Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Welcome to the World: The Amazing Baby Name Book


HALLIE EPHRON: Naming is a tricky business. I wrote a scene in my first suspense novel, NEVER TELL A LIE, with this back and forth between a married couple (Ivy and David Rose), discussing what they're going to name their about-to-be first born:

“Boogie Rose,” David said as he drove them home in Ivy’s car.  
Traffic on the highway was starting to congeal as the evening rush began in earnest. He glanced over his shoulder and shifted lanes. “What do you think? Works if it’s a boy, works if it’s a girl.” 
“Works if it’s a band,” Ivy said.
“Well, we can’t keep calling her Sprout.”
“Gwyneth Paltrow named her baby Apple.”

It goes on with a few paragraphs of snappy repartee which comprises just about the only bit of dialogue that they used in the Lifetime Movie Network adaptation of the book. 

I am happy to report that name gaming runs in my family. My mother always insisted that a woman's first name was critical in defining her, especially since women got married and (in those days) shed their surnames and with them, a vestige of their originality. (Hence: Nora, Delia, Hallie, Amy. I definitely won the award for most unique but Delia's a close second.)

My husband and I had played that game when I was pregnant, bandying about names like Linoleum and Kapok (fortunately Molly and Naomi won the day.)

I'm trilled to introduce you to my nieces Anna Ephron Harari and Maia Wapnick and my sister Amy Ephron who have written an absolutely irresistible book to help the rest of us come up with the perfect names.

Welcome to the world: THE AMAZING BABY NAME BOOK: A (Possibly Helpful and Slightly amusing Guide from A to Z)!


ANNA EPHRON HARARI and MAIA WAPNICK:
It all started from a family dinner table game. Or at least we thought we were playing a nice family game. Our mom Amy, apparently, was writing a book. Always multitasking…

It was about 15 years ago and a handful of celebrities were starting to invent names for their children. And that got us thinking there were many other great words that could be names. So we’d take turns constructing little stories about them, like Banister–a great name for an east coast socialite–or Lucite–definitely an artist–or Sequin–an astrologer or maybe astronaut, Abacus–someone you’d want to cheat off in math class.

At the start of the pandemic, Amy revived the idea. By this time each of us had two children, and we could see from the class rosters that what had started as a celebrity subculture had taken hold of the world.

Parents today are looking for names for their kids that are reflective, unusual, and unique. And with so many encyclopedic tomes of baby name books out there, it’s hard to find the right name. Some parents have even turned to personal consultations with name experts. (We didn’t make that up! Though we sort of wish we had...).

We also maintain that among all these amazing one-of-a-kind names that are popping up, there are still so many great opportunities left unturned. There were also all these unsung heroes whose achievements we wanted to honor and celebrate, such as astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who was snubbed for the Nobel Prize, but whose portrait was recently hung in the Royal Society’s Carlton House in London.

Without realizing it, our fun little game evolved into an actual viable name book. And miraculously, Princeton Architectural Press was interested, and the amazing Lynn Grady was our shepherd!

Once we really got into the writing, we knew the illustrations were going to be crucial to create the right tone and vibe.

We were so lucky to work with the uber-talented artist Jennifer Bricking, who had collaborated with Amy on her children’s series, The Other Side. Her whimsical illustrations perfectly capture the levity, humor, and grace against the backdrop of the messy realities of parenthood.


To fill the pages, we pored over the names of gemstones, stars, mountain trails, mythological figures, we read from random pages in the dictionary, we looked at the census, at names of brands, names of colors. Pretty much all colors make great names, by the way.

We laughed a lot and also disagreed (can someone tell Amy IKEA is an incredible name?). And It was hard writing over Zoom, especially with all the difficulties pandemic life presented. It was hard to hear each other with six feet or more between us. And it was hard to stay on task when we were running down all these glorious rabbit holes of etymology, history, geography, and fantasy.

We had a great amount of fun writing this book together, and we hope you have fun reading it!
THE AMAZING BABY NAME BOOK!



