The Baby Name Wizard

Amy3-That is exactly the way my husband feels. It's still his name so he'll use it if he wants.

We both have large families(16 children just from my father's side) but no one uses the same name unless someone chose not too use their name for their children. Or they have talked to them before hand to see how they feel.

I don't want to give to much info but we have been trying for a while so no boy on his way right now. But as I hope for a child, I hope for them by name. Maybe that is what makes it so much more personal to me.

We don't live in the same city right now but we do see them often. And I just remembered that we do have three cousins on my side of the family with the same name but it wasn't planned. Two are step-kids. They call each other Big Isaiah(the oldest), Little Isaiah(the youngest), and just Isaiah. Everyone else adds on their middle names when they are all together.

Angie—how funny, last week I suggested SYLVIE to my sister who due in November as a cute sister for her first child, Lucy. She's def. not as name snobby as me, so she probably wouldn't mind if it got more popular but I feel your pain! I'm not sure if she's going to take it so that's one less you have to worry about! :)

Tamara—I LOVE LOVE LOVE Felix and it runs in my DH's family to back it up: His Grandfather and Uncle are both named Felix, but I wish it wasn't in his family because DH witnessed as a child, his Uncle Felix and his dad getting into a crazy fist fight that involved an AXE! (Everyone came out of that ok) But now that name is verboten for it's violent and crazy associations. :(

I also love REX like the other poster suggested but I wish it wasn't one of my dogs growing up. We also had 2 dogs named Max and that kills me now because I love the name MAXINE!

Finally, I love the name Claudia (Didn't know the celebrity connection), but my DH is ehhh about it. I'm not PG now but think it would be an adorable future sister name for my daughter Nina.

Amy3--

For Eadweard try AYuhdwayurd--roughly. I won't go into the complexities of long diphthongs vs. short diphthongs. Modern English does not have long and short vowels except in a few rare instances (we have tense and lax vowels), so it is hard for speakers of present-day English to distinguish long and short vowels in Old English. Also OE vowels have so-called continental values, that is, before the Great Vowel Shift of the early modern period. Shakespeare was right in the middle of the Great Vowel Shift, so he has lots of puns and word play that are not picked up by modern audiences.

Brooklyn Babe--

As for the decline in popularity of AS names, it may have something to do with the general distaste for Germanic names due to the two world wars. Or just that following great popularity they began to feel old-fashioned. One that has begun a comeback is Audrey. (I suppose I am the only one who remembers the cartoon Little Audrey, so the name is now safe.) Emma is, of course, wildly popular. Emma is, strictly speaking, not an AS name, but it is Germanic by way of Normandy, and Emma was queen of Anglo-Saxon England twice over (wife of both Ethelred 'the Unready' and Canute and mother of Edward the Confessor.) BTW the K in Knut/Knute was/is traditionally pronounced. The surname Knudsen is generally pronounced with the K. I am guessing that Mr. Rockne's folks were influenced by the present day loss of k in words like knight (originally pronounced with the k, with the ch of Bach where the gh is written and with the vowel in 'it').

Re Evelyn--

I read a major poker forum where the bulk of the posters are 20 something males. They are in the process of becoming dads--there is an ongoing thread on matters obstetrical. They announce the names of their newborns and seek and give advice on naming. Several little newbies have been named Evelyn (either first or middle), and the poker dudes really seem to like the name. These guys' main naming considerations: that their sons are named something macho and that their daughters have names which in no way could be construed as stripper names. (And, yes, as a group they are well acquainted with strip clubs....)

Anna, in your shoes, I would probably be very annoyed with the cousin in question, but it would not stop me from using DH's name, if that's what DH and I really wanted. Especially if family tradition was to give a son his father's name, I'd feel that we had the more "rightful" title to it, and that the cousin was just a rank usurper! Or, you could choose to look at it from a benevolent height--imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery, after all, and it could be rather endearing that the cousin wanted his child to share the name of your DH and the presumptive name of your future son. Kind of like Brooklyn Babe's comments to Angelina. lol.

Good answer Brooklyn Babe!

Vivian's mom, if you name her Vivian, you can use a variation if you are asked about your daughter's name being like Angelina's -- tell them

"Yes well I made the mistake of telling Angelina the name we had picked and drat it all the witch stole my name! She insists she didn't because she spelled it differently, but I am never speaking to her again!"

