When it comes to baby name fashion, the last really are first. Name endings carry a disproportionate power in a name's style and impact. That's the secret behind Angelina Jolie's impact on baby names -- discussed here in our X & O roundup.
Today's baby name news tells a similar tale. Baby name critics preparing to pounce on the latest "weird" celebrity name: Zuma, born to musicians Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale. Yes, it's an extremely unusual name. (Zuma is a famous Malibu beach, which gives the name a unique resonance to SoCal natives like Ms. Stefani. Think of a surfer named Zuma, and the name might start to make more sense to you.) But I suspect that the real key to the raised eyebrows isn't that the name is so uncommon; it's that Zuma is a boy.
English doesn't have gendered word endings -- in theory. In practice, though, we hew to the Romance-language standard that marks -a as feminine and -o as masculine. You see it in baby names, and even in product names. We hear the underlying feminine/masculine stereotypes: an -a ending "softens" a name, while an -o makes it "energetic."
That's not to say we never cross the lines. But usually, when it comes to gender-bending, we're more willing to make our girls boyish than our boys girlish. Think of the title character of the film Juno. The feminine -o was used to emphasic her individualistic strength. The -o of Shiloh, similarly, made that name a celebrity style smash.
In fact, there are signs of life for boys ending in -a, too. Joshua has become the most popular -a boy in American history, swamping the previous champion Ira. Luca is another fast rising name (especially among Portuguese speakers -- it's a top-100 name in Rhode Island, with its huge Portuguese and Brazilian population.) But they're still the exception, which means that -a names can still surprise. The names that really point the way toward Zuma are two that, like Zuma, found their way to the nursery from non-traditional sources:
Dakota is one of the names for a large Sioux ethnic group from the Northern plains. It became a popular American boy's name in the 1990s.
Koda is the name of an orphaned Alaskan bear cub in the 2003 animated film Brother Bear, and made a modest splash as a boy's name in 2004. It was presumably inspired by the Kodiak bears of Alaska.
Names like Dakota, Koda and Zuma are very deliberate steps away from European naming traditions. Their style depends on an image of rugged, wild freedom. The easiest way to shed centuries of Western Civilization is to choose the ending that most defies that tradition: the masculine a.
The Call of the Wild A
08/22/2008, 1:18PM
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Comments
re: irrational likes and dislikes of names?
Yes! Can't stand boys names that end in -L: (Gabriel, Daniel, Dashiell); Girls' names that end in -SON (i.e. Emerson = son of Emer?); the annoying trend of giving boys' names to girls (Rowan, Micah, Chase, Finley should be reserved for boys IMO); & the oh-so-very-annoying trend of Last Names First where there is absolutely no family history or meaning (Madison, Addison, Logan etc).
OTOH, I love thoughtful naming. Names that flow with the last name & create good initials. Names that don't invite playground teasing. Names that are not about trying too hard. Names that have some soul. I actually think the Jolie-Pitts have achieved this; but not the Stefani-Rossdales, or the Spearses. Gah.
O you all are so kind. Thank you.
Wow, did any of you notice that Bob Marley had three children by different women in the space of one month? Good grief!
I did notice that, Valerie. He was a busy guy! It reminds me of a scandal that happened at one of the major universities in this area a few years ago--an English professor had an affair with a student and in the subsequent brouhaha, it came out that he had fathered two sons within a few months of each other, one by his wife and the other by his long-time mistress. The kicker was that both sons were named Austin! I think he probably suggested the name to his wife after his mistress had bestowed that on his first son (his wife had no idea about the other relationship) so he wouldn't accidentally call either child by the wrong name.
Jessica, I think that Helen works well with all of the names you've chosen. You can't go wrong! And what a lovely idea.
I don't know if I would call it irrational, but I really don't care for the F sound spelled with F or PH. Frieda, Frank, Phinneas, Persephone, Daphne, Phillip (well that one's not too bad). I think it's because it's a weird sound to my ears-like a "raspberry sound-as when one blows on a baby's tummy". I don't really care for THAT either. Giggles and belly-laughs are great though!
I love my bro-in-law to pieces but he's like a brick wall right now with the names. He does like Maggie and June (which is my sis and my late grandmother's MN, but she went by it.) But he doesn't like Maggie June together. So she thinks he may like Maggie Jane. (I'm waiting to hear)
OTOH, he likes Lola...it's an obscure family name on his side and he's randomly thrown out the suggestion Taylor. Otherwise he's just, no, no, no, to anything she's suggested. It doesn't help that all her friends have babies with great names, so there are a lot that have been suggested on this board but she couldn't use. And y'all might remember the suggestion of the name Magnolia. Well, after I mentioned it to her I found out it's his least favorite tree (?) Who has a least favorite tree???? haha, so she didn't even try that one! And it's HIS state tree. How apropos!?! oh well. :)
Carly, I love thoughtful baby naming too! but maybe it's because I obsess over it (can you tell???).