About the Authors: Sisters Anna Ephron Harari and Maia Wapnick are co-authors, along with their mom, Amy Ephron, of The Amazing Baby Name Book: A (Possibly) Helpful and Slightly Amusing Guide from A to Z. Maia is the VP of Strategy at Hypothesis Group, where she spends her days testing names and analyzing consumer behavior and trends for brands like Toyota, Starbucks, Pinterest, and Disney. She has a four-year old (Zachary) and a 2-year old (Chloe). Anna is a writer/producer/director. Her debut short film was honored at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. She has a four-year old (Madeline) and a two-year old (Roman).

HALLIE: Need I say more? I was thrilled to find my name listed in the book, though really I'm happy being one of the very few people who have it. (Thanks, Mom!)

THE AMAZING BABY NAME BOOK has got to be the perfect gift for anyone contemplating adding a newborn to their family, or creating characters for a story. Not to mention all the writers on your gift list.  


In this era of inventive naming, are there any names that have caught your fancy of late?

120 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Amy, Maia, and Anna . . . your baby name book sounds absolutely delightful!

    I saw “Aviva” somewhere and it sort of stuck with me, but I’m not at all certain I would actually name my daughter Aviva, but perhaps . . . .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I knew someone whose daughter was named Aviva. Mother and daughter liked that the name is a palindrome and had visual symmetry. But as I’m typing this, I realize most palindromes will have visual symmetry, depending on the middle letter.

      Delete
    2. Joan, a high school classmate's middle name is Aviva. I had never heard of that name. I think it is a Hebrew name.

      Diana

      Delete
    3. When I was pregnant with my second one of the women who worked out at the Y on my same schedule had a baby named Aviva. It means "life", she said. I always thought it was a pretty name.

      Delete
    4. Diana, I was going to mention that I thought it was Hebrew, too.

      Delete
    5. Karen, it means Spring. Haim means life.

      Delete
    6. I love AVIVA. Yes it's visually a symmetric! And I know someone with the name and she's told me it's Israeli.

      But only a *some* letters yield visual bilateral symmetry - A NOT B or C or D or E or F or G... H or I but NOT J or K or L... M (And so it goes. So interesting to contemplate! Curious minds...

      Delete
    7. Aviva is a wonderful name! We love a palindrome and the Aviva we know is extremely kind and wicked smart

      Delete
    8. Anna is also a palindrome and there is definite magic in the symmetry of a palindrome name!!

      Delete
  2. Congratulations, Amy, Maia and Anna, I would love to read your Amazing Baby Name book. I loved Amy's Castle in the Air series. It was a wonderful discovery at the library sale. Once I read the first book, I was hooked! Where did the name Maia come from, if I may ask? Anna is a good name with same letters for beginning and ending of the name.

    Hallie, I love your name because it is so easy to pronounce. I noticed that the H names are easier for me to pronounce than the J names. My 5th cousin is named Halle. Her mother and my father are 4th cousins.

    Before I was born, my parents thought that I was going to be a boy so they picked Alexander for my name. I am laughing because when my father came back to the hospital, I was born and the doctor said "I am sorry to inform you that it is a girl." Ha ha ha. I am happy that I am a girl because I can wear makeup and wear dressed. I once asked my mom why I was not named Alexandra. She did not like the nicknames. I would have liked that name because the Queen of England was named Alexandra. And she was a Danish princess.

    My father and his father have the same name. My father did not want his son to have the same name. However, his brother was named after their grandfather. He named his son after himself and I think his grandson has the same name too. My Mom has an Irish name. My grandfather loved Irish names. My mom's mom had an Irish name too. Ironically, the family originated in Spain, not Ireland unless you go far back enough. My Mom's DNA showed 2 percent Irish, though.

    Speaking of names, I remember when my cousin was expecting her second baby. We did not know if it was a girl or a boy. We were talking about girl names. She, her husband, and her daughter from her first marriage agreed on the name Madeleine. I loved that name because I loved the children's book. Her first daughter is named Jennifer.

