Wednesday, May 25, 2011

What's in a name?


I've spent the last few months thinking a lot about baby names. I've had more than one conversation go on a while before I have realized, or rather, remembered, that I think more about this than most people and should stop talking. Thank goodness for Carrie, who is very interested in the philosophy and science of name picking. She's always willing to discuss options with me and for a good percentage of my pregnancy, was sending me name options multiple times a week.

Here's a sampling of the 'rules' I've formulated and applied to the ongoing search. I thought it would be good to write them all down so you can see what the search committee has been dealing with.

1.No popular names. Nothing in the top 200, but also nothing that looks like it might in the next 5 years reach the top 200. Basically nothing with a trend line with a slope greater than 1, and preferably less than 0.
2. Nothing that ends in E or Y. Extra points if you can't even conceivably put an extra Y on there for fun. (i.e.- no one will ever call him Levi-y)
3. Nothing that starts with T or ends in T or S because both sound funny with Thomas.
4. The less syllables the better, with a cap at 2.
5. Easy to say when read, easy to spell when heard. And no ambiguous vowels (i.e. Mira).

While being so picky might seem to make it hard to choose, on the contrary, if you would believe it, there are very few names that actually fit all of these requirements. I think we've got it narrowed down to top 5, and maybe top 3. So now I guess its time for middle names? Whats your opinion about middle names? I don't have nearly as much to say about them.

So far I've got:
1. Better to have different number of syllables than first name
2. Levi's middle is a family name, so that might be a nice thing to keep up, but not necessary
3. If we can't come up with something we like, forget it altogether

Any submissions before its too late?

4 comments:

  1. Just be careful... you could make up so many rules for yourself that you negate any possible name choices, in which case your husband may name your child Ethan. But that would sound silly for a girl, so maybe you're safe.

    I plugged "Levi" into the Nymbler and scanned for names that fit your criteria.

    Anne-currently ranked #608 and falling. May fail because of ease of adding an ie to make "Annie." Although my sister's name is Anne and no one has ever called her Annie except my Grandma... she also calls my brother Andrew "Dewy." So.

    I also like Anna, but that is ranked #28 in popularity. FAIL.

    Nora- Not just because I have a kid named Nora, it's a good name. However, last year, it ranked #159 and is trending up.

    There is also Lena, if you were interested in Eleanor variants. It's popularity has been holding steady at about #450 since the 1950's.

    There's Leah, but it's ranked #24. I've never met a baby named Leah, so I didn't believe this, so I looked at the name mapper, and it's popular on the East coast... so it's out.

    Elsa is currently #599, but it has an S in the second syllable, I'm not sure if that's a disqualifier or not.

    Cora is #276 and is trending up slightly, but it is only really popular in Montana and North Dakota, according to the mapper.

    Miriam is #310 and has been holding fairly steady for about 20 years. It does have 3 syllables though.

    Erin is #214 and is falling precipitously.

    Wait... were you soliciting for middle names? Sheesh, that changes everything. I give up.

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  2. i like the names Peach, Brin, Cray, Laura, Helen, Alice, and Rachel.

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  3. OK, so apparently I should have been calling Amanda all this time as well...
    So, Amanda, you're saying if I'm too picky my husband will just choose the #2 name in America for our baby? That is quite a threat.

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  4. Go for Cora, Viv. It fits your rules and it's a great name and I may never have a daughter to use it on, so someone should. And how much time is your daughter going to spend in Montana?

    As for middle names, I have no opinions either, except for a vague suspicion that I like them to be one-syllable. Also, I still love Mae B. Thomas.

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