;)

Fina -- I've never known why Mia's kids have such a tendency to change their names, but I've had a couple of theories:
-- To throw off the press? Her children have been so newsworthy through the years that frequent changes of names might be helpful in helping them retain some anonymity. (Though, the fact that every web site seems to know all the names of each child makes this theory less feasible.)
-- Because they can. Mia is a creative and unique person -- it seems very in keeping with her personality to be totally supportive of such a thing. I just can't imagine, in my family or any family that I know, a child coming to the dinner table and saying, "Please don't call me by my given name anymore. From now on I will be known as [new name]." My siblings would laugh at me and keep calling me whatever they wanted; my parents would probably be amused at first, and then after finding out I was serious, would probably be a bit offended (being proud of their naming efforts with each of their children).

In the interview with Mia that I cited earlier (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,93988,00.html), she said about one of her daughter's name changes: "She was Eliza for a while, but she changed it. I don't know why, but maybe it was an Irish thing." The fact that Mia didn't know why her daughter had changed her name leads me to believe she never asked the reason -- she just accepted it -- which is more in keeping with my second theory.

Yes, Eo, Manx Gaelic is Celtic and Old English is Germanic, and both Celtic and Germanic are sub-divisions of Indo-European.

Language is completely arbitrary (with the possible exception of onomatopoetic words which are maybe only semi-arbitrary--cf. animal sounds as they are expressed in different languages). Thus, it is common for the exact same combination of sounds to have widely varying meanings in different languages, even closely related different languages. Thus, 'gift' in English means a present, while in German it means poison. There is a story that may well be apocryphal that in the chaos following WWII, care packages where distributed in Germany in boxes labeled "A gift from the American people." Supposedly the Germans refused the packages because they assumed they were being given poison. I don't really believe that to be true, but....

Since I don't know your real name, I can't comment specifically on it, but all the elements in Germanic bithematic names have specific meanings. e.g. hild=battle, here=armed host, beorht=bright, aethel=noble, and so on.

Your screen name, however, illustrates the answer to the question you asked. Eo in Greek means dawn. Eo(w) in OE means horse. There is a fossil horse called eohippus 'dawn horse.' -hippus in Greek is an exact cognate of equus in Latin (there is a sound change in which Greek -pp- becomes Latin -qu-.) Eo(w) in Old English and jo(r) in Old Norse are also cognate to hippus and equus. (Eo is a falling diphthong and jo is a rising diphthong, but philologically they are the same.) All the details of how hippus got to be equus which got to be eo(w) and jo(r) are what I learned when I studied philology in grad school. Which is why the study of philology is no longer top of the pops. :-)

Thanks for your input, Kate! I was thinking it was probably due to a certain laissez-faire attitude in the family. Certainly not an attitude my family members would take, as you said of yours, but it is very interesting that Mia is so accepting of her kids choosing their own names (and, really, carving out their own identities). Pretty cool.

Angie—how funny, last week I suggested SYLVIE to my sister who due in November as a cute sister for her first child, Lucy. She's def. not as name snobby as me, so she probably wouldn't mind if it got more popular but I feel your pain! I'm not sure if she's going to take it so that's one less you have to worry about! :)

Tamara—I LOVE LOVE LOVE Felix and it runs in my DH's family to back it up: His Grandfather and Uncle are both named Felix, but I wish it wasn't in his family because DH witnessed as a child, his Uncle Felix and his dad getting into a crazy fist fight that involved an AXE! (Everyone came out of that ok) But now that name is verboten for it's violent and crazy associations. :(

I also love REX like the other poster suggested but I wish it wasn't one of my dogs growing up. We also had 2 dogs named Max and that kills me now because I love the name MAXINE!

Finally, I love the name Claudia (Didn't know the celebrity connection), but my DH is ehhh about it. I'm not PG now but think it would be an adorable future sister name for my daughter Nina.

Vivian's Momma
Please name her what your heart really longs for!! You have carried this baby, you will care for her and nuture her for years to come and I think you at least deserve to name her!! In a way, she is named Vivian already anyway, isn't she? There are so many sweet nn that could help with your prob. too. My aunt was always ViVa (for Viola but I think it could work). ViVi (with a short"i" or long "e" sound). Maybe even "Yena". It's up to you, in the end she is your dear sweet girl, no matter what her name may be:)

That's hilarious about the "stripper names".

Are some names inherently strippery, though, or does this depend on time and place?