    Both girls, as adults, decided to change their names to Juniper and Riley. Juniper was studying to become a herbalist. Riley could be a girl or a boy name. And I loved the name Madeleine. When I was in Sweden, there were postcards with pictures of Princess Madeleine of Sweden and I sent a postcard to my cousin's Madeleine.

    A friend named her daughter Aria. Another cousin and her husband named their son Mattias after a Dutch friend. It is unusual in America, Usually it is Matthew. I like the spelling Mattias.

    If I had children, I would have given them names that were easy for me to pronounce. Definitely NOT J names. ha ha. When I say J, it comes out as SH.

    Diana

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Diana! Madeline (Anna's daughter is a Madeline and she's a pip!) And yes, the SOUND of a name is so important.

      Delete
    2. thanks Diana, for your kind words! Maia is spelled the Greek way! She is the oldest of 7 sisters/stars in the Pleiades, the daughters of Athena. The name was initially suggested to me by their uncle, Delia’s 2nd husband, Jerry Kass. I loved the Greek spelling and that they’re often portrayed as ballerinas, which Maia also is! Her middle name is Calypso. That was me!! Thank you for loving Tess & Max, the brother & sister in The Castle in the Mist!!

      Delete
    3. Thank you. I have been meaning to ask how your parents picked the name Delia? A family member named their daughter Delia because they loved the name from a folk song. And Nora is another name that I wondered about. A college friend named her daughter Nora and I learned that it is both Hebrew and Irish names. It means ? Beloved ? in Hebrew and I remember that Nora is an Irish name. This friend is Irish.

      Diana

      Delete
    4. I liked to think our mother picked NORA for Ibsen's Nora isn't A DOLL'S HOUSE - a play in which Nora famously walks out on a stifling marriage.

      Delete
    5. Hallie, thank you for the reminder. I had forgotten about Nora from A DOLL'S HOUSE.

      Diana

      Delete
  3. What a fun project for a family, especially for a family of writers. Third generation! That's pretty special, all by itself.

    My middle daughter is Robin Charlotte, her middle name after my beloved great grandmother, a tiny, elegant woman we called Little Grandma. Robin is also very petite, and Charlotte means "little woman". In thirteen years of elementary and high school she was always the only Robin in the building, student or staff. It's always been one of my favorite names. However, for the first two days of her life we called her Charlotte Trillium until I came to my senses.

    My grand nieces all have interesting names: Jasmine, Riley, Jocelyn, Amelia, Bella, Olivia, and Nora Joan on one side, and Maple and Rosie on the other. The boys are equally so: Eastin, Nathan, Maslow, and Karver (combination of his great grandfathers, Karl and Vernon).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a great bunch of names! Though I do love Charlotte Trillium.

      Delete
    2. What's funny about the younger generation having all these great, unusual names is that MY generation had the least imaginative ones. Four named Jim, six named Bill, two Barbaras nicknamed Bobbie, etc. Lots of Juniors and so on, and in our family tree it's hard to differentiate between generations, there are so many Matthews and Michaels.

      Delete
    3. Thank you, Karen! Maple is in the book, I think! And we definitely need to add Maslow to our next edition!

      Delete
    4. Maia, our family name is Maslowski. The niece whose son this is still uses her maiden name, and she wanted to combine it with her husband's surname.

      Delete
  4. Congratulations on your amazing book. Choosing names is such fun. My parents chose Celia for me and when my sister arrived six years later, my father chose Rosalind. “ you can’t call her that” said my mother, “Too late, and why not? I’ve telegraphed the family” said my father having completely forgotten As You Like It. So Rosalind she is. My elder g’son (2+ at the time)named the young while still in the womb by referring to the bump as Baby Connor, and so he was. But the prettiest name I’ve come across is the new granddaughter of a friend whose parents have called her Ruby Wren, so evocative and sweet - Celia

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wren! Isn't that Debs' granddaughter's name? I love it, too.

      Delete
  5. Great idea for a book! Lots of people flounder over names. We had some very interesting conversations over dog names that in retrospect, were hilarious. My aunt told me I'd ruined a name for all eternity for our family by bestowing it on a dog! We still laugh.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ruined it? Well, I suppose you don't see Fido or Spot in the list. Wondering if Anna and Maia and Amy ruled out dog names?

