I have a post up today on Nameberry. The book Beyond Jennifer & Jason (since updated as Beyond Jennifer & Jason, Madison & Montana and then Beyond Ava & Aiden) took the head right off my shoulders in the 1990s when I was still naming cats but was looking forward to naming babies. All I’d ever seen before then were baby name dictionaries: lists of names, sometimes with meanings and/or origins and/or pronunciations. But this new book had CATEGORIES. It discussed the way names come across to other people, and which other names came across that same way if that’s what you were looking for. It was the first time I realized that names get popular in packs, that it’s possible to see those packs coming.
I still have my old copy with pencil circlings: Elizabeth, Julia, Louise, Simon, Kyle, Molly, Eliza, Rosemary, Milo, Gus, Leo, Eve, Henry. Names I might not have noticed in the old 1970 baby name dictionary (my mom’s, with HER pencil circlings!) I’d used to name my dolls.
Now the authors run the huge baby name site Nameberry, and I’d love it if you clicked through and read my post there: The Case for the Common Name.
I loved your post!
Love it! Your points are excellent and they make me feel MUCH better about the two very common (but family and lovely and well-loved) names I have picked out for my future hypothetical children.
Going to read ASAP! But I wanted to say that BJ&JM&M rocked my world, too. It was in that box of unwanted books to be found in our apartment building’s laundromat. I thought, “Heh, I like talking about names.” Little did I know …
I was excited to see you there this morning!
Very well stated. Kudos…