>>And y'all might remember the suggestion of the name Magnolia. Well, after I mentioned it to her I found out it's his least favorite tree (?) Who has a least favorite tree???? <<
Um, my best friend? Absolutely HATES Magnolia trees. Cracks me up, but I can't look at one, or hear the name, without thinking of that.
Ok...I have to know.. Why do they hate Magnolia trees? Who can hate the big beautiful white flower??
I just looked up Magnolia trees. Funny thing..there is actually a type of flower called a Magnolia Jane.
Well, magnolias are very messy in habit. They drop a lot of cones and leaves and bright red seeds. It's a project to keep the yard tidy around the magnolias. My neighbors hated mine and wanted to murder it....
As for irrational like/dislike of names, I agree with what someone said above -- for me a lot of it comes down to life experience. It's funny because I don't think of myself as particularly bullied as a child, but several perfectly good names are out for my (far future) child like: Caroline, Ashley, Kyle, and Tyler just because of bad associations I have with people of those names in my childhood! The mind is a funny thing...
With apologies to any Jennifers reading, but I definitely had too many nasty Jennifers in my past to consider liking the name!
Also dislike the name Derek, for no particular reason. And Agatha, Agnes, Dagmar, Dagny, Maggie- that ag sound is a turn off.
On irrational dislikes. I like alot of boys names on girls, such as Finley, Finnian, Chase, Levi, Harley... I could go on, but I know a 13 year old female Cody and it drives me mad. I just think it's a boys name, but Im not sure why just that one bothers me.
When I looked at the babynamewizard.com page this morning, both the main page and this comments thread prompted a pop-up dialogue box asking for my username and password. I could x-out the box after a few seconds, and read everything as normal, but found this quite odd.
To me, Zuma is a video game on Yahoo Games, involving shooting colored balls out of a stone frog.
Irrational hatred of a name: Jaime, for girls, spelled that way. Yeah, I still haven't forgiven you, Jaime K, for being so mean to me my first day of 3rd grade 20 years ago.
On second thought, that's an entirely rational hatred of a name, so I need to think of some others. I don't like the names Danielle or Rachel, even though one of my closest friends has the latter. I love Rebecca but dislike Rebekah.
I dislike "K" names. I discovered that during out our creation of imaginary families of 18. Catherine over Katherine, Carrie over Keri, Cameron over Kameron...every time. Not that I like Carrie or Cameron all that much to begin with. I'm glad there are no "K" relatives in my husband's family we need to name for, because I would have to put my foot down.
I do not dislike any trees, however.
Miriam, you might be their neighbor! haha. That's why he hates it. But she loves it. The flowers are just lovely and smell divine. I have 3 small ones in my yard but no problems yet! I can't wait to use some clippings as Christmas decorations! How very Southern!
I dislike names that end in N and I'm angry ALL DAY LONG! just kidding. I like a lot of them! However, I agree with the pp who said not liking names with "son" endings for girls. But I'm def. not into androgynous names.
Yes, I know 2 toddler Willas. I absolutely believe that the name will rise in popularity because of its sound similarity to Ella. Ella is starting to sound tired some parts of the country. Even Stella is getting a lot of use here in California. Willa is the fresher version of the same sound. As Laura says, it's all about sound.
Baby alert!
My California surfer cousin's wife just had twin boys!
Names are: Zev & Knox
(They actually chose the names Knox knowing it was a Brangelina name. They don't care. Do you guys think that the Names is on the rise? they think so. I don't.)
(Also, they think Zuma is a great name, and have written it down for future use.)
Also, just for interest's sake, hear are some names my cousin and his wife were thinking about:
Gemini
Beowulf
Seacrest (I didn't know it was a first name...)
Willow
Pyrrha (Greek mythology I think.)
Aiden
Hazel
Daphne
Dominic
This was back when they didn't know the genders. :)
Those are interesting names. I can hardly say Zev. My brain makes it Kev beside the Knox and I know it's not right but... And all the "alternate" names are rich. Although it kind of surprises me to see Aiden in that mix.
Knox on the rise? I would guess so.
I think Zuma ia going to appeal to a very specific group of people. Surf/beach/pop...
Zev and Knox sound like they come from two different families to me, since one is Hebrew and one sounds more protestant to me. But I like both names.
Until I started looking for names for my soon-to-be-born baby, I didn't realize how many names I dislike! I have always been a NE, so I thought it would be easy. But I definitely have an irrational dislike of many names, some of which are associated with people who I don't like, and others just because I don't like the sound. I have always been attracted to the 'J', 'L' and 'T' sounds, I have no idea why.
Seacrest?!?! As in Ryan?
