The Baby Name Wizard

Got to thinking that maybe some of you would like to look these scholarships up so here's the info:

Zolp Scholarships
The Zolp Scholarship is restricted to students at Loyola University in Chicago who are Catholic and whose last name is Zolp. The student's last name must appear on their birth certificate and confirmation certificate. The scholarship provides full tuition for four years.

Other scholarships for students with particular last names include:

Scarpinato at Texas A&M University. Scholarship pays full cost of attendance at Texas A&M University for anyone whose last name is Scarpinato by birth or marriage.

Gatling at North Carolina State University.
The John Gatling Grant provides scholarships for students who were born with a surname of Gatling or Gatlin to attend NC State University. The scholarship provides up to $9,000 for in-state students and $18,000 for out-of-state students. (There is no known relationship between John Gatling and Richard Jordan Gatling, the inventor of the Gatling machine gun. John Gatling made his fortune as a real estate developer in Raleigh, NC.)

Harvard University has several scholarships based on the student's last name, including Baxendale, Hudson, Thayer, Downer, Bright.

Van Valkenburg. The Van Valkenburg Memorial Scholarship awards $1,000 to a descendant (by birth or legal adoption) of Lambert and Annetje Van Valkenburg, who emigrated in 1643. Variations in the surname Van Valkenburg are acceptable, including Van Valkenburg, Van Valkenburgh, Van Volkinburg, Van Falkenburg, Valkenburg, Vollick, and Van Velkinburgh.

Also thought this one was a hoot:
The Icy Frost Bridge Scholarship at DePauw University is restricted to female music students who can sing or play the national anthem with sincerity. Icy's brother, Jack Frost Bridge, is an alumnus of DePauw University.

Lauren, Wren reminds me of the architect Christopher Wren (and the character in Mousetrap by Agatha Christie), so it does have a sort of male feel for me. I'm anti-androgeny (having grown up as a female with the name Toby), but if that's what you're going for, I think Wren does work.

On the original post, I think some names do impact the people who carry them, and some do not. I don't know what this means, but the name Barry is VERY prevalent at our synagogue (it's also my husband's name). It's the first name of the rabbi, the cantor's husband, the nursery school teacher's husband, etc. To me, it's a very Jewish, in the secular sence, name. Did it inspire these people to be active, practicing Jews, or was it the other way around -- they came from active Jewish families who chose the name ...?

Opposite of people using short names or palindromes to make it less expensive to buy/spell out a kids name is to give the kid an unpopular name. You'll never have to buy license plates, pencils, cups, etc., with their name on it as they will not be able to find them (as I was not -- and when I did, the products were clearly for boys).

Someone mentioned Bennett above. That is my 2nd son's middle name. As I've mentioned b4, we were hesitant to use it as a first name as we didn't want it to be shortened to Ben and have him be one of many Bens (or constantly correct people by telling them he's Bennett, not Ben).

I'm a little odd in my name choices as I don't want one as unpopular as mine (again, Toby, a female) or one in the top 25. Our boys have names that are currently in the 50s. One has stayed in the 50s for a long time; one (the one who has the middle name Bennett) is climbing, which we knew but used it anyway! Some days I think we should have gone with Bennett. Oh well.

Some sibsets I can across yesterday:
Rebecca, Jericho and Gideon. It ws so great to meet a Jericho! The are about 15, 12 and 9. I only heard the names but I actually wondered if it might be Rebekah, in that context. Very biblical.

Second set: Shaun, Wyatt and Julia. All teens. Somehow, that struck me as an odd sibset. Very different styles of names.

Coll- Augustine Jude is rather striking! I'm glad to hear they pronounce it the traditional way. Someone was mentioning St Au-gust-INE to me this week and I had to bite my lip not to correct them. Do you happen to know the rest of the sibs? That would be fantastic! Or maybe we should try to guess?

Zoerhenne- you sadden me with your stereotyping of "old lady" names. I am a happy mother of many "old ladies" and an "old man," Gladys, Mildred (Millie), Prudence (Pru), and Cecil. But, to each their own I suppose.

