moll
- Name
moll
- About Me
In fourth grade, I checked the baby name book out of my classroom library, and never returned it. It is still on a bookshelf at my parents' house... Oh, and I still haven't really gotten over Charlotte, Lillian, and Lydia getting so popular.
- My Favorite Names
-
- My Recent Blog Comments
Baby Name Wizard Store
Celebrate with personalized baby name products! Custom birth announcements, invitations, bibs, onesies & more.
Start Shopping
I have a nephew named Nicolas, chosen because his mother's first language is Spanish and his father's is English. When speaking English, we call him NICK-o-las and in Spanish, nee-ko-LAHS. My brother and his wife figured that most of the time Nicolas would use English (in school, for instance) and go by NICK-oh-las. Instead, my brother's mother-in-law scolds my brother for "pronouncing his son's name wrong" when he's using English. Now they wish they had just gone with Nicholas! For their second child, they chose a name that is pronounced and spelled the same in both languages. But, Elizabeth T., I think your story is so interesting because as far as I've seen, they don't switch back and forth when using the same language. I wonder what Lena will grow up introducing herself as! I do think both pronunciations are pretty.
I love playing this game when someone I know has a new baby - guessing the missing new baby name out of the siblings' names! #2 is cracking me up because it includes 5 of my nephews' names (in a row!) and my own name, as well as two girl names that were the alternative choice if one of my nephews had been a girl. I'm going to guess a comfy "great-grandma"* name like Lucy, Rosie, Lily, or Daisy, which were other names my sibs had in the running if the boys had been girls. (Though I'd maybe be more likely to pair Lucy with sisters like Charlotte and Caroline). #4 - maybe Steven, Christopher, or David? #6 - Alexander? #3 contains the oddest mix of names I love (Beatrix, Paloma, Gideon) and loathe (Emerson, Sawyer), so I'm at a loss there! *Yep, I'm fully aware that a lot of ACTUAL, more likely great grandma names like Barbara, Gladys, and Thelma would make an entirely different sib list!
(1) Almost everyone sang "Good Golly Miss Molly" to me, especially as a child/teen and (2) all of these people thought it was super-original. I also got a healthy dose of Molly Malone, usually from middle aged and older Irish Americans - though actual Irish people have never given me that. I adore the name Clementine but may never use it because I don't care for that song, and I'm sure a child with that name gets treated to "oh my daaarlin'..." more times than they'd like.
Alison1981: I think Avery's popularity is in part associated with the popularity of Ava, as well as the popularity of first names that can also be surnames JulieRB: Ad- names have been popular for several years - Adeline, Adelaide, Addison, Addalee. There's also a trend towards.. how to say... already-popular names with the starting consonant removed? Vowels are hot. EG, Madeline/Adeline (yes, I know Adeline is an independent name), Madison/Addison, Kayla/Ayla. Adalyn fits in with that. I also would guess that quite a few new parents already know a little Maddie or two, so Addie might sound fresher, and Adalyn might be a name some parents use to get to the nickname they want. Barnacle: I don't lump Eamon in with the -aden names at all, maybe a few people would if they didn't know its origin, but that's it. I might associate it with the larger Celtic trend though - Liam, Seamus, Declan, etc. It's a wonderful name, and Ted is a great nickname!
Looks like some names made big jumps in the rankings (Stella, for instance). I was surprised to see Melanie climb a bit, I thought of it as more of an 80s/90s rising name that was now on the decline. So busy today, but can't wait to look at some of the changes - and see how the ranking changes correspond to the changes in the number of babies born with the name.
Well, I agree with everyone else. Ruby Rose, I hear nothing wrong with the different C's in Lucy, Grace, and Clare/Clara. I also think they are a similar name "type". But, If YOU don't love how the combination sounds, then that's probably not the best choice for you. In terms of connotation - how the names make me feel or the image they conjure up - Molly and Jane are also great matches (promise I'm not speaking from a personal bias ;) ). You seem to like the s/ soft "c", but your other names have an old fashioned feel, unlike Mason. Maybe consider Cecilia/Celia/Cecily, Betsy/Bessie, or Tess/Tessa/Tessie if you want the combo of old-fashioned and s/soft c sound. Others? Off to a good start, best wishes! LucGoose - I know of so many young kids (<5 yrs) with Ad- names that Adalaide sounds, possibly, too YOUNG for a 12-yr-old, but not at all impossible, especially if you mention that it's a family name or something. It's less popular than Hannah and Natalie, though Rose balances the set a bit. I would also expect the parents of a Hannah, Natalie, and Rose to use the more standard spelling, Adelaide, unless it's somehow explained. Just my $.02, good luck with your work!