For example, I was almost named Anastasia, and whenever I mention this to men my own age, they cringe - to them it's a "stripper name". I always thought that was funny - Anastasia seems like an elegant, classy name to me if anything. But it turns out their associations come from the strip clubs of the 90s, which had more than a few dancers from the diaspora from the former Soviet Union (which happened around that time).

I have a close friend who is named Misty Dawn LN(born 1973) and she believes her name to be as stripper-like as you can get. She really hates it. I can't say I blame her. Her biggest concern in naming her daughter was that it not be a stripper name. Her daughter is Ella Louise LN. Her son (4 months old) is Alexander James Wisdom LN called Alec (Wisdom is her mother's maiden name).

I had a student years ago named Misty Dawn. Problem was she was, um, considerably more substantial than mist.

Elizabeth--

According to the poker dudes, stripper names include Destiny, Crystal, Summer, Candi/y, Brandi/y (some argument amongst the dudes as to whether names are the same if they are spelled differently--consensus is different spelling=different name), Cherry.

Apologies to any who bear those names or whose daughters, nieces, cousins, or neighbors and friends do. These are the poker dudes' associations, although they do have some strip joint experience to go by.

Miriam,
I love the idea of the poker dads talking about their babies!
A co-worker of mine has a 4 year old Evelyn, and I know another who is 2 and is called Evie (EH-vee). I definitely think it is on the rise. In college I had one friend named Evelyn who was the only person our age (30ish now) I had ever heard with that name. I also had a friend named Emma, which was unique among all the Emilys. Their moms were early trend setters I guess!

KRC & Miriam -

I remember a time when I would have *killed* to have been named Misty Dawn (or Krystal or Brandi) - when I was 8 or so these names seemed the height of trendiness, fun, and in a way, class. I remember the first wave of Brittanys too - all girls born to upper-class, educated families. Girls that were unlikely to become strippers, in other words, although of course you never know. My point about "Anastasia" being that no name is inherently stripper-ish, it's the associations.

So what I'm wondering is - what will be the stripper names of say 2020? The thing that Brandi and Misty have in common is that they are 1) made up names 2) dated specifically to the 1980s (I'm assuming when many strippers encountered by poker dudes were born). So I can't really see the popular revival names of now (Isabellas and Lucias) becoming associated with strippers, because they have multiple associations, but what about the made up ones, say the Mackenzies and Madysens and Jadens?

Thoughts?

Knox makes me think of the character Knox Overstreet from Dead Poets Society, so I have no problem accepting it as a first name.
I expected the x factor coming into play with their choice in boys name, but I predicted baby Phoenix. It felt in tune with their previous choices.

Vivienne is lovely and a very French accompaniment to Marcheline. It is a bit more obvious and less trendsetting than one might expect, but not as bad as their rumored twin girls a few months ago, Amelie & Isla.

The poker dads are adorable. They post when pregnancy is confirmed, when they see the ultrasound, when the sex has been determined, and they give full details on labor and delivery, followed by pix of newborns, birthday pix, holiday pix, first steps, you name it. And on the rare occasions when there is a birth defect or serious illness (or in one horrible case, the death of an infant during labor), the guys are immensely supportive. The parents of the stillbirth child just recently announced the birth of a healthy daughter to the cheers of all the guys. She is in fact one of the little Evelyns--Evelyn Rose as it happens.

I am in my mid 60s and growing up I knew one Evelyn (she pronounced it EEvelyn as in Waugh) and one Emma. Emma had an identical twin Lisa, and we all wondered why their parents gave Lisa a cool name and Emma a fuddy-duddy name. Times and fashions do change.

In "real life" Brooks is seen and heard as very pretentious. For most of America it is associated with Brooks Brothers. From the upper-crust I hear that there is a prestigious boys' prep school in NY called Brooks, which makes the association even stronger.

Broox may be more fun, but it looks too much like Bronx. Hey, Bronx could be great especially if there's family history there. Maybe to honor a grandparents who worked hard and lived well in the Bronx?

Hmm, Elizabeth, stripper names twenty years hence, that's really a job for Laura. I am thinking maybe some of the current pop star names like Madonna (perfect name for a stripper from some guys' perspective), Beyonce, Rihanna (that Umbrella song girl), Shakira, Siena, Scarlett, Chanelle, Myleene, Keeley, Star (which may already be a stripper name), Carmen (or Electra). Twenty years from now, when the original famous bearers of these names have faded, the names themselves may still have some bits of glitz (enough to make pasties and a g-string) surrounding them.

