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. 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!:

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 ...

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...

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: Emmeline: 19 votes  (45%) Emerald: 7 votes (16%) Emilia:  6 votes (14%) Emily:  5 votes (11%) Emma:  5 votes (11%) 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. Emmeline is destined to be popular in the coming years and its because of the popularity of Emma and Emily, as well as the popular -line names like Caroline and Madeline. Parents love the Em- but want to be unique, so Emmeline is a great choice!  It is a French name...