      Delete
    2. My son remembered the conversation with my aunt and gave his son that dog's name for a middle name! My aunt never knew, but my cousins do. Families!

      Delete
    3. We definitely don't rule out dog names! Theo and Spartacus would make perfect baby names

      Delete
    4. I have a dear friend who did not think she could have children so she used her favorite name (which coincidentally is Nora) on her dog, so when she was able to have a daughter she had to explore more names, and came up with the beautiful name Maude

      Delete
  6. I love this book! As far as interesting names go, my favorite is the one I saw in a name tag of a woman at my local FedEx office: Velveeta.

    I wonder if that name made it into this book?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Velveeta... going to check now.

      Delete
    2. Lol. It's a little cheesy.

      Delete
    3. Velveeta is a great one! When Amy and Anna and I were at lunch trying to write together one day, our server's name was Gimlet!

      Delete
    4. As someone who worked as a waitress for many more years than I want to recall, I'm not sure servers' names are always the ones their parents gave them! After being instructed to say to each and every customer, no matter how many times they had come to the restaurant for lunch, "Hi! My name is *** and I'll be your waitress today! I just made up a new name for every shift: Bathsheba, Hermione, Octopus, Peapod, whatever. The regulars enjoyed it. - Melanie

      Delete
    5. Melanie, I love that you made up a new name for every shift. Diana

      Delete
  7. Yay for this book!
    Hmmm, choosing a unique name may seem great to the parents but remember that the poor kid has to live with it for the rest of his/her life. There are downfalls. Getting bullied at school, having their names misspelled or mispronounced all the time.

    I am currently playing an online word game with a woman named CRIKET. I wonder how often her name gets misspelled on a form.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Misspelled and Mispronounced... Krik-ett or Krike-ett? I'm used to that problem with HALLIE (hayley, holly) - People tend to want to call you by a name they've heard before.

      Delete
    2. Yes; you need to be weary of playground teasing, but now it's become the norm to have a unique name. My son has two kids in his class named Wilder!

      Delete
  8. What a fun idea! I love the illustration too. I was reflecting that someone named "A" would always be top of their class. There's an NPR host named A Martinez, but I don't know if A is his real name or just a nickname he uses on the air.
    When my son was young, we lived next door to a family whose three boys all had first names that could be last names: Taylor, Logan, Parker... and the family's last name was Blair. I think that could get a little confusing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's one of my naming rules for writing... Only one last name to a character. Otherwise it's too confusing.

      Delete
    2. Thank you, Gillian! Our illustrator, Jen Bricking is so talented!

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. Gillian, that A Martinez's first name is George. There's also an actor named A Martinez (he's in Longmire), and his first name is Adolpho.

      Delete
    5. Karen in Ohio, thank you...not at all what I expected!

      Delete
  9. Fun idea about baby names, though as a retired school teacher I second Grace's comment about the burden for children of very unusual names.

    If you want to see unusual names, however, just go back in American history. In the days of small towns, closely related families, and vast litters of children, parents were challenged to come up with new ideas. After running through all the usual names, most fell back on using the mother's surname as a first name. (This practice hung on longer in the South than it did in the North, likely because Yankees ran out of land sooner and began moving out, so there was not as much "name pressure.") But in the 18th century in CT I have found many variations of this, leading to boy named "Hoyt Scofield" and "Scofield Hoyt" in the same town, and even a Congregational minister afflicted with the first name "Blackleach." How about the Rev. War colonel "Return Jonathan" Meigs? (His father's name was Jonathan.) My own first name is an unusual Southern last name. A friend met another woman, on the other side of the country, with this name and put us in touch — it turned out our great-grandmothers were sisters in a small Alabama town just after the Civil War.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You need to watch where the name will be used or registered. We lived in Quebec for a while and went to register our son’s name. They argued that we could not call him Michael Lewis Patrick, because Lewis was his saint’s name and could not be used until he was confirmed. (we were not catholic, hence the reason for registering him at the town hall.) Child 3 was Harriet Elizabeth – to be called Elizabeth. On reflection she should have been named Harriet – anyway all mail, social insurance, whatever came to H Patrick. Jack’s nephew was Roger Warren, always called Warren except in the police force where there were no exceptions to being called by your first name on the birth certificate. As for being a boy with a name like Patrick for a surname – no one ever knew what was their ‘real’ name.