When I was eight and hated my name, my preference would have been Daphne. Now I am very happy to be Miriam, and never mind Daphne. I do rather like Dafna though.

In Laurie Colwin's "Happy All the Time", (which we've referenced here before), protagonist "Misty Berkowitz" rails helplessly about her name, and over-compensates by being cerebral and (endearingly) prickly... Her cousin Stanley calls her "Misto" which does improve it, a little. Change it even more, to "Mystery" and it has possibilities...

Thank you so much, Miriam. Your erudition is such a gift-- and I don't mean "poison"-- to this board! Your story about its two meanings in English and German-- fascinating. "Eo" is just two of my initials, but I had vaguely imagined the combo to be somehow classically Greek. Also had an idea that "Eos" may be a minor mythological figure?

The word I asked about is "ellyn". In Anglo-Saxon= zeal. In Manx Gaelic= art, behavior, manners. In Welsh= razor (!)

How deflating is the Welsh meaning?! But it proves your point that even in related languages (as I imagine Welsh and Manx Gaelic to be), the meanings can be wildly different.

Re: "Evelyn". It's interesting that this is the currently stylish form of the name among trend-setting parents. Given the popularity of Caroline over Carolyn, Madeline over Madelyn, etc. I would have thought that "Eveline" would be preferred? Perhaps that form was never really used here in the U.S.? In "Uncle Tom's Cabin", wasn't little Eva really Evalina, or something similar?

Hey, yet another Jenny! Let me take up for "Brooks" in real life! One of my favorite carpenters on HGTV's "Designed to Sell" is named Brooks, and he's great. I like him almost as much as "Clive", the host...

I agree that Brooks does sound very cool. By "real life" I meant playground, dorms, a workplace full of cubicles. HGTV is not quite what I was thinking.

To follow up on my stripper name ruminations, I did some googling and came up with a list of female porn star names arranged by decades from the 60s to the present:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_porn_stars_by_decade

Lots of food for thought here for name enthusiasts. Some of the names are perfectly normal, and some, well, aren't. And Misty Dawn is on the list....Lots of Japanese names too. Perhaps someone who speaks Japanese can say whether these are just normal names or whether they have "porny" meanings.

My brother, believe it or not, is named Brooks (perhaps a subconscious influence on my choice of Knox?). It's a family name in his case. And yes, he sometimes jokingly writes his name as "Broox." As a New Yorker, my other association with the name is with the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, which was named after a famous theater critic.

Unfortunately, he's struggled all his life with people calling him "Brooke." "Brooks" is just too hard for most people to wrap their head around, I guess.

Regarding "Bronx" -- the borough (always prefaced with "The," by the way, except as an adjective or in a written address)... it was named after the Dutch family that originally owned much of the land: The Broncks. So perhaps "Bronck" would be the name you're looking for.

Though if someone can name their kid "Brooklyn" (I will never get used to that), why not "The Bronx"?

Tabloid headlines of the future:

World welcomes new Beckham twins, Queens Beckham and The Bronx Beckham

Eo--

The range of meanings for ellen (ellyn would be an alternate spelling) includes strength, valor, fortitude, contention, strife and zeal. Ellen appears in the first sentence of Beowulf where it refers to the brave deeds performed by the Spear-Danes of old. Obviously this has nothing to do with the name Ellen/Ellyn, Helen, Helaine/Elaine, Helena, etc., which is Greek in origin.

Thanks, Miriam, you've confirmed my belief that the words in those languages were just words, and not used as names...

In several on-line Anglo-Saxon dictionaries, (which admittedly may be questionable), I have found both ellen, and ellyn. Ellen encompassed the meanings you mention, and ellyn mostly brought up just "zeal", ha. I love the addition of "strife"-- very dramatic.

Speaking of boroughs, why not "Staten", as in Staten Island? Perhaps its connotations are too bourgeois for the fashionable namer? It does have that desired "-en" ending though...

My guilty pleasure fantasy name for a son is Saxon. I doubt I would have the chutzpah to use it, except as a mn. But it's got everything the modern namer looks for!

Eo (and I do think of horses whenever I see your screen name...)--

Zeal is probably the least common meaning of ellen. Zeal is found as one of the definitions for ellen in Klaeber's glossary in his edition of Beowulf (Klaeber has just been superseded after being THE edition for many many years, but I don't have the new one yet) and in Bosworth-Toller which was the standard dictionary of Old English until the current DOE project coming out of Toronto.

