The Next Frontiers in Names, Part 2: Punctuation
A look at the new trails parents are blazing in search of fresh hit names. (Read Part 1: Wordplay.)
Q: What do these names have in common?
Jmya
Kj
Taylorrose
Jlynn
Kmora
Jordonalexander
Kci
Qmari
Json
Matthewryan
Kden
Jjesus
A: They've all shown up in the official U.S. baby name stats in recent years, yet I doubt they really exist.
That's not to say the names are hoaxes, or even mistakes. (Plenty of typos do creep in, but that's a different story.) I think those names have been stripped of a critical part of themselves: punctuation and capitalization.
In the past generation, American parents have pushed to the very limits of the alphabet with names like Zyquan and Xzavier. Now a growing number of them are looking beyond. Punctuation, spaces and capitalization offer a whole new realm of customization to make a child's name stand out.
These non-letter elements have always been a part of some traditional given names (e.g. St. John) and many traditional surnames (D'Amico, Bulwer-Lytton, al-Aziz, Van Winkle, O'Rourke). Yet computer databases have never liked them. Even today, many identification systems strip out non-alphabetic characters, turning Mr. O'Rourke-Van Winkle into Mr. Orourkevanwinkle. The official United States baby name database is one of these no-punctuation zones. As a result, the stats conceal the scope of the name punctuation story.
First-name apostrophes started gaining momentum in the 1980s. The initial wave of names, especially popular with Black and Latino parents, were styled after Romance-language surnames with prefixes. Names like DeAndre and DeAngelo increasingly morphed into D'Andre and D'Angelo. In the '90s and 2000s that prefix style exploded, spreading to less traditional starters like J, M, and K (J'Shawn, M'Kenzie, K'marion).
Even these contemporary creations, though, were following the traditional prefix form. The apostrophe was serving its traditional contraction role, indicating that a letter or letters had been cut out. But the popularity of this style has given the apostrophe a life of its own. More and more, it pops up without a contraction, just for effect: A'Donis. Kay'La. I'Zaiah. All pretense at function abandoned, it can become a purely decorative grace note: Izza'Bella. Tay'lor. Destini'.
It's not just apostrophes. Hyphens, which used to indicate a compound name (Mary-Helen), now serve many roles. They might turn a traditional single name into a pseudo-compound name, like Cait-Lyn, or simply "customize" a name, as in Ma-kayla.
There's a brand new function for punctuation, too. Much like the "silent E" rule you learned in school, a punctuation mark or capitalization can tell a letter to speak its name. This effect has existed for years in commercial names like KMart. The spillover to baby names, though, took off with celebrity name contractions like A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) and J-Lo (Jennifer Lopez).
Take a moment to consider the name that shows up in the name stats as Kden. I feel confident that's actually an alternate spelling of Kayden. But what spelling, exactly? It's impossible to say. I'll guess that K-Den is the most common on the J-Lo model, but K'den and KDen are possibilities. For that matter, why not K*Den? (Baby name bling!) Once you move off the letter keys, anything is possible. My condolences to all the database managers out there.
P.S. As for that girl you heard about named Le-a, pronounced Ledasha, nope, the literal pronunciation of punctuation is not a big trend. You can read more on Le-a here.
Comments
To update my post of January 20, the male name that Raylan Givens suggests for the expected baby is Jiffypop, the female name as I noted before being Palmolive.
I haven't been around much lately, so I apologize if this has already been posted, but a friend of mine sent this to me and I knew I had to share it with you:
http://www.shoutmennonitenames.com/#explain
I was reading Kj as Cage. The K saying it's name, but just the sound of the j.
Guesty - what a coincidence I just finished reading John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" he's an interesting writer in terms of names as he also co-wrote "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" a story of two people of the same name and wrote two other name related titles "Looking for Alaska" (Alaska being a girl not the state) and "An Abundance of Katherines" needless to say there is always an interesting relation to names in his novels. In TFIOS - the main two characters names are Hazel and Augustus contemporary 16/17 year olds. Don't know how realistic that is and I would have preferred August. But yeah, go Vlogbrothers!
Generally, I don't like punctuation in names (I don't even really like hyphenated last names). Accents and uhmlods (sp?) I understand, but random apostrophes and hyphens really bug me. Today a co-worker announced her granddaughter was named D'Aubrey, and all I can think is why not name her Aubrey? The "D'" on the front sounds like a verbal tick when spoken.
New babies in my extended circle: Arlo, Anna, and Julia.
Could I get some help with a name that goes well with my daughter Sylvie? I've read the BNW book and like the suggestion of "Iris," but that's about it and it doesn't feel perfect to me for some reason. The others don't feel quite right. I'm hoping to have a French vibe, nothing overly popular, and I do like the nature/botanical names that are current now (but am not married to the idea - I just like how they go with Sylvie). I'm having SUCH a hard time finding something perfect. New baby is a girl, btw. Thank you!
Sylviesmom-I will give you some names with a French vibe but it would probably be helpful to have some ideas of other names you like (even boy names) to get a better feel of your preferences.