Lauren- I can't blame you for wanting a name with a bit more spark. I feel the pain of the totally vanilla naming period (IMHO) of the late 70's-90's.
I am going to have to disagre on the, "Ren/Wren" suggestion. I understand the draw, but I think it's too common sounding. I LOVE LOVE LOVE "Lark." I think it's perky, but not silly, strong, but still tinged with a light femininity.

Coll -- I too LOVE Augustine Jude, pronounced that way!!! We considered Augustine for our youngest son, but were turned off by the number of people who pronounce it au-gus-TEEN (apparently an accepted pronunciation for males, but also the pronunciation of the female name by the same spelling). Your post has me hopeful that we might consider it in the future!

Please please do tell us the names of the other siblings!

Love some of the Olympic names I'm seeing - new ones for me are boys: Loris (french swimmer), Leith (aussie swimmer) girls: Alessia (italian swimmer)

oops! Loris Facci & Alessia Filippi are Italian swimmers. Leith Brodie is an Aussie swimmer.

My favorite Olympic names so far:

French swimming relay team:
Coralie
Aurore
Camille
Ophelie-Cyrielle

French archer (female):
Berengere

Not so favorite:

Tarnee (Aussie and I think a swimmer)

I wonder if the other children in grade school dared to call Nastia Liukin "Nasty"?

Other names I noted:

Steliana (Romanian gymnast)--for when Stella is not enough

a male Ashley on the Aussie swim team

Sada-American fencer

Klete Keller--American swimmer

Hayden Stoeckel--Aussie male swimmer (parents were ahead of the -ayden/-aiden curve)

How about naming the kid after mom or dad and then inheriting all the personalized license plates, mugs, and all that junk as hand-me-downs.

Leith Brodie, how unabashedly Scottish.

re olympic names (which is a big part of why i'm watching)

i took a liking to the name Otylia Jędrzejczak (Polish swimmer).

Miriam-
Nastia Liukin's full first name is Anastasia. When I read her name though, all I can see is "nasty."

These Olympics have really reminded me that Chinese names are beautiful sounding and fun to say too! Just say Guo Jingjing aloud. It puts a smile on my face saying it.
:)

Re: Scholarships for certain names

My law school awarded scholarships and aid based on need, but then had us fill out a form indicating if we met any of many different odd scholarship requirements (are you from X city? Are you left-handed and a red-head? Did you major in piccolo performance?). You still got the same amount of scholarship, but they were able to draw from one of these very specific funds instead of using general funds.

Coll, I'm going to take a stab at guessing Augustine Jude's siblings. Not knowing, of course, the gender breakdown, I'll just throw out a bunch of names that might fit:

Gabriel
John Paul
Patrick/Padraig
Dominic
Michael
Joseph

Mary (or some form of, like Maura, perhaps followed by a second name, a la Mary Kate)
Gemma
Therese
Kateri
Regina

Have I hit on any?

-- I, too, cannot look past the "nasty" in Nastia.

-- There is an American actress who goes by Sean Young. (By birth: First name "Mary", middle name "Sean".) Different spelling than "Shawn", but it's still the same sounding name being used by woman. She's been around since the early '80s and is kinda infamous, so someone could easily have heard her name without having seen any of her movies.

-- And Miriam's mention of the name "Bérengère" reminds me of a little naming anecdote that amuses me: When my friend's older sister was to be born (c. 1974 in Toronto,) her parents wanted to name her Berengeria, but then at the last minute they chickened out and instead named her... Jennifer.

When their son was born in 1980, there was no pretense of creativity and named him Michael David. Siblings Jennifer and Michael, eh? There can only be one or two of those pairs floating around, right?

Hmm ... I don't think I have enough boy names matching Augustine in my list. How about:

Ambrose
Blaise
Xavier
Raphael
Benedict

i have a question for all you name fans(i am sure there is a more exact name but it escapes me)

i am having a baby girl in october...my mother named me after rona barret..the great gossip columnist of the 50's 60's and 70's.

i have always loved my name and loved whom i am named after as she is a strong and successful woman..what do you think of naming my baby barrett? i really like it ; but have not heard of any girl named barrett...my husband is not yet on board....

any input would be appreciated

thanks

rona

I love the name Barrett for a girl. I know one female Barrett - she's 30ish and goes by Bari. And I knew of one elementary age girl who went by a double name with Barrett being the second one (J4ne Barrett) so I am very used to hearing it for a girl.