There is a compound 'ellenwod' which refers to overzealousness. Wod (with a long o) means mad, raging, essentially violently unstable, crazed. In Middle English wood means crazed. (Not connected with wood meaning tree substance which comes from OE wudu.)

Yes, Saxon has that oomph. CB, If you wanted a fun combination using it as a middle name, you could steal the pseudonym for the lead singer of the 60s band The Seeds and name your son Sky Saxon {lastname}. I always loved that pseudonym; Sky is so hippyish (and Germanic, in keeping with the theme), while Saxon says "don't mess with me; I will axe you in the skull." Kinda suits the Seeds' music, actually.

Eo, after we've run from Aidan to Zayden, it wouldn't surprise me to see "Staten" as a name. Actually, "Manhattan" has the -en sound too, if not the spelling.

"Staten Manhattan Beckham"?

Actually Saxon means I will "sword" you in the skull. :-) The tribal name Saxon is derived from seax, a specific type of sword associated with that tribe. But, yeah, definitely a sharp object through the skull or any other vulnerable body part. Just the kind of macho name the poker dudes would like.

Miriam, I really had no idea of the derivation of Saxon! I guess the word just speaks (or growls) for itself. Wow.

BTW, I'm really loving your mini-dissertations. Very enlightening, and very appreciated!

I've long thought of "Saxon" as a female name, believe it or not, ever since reading Jack London's "The Valley of the Moon", with its protagonist, the laundress Saxon. To my teenage mind it was a fabulous name, and I still like it.

Although, if I'm remembering right, Jack London held some views about ethnicity which make his elevation of the name "Saxon", a bit squeamish-making. I hope I'm not doing him a disservice, but I'm thinking he may have had some sort of "master-race-ish" views?

I think his Saxon was a lovely but tormented woman. Better than Saxon, I think I like "England" for a girl, and even "Englander" for a boy, ha. Eccentric, huh. A less pointed reference would be "Inglis" which is a pleasing surname used as a first name for girls...

Incidentally, back on the X theme... there are several kids in my son's nursery school with X's in their names. (I should note that I live in a very name-trend-sensitive neighborhood.) One of them is Xander. Could X as a first letter be catching fire now? If so, how long before people revive the ultimate X name: Xerxes?

And for a girl, I've always liked Xenia. Frankly, I'm surprised that the popularity of "Xena, Warrior Princess" some years back didn't start any trend toward initial Xs.

Eo - I've toyed with the idea that Saxon sounded girlish, but I've thought that it would be too open to word play for a girl. The s and x being so close and all.

Eo, if you're looking for an "I Am British" name for a girl, why not Brittania? And for a boy, I really love Albion.

Am I crazy? I love the name Enid. So unusual and romantic, yet not flowery.

Miriam, regarding “stripper names”: I suggested Portia when we were expecting my daughter, and my husband’s best friend declared it a stripper name, after which my husband refused to consider it! They were both English majors, so they aren’t unfamiliar with “in the course of justice none of us should see salvation: we do pray for mercy; and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.” Why, therefore, Portia signifies to them first a stripper and second a car, I have NO IDEA.
At least I still got my Shakespearean name for my daughter.

Ooo, Albion is wonderful. And it has that whole William Blake reference, as well. I very much approve. I've always liked the boys' name Britten, as well-- for the composer and for the "Britain" homonym.

BrooklynBabe, I wonder from your comments if you're in Park Slope. I just moved here (and don't have children yet, but am planning to in the next few years), so I hope you are, and I can get your take on the neighborhood before I take that plunge. (No pressure to divulge your whereabouts, of course).

That is, Juliet. And the little girl of the same age next door is Celia. I have visions of putting on plays when they're older... especially if we ever have a Beatrice/Beatrix or a Cordelia (my husband's favorite, but she dies, of course, so it's a little morbid for me. On the other hand, reminds me of "cordial" and the pining of Anne of Green Gables to be called Cordelia, so maybe.) Oh, my, how off-topic I've gotten.

brooklyn--apologies for saying i didn't like knox! it's definitely the sound of all 4 together, poets they are not with those all poorly jumbled.

sound was one of the very most important considerations for us in naming our two.

Xs .... and Zs....I wanted Zadie for my second girl, but then found out it means gramps in yiddish. and then Sadie seemed boring and Zelda just too too.

As usual, medical terminology spoils all the fun.

Broox reminds me of "bruxism"--the technical term for the habitual grinding of teeth!

