Baby Name Trends - Places - Paris Bennett has a baby girl

Uh-oh... I named my child India.

No really I did.  I know you all know that, and I am proud of it.  I adore the name.

But I have come across a potential problem!  I forgot that my own name Tara is technically also a place name, oops.  Do you think that is twee?  Well maybe not as twee as American Idol Celebrity, Paris Bennett. 

According to Celebrity Baby Names, Paris Bennett has just popped out a little baby girl named Egypt.  I like Paris as a name, I kinda like Egypt as a name too.  But the idea that Paris has a daughter called Egypt -- kinda twee.  To be fair I guess it is a bit like Tara has a daughter named India.   Should I be embarrased?

Luckily for me... my mum's name is NOT Jamecia (ok so it is not exactly Jamaica but it is bloody close!).  My mum's name is Patricia... actually that is really similar to Jamecia, well the endings at least.  Spooky... do you think Paris and I are living parallel lives? 

Poor India and Egypt, they will never be able to use the place names trend for their own children.  Imagine!  India grows up and has a son named Cyprus.  Egypt grows up and has a daughter named Dakota.  Oh dear.  The pattern could continue indefinitely.

What is it with place names as a trend anyway?  I am going to have to do another blog entry about that soon.

Cool Baby Name - Liv

I need help!  I am nearly 100% on naming my soon-to-be daughter Liv Marie.  Love the name!  The only thing is the pronunciation.  I'm seeing some baby naming sites that say it's pronounced LIHV (my hope and preference!), some that say LIV (as in the word ALIVE), and then LEEV.  I couldn't go there if the true pronunciation was LEEV or LIV (long i).  I know the actress Liv Tyler has always been announced as LIHV and I'm hoping that this is a true pronunciation and not completely against its Norse origins.

Please advise!  Thanks so much.

- Erin

****************Tara's Response****************

Erin,

This is a tricky one!  I don't think I am going to give you the definitive answer you are looking for though.   Nobody really knows how to pronounce words in Old Norse but apparently Icelandic is the closest language to old Norse, so if we really want to know we might have to ask someone from Iceland? I adore Old Norse names, I blogged about them as a naming prediction a while ago.

Lif and Lifthrasir courtesy of Wikipedia

Liv is a name from Norse Mythology derived from Lif and Lifthrasir the first man and woman.  They will be the two humans to rise again after Ragnarok emerging from Yggdrasil, the World Tree to repopulate the world.  My research suggested that these days the Scandinavian name Liv, means 'life' and is more likely to be pronounced to sound like LIEF or LEEV.

I know this isn't what you wanted to hear Erin.  But, that being said, I want to reassure you that the name Liv is also a totally legitimate short form of both Olivia (meaning 'olive') and Livia (perhaps meaning 'bluish') two distinct names from Ancient Rome and almost certainly pronounced LIHV.

WorldTree crystalinks.comEither way, I think it is a beautiful name and the minor distinctions in pronunciation should not put you off using it with the pronunciation LIHV.  My first instinct about the modern pronounciation for Liv is as LIHV, just as Liv Tyler.  In any case, I highly doubt you are going to run into many fluent speakers of Old Norse and unless your daughter is going to be offended when Scandanavian speakers pronounce her name slightly differently, I would just go with LIHV.  I hope that has helped? 

To get off track slightly I would love to comment more generally with regards pronunciation.   I am of the confident opinion that parents should boldly decide the pronunciation of their children and then go with it.  My pet peeve is when people change spelling to force pronunciation.  Say your daughters name is Alicia but you have spelled it Arleescia because you want people to pronounce it in a particular way!  Argh, I can't stand it.  Crazy arsed spelling drives me mental.

My honest opinion is that you should just tell people how to pronounce the name, keep the sophistication of the more attractive spelling and educate people as you go along!  People learn about new names all the time, it is part of the fun of names.  There might be a tiny bit of awkwardness when you first meet someone who hasn't come across your name before but it is quickly resolved and everyone moves on.  If you are using a really beautiful name, why butcher it forever with a crap spelling just to save a tiny bit of stiltedness sometimes?

Tara

The Chaser's War on Everything - Wanky Baby Names

Alright, so I know this is old news, but far out it is funny!  I am a Chaser devotee and this clip is just absolutely fantastic.

To all those who think I am a non-judgemental naming person please forgive me, but there are times when the humour in names is what makes it all so fun and interesting.  Normally I am open to just about anything for baby names but the justification of Pegasus Ezekiel as 'character building' just bloody cracked me up. 

I love the mum who says "Maddison, with two d's".  She obviously finds that people get it wrong. But I adore how she laughs at herself when she is accused of using a bogan name.

Hilarious.

Tara

A Baby Naming Journey

Just a quick post today to point out a fabulous new website that a friend of mine Anita has just started.  It is called More than Just a Name and it documents her still ongoing journey towards the perfect name for her family's fifth child.

The naming journey is my favourite part of blogging about baby names.  I like to hear the reasons why people choose baby names; there is usually more to it other than 'I just liked it'.  And I think this website is special and particularly lovely and wonderful way to document such an important and personal decision making process. 

Thanks for sharing Anita!  I will follow your journey with much pleasure.  I hope you will come on here and tell everyone when you have settled on the perfect name.

Tara

Cool Baby Name of the Month - Jackson

I was excited last week about Creative Neesh and her fantastic name posters that would brilliant decorations in any kid's room.  Back then I showed an example of her work using the name Jackson and mentioned that I might blog about it later.  Well, here we are.