Molly has been the #1-3 name for female dogs for coming up on 20 years now, and the worst is that people always tell me, in astonished tones, that "OhmyGOD my DOG is named Molly!". First of all, that isn't really a compliment, and secondly, your dog name is super common, so I'm not exactly awed at the coincidence of us both being named Molly. I now have nephews named Ch@rley, H3nry, J@ck, and M@x (among others), so they'll understand the dog name thing someday... My pets are H@rper and M@bel - M@bel being a human name I like but don't feel bad forfeiting on a pet, and H@rper before the recent H@rper boom, after H@rper Lee (I'm a law student, so).
zoerhenne, you pose a tough question! Eternal youth is definitely hard to come by in a girl's name, since they fade in and out so fast -it's hard to think of one that's stayed young since the 70s! I was born in the 80s and, while many names from my generation - e.g., Natalie, Jessica, Alyssa - are still popular, they don't sound like 7th graders forever. I will say that my name, Molly, has stayed relatively constant ranking-wise for about 20 years, and sounds a little like an eternal preschooler name to me. Molly is always a sloppy 4-year-old. But there's my problem - I can think of some names, maybe Samantha, Brianna, or Taylor, that have had a youthful image since the mid-late 80s tops, but I'm having trouble reaching back to the 70s or before. Hmm.
Sica, I've wondered that about at least the first batch of American Girl characters. The authors did historical research, and I would have guessed that would include names. But most of the names of the early characters existed at the time of the stories, but were uncommon. Artistic license? Trying to appeal to girls of the 80s and 90s? Or, maybe to the authors the more representative Mary, Helen, and Elizabeth were just too boring. From the comments here, it looks like even though Bewitched without a doubt is responsible for launching this name, for women who grew up in the late 80s and beyond, the all-American girl image of Samantha is in part due to, well, the American Girl.
Good catch - if I hadn't known about the character limit, I would have just guessed that some of the Maximillian parents switched over to Maximiliano :) To me, the big "falling name" story is that, for the first time, Mary is not in the top 100. Not that it fell that many places from last year - though through the decade, yes - but just the idea that Mary isn't a top 100 name anymore! Anne with an E, I'm glad I'm not the only one checking the future prospects of my favorite names! I'm glad Eleanor is safe for you, and a little disappointed my own name has risen a bit.
How badly do I want an audio feature on this board?! I love how the accent in Australia has actually affected the name charts. Tayla actually makes the list! I wonder how often people correct others for saying their or their child's name with the wrong accent. I don't mean mispronouncing Julio as JOOL-io, but more like when Dawn becomes Don, or Theresa becomes Thereser. Personally I think people's accents are what they are - none is better than the other - but I also fear I'd have trouble keeping quiet if I were a Diana that was being called Dianer. I had a friend named Lisa who used to get upset at her father for calling her Liser!
I say Eeen-glish and SOY-er; do with that what you will. I'm also from a region where pen/pin, caught/cot and dawn/don are very distinct - but none of those involve the tense E, so maybe that's neither here nor there. I agree with the poster who said that it's not a drawn out Eeeeee, and actually sounds rather close to I - but not exactly. "SAW-yer"'s mom reminds me of my friend named Anna who becomes incensed when people pronounced it ANN- a instead of AH-na. I understand being upset if you've already told a person how you say a name, but you have to expect that the first try will yield the standard pronunciation. L!NNEA! So pretty! It's a name I see tossed around by NEs, but have never run across in real life. And - topic - good sleuthing, Laura! I knew a Sawyer growing up - now 23 or so - and always made the Twain association rather than the occupation-name association.
@NJ: That's an interesting observation, and I wonder if maybe the nickname over formal name preference is cyclical, too. If you look at the SS rankings for 1880 - 1900, quite a few of the popular names are nicknames: Bessie, Lottie, Carrie. And you're right, it looks like we might be in it again - think Maggie, Jack, Max. Of course, there's some counter-evidence for that, since a lot of today's parents were born in a nickname-name era: the 1970s, with its Lauries and Tammys. @ the '80s babies: 1986 here! I think it's funny that our grandparents' generation used to say how ridiculous it was that someday there would be a Grandma Brittany or Nana Tiffany, and now what we're worried about is seeing babies with our generations' names! Luckily, these shouldn't come into style til we're great- or great-great grandparents, so we have a while to think about it. This whole conversation illustrates why so many people choose "classic names", like John, William, Elizabeth, and Katherine: no generational friction! Azalea is really very pretty.