Barrett is interesting for a girl, but I would find a mother/daughter pair named Rona and Barrett to be a bit odd, like a mother and son named Martha and Washington.

Too matchy--seems cheesy to me.

Lauren-

I agree with others that Ren is great, but may I suggest Rennie? Some might think it is kind of girlie because of the "ie" at the end, but it always makes me think of the wonderful (male) Scottish artist and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. It also strikes me as being kind of plucky and, to use your word, sprightly, but at the same time has a weight to it.

It might even sound especially international and kind of Dutch too with your proposed last name: Rennie Van S...

Cheers and best of luck!

rona-- I think that is a great idea. I like you! Don't worry about mother and daughter having those two names- that's a non-issue.

The "Barrett" I have heard of is a pivotal character in one of Sue Grafton's mystery novels. It might have been "N is for..." (I forget what the last word was).

But it's the one in which detective Kinsey Milhone goes up to fictional resort area "Nota Lake", California, to find out why a small town policeman died suddenly.

The "Barrett" in question is a spunky and intelligent teenage girl...

Lauren-- I also like "Lark"-- very plausible as a nickname for Lauren, plus gives you a change in that it is one-syllable, brisk but womanly.

Although it apparently doesn't fit with your naming style, I also like the very old nickname for all the Laur- names, namely, "Lally". The daughter of the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham is named Lally Weymouth and is a very famous journalist in her own right. It's a bit preppy but I like it.

I also think that "Larry" for a girl is perversely amusing and could work.

LaurieLw, what nickname are you considering?
All of the above could work for you too, with the exception of the "Wren/ren" sub-group, presumably.

Wow! Thanks, everyone, for the feedback on nicknames for Lauren! As much as I love Wren/Ren, I actually tried to adopt Wren as a nickname in 7th grade, to defer the "Lars" that my friends perversely insisted on. There was a character on the Disney Channel show Even Stevens named Wren--a definite overachiever and perfectionist, much like myself! I believe Ren was short for Renee.

Unfortunately, I don't think Wren/Ren would work for me. The first part of the name of my college (Welsh name, for an American college, no less!) rhymes with Ren and as much as it is uttered around campus, confusion would be invariable. (Sleuths will surely be able to ferret out my college quite easily! It's very distinctive and always pronounced incorrectly. The gorgeous name is actually what drew me there in the first place. I guess my name obsession extends beyond people to institutions of higher learning! Any guessers?)

I'm definitely still pondering your other (wonderful) suggestions, though! I actually do like Lauren: it's feminine but sporty and has the irresistible Old Hollywood connection (smoky-voiced Lauren Bacall, after whom I was named). I just don't like it's popularity! I hate being one of many, many Lauren LN's. I suppose taking my mother's surname would solve that. Lauren Van S___ does sound both distinctive and dignified, plus as the bonus of sentimental value and familial connection. (I've always been closer to my mother's family than my father's.)

Also, Augustine Jude is fantastic! Why, oh why would people ever turn to Jayden/Braeden/Caden when such marvelous, underused (well, not Jude so much anymore) exist, ripe for the taking?

I'm not a fan of Shawn for a girl, or even Shawna. I know a Shana (pronounced Shawna), about 23 years old and the oldest of 7 siblings. Her sisters are J@cqueline (pronounced Jack-quil-een), Gabrielle, Alexandra, and Samantha. At first glance they don't seem to match (Shana seems much more modern and less "frilly"), but I suppose they're all feminized versions of standard male names.

Lauren:

I guess you're not headed toward Kenyon, Centre, Denison, Hendrix, or Bennington, since none of those are Welsh.

Bryn Mawr is the obvious, but isn't that pronounced "brin"?

Jack-quil-een?? Good grief. How to give a daughter a hard start in life...

Lauren, what do you think of Lowry? Laurence?

http://youcantcallitit.com/

Re nn for Lauren--

If you watch Big Brother (and I confess I do), one of the current contestants is called Rennie, short for Lorenza.

BTW another is named Libra, for her grandmother or mother's astrological sign (not hers).