To Eimi:
That list is really random. Gemini, Knox, Zuma and Seacrest all seem so surfy and modern. And Daphne is my nan's name!
Though I have been expecting people to start calling their kids Daphne, its that vintage so-old-its-trendy thing.
I wonder if they considered Zephyr instead of Zev. I think it's meaning of the "west wind" and the famous California Zephyr train would fit better with their style. Zeph and Knox sounds better too.
They should have consulted with me first! LOL!
What's going on with that log in at the start of opening this site? I logged into it thinking perhaps it was some new security measure put in place. I thought "I guess I once logged in here and just forgot about it." However, once I entered my two most-commonly-used passwords in combination with my email address and they didn't work, I got worried. I hope it's not some phishing scam or something! Laura?
I'm so pleased they didn't go for Seacrest...sounds like a toilet cleaner.
Yes, I had problems too, just now. I just kept pressing cancel and the drop down went away eventually.
Irrational dislike of names: Most J names except Joy and Julia, I don't know why. I don't like K names either. Which is a bummer since the name Keturah is growing on me but I can't get past the K.
Most of my irrationalness starts with the Letter. Like I don't like, B, C, F except for Flora but the F still bothers me, O, P, U, and X. So a lot of letters. Hmmm So far all of my kids names start with Vowels except for my first. I also have a weird love of all names that start with the letter E.
Maybe I need therapy.......LOL!
OH, I forgot....About Willa. I think the name is great. But I would bet money that it is going to get big. Before I read about it on this blog I have heard other people talking about it. It might be a few years, but nonetheless, it will get there.
I love the name Willa. I taught a teenage girl named Willa a few years ago, and she was gorgeous and sweet. That always affects how I see a name, of course!
I run a plant nursery so I chuckled about your comments about Magnolias. There is a group of Magnolia hybrids developed by the US National Arboretum called affectionately as "the Girls". The first group of six "sister" plants (with the same parents) were named 'Ann', 'Betty', 'Judy', 'Randy', 'Ricki' and 'Susan'. Then there is a cousin named 'Jane' and another cousin named 'Pinkie'.
They were born ;-) in 1955 and 1956 but named and introduced in 1968.
FYI, they do not look much like the classic Magnolia, with a different shape and colours range from soft pink to deep purple pink.
I love the name Willa, although whenever I hear it, I get an image of Wila Ford in my head. I know she had a few hits here in the 90's, but I think she is way more popular in Europe. I studied in Florence for a year, and a lot of people that I met were fans.
Also, about the trend issue...I teach at a very small pre-school in L.A., and over the past four years I have met 7 Willa's (ranging from age 2 1/2- 6).
All the same, I never get annoyed by it like I do when I meet yet another Sophie/a, Ava,(Isa/Anna)Bella, Maddison, Riley/Kylie, Jaden (boy or girl), and Jackson/Jaxon. I can't even count how many of these I have met over the past few years. I also used to love the names India, Savannah, Julien, and Jasper, but yet again, I've taught so many of them that they have lost their charm.
Two names I really do not like: Linda and Myrtle.
Myrtle is one common name for a pretty ground cover - another common name is Periwinkle.
The botanical name is Vinca. With names such as Rosa, Viola, Daphne, why not Vinca? It has a V and ends in an a, and sounds nicer than Myrtle!
We are trying to come up with an "R" name that can be a nickname for Richard for our son due in January...Rick, Rich, Ricky, Richie, and Rush are out due to various friends/family members...Our current top choice is River..what do you guys think of this 1. as a name in general, and 2. as a nickname for Richard the fourth (Richard IV = RIV = River, get it?) is it too much of a stretch?
Thanks in advance!
Pregnant mama - I like the name Willa and it does go nicely with Teddy. The only thing that would give me pause is that there are tons of little Williams around, usually nn. Will. Don't know if that would bother you but it's something to be aware of.
River as a nn for Richard is inventive. Not bad though. If I were meeting you irl and were told that was his nn I would buy it but I would probably not come up with it myself. I don ot care for the name as a stand-alone, I think it's a little bit on the "surfer realm" as in out-there. All I associate with it is River Phoenix.
I wonder if turning the name backwards and doing Drach=Drake would be something you could do. Drake is a very hip/cool name imo.
SDH.
River for Richard IV is a really good way to stick to family tradition and give your son a very modern name. You need to be OK with the hippie connotations for River; if you are fine with that I say go for it.
Congrats,
jenny
SDH - ^^what they said^^
sdh -- I think River for Richard IV is clever in a really good way. I like it. Plus you could call him Riv, which is pretty cool, too.
sdh-- Must it start with "R"? If it doesn't have to, I would hands down go with one of the oldest nicknames for "Richard"---- "Hitch". In the Middle Ages, they were big on rhyming nicknames, so "Rich" became "Hitch", "Rob" became "Bob", then "Dob" and "Dobbin", "Anne" became "Nan" (through the endearment "mine Anne") etc. etc.