      Delete
    2. YIKES!! This is giving me ideas for hiding characters' true identities...

      Delete
    3. Yes, to the problems of going by a middle name, which three of us siblings do. My brother's first name is William, but has always been called by his middle name. However, all official mail is addressed "Wm. --- -------." It IS handy for recognizing telemarketers -- when the voice says, "May I speak to Wm?"

      Delete
  10. This would probably also be a great resource for frustrated writers looking for just the right character name.

    We stayed traditional when it came to baby names. My daughter's name was a foregone conclusion - after both grandmothers, a family tradition. The Girl doesn't mind her first name, but hates her middle name. LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love loved loved my middle name (Elizabeth)... After Ms Taylor of course. My daughter Naomi used to say she preferred her middle name, Samantha. One year she went to summer camp and had everyone call her Samantha. Sam. Sigh.

      Delete
  11. This book sounds like a fun read. Congrats to Anna, Maia and Amy!

    I like names that can be grown into and made one's own, rather than coming with a load of expectations for their origin. And, please, don't get too creative with the spelling -- it's hard on the kid and all their teachers and every bureaucrat who ever has to put it on a form!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And yet, and yet... with the wonkier spellings it's a better bet that you won't get your identity stolen.

      Delete
    2. Oh gosh, Hallie. What a 21st century reason for choosing/having a name!

      Delete
    3. The flip side of that is that unusual names are extremely google-able. This is a serious downside. Not only was I given an unusual name, but I married another. My husband's surname is so unusual that when someone borrowed his car in San Francisco in the 90s and parked illegally, the police ran his plates and contacted his father in NH (the only other person in the U.S. with that surname at the time).

      Delete
  12. Love the title, and expect this will be a very welcome gift for the expecting adults. Speaking as someone with an unusual name, in 2021 there were only 49 babies named Coralee in the US, I am in favor of a name with a bit of flavor.. I like something that stands out but not by odd spelling. Maybe I am a curmudgeon but.. ImmaLeigh does not 'sing; for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ImmaLeigh... oh the poor dear.

      Delete
    2. Coralee: Your comment reminds me of a student in one of my classes, whose quite ordinary name had a most unusual spelling. When I asked him to confirm my pronunciation of it, he said, 'Yeah. My parents were stoners when they chose it.' Poor kid, thought I.

      Delete
    3. Thank you, Coralee! We, too, are in favor of names with flavor!

      Delete
  13. This is great and absolutely fascinating! Brilliant brilliant brilliant, and absolutely beautiful . There’s such a line between an adorable original name and a “truly fun/original for one moment and then not so much” name. remember that thought-provoking Robert Frost poem called ”Maple”? It’s about a woman named Maple, and it is a cautionary tale about naming.
    And yes, I agree about symmetry. Because some letters like H you can flip and read either way, but B does not work that day way.
    I just named character Nolah Churchwood, which I am happy with. And the main character is Arden. Sometimes character names just come out.
    Congratulations, all!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I went to school with a Ginger Snapp. And a Pepper Salter. What can I say, it was Beverly Hills.

      Delete
    2. Yes. it's true. And she's lovely. Now Pepper Edmiston. And I wouldn't let us put her in the book because she was so nice to me when I was 8 and I didn't want to make fun of her. An,,d, oddly, I ran into her for the first time in like a zillion years, haven't seen her since I was 8 and she was 15 or so, in September and she's throwing us a tea party for the baby name book.... (believe in magic?). ,

      Delete
    3. Went to school with a Candace Kain, aka Candy Kain.
      Lisa in Long Beach

      Delete
    4. weird I met her once. unforgettable name. she was nice, too.