Nastia Liukin's name is pronounced with a very distinct "ahhh" sound, since Nastia is a traditional Russian nickname for Anastasia. (Nastia was born in Russia and is a fluent speaker.) It's funny--as a big gymnastics fan for many years, I've become so used to hearing Nastia's name that the "nasty" connection never even occurred to me, since they are pronounced quite differently.

I've noticed that some commentators pronounce "Shawn Johnson" as if the two names rhyme, while others pronounce the vowels very distinctly. Almost like "Shoin Johnson."

I personally think that Jiang Yuyuan is a beautiful name. Can any Chinese speakers clue us in on what it means?

And yes, Miriam, I was charmed by Coralie Balmy in the French relay too.

I've been enjoying watching the Olympics for names as well (I always thought Nastia was pronounced NAH-stia, but I guess I was wrong).

Sorry to hijack the thread again, but I'm yet another person who desperately needs some naming help-- I'm having a baby in a little more than a month, and we're totally blocked on boy's names (we're not sure what we're having). We want to name our child after my partner's grandmother and my aunt, and we're very open to creative ways of doing this. Their names were Millie and Bertha. I've posted on this a while ago, but I think I was soliciting girl's names then.

We have a girl's name picked out--Noa Bay. We love the name Noa (and she's a strong female character from the bible) and Bay is after Bertha while also being after Millie, whose favorite place in the world to be was at her apartment on Cowpet Bay in St. Thomas. My aunt really liked the water and the beach as well.

For a boy, we're stuck. I like Micah, but my partner associates it with a specific person. We tend to be drawn towards biblical or hebrew names as first names (or at least something that doesn't sound too "un-jewish"), perhaps getting more inventive with the middle name (we've been drawn to nature names). We also might try to name a boy after my partner's friend Jordan who died a few years ago.

I feel like I've looked at dozens of name books and I don't seem to love anything, or else it's too popular. Some thoughts: We're drawn to Jonah, but my close friends just named their baby boy Jonah. My partner likes Asa, but I feel like it's too feminine sounding especially if we have a girl later and name her Noa. Milo's cute, but is it too trendy? We've even thought about Marlowe, but I don't think I really love it. And Ber as a middle name, which means Bear in Yiddish.

I don't know if this is enough to go on, but does anyone have any suggestions? I feel like I'm going to give birth without a boy's name, so I'm hoping for a girl!

Rachel-- I love all the Tob- names -- Tobiah, Tobias, and Tobit.

Laura's book has Judd as a nn for Jordan -- perhaps as a mn?

Benjamin and Jonathan are two of my favorite Biblical names; I also love Micah, though did you ever worry that girls are using it a lot these days?

Thomas would be a cool mn after St. Thomas for Millie ...

Is Asher too popular? My son is Gabriel -- I love that too. Instead of Jonah, what about Jonas? What about Judah?

Laura's book has Mose as a sibling for Milo -- what about that? Kind of a funky Moses? And it's an M for Millie ... maybe Mose Benjamin, with Benjamin for Bertha?

I love Matthias too.

Any of these helpful?

Rachel, my 2nd son is named after my grandmother, Belma. Belma, Bertha ... seriously, what were they thinking?

Her yiddish/Hebrew name was Bluma, which means flower and back b4 we knew it was a boy, we toyed with various flower names.

We could not come up with a B boy name. I got desperate and was walking around trying out the name Bruce (as awful as it may seem to some, there are tons of strong Bruces out there) when my husband made me give up. As I posted above, we went with Bennett as his middle name, and Barak as his Hebrew name. How about Barak? As we've also discussed here it's not the same root as the presidential candidate (which is from baruch -- meaning blessed).

I kind of like Boaz.

Re Asher, I've heard of 3 in the last 2 days. 2 were middle names of newborn boys and one is the new cat next door!

Did you see the post about Cohen being used as a first name? I found that discussion really interesting and have been ruminating on that name (not that we're having another).

I don't think Asa is too feminine. I've always liked Ari or Aryeh (meaning lion), and Dov, which also means bear, I think.

Good luck.

Lauren -- i believe i went to your college --is it in PA?
I have a friend named Lauren who we sometimes called Lou or LuLu. Lulu might be a little too cutesy, but Lou could work. Lou Henry Hoover was a great first lady!

