Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The Good baby Names Blog

Lots of people out there document awful, weird, or funny names. This one catalogs the "good ones"

Good Baby Names Blog

Monday, August 09, 2010

Everyone Loves Michaela!

The most popular spelling of the name pronounced /mik AY la/ is Makayla, and has been for a number of years. However, the name has become so popular that there are tons of "copycat" names that have arisen because of it. This happens a lot in the world of names. For example, Katelyn became popular, so then we started hearing Kaylin... and then Maylin and Shaelyn.

Here are all the spellings of Michaela from 2009 (followed by # babies given that particular spelling):

Makayla (5197), Mikayla (1810), Michaela(860), Mikaela (589), Mckayla (431), Micaela (232), Makaila (228), Makaylah(222), Makaela (124), Macayla (87), Makala (86), Mikaylah(83), Mykayla (80), Micayla(70), Mikaila (62), Mackayla (60), Mikala (51), Michayla (51), Mekayla (51), Mickayla(31), Michaella (30), Makeyla (30), Makalah (29), Mikalah (28), Makailah (28), Mykaela(27), Michela (27), Mikaella(24), Mykala (23), Mahkayla (22), Mykaila (21), Micheala (20), Mckaylah (19), Macaela(19), Micaella (18), Mkayla (17), Mikeyla (17), Mikela (15), Makeila (15), Mickaela(13), Michala (13), Mikeala (12), Mckaila (12), Mychaela (11), Mikaelah(11), Maykayla(11), Makhayla (11), Mikeila (9), Mikailah (9), Mekaylah(9), Mckaela (9), Machaela(9), Miquela (8), Mykaylah(8), Mikhayla (8), Mikhaila(8), Mikhaela (8), Mikayela(8), Michaelah (8), Mckala (8), Makela (8), Mahkaylah(8), Mykalah (7), Mekaila (7), Makaelah (7), Maikayla (7), Michaila (6), Mccayla (6), Maykala (6), Macaylah (6), Mikaeyla (5), Mickala (5), Mekaela (5), Micaila (5), Makhaila (5), Makaiyla (5), Maekayla (5)

Michaela is off the charts, though. In Addition to Mishayla, Mikayle, Makaylee, Mikyla, Mikaylin and Mikylee, There are spin-off for most of the letters of the alphabet! Here are some from 2009:

Akayla
Dakayla
Jakayla
Lakayla
Markayla
Nakayla
Nakaylee
Rakayla
Rickayla
Sakayla
Shakayla
Takayla
Zakayla

Sunday, August 08, 2010

NAME FAIL!

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Names that seem related but aren't.

There are a lot of names out there that sound like they are the same, but actually have different sources. Today's example:

Cecilia, Celia and Cecil


All three of these names are Latin in origin, but people often think that Celia is a short form of Cecilia, often to the point where Cecilia is often spelled Cecelia.

Cecilia is a feminine form of the Latin name Caecilius, which means "blind."

Celia is a feminine form of Caelus, which was introduced to English by William Shakespeare for his play As You Like It. It stems from the word caelum, meaning "heaven."

Cecil, in modern use, comes from an anglicization of the Welsh name Sesyllt, which comes from the Latin name Sextilius, meaning "sixth." There are a lot of Latin names that are ordinal numbers:

Primus (still used in its Italian form, Primo)
Secundus
Tertius
Quartus
Quintinus/Quintus (still used in an Anglicised French form-- Quentin)
Sextilius/Sextus
Septimus
Octavius
Nonus (the feminine form, Nona is still occasionally heard today)
Decimus

Monday, August 02, 2010

Fun with the Social Security Administration

Every year the Social Security Administration posts a list of the 1000 most popular baby names of the previous year. These lists comprise names down to 194 instances for boys and 263 instances for girls (this means at least 263 or so girls would have to be named something in order for it to appear on the list). This is awesome, but it leaves out a ton of names that are popular, but have a ton of different spellings. Take the name Demitri, for example. if you put all spellings together, there were 576 baby Demetris born last year with 12 different spellings, which, had it been counted, would have ranked somewhere around #415. However, since the most popular spelling only had 191 instances, it didn't appear at all.

I just discovered that they have posted the lists down to 5 instances for boys and girls from last year all the way back to 1880!

So, I am putting all the names together by spelling, so all the Jaydens, Jadens, Jaiden, Jadyns etc. all count together.

Anyway, with instances down to 5, you get a ton more names, and there are a lot of interesting/weird/funky ones out there. I'll post a few.

These are from the BOYS' 2009 list:

First of all, these are either alt spellings or foreign names, but they have weird meanings in English or other languages:

Atom 32 - This is an Armenian form of Adam, but it's kind of funny to name a kid this in English. I hope his last name isn't Baum.
Avion, Chaise - in French these mean "airplane" and "chair."
Dali - probably named after Salvador Dali, but most kids will still call him Dolly.

Some adjectives (these are all girls)
Coy
Gabby - I know this is usually a nickname for Gabriell/a, but on its own?
Golden
Gorgeous
Savvy
Rainy
Marvelous
Naturell
Shy
Sincere
Southern
Sovereign
Steely
Stellar
Victorious
Beautiful
Breezy
Celestial
Classie - I think this is a foreign name, but still!
Crimson - I guess it's no worse than Scarlett
Daily
Fancy
Gracious
Irish
Jazzy
Lovely
Loyal
Majestic
Marvelous
Mystic

And nouns (again, all girls):
Arrow
Belladonna
Breeze
Cinnamon
Cricket
Fanta
Fantasia
Feather
Fedora
Galaxy
Gift
Goddess
Harbor
Heiress
Hunny - because Honey wasn't sweet enough
Island
Jazz
Jubilee
Kindred
Majesty
Mandolin
Maple
Memory
Meridian
Moxie
Nature
Navy
Novella
Paradise
Poet - she'll grow up to be a NASCAR driver, just you watch!
Poetry
Princess
Queen
Rhapsody
Romani
Safari
Saga
Sativa - it sounds pretty, too bad it's the species of marijuana!
Saxon - and her brother, Viking
Season - couldn't decide between Autumn or Summer
Senna
Shadow
Siren
Sundae - nicole Kidman named her daughter Sunday recently, but Sundae?
Tequila
Tomorrow
Twilight
Valkyrie

Verbs:
Shine
Whisper
Sparkle

X-Men Characters -# given)
Angel- (girls- 1857, boys 9762)
Aurora- 1,478
Bishop- 174
Cable- 6
Danger- 5
Darwin- 312
Domino- 6
Gaia- 47
Jubilee- 89
Karma- 366
Mercury- 6
Mirage- 6
Mystique - 6
Omega (girls-9, boys -9)
Phoenix - (girls- 398, boys-814)
Pixie- 31
Rogue - 28
Sage - (girls-784, boys-295)
Storm (girls- 43 , boys - 43)
Sway - 8

More to come because I'm having way too much fun with this!