      Delete
  14. Oh my goodness, I will fix the typos as soon as I get to my computer. :-0

    ReplyDelete
  15. Congratulations to the nieces and to Amy - what fun to have a family collaboration book.

    I wish Edith would make a comeback for baby girls, but so far it isn't happening. My lovely teen friend Birima was named after a West African song her parents liked. And she has to spell every single time for people she meets. My little great-goddaughter is Cosima, after her great-grandfather Cosmo. She's going to have to explain the spelling a lot, too.

    This book could help authors looking for a unique pen name. When I had to find one for my first novel, I mounted a big search for: easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and unusual. Since Speaking of Murder featured a contemporary Quaker professor, I looked at a list of archaic Quaker names and discovered Tace. It fit the bill. And then I learned a Tace somebody (a Quaker) was the first female publisher in London in the 1600s!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. *Love* the name Tace. I named a character Ivy because it's a name in a children's book (The Holly and the Ivy) that I loved And I think my niece Frances Louise owes a little to the wonderful Frances the badger books by Russell Hoban. (Chompo Bar, anyone?)

      Delete
    2. Thank you, Edith! We too think Edith should make a comeback...Wharton, Piaf, Sedgwick!

      Delete
    3. Edith was my 3x great grandmother's name. And my great grandfather's sister Edith was born in 1902.

      And I love the name Tace. Easy to fingerspell.

      Diana

      Delete
    4. Loved the Frances books!
      Lisa in Long Beach

      Delete
    5. My grandmother’s name was Edith, which I only found out when doing family genealogical research. She always went by her middle name Ruth.

      Delete
  16. There was just a report on tellie about social discrimination and keywords in applications/resumes. Most of us have heard of artificial intelligence reading of application forms which just pick out the keywords, and then if there are not enough or any, the file goes no further. This can now include words which are triggers to prevent some people from getting through. I wondered at the time, how much this could be traced back to the name of the individual. Suppose your name is Ann or Anne. Are you an international name found in many cultures? If you have an ‘e’ are you more sophisticated or stuffy? Is your name Duke? Does that imply you are a yokel or a tall square-chinned hunk with dark wavy hair and the inevitable green eyes that bore right through you?? What about all the African names that were used in the 70’s and 80’s? Does that automatically tag that you are African-nationality? Does it pop you off the list if the company wants white anglo-saxon? Then there are the names spelled oddly just to be odd, or because the mother likes names with a Z in it, even if there is none (AnnZ – that is said AnnZ with a Z but the Z is silent, like the p in swimming).
    Naming is I think a very important part of what we leave to our children. My last story is of a family who had a genetic disorder. This meant that all their boy children died before 2. They were all nine named Charles – if at first you don’t succeed…
    I would love to read the book, just to see what strange names abound.
    Margo with an odd name but not weird, who named her son Tristan, after the cat; there was also a Laura and a Michael and an Elizabeth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Margo! Can't wait to hear what you think!

      Delete
  17. Congrats to Amy, Anna, and Maia--the book looks lovely! I would read this book even though I have no need of baby names :-) I love names--often look up names of different origins when searching for a character's name that doesn't reveal itself immediately. But I so agree on odd spellings of common names, especially. Names have a grace of their own and sometimes simplicity is best.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Thank you, Flora!

      Delete
    3. Thank you!! Flora, by the way, is in the book!!

      Delete
    4. Amy, speaking from experience, it's not a common name. Everyone who meets me for the first time is expecting a little old white-haired lady. Soon, folks, soon!

      Delete
  18. I love this! Especially thinking about baby names, and yes, I've owned a few baby names books and I definitely want this one, too. I wonder if people pay enough attention to how the names sound? Or what the initials spell if anything. I remember a girl who road my school bus - her initials were PAM and of course her name was Pamela Ann something beginning with M. I thought that was just the coolest thing. Apparently my sister never paid attention to things like that and so her son's initials are B. O. I'm sure it could have been it worse.

    A nurse told me about a young mother who was naming her daughter Aureola, because it had such a beautiful sound!