And Staten is a homonym for "statin"--statins are a class of cholesterol-lowering medications.

So yeah, Evelyn still conjures the church organist to me--nice lady, no question, but I'm still getting used to hearing it as a baby name. I'm guessing the -lyn ending became the default from Kaitlyn and Madelyn; but I like Eveline and Evelina better, myself. And Jessamine, and Emmeline, too!

One more random comment: The trendy LA yogurt chain Pinkberry seems to have the best-named staff: today I spotted nametags reading Oscar, Osman, Hugo, Sophia, Helen, and Moi (I'm guessing nickname for Moises, he looked Latino). All cute college-agers. Of course, Pinkberry is so image-obsessed, they may assign edgy names to a staff of Kens and Ginas.... ;)

My prediction for stripper names in 20 years:

Destiny
Trinity
Miley
Lola
Nevaeh
Kaylee

Yeah, some of them are already stripper names... unfortunately once a stripper name, always a strpper name.

Additions to the -o name list:
Marlo (a co-worker's daughter just was named that, after a grandmother), pretty cool, eh
Philo (as in Philo T Farnsworth, who invented the principle for television) - but Philo might rhyme to much with Shiloh

and for X names:
Lux (one of the girls in the Virgin Suicides)
Ajax (yes yes, and the soccer club)
- quite frankly, from here it tends to get into the Xanax-territory of names. With Knox I also thought of Dead Poets Society, which I think made a good diversion away from anxiety pills.

Miriam, I think philology was what I had in mind when I naively embarked on a linguistics course. Oh well, at least I get some of it out of my system by reading about and discussing names! I too appreciate your posts.

Jane, funny you should mention Anne of Green Gables and her wish to be called Cordelia - when I first read of your daughter's full name Anne Juliet, I instantly thought of Diana's daughter in the later books, who is always referred to as "small Anne Cordelia". As for Enid, it's grown on me somewhat since reading the Arthurian romances, although I'm still not wild about it. I can imagine what a romantic and original choice it must have seemed in the 19th century.

Which leads me back onto the discussion on Victorian/Anglo-Saxon names... I had read that Romanticism was a force behind those names, as the Romantics looked fondly back on medieval times. A very general explanation, I suppose.

A bit behind but:

I spent three years in a school of 100 children ages 3-10. I was the only Sarah, but there were three Bronwyns. Three! Two in the same year. So sometimes you can never tell where they will pop up. It took years for me to realise it's actually a fairly uncommon name (and was pleased to see Angela Bassett using it for her daughter).

I always thought the pseudo-Welsh names in America came from the King Arthur/Lord of the Rings fantasy literature and the like.

As for Ethel-Mae - my cousins grew up in northern VA which is incredibly ethnically diverse. I remember flicking through my cousin's yearbook and the name leaping out from all the wonderful united nation names was, yup, Ethelmae. It was fantastic - in a way, a true act of naming genius by her folks.

Incidentally, in one of my cousin's classes was a boy named Juan and a girl named Tu. Apparently even the teachers lobbied for them to get married and have Three and Four. :)

Wow, Sarah. So there really is no guarantee your little Ethel-Mae won't be sharing a classroom with another. I wonder if there is a single name which can be guaranteed!

Eo, I believe that Little Eva's name (in "Uncle Tom's Cabin") is actually Evangeline. Crazy that I don't remember for sure, as I had to read that book for three different classes in graduate school. Beth, as the resident 19th century American lit specialist, do you know?

Random responses-

Evangeline! I believe you're right, Elizabeth T.

Add me to the "Albion" lovers. I've often wondered why it's not more popular. "Brittania" is perhaps too ornate for me, but, inconsistently I HAVE entertained "Boadicea"...

Also have liked Britten, but the multitudes of Brittanys have taken the bloom off for me. The composer Benjamin Britten was one of several appealing Benjamin namesakes we had in mind for our son. I think I read that his first name was Edward, but as he was a beloved son of older parents, it was his middle name Benjamin that stuck. Or something like that-- charming. And it is such a great, euphonious "marquee" name, of course.

I have asked my parents for YEARS what they were thinking, giving me a stripper name. Nikki. It's not short for Nicole, it's just plain Nikki. I've got the only stripper name in the whole family!

New babies I know..

Layla Anjel LN (unsure of the MN spelling, it's pronounced ahn-ZHEL and is a Lebanese name)

Lillian Marie LN...just arrived today!