Category Archives: name to consider

Baby Names to Discuss: Keegan and Teagan

B. writes:

I recently met a baby boy named Teagan (which I had always put firmly in the “girl name” column in my head), and a twentysomething woman named Keegan (which I had always put firmly in the “boy name” column).

There are, of course, names like Ashley, Quinn, Skylar, Jordan that start as “boy names” and then become unisex, and some even become more common as girl names.

Do you think Teagan is that rare name that starts girl and goes boy?

What are your thoughts on Keegan as a girl name (just generically, not in the “it’s an honor name because it’s my grandmother’s maiden name” or whatever scenario?)

I’m the same as you: Teagan is familiar to me as a name used for girls, and Keegan is familiar to me as a name used for boys. But my sample size is very small: I only know one Keegan (male) and two Teagans (both female). (Plus a male cat named Keegan, but I’m including only humans in this sample.) And until I met the two female Teagans, I wouldn’t have known how to take that name: I specifically remember hearing it for the first time and not knowing whether the child would be a girl or a boy.

Isn’t it interesting how similar the two names are? And if I were hearing them for the first time and knew one was used more often for girls and the other used more often for boys, I’d probably guess them wrong: I’d guess the K was more likely to indicate the name used for girls. So in short, this is an excellent illustration about how it’s CURRENT USAGE that dictates whether a name feels like “a boy name” or “a girl name” to us. And in the United States, the -gan ending is not gender specific: Megan, Reagan, Finnegan, Logan, Morgan, Brogan, etc.

As you mentioned, most names switching from one usage to the other are headed in the boy-to-girl direction and not the other way around. Let’s see what Teagan and Keegan have been doing, checking in with them every five years. Because this is going to involve a lot of number-hunting through a lot of years, I’m not going to try to incorporate every spelling, but these seem to be the main three for each (I’m showing my work, to make it easier for anyone to check if something seems off):

(left to right for each sex: Kegan, Keegan, Keagan, Tegan, Teegan, Teagan)

This shows us an interesting picture of how we as a society incorporate a name or name-sound that’s new to us. I mentioned this briefly the other day when we were talking about Milborough: that when a name is unused, we can do what we want with it—but it’s hard to know what it’ll do if it comes into use later on. An individual person can say that a name is “definitely girl, to me” or “definitely boy, to me”—but what ends up mattering is what the culture as a whole thinks of it over time.

And that’s what we’re seeing on this chart: two new names came onto the scene, and this is the story of how the United States incorporated them. Teagan and Keagan were all but unused in the United States before the 1970s. Morgan and Logan had been names used almost exclusively for boys—but the name Megan had just appeared on the scene for girls a decade or so earlier and was getting very popular. With Megan’s increasing popularity came a rise in the name Morgan being used for girls as well as for boys. Meanwhile, Irish and Irish-like names were hot stuff, so people were looking for new good ones.

That’s when Keegan showed up. Maybe the first parents who used it had a male ancestor named Keegan, or knew it was a name used for boys in Ireland, and that’s why they used it for boys. Maybe it sounded boyish to them because of other names of the time. Whatever the reasons, Keegan showed up for boys in the 1960s, but not for girls until the 1980s. Meanwhile, Teagan appears in the 1970s, but only for girls. It doesn’t show up for boys until the 1980s. (Keeping in mind that my dates are rough/approximate here because of only checking in every 5 years.)

You can see people trying to figure out how we’re going to spell these names. There’s some dabbling with the spelling Tegan at first, maybe because it looks like Megan. By 2012, though, Teagan is by far the most common spelling for both girls and boys. Keegan comes on the scene as the first spelling of that name, and persists as the most common spelling even after being joined by Kegan and Keagan.

Looking just at Tegan/Teegan/Teagan now, I don’t see a name that started as a name for girls and is heading toward being a name for boys. I see something that looks more like a name that started with girls, then veered toward unisex as the similar name Keegan became popular for boys—but now the boys might be backing away from Teagan as it gets more widely used overall and as parents encounter more female Teagans out and about. Or maybe everyone is backing away from both names as they finish their run of being in style: of the twelve categories of spelling/sex, all of them went down between 2010 and 2012 except a slight increase of Teegan (95 to 99) and Keegan (1424 to 1462) used for boys.

But 11 of the 12 categories went UP (in some cases by quite a bit) between the 2005 numbers and the 2010 numbers: Teagan/Tegan/Teegan more than DOUBLED for girls during that time. Meanwhile, the name Teague is still going up for boys. I feel like we need another five years or so before we’ll be able to see what’s going on. What does everyone else see happening, when you look at the chart?

We can also try looking at the rankings, instead of at the plain numbers. Picking the most common spellings of each name, we see that Keegan is the 244th most popular name for boys in 2012, but not even in the Top 1000 for girls; meanwhile, Teagan is the 258th most popular name for girls in 2012, and the 755th most popular name for boys. It’s interesting to me how close the ranking of Keegan for boys is to the ranking of Teagan for girls. The rankings of Keegan for girls and Teagan for boys show us that Teagan is somewhat more familiar/used as a boy name than Keegan is as a girl name—which we could also see from the plain numbers.