    Let me warn everyone about changing names on birth certificates. My son's middle name had not been spelled correctly and I swear it almost took an act of congress to add the missing letter! A friend's daughter decided, when her baby was almost 3 months old, that she had been given the wrong name. She wasn't a Charlotte, her mother realized, but a Cora! And so she changed it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a great story, Judi! We love the name Cora!

      Delete
    2. Aureola! Snort. That poor kid.

      My daughter the nurse knew of a pair of twins named Orangello and Lemongello--named after Orange and Lemon Jello. Gracious.

      Delete
    3. Initials are important! In my first office the buck slips on documents were all initials. Luckily we didn’t have any bad combos.
      Lisa in Long Beach

      Delete
  19. I have always been fascinated by names, to the point where, many years ago, I put together a little green spiral notebook (I still have it) with every name I could come up with, categorized by gender and the letter of the alphabet. I scanned every list I could find, including phone books (remember those)? It came in handy when my husband and I were picking names for our two sons. Mike refused to have his own name used at all, even for a middle name, because he said he wanted them to be individuals We giggled when he suggested ridiculous names that he put together: C'nard Woopf and Loki Hondo! Our sons are 42 and 39, but I still get a chuckle out of those. I think I chose Nicholas from the show Eight is Enough, but for our second son, my husband went into the bathroom with the spiral notebook and came out with Zachary. Both winners!

    When Zach and his wife had their son, they borrowed my old notebook but ultimately ended up with Henry (now a very popular name) and an old family name (Sellers) for his middle name. When they had their daughter, they absolutely didn't decide until the last minute. They came up with Autumn Hensley, which made me cry because I found it so unexpectedly beautiful. They said they had been thinking of Autumn, and the fact that one of the delivery nurses had that name clinched it. Hensley is, again, a family name.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Autumn Hensley is a lovely name and we love Zach Maia's son is named Zachary, too. Admire your appreciation of names. Anna thinks it's one of our first real acts of parenting.

      Delete
    2. I love this story of the spiral notebook! I hope it gets passed on for generations to come!

      Delete
    3. The changing popularity of names is fascinating. Our first child (1987) was going to be either Jon or Lucy. He was born and is Jon. Our second child (1997) was going to be Lucy or Thomas. She was born and is Lucy. (My mother-in-law thought Lucy was a horrid name, both times. "Why don't you name her something beautiful, like Iris?") If our first child had been Lucy, she would have been unusual in her peer group. Our Lucy in 1997 was one of three Lucys in her preschool class.

      Delete
  20. My parents named their 4 kids all with B names and our middle names all rhyme. Our last name also begins with B.
    My oldest sister named her 4 kids all names that begin with J. My 3 children all begin with S. My sister’s daughter has first name beginning with her dad’s first initial and middle name begins with her mom’s first initial, B.
    My brother, alas, did not get in on the naming thing as he has no children.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Just remembered that a friend named her daughter Marlowe.

    Diana

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marlowe! I wonder if we could spark a trend ... names from mystery novels, Marlowe of course. Spenser. Sherlock. ... looking at them, though, I think they work a bit better as dog names.

      Delete
    2. Next up. The book of dog names! Rhys

      Delete
    3. A childhood friend, who grew up as Ann, changed her first name to her mother's maiden name, Sherlock, when she started acting in adulthood. She's been in a lot of small TV roles, Sherlock Ganz.

      Delete
    4. Love Rhys's suggestion for a book of dog names. Or Pet names organized in sections - dogs, cats, birds, axolotls... :-)

      Delete
    5. I'm back on mystery names. Along those lines sort of,
      I think we have Dashiell.

      Delete
    6. Art Taylor and Tara Laskowski - both award winning authors in the field - named their son Dashiell, and loads of folks in the crime fiction community have met Dash!

      Delete
  22. What a brilliant idea, ladies! I wish you’d given us some funny/ creative examples! Having married into an old and distinguished English family I was limited in my choice of names. We called our son Dominic and didn’t find out until later that it was a popular Mafia name here in America! (Rhys)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maia's favorite is Castanet. Dominic is a great name.