Cecelia; Valerie; Amelie; Celeste; Clementine;
Maris; Natalie; Claire (i prefer this as a mn though); Esme; Beatrice; Dahlia; Aubrey
@sylviesmom, my first thoughts are the following:
Juliet/Juliette
Delphine
Xanthe
Emme
Genevieve
Clementine
Olive
Lila/Lilah
Rosalie
Vivienne
Cecelia
Elodie
I know a Sylvia/Naomi sib set. They are awesome kids, and it is a terrific pairing.
Thanks for the suggestions so far. We have a long and complicated French-sounding last name, btw. I like the suggestions of Vivienne (not sure how I feel about the spelling, though - a bit frilly?), Amelie (can this get away with no accents?), Beatrice (or Beatrix), and Elodie. How do you think Elodie would be received in the states? Are you pronouncing it to rhyme with Melody?
I tend to like classics. Other names I've thought about include Isla (not classic, but pretty), Ruby, Violet (might be too popular), and Hazel. I do love Lillian/Lily, but I know about 100 of them, so I'm not considering it. I do like longer names that shorten to cute nicknames, but it also might be nice to have something short and sweet, which is why Iris appealed. Haven't thought much about boys, but I think I like Frederick (though not Freddie, really), Theodore (Theo), and Milo.
Thanks!
I just ran across this article about how "Bad Names Ruin Lives."
http://motherjones.com/mixed-media/2012/01/new-study-bad-baby-name-choic...
I am absolutely TWITCHING to verify (or, you know, NOT) some of the names mentioned in the comments but I have no idea where to find data for names outside the top 1,000. Does anyone know where to find this data?
MelissaM-The names outside the top 1000 are on the SS website. I posted a link a thread or two back but I can repost it in the am if you don't find it before then.
Sylviesmom-If you like Iris and Lily then I might suggest Lilah. As far as Elodie goes, I DO pronounce it to rhyme with Melody unless Chimu reminds me that sometimes it's more like Ay-lodie ;)
Some more ideas for you:
Adele; Willa; Leona; Fiona; Giselle; Giana; Margot; Zoe; Pearl; Rosemary; Celine; Aida;
Jeanette; Sonya; Marcia
Just wanted to pop in to say thank you for the middle name suggestions for Beatrice that I asked for a few weeks/posts ago. Boy name was Conrad.
Thought you might like to know the final outcome. Miss Beatrice Eloise was born last Tuesday and we are all doing well, even her big brother (2 1/2) who really wanted the baby to be a boy. He's come around!
@Trapper Jen, congratulations on Beatrice Eloise!! I do love that name :)
@sylviesmom, my daughter's middle name is Élodie and we pronounce it more like ay-lo-DEE but I do know an Elodie (without the accent) who pronounces it -EL-od-ee (rhymes with melody) so it can go either way depending on what you want.
Re Vivienne how about Vivian or Vivianne or Vivien. My personal preference is Vivienne but I also quite like Vivian if you like the simpler version.
Here's the repost of the SS link:
Click on "beyond 1000 names"
http://ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/background.html
Congrats TrapperJen! Beatrice Eloise is lovely.
TrapperJenn, congratulations!!! Glad to hear all are doing well--give a kiss to sweet miss Beatrice for all of us.
Sylviesmom, I do like Iris for you (love Sylvie too, btw--Sylvia is our top choice if we ever have another girl). I share your appreciation for botanical/nature names, so here are a few, plus a few more general French vibe names you might like (I know several of thse were already suggested--just consider this another vote for those):
Delphine (or Delphina, Delphinia), Verena, June, Clementine, Rose, Adele, Eloise, Pearl, Vera, Susannah, Dahlia, Zinnia, Camille, Claudine, Bernadette, Odette, Pascale, Yvette, Avril, Louisa, Lisette, Marguerite, Margot, Willa (not a nature name, but sounds like one).
I think Elodie will generally be pronounced to rhyme with Melody in the US, regardless of accents. You can correct people, of course, but I think that will be their first instinct. I don't think Amelie "needs" accents here either, as it's a hassle and will be pronounced to rhyme with homily either way. I like Lila(h), but it seems to be a popular choice among my acquaintances, just FYI.
@zoerhenne, I love Esc pronounced Escape, but how about X'Esc or X'sc pronounced Exscape? :)
@TrapperJenn, congratulations! Beatrice Eloise is a beautiful name. Enjoy your new baby!
@Sylviesmom, I also like Iris, Delphine, Eloise, Pearl, and Margot.
Sure Amy3, you have options with Escape too. You could certainly do X'sc; S'cape; or X'cape if you were worried about pronunciation. I wouldn't do X'Esc because I would say that as Ex-escape but really isn't the point only that there are NO rules?
hyz-I will second Avril.
Sylviesmom-I am wanting to do combos for you. Avril June; Dahlia Iris; Cecelia Louise; Margot Adele; etc.
So funny to see my "name" there! Well, my name is Kjersten. But I've gone by Kj for as long as I can remember. And I HATE when people put periods in my nickname (even though I totally understand; they assume it's initials).
Thank you very much for the link! :)