You also asked what I thought of Keegan for a girl, as a name chosen for itself and not as a namesake. I don’t see any reason it couldn’t work, especially after spending so much time looking at Teagan and Keegan together. It seems like a cute, high-energy name in the tradition of Megan and Keely and Reagan and Breeanna—but with the additional factor of being a name currently used more often for boys, which would be either a plus or a minus depending on the particular family. The package deal would include the same elements as choosing any name more often used for the other sex: the periodic explaining/clarifying/correcting, the additional considerations when choosing sibling names.

Baby Name to Consider: Nixon

47 Replies

Rebecca writes:

I have been having a hard time completely deciding on our future baby boy’s name. We have 3 other children, a set of twins who are 3 (Rowan Geremy and Payton Alexis) and a 1 year old (Zoey Elizabeth) all with the last name Newbury.

We are expecting a boy in less than 2 weeks and have agreed on the name Nixon Parker Newbury. I think the name is nice and modern like our other names but I just need to be sure it is the right name for him. We don’t have any girl names picked out as we know this is a boy.

I really like the name Kai Parker and Zeke Parker but think (almost certain) that I like Nixon the best of them all.

What are your thoughts on the name? Does it sound okay? I know many parents go in with a few names, but we have always gone in knowing what the baby will be called and have never swayed from what we had chosen.

I may be over thinking this as we know this one will be our last but I want to be sure the name is suitable. We also don’t care that it doesn’t have a meaning as most of the other names we have chosen don’t have significant meanings either.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!!

In my own opinion, the notoriety of former president Richard Nixon keeps this name from being useable in the United States. The association for me is direct, undiluted by other associations, and negative—and I wasn’t even around for his presidency. It’s been 40 years and we’re still making “I am not a crook” jokes and using the “____gate” format for scandals.

This opinion is far from universal: in 2012 alone, there were 362 new baby boys and 12 new baby girls named Nixon. And outside of the United States, I wouldn’t expect the name to have much of an association at all. The sound of it is indeed on-trend, and fits well with Peyton and Rowan. I might hesitate slightly to use three names ending in N and one not, and Nixon Newbury seems like a lot of N sounds, but I wouldn’t let those details override my first-choice name.

Another possibility to consider is Lennox. It has the “nix” sound of Nixon, and is unisex like Rowan and Peyton. And it adds another name ending so that Zoey isn’t odd-one-out.

Or maybe Maxon? Or Baxter? Or Nicholson?

Let’s collect a wider set of opinions about the name Nixon:

[yop_poll id=”27″]

Baby Name to Discuss: Maelynn

62 Replies

Megan writes:

We’ve got a baby girl name question for you. I’m due this fall. We have one older child, a boy (Jackson). In that pregnancy, our top girl name was Katelyn. Loved it and 100% would have used it if he had been a girl.

Now, it’s time to pick a girl name. We still like Katelyn. But… we found another name that we LOVE. It’s a French name – Maelynn. We love the way it sounds (and that it’s unique), but here are our issues/questions that we’re ruminating on:

1. It always shows up as a misspelling (in a Word document, an email, etc.). Will that be annoying for the rest of her life?

2. It looks made up. It’s a real French name, spelled Maelynn. Sometimes we think Maelyn LOOKS less made up – but we really don’t like the idea of made-up names, and to pick a made-up version of a name so it doesn’t look made-up is just crazy! The meager results of internet searches have demonstrated that A LOT of people think Maelynn is made-up… and that the parents just smushed Mae and Lynn together. Side note: we’ve also read that some people think it’s a made-up American spelling of a Chinese name.

3. Related to the point above, if we use it, we think it would be wise to spread the word that it’s a lovely French name, not a made-up name. I’m thinking something along the lines of sending the birth announcement with pronunciation and meaning underneath the name (I can picture it… hopefully it’s coming across in an email). It gets the information out there without having to tell people explicitly. And maybe it can be pulled off like a cute birth announcement and not “oh-my-word, we’ve been worrying about this for 5 months!”?

4. Is it too unique? Will she have too hard of a time with it as she grows up? I keep saying it’s a “real French name,” but in truth it’s a unique name, even in France.

A few final thoughts – both Maelynn and Katelyn have the same “sound” to them, and they both go well with Jackson and with our last name. No issues there to pick between them. We’ll use the same middle name for either – my maiden name – and because they’re both the same sound, that also doesn’t help us pick between them.

So – what’s your advice on the name Maelynn?

My fingers are crossed you pick this question to answer. There is almost NOTHING online about Maelynn. It would be great to get some honest advice! In return for advice, I’ll send you baby girl’s name when the final decision is made and she makes her debut. :)

Let me deal first with the question about whether you should take into account that the name shows up as a misspelling in computer programs: No.

Here’s a screen shot of a section of the Social Security Administration document I use to find out how many times a name is used each year:

Katelyn is in the same red-underlined boat, as are Kaitlyn and Mya and Jordyn and Brooklynn and Lyla. It is very common for spell-checkers not to recognize proper nouns. It is also very common for spell-checking programs to have an “Add to dictionary” function, so that you can stop seeing the red underline on a particular word. While I know that different people have different priorities, and so you would find me completely willing to work with a “Must show up in spell-checking dictionary” preference if you had one, I’d say that if you find you have a choice whether to care about this or not, I’d strongly urge you to come down on the “not” side. I would go so far as to say that to me it’s a complete non-issue.