Re Bertha--

Bertha is derived from the Germanic word for 'light,' 'bright', so perhaps the modern Israeli Hebrew name Lior (male)/Liora(female) which means 'light.' The connection between a Hebrew name and a vernacular name is not always similarity in sound. It can also be similarity in meaning. Meir, Uri, Ziv, and Abner also have light, bright meanings.

And, yes, I know that Nastia's formal name is Anastasia--and how to pronounce it--and the Russian custom of using either formal names plus patronyms or diminutives. However, since Nastia is using that name in the Olympics, I am assuming that is the name she used at school. Hence, my curiosity as to whether her American classmates decided to call her Nasty. After all, so many expectant parents are concerned about whether a chosen name will lead to some, um, nasty, teasing nickname.

Lauren,

How about Renee?

Rona- I have heard of girls named Barrett, and I really like it a lot.

Does Barrett not make anyone else think of Barrette? As in the things used to hold back your hair?

Based on the characters given on Wikipedia for Jiang Yuyuan's name, "Yu" means "hard metals" and "yuan" means "source." I think it's meant to sound like a vein of gold glittering in a mine. I'm not a native speaker, though, so my interpretation could be off.

Wiktionary gives the meaning of "yu" as "rare treasure," so maybe Yuyuan could be translated as "treasure trove."

Rachel: For Millie how about Malachi? There are also Malcolm, Matan, Marley, or Michael which I used to hate but I now feel might be coming back. And gives you the nn Mikey which is pretty similar to Micah but less date-stamped.

For Bertha I love Barak, but surely Bay would also work for a boy? The only thing is that as a midle name it does sound like a place name. Bertie is cute, or how about Bart?

Or why not just go for Noah Bay for a boy?

I speak from experience when I say that you get NO perks at Mark Twain Caves if you and your spouse are named Tom and Becky. :-Þ

re: Bennett - I know one about 12 years old, older brother to Owen. He's a great kid, so it makes me kinda dig the name.

I love the guesses for Augustine Jude's siblings, but sadly they are all wrong. His parents followed in the Duggar's footsteps (actually, I suppose they led the Duggars, as their youngest is 16) and gave all the children names starting with the same letter.

I don't know them all, but the few I do know are Aaron, Amy, and Angela. Aaron (the brother I met) told me that Augustine has by far the coolest name. And that he's often known as Gus at home and by friends. We could take a stab at guessing the other names, which I've forgotten. There are 6 boys and 4 girls.

How I would have loved for them to have a saints' names theme, though. Blaise and Xavier and Bede and Cecilia and Theresa and Perpetua...so cool!

Rachel, I like the suggestions of Malachi and Noah Bay for a boy. I prefer Malachi to Micah (I've got the same problem as your partner and asociate it with someone in particular).

All A's? I would have thought that Ambrose might've fit in there, though if Augustine is the "coolest" name and other sibs are Aaron, Amy, and Angela, then we're most likely looking at Abigail and Anne/Anna or maybe Alana for the other two girls; maybe Adam, Alexander, Andrew, and Anthony for the other four boys?

Speaking of Bede, I'm recently loving that one ... and a family I know has daughters Faith and Felicity, which I love!

Rachel, what about Japheth? Or Mishael? (I just read that this morning from the book of Daniel ... I don't know who Mishael is, but it's so similar to Michael I thought you might like it!)

Thanks for all the suggestions--it's great to hear thoughts from people on this blog since I don't like asking people I know personally (I don't want to give anything away) and as a long time reader I really respect people's opinions here!

It's amazing all of the reasons certain name ideas are off limits: we would almost definitely use Benjamin except it's my partner's middle name, for example.

I guess I don't want to use Noah Bay for a boy because I vastly prefer Noa as a girl's name, since Noah is so popular. Bay sounds like a girl's name to me too.

I think I've looked at every B and M name there is, and just don't love any of them. I do like J names more generally, but none are popping out right now (we are considering Judah, but I just don't love it.)