Just because few moderns know that "Hitch" is a nickname for "Richard" is no impediment to using it. I think most intelligent people are quite fascinated to find out tidbits like that, IF you're up to explaining it!
Although to me not as appealing, I could also see going with "Ride" or "Ryder". Too bad the lemming-like celebs have already picked up on Ryder...
I think "Richard" is an elegant choice- it has that retro Boomer side (think Rob and Laura Petrie's little boy "Richie" on the Dick Van Dyke show); but also a long distinguished history with lots of royal ties like "Richard the Lionhearted", etc. I adore actors Richard Widmark and Richard Burton too.
Although this is a minority viewpoint, I also very much like the nickname "Dick", and don't think it should be discarded because of some stupid slang connotations! Other venerable names like "John" and "Peter" have similarly weathered dubious slang meanings.
I don't expect anyone to agree with me on this one...
Another old nickname for Richard is Dickin, following the same pattern as Jankin and Perkin. Dickin could reasonably morph into Dixon. Or even Rixon/Rix.
If I were you, though, I would stop trying to come up with a nickname pre-partum. When you and the family start interacting with the baby, something will come up naturally, perhaps the mispronunciation of a small relative, perhaps a reaction to some facet of the baby's personality. You need to have a legal name pronto to put on the birth certificate, but you can take your time and allow a nickname to emerge "organically," as it were.
Was someone still wanting names for a possible sister to Ainsley?
I put together a little list while I was doing some mindless chores, so I thought I'd offer it up.
Paige
Claire
Rowan
Harper
Sadie
Adair
Bridget
Margo
pregnantmama-Willa is a name I've come to love since I started frequenting this board. Whether it's too trendy depends a great deal on where one lives. Believe it or not, I don't know a single baby William or Willa, and I know absolutely gobs of little ones.
However, we're in the 'burbs, and we still get raised eyebrows over Henry.
Someone once suggested checking the names of babies in the online nurseries of your neighborhood hospitals, and I think that is a very good suggestion.
sdh-I'm kind of neutral on River itself (I think the connection with the actor is probably very strong for those of us in a certain age bracket), but I think it's a very clever idea as a Richard IV nn.
sdh:
for Richard, I love Hitch, Rix and River!
Are there any standard nn's for someone who is a fourth? I know thirds, get Tripp and Trey and the like. A fifth could go by Quint, Quinn, etc.
"Are there any standard nn's for someone who is a fourth? I know thirds, get Tripp and Trey and the like. A fifth could go by Quint, Quinn, etc."
Well, he could be called Quart, even if he is only a half-pint....
Re Quart... LOL
little known Willa Ford fact:
she was born Amanda Lee Williford
thanks for your comments so far everyone! i have a very strong preference that the nickname begin with the same letter at the real name, hence the search for R names.
i don't mind the "hippiness" factor of River, i like that it is water related. and i don't think many kids these days will know or care about River Phoenix...
my husband, richard III, was called Rush from the time he was born and is/was never called richard except by telemarketers and teachers on the first day of school. so we would like to have a fun nickname ready for when the baby is born. though we do realize that it could evolve or change over time.
As far as standard names for a fourth child, I personally don't know of any. I looked on www.babynamesworld.com and under meaning=fourth found 5 names:
Anane-M-African:pron. Ah-NAH-neh
Delta-B-Greek:pron. DEL-ta
Raviya-M-Hebrew:pron. Rah-VEE-yah
Shirou-M-Japanese:pron. SHEE-ro
Yokkako-F-Japanese:pron. YOK-kah-koh
M=Male, F=Female, B=Both
So Ravi might work. Also thought of Rico unless it's too Spanish sounding or the "Suave" thing is bothersome.
Little Richard the IV might be a cool, laid-back River (I think that's very clever, without being "too" clever).... or he might be a silly, busy Ringo (Ringo Starr's real name was Richard). Or any of the other possibilities.
I agree with Miriam, there's something to be said for the organic nickname that comes up as you get to know your son. On the other hand, I did "mandate" my kids' nicknames from birth--to head-off the more usual nicknames their names would inspire. It sounds like your family is fairly flexible and creative with all its Richards, but some of us have to be prepared--and firm!--about this stuff.
Wow, since last time I checked a few people have posted that they see Willa already having had an increase in popularity, or are predicting one. Interesting. Especially the comment about 7 Willas in several years at one preschool. Something to think about. It's not that she has to be the "one and only" with her name, but I want to at least be aware of these trends.
I asked my friend who works at a very hip daycare in NYC and she said she hadn't met any. Maybe it's more of a West Coast thing?
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