      Delete
    2. Rhys, a friend who is Italian named her son Dominic. Her husband is 3/4 Italian and 1/4 Russian.

      Diana

      Delete
  23. This book is definitely going on my shelf - I am a great lover of baby name books, and I find them invaluable when coming up with character names.

    In my family we also played a name game, but I have to confess it was not nearly as sweet as the Ephrons'. Back when the Sunday paper published all the names of babies born that week in area hospitals, we would try to determine the WORST name given to a future adult human being. Southern Maine has a good mix of older, overeducated parents looking to impress and young rural parents who wanted to be kreatife. I think my favorite was Maxxymillyn (yes, really,) doomed to spend the rest of her life unable to retrieve vital documents and medical records because her name was never spelled correctly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Also, would getting copies for my two oldest kids would be too future -grandmother pushy?

      Delete
    2. that's hilarious! not sure. how old are they? it's great for a present closet though for a friend or family member who is expecting a new one!!

      Delete
    3. We played a game every Christmas when hanging up cards. My mom had a friend named Icca (pronounced “Ice-ah”, I believe) who always sent a card. We’d make up “twin” names like Icka and My Friend Flicka. Or Henry and Henrietta, etc. We got the idea of playing with names from our German grandfather-who-grew-up-on-a-farm’s siblings. There were so many kids and apparently not enough imagination: Hans Friedrich, Friedrich Hans, Peter John, John Peter!! (Pat S, mother of Kelby)

      Delete
    4. We love creative spellings, but yes they do make passports and official documents tricky!

      Delete
  24. Just the other day I was Googling/rabbitholing, and found a Wiki entry for the soap actress Robin Strasser. Whose middle name is Victory in Europe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have not watched OLTL in 35 years but I still recognized that name!
      Lisa in Long Beach

      Delete
  25. What a fabulous book! Definitely going on my shelf.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kait. We love the spelling of your name.

      Delete
  26. Speaking of names I just read an article in today’s Rochester Post Bulletin about a business called After Hours Paranormal Investigations. The woman who runs it is named Hawk Horvath.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shades of Clarice Starling...

      Delete
    2. Hawk is a fantastic first name!

      Delete
    3. The producer Howard Koch, Jr. changed his name to Hawk Koch which sort of suits him.

      Delete
  27. When we were pregnant, my sister the teacher said, “Avoid “J” names. I see so many - Joshua, Jared, Jonathan, etc.” So we named our son, Kelby (found it in a name book!) because it met my husband’s standards: unusual, but not weird, easily pronounced/spelled and there wouldn’t be five other little boys with the same name in his class. (My son, now 24, didn’t really like the name, I think, until Kelby Tomlinson played for the SF Giants!) So he gets to fourth grade and there were at least five boys with “K” names: Kevin, Kelvin, Khiarash, Kelby and Konnor! (Pat S.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is a Deaf man from a Deaf family named Kelby Brick. He is also an attorney.

      Diana

      Delete
  28. I love this!!! We are entering the next generation of weddings and babies so I am ordering multiple copies...we're going to need it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Jenn!! We appreciate it!!

      Delete
    2. Thank you Jenn. We love the name Jenn, by the way!

      Delete
  29. What fun! I'm of the generation that had tons of Linda, Cathy, Susan, Pat, etc in every classroom. But occasionally a unique name would sneak in there. Tess was one; seemed so exotic. As for the boys there was a Lynn, a very smart football player. And there was Seaborn; I always wondered where his name came from.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Thank you, Kathy! What a great story. We love a double middle name.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Thank you, Pat! Tess is the main characters in Amy's The Other Side series. What a great name!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I filled my classroom with books, and one of the few that went missing was the little book of baby names I brought in to help students name characters in their own stories (along with a phone book for last names). One year I had six Jasons in a class of 18, so I understand those who a trying to find unique names as well as those seeking gender-neutral names. So many studies have shown that feminine names can hinder employment and education opportunities. FREAKONOMICS has fascinating insights into trends in names.

    ReplyDelete