I'm ready to go out of the box, so the suggestions of names based on similar meanings are really helpful. I've even found myself brainstorming about what my aunt liked to do and basing a name on that. She loved to play games, was fabulous with children (she never had any of her own), had me and my cousin's over every new year's eve when we were children which we still reminisce about, loved picking berries in the summer. I even jokingly found myself remembering how much she loved to go to Atlantic City and play the slots (Bandit, anyone? ;-) Or are there other suggestions of names that evoke water? The names don't have to be Hebrew or Biblical, I just don't want them to have specifically Christian derivations.

If this is helpful, the last name of the baby will start with a hard G, and it's a very common Jewish last name.

Any more suggestions? All help is appreciated!

Bea Dee,

My son who has the middle name Bennett, has the first name Owen!

Rachel,

Two of my cousins, one who lives in Israel and one who lives in New Jersey, have daughters named Noa. One is Noa Elizabeth and they call her Noalee.

I'll keep thinking about options for you. You don't need a girl name, but Maya is derived, I believe, from maayim, meaning water. We just got the class list for pre-school and there's a Mayaan on the list. I assume it's a girl?

Good luck.

More, Rachel, sorry ...

With Jonah, you don't get a name meaning water, but you get a water story ...

We have an elder relative Jonas who gets a kick out of the Jonas Brothers. Do you all think Jonas will uptick? One would hope the people listening to the Jonas Brothers are too young to have kids, but the name will be seared in their brains ....

A little off topic but I wonder if Nastia will start a naming trend of Nasia? That's the way they are pronouncing it and I think spelled that way it hits the "naming vibe".

Laura, when do you give us your Olympics naming blog entry?!

It's funny you mention Mayim, since if we have a girl, her hebrew name will be Noa Mayim (hitting the M from Millie.) I've heard of the name Mayaan, it's definitely a girl's name.

We're going to look at a Hebrew dictionary directly as well for ideas.

OK, so I do actually know that Maria Himmelfahrt is German for the Feast of the Assumption (today, as it happens) and literally means Mary's Journey to Heaven, but it just sounds like a name to me- one of those that grabs my brain and won't let go! Incidentally, the Ascension is known as Christi Himmelfahrt. Meet the Himmelfahrts, anyone?

As far as saving money via a certain name, I once went to school with a family consisting of eldest son Kenny (named after his Dad), who's younger siblings included:

Kourtney, second eldest, which their Mother was absolutely IN LOVE WITH as a name.

Kevin, named after the the doctor who delivered him.

Kori, the youngest, who's name they wanted to be unique.

and finally, in the middle of it all, third eldest Bobby, who was named after the grandfather that died very shortly before his birth.

Everywhere they went, the poor kid was so left out. Their Mother's name was Christy, so even that fit better than Bobby.

Point being, they gave their Mom a birthday present one year, a bracelet with "K+B" charms on it. It would have been less expensive for them if they'd all had K names.

As far as saving money via a certain name, I once went to school with a family consisting of eldest son Kenny (named after his Dad), who's younger siblings included:

Kourtney, second eldest, which their Mother was absolutely IN LOVE WITH as a name.

Kevin, named after the the doctor who delivered him.

Kori, the youngest, who's name they wanted to be unique.

and finally, in the middle of it all, third eldest Bobby, who was named after the grandfather that died very shortly before his birth.

Everywhere they went, the poor kid was so left out. Their Mother's name was Christy, so even that fit better than Bobby.

Point being, they gave their Mom a birthday present one year, a bracelet with "K+B" charms on it. It would have been less expensive for them if they'd all had K names.

Lauren- This one would be a stretch from Lauren, but I've always thought Liesel a very pretty name and it has a similar feel to Lauren.

Rachel- Have you considered Bertrand or Bernhard?

My due date is very shortly approaching and I have posted a couple times over the past several month as I have worked through the naming process. When last posted it was down to Philippa (Pippa) Tate, Juniper or Calla. Sadly, my favorite Philippa Tate has been nixed by DH. We are now 90% set on Juniper Frances. What does everyone think of this? My son's name is August Frederick. My only reservation is still that Juniper will sound really cute on a child but not sure for an adult. Also have had a hard time with the MN. I like Frances but am not sure if this is right. I wanted something more feminine sounding and short. My mother and I both have Anne as a MN. I am considered Juniper Anna.