian Oliviero. Olive is also becoming a favorite for girls. With the following pronunciations, o-lee-VYAY (French), O-lee-veer (Dutch), Olivier isn't exactly rolling off American tongues the same way Oliver is. Both of these names may co...

In 1900, there was a big trend occurring among baby girl names. Parents loved the cutesy style of names that ended in -ie. These were not nicknames, they were given names. As you can see by the list below, there was a plethora of options just within the US Top 1000 names .  We're seeing a few of these threaten to come back into style today while others, like Sophie, Ellie and Sadie, are already hot! Drew Barrymore just used the name Frankie for her daughter last month! Did your [great] great-grandmother have a name like this? If so, do share it with us in the comment section below! Which of these -ie names are your favorite? Would you ever use it? Abbie                   Addie Aggie Allie Amie Ammie Angie Annie Arie Arlie Arrie Artie Audie Bennie Berdie Bertie Bessie Bettie Billie Birdie Bobbie Bonnie Callie Carrie Cassie Charlie Christie Classie Clemmie Cordie Corrie Dessie Dicie Dixie Dol...

We see plenty of interesting and odd baby names being used today but it is not a new concept. People have always had strange names. I thought it would be fun to take a look in the past and see what kind of names were being given to the peers of our [great] great-grandparents. Way back in 1900, I found some interesting choices for baby boys. These were all listed on the US Top 1000 chart for boys 114 years ago. Do you think any are actually usable or are they too out there? Admiral                             Alford Brown Buddie Burl Cleve Cloyd Collis Colonel Connie Curley Doctor Dorsey Earlie Early Effie Elige Ellsworth Elmore Elzie Ewell Fate Foy French Furman Gaylord Goebel Green Gust Hamp Henery Hobart Hosie Hyman Junious Lemon Less Lige Luster Mearl Moody Norval Otha Pink Pinkney Pleas Pleasant Rolla Rosevelt Rossie Sim Son Spurgeon Tallie Vester W...

This is the ultimate initial challenge! I do have to admit that I borrowed the idea from my friend over at nameddict.   I came across it at the perfect time since I was just about to post Tuesday's blog about month names. I found this challenge to be a genius idea that I hadn't seen before, and it is fun!  Imagine you have twelve babies to name and give it a try! Using the three-letter abbreviations for each month, come up with the perfect baby name using those letters as a first/middle/middle combo. There's a Y and 3 U's that will make it a bit tricky!  I will post my names below. Feel free to share yours in the comment section or on Facebook! My names: JAN: Johanna Adelaide Nell FEB: Frederick Evan Benedict MAR: Marius Alexander Rafferty APR: Amabel Penelope Rose MAY: Matilda Alice Yvonne JUN: Julius Ulrich Nathaniel JUL: Josephine Uma Lenore AUG: Alistair Ulysses George SEP: Sebastian Evander Paul OCT: Octavia Claire Tamsin NOV: Nadia Olive Valent...

The lovely name June has been used for girls as a given name since the 19th century!  Boys occasionally wear it too but not to the same extent as girls.  As a month name, June originally comes from the name of the Roman goddess Juno. Juno's true meaning is unknown but it is said to possibly be related to a root name meaning "youth". Juno was the wife of Jupiter in Roman mythology and considered the queen of the heavens. She protected marriage, women and childbirth. That is one of the reasons that many weddings traditionally took place in the month of June. This sweet name hasn't been very popular lately.  In fact, there was a twenty year dry-spell that ended in 2007 where June was not ranked within the Top 1000 names at all. Until recently, She's generally been considered an old-fashioned, grandma name because of her super-popularity that peaked in 1925. But as the 100 year rule goes, she's due to become a hot name once again and we're already see...