I think parents are naming their children Jackson in droves because is such a 'name of the moment' with its linkage to the very trendy but solid boys name Jack and a tip of the hat to the 'last names first' trend these days.  Here is a bit of an expose about it as the first 'Name of the Month' in aaagggggggeeeeeeees! 

So... Jackson, literally 'son of Jack'.  Jack the basis of this name, is a diminutive of the traditional number one name in history, John.  For me they are all 'on the land' names but they are completely different characters.  To use a 'cowboy' example, John is the cattle farmer and Jack is the rustler.  Jackson on the other hand is the fly-by-night rodeo rider.  

Jack itself is cool, and consequently far more popular than John these days.  In Australian it is THE number one boys name and has been since 2004 when it took over from Joshua's decade of supremacy.   Jackson, the longer version of the name, seems to appeal to parents who perhaps think Jack on its own is a bit too popular and they choose the appendage 'son' for its extra sophistication? 

In America, Jackson is ahead of Jack in the popularity ranks.  It stands to reason that it is slightly more popular in the US, there were a couple of American presidents named Jackson, a fab Motown band and of course the thrilling pop star.   Also apparently a brand of guitar.  Image courtesy of deviantART.

Jackson Pollack, mentioned incidentally in one of my first blog posts, may have been an inspiration for the move from last name to first.  Or perhaps it is growing in popularity as parents turn to maiden names to honour family history?

In Australia Jackson isn't quite as popular.  I think perhaps it is because it could seem a bit 'Hollywood' to some parents.  Jack has a more down to earth feeling than Jackson, and 'down to earth' is considered more acceptable in Australian culture.  And I personally feel that in this case the 'son' extension seems a tiny bit contrived?  Don't get me wrong, it is still a solid name but not my favourite of the last names first set.  

Generally I like the jaunty 'son' extension, but there are names for which I am not convinced.  For example Jameson I like, Dawson I don't.  I like Lawson but not Robinson. Wilson but not Tyson. Harrison is ok-ish but Jefferson not cool.  Some I just don't know what to do with; Dennison, Garrison, Nelson? Others I wish people would be brave enough to use outside of tv shows; Emerson, Anderson, Judson, Watson, Grayson, Gibson.

I would love to hear other opinions on the idea of using the 'son' last names as first names.

Names in the Canberra Times - Sat, 27 Sept 2008

I thought I was going to have an easy post today, just pinching the inspired names from Canberra parents.  But it was a fairly lack lustre list in the paper yesterday.  There weren't many announcements and the names were mundanely conventional variations of the top 20 baby names.  Although there does seem to be a trend to the 'super frilly' in girls names and a conversion to ultra conservative with the revival of John as the boys middle name of the moment!

Girls

• Emma Rose
• Alicia Mae
• Millie Violette 
• Georgia Isabella
• Saleena Marie - I haven't heard of Saleena before, I might have to look into the heritage of this name.
  
• Polly Sophia
• Mackenzie Jade
• Bethany Violet
• Ivy Amari - my favourite of this list
• Sadie Jane
• Jontee Eva - very jaunty is Jontee  

Boys

• Angus John
• Robert John
• Cameron John
• Joesph Wilson
• Samuel
• Riley Mitchell
  

Hmmm.... don't really know what more to say actually.

My favourite Goddess inspired witch names

 A while ago I wrote a list of my favourite Witchy names and it has been great to have people adding to that list with their comments!  When I wrote that list I focused on my idea of the old-fashioned stereotyped witch of literature and fiction.   The old mother witch with the home remedies and midwifery skills named Maud or Esme.  I think those names have a place for naming children these days as parents look to their ancestry to find the perfect name for their child.

Forest Fairytale, artist Anelia Pavlova

But what of those people who would look to name themselves as a witch.  I know that many of the readers of this blog are practicers of the Craft and are looking to find a personal witch name to represent a transformation in themselves.  Often these names are private names shared only with with a select few or kept completely secret; some witches believe that names have and give power. 

This sense of the power of the name is something that I think we all believe in part.  When we choose names for our children we often try to achieve something. Perhaps it might be a sense of normality or a sense of difference; a connection to the traditional or just the fashionable.  There is a message in a name. It is part of what I find fascinating about them.

If people are coming to this blog searching for a name that connects them to the divine, perhaps I can help.  I thought about where we might find a pool of power names that might appeal to people searching for name inspiration, and I turned first to mythology.  As someone who has the proud benefit of holding the goddess name Tara from birth, I thought that perhaps the mystical nature of goddesses might connect on a deeper level with someone who is 'asking the universe' for their name.  Some of the more fascinating of the goddesses of mythology and history are listed below for inspiration.  Additional information about each name and many more goddesses can be found at this fascinating site Goddess.com.au.

• Amaterasu - the Japanese Sun goddess
• Astarte - the Babylonian warrior queen of heaven
• Bast - the Egyptian goddess of the sun
• Bodicea - the Celtic queen
• Brigid - the Celtic goddess of light
• Circe - the Greek goddess of the moon
• Diana - the Roman goddess of the hunt
• Freja - the Nordic goddess of passion
• Gaia - the earth mother
• Hestia - the Greek goddess of purity
• Inanna - the Sumerian goddess of the dark moon
• Juno - the Roman goddess of the home and partnership
• Lilith - the Hebrew goddess of freedom
• Maia - the Greek goddess of Spring
• Nuit - the Egyptian goddess of connectivity
• Rhiannon - the Welsh goddess of fertility
• Tara - the Tibetan goddess of love
• Venus - the Roman goddess of the heart
• Yemaya - the West African goddess of the oceans.

A powerful list of names, I hope they are inspiring.