I vote no on the birth-announcement name explanation idea. Well, or I could see it being done in the style of the name bookmarks/magnets sold at greeting card stores (big fancy script first name, with meaning in quotes underneath), as part of the decoration. Like this:

But I don’t think that does anything at all to explain that it’s a real French name and not made-up (Maelynn / “Real French name, not made up”), and I don’t think I’d try to use the birth announcement to explain the pronunciation or origin. Here’s how I’d gradually do that instead, at every single opportunity:

You: “Her name is Maelynn.”
Person: *expression or exclamation of some sort*
You, demurely: “It’s French.”
Person: *adjusting perception of name accordingly*

Here is why you’re running into issues with people thinking it’s an American spelling of a Chinese name, or people thinking it’s Mae + Lynn: because it IS. It is both those things, as well as being a French name (where it ALSO might be Mae + Lynn) and probably a name in other countries as well. It’s the same with Katelyn, which is both an American respelling/repronunciation of an Irish name AND Kate + Lynn. Sound-pieces such as Mae/May and Lyn/Lynn/Lin are used in many parts of the world to form many sorts of names. This might annoy you if you want people to think of it ONLY as a French name—but in its favor, it means the name is not going to be as unusual or startling as you fear. May and Lynn are both perfectly familiar names in the United States, and I don’t think anyone is going to blink at seeing them combined. Similar names such as Kaelyn and Braelyn and Jaelyn make it feel even more familiar.

But I suspect what you’d like to do is keep people from associating the name with names like Kaelyn and Jaelyn. This is where Pop Psych 101 kicks in: you won’t be able to control what other people think of the name. You might be able to nudge/correct some of them with frequent demure repetitions of “It’s French,” but if they think you chose the name because those sounds happen to be in style right now, rather than because you have an affinity for highly unusual French names, you won’t be able to stop them. Furthermore, -lynn is not a familiar French ending (as -elle and -ette and -ine are), so it won’t SOUND French to people in the United States even if it IS French and even if you TELL them it’s French. And even if you find a way to explain the whole thing in the birth announcement, there are still all the teachers and classmates and classmates’ parents and school/doctor office staff and on and on.

So the decision comes down to this: Is what other people might think of the name important enough to you that you’d rather give up the name? That’s a question that sounds like I’m implying the right answer would be “No,” but that’s not the case: I personally care quite a bit what other people think of my children’s names, and about what impressions those names give. There were some names on my list where “People will think ____” was enough to cross the name off my list. There were other names I liked so much I thought “So what?” Or in this case, you might think, “Well, and they’re partly right. It’s just, that’s not where we got the name or how we think of it.”

I think it might be helpful to consider what it is you mean by “made-up name”—and what it is you don’t like about names you consider made-up. All names are made up at some time or another, so is it that you want a name with a long history? Is it that you think of people who invent new names as being a certain sort of person, and you don’t want to be perceived as that sort of person? Is it that you only like the name Maelynn if it contains the concept of Being French, but not if it’s May + Lynn? Is there anything that worries you about Maelynn that isn’t the same worry with Katelyn? Thinking through these issues can help you decide if other people’s impressions are important enough to rule out the name. Since Maelynn is a very uncommon name in both the United States and France, I think it will be more common for people to hear it as “Mae + Lynn” than as “French name.” (And even in France, perhaps they hear it as “Mae + Lynn.”)

I don’t think it’s too unusual to use. I do think it’s a name she will have to spell every single time. And sometimes people will say MAY-lin (like Palin) and sometimes they will say may-LYNN, and sometimes they will emphasize both syllables the same, so it’s good to think through ahead of time if this is the sort of thing that will drive you crazy. And I think it might sometimes be mistaken for Madelyn. But as a “Kristen, that’s K-r-i-s-t-E-n, no, not Kristine or Kiersten or Kirsten,” that doesn’t seem like a deal-breaker to me as long as you accept that it comes as part of the name parcel.

Here’s how people were spelling the name in the United States in 2012, to give you an idea of the spellings you’re likely to encounter:

Maylin 187
Maelyn 93
Maelynn 82
Maylen 76
Malin 65
Maylynn 28
Maylyn 17
Maelin 12
Malyn 9
Malynn 9
Maylinn 6
Mayelin 5

If you would like my personal opinion, I prefer the name Maelynn to the name Katelyn, and I prefer the spelling Maelynn to the spelling Maelyn. It doesn’t sound either made-up or French to me; I’d hear it a combination name, like Maryella or Avamarie or Lilyanna, or possibly as a surname name (Malin); it also makes me think of names like Marin. Let’s have a poll to see what everyone else thinks!

[yop_poll id=”16″]

Name update! Megan writes:

I loved that you posted my question and LOVED reading your responses and the reader votes. We read every comment – they were so spot on. Awesome advice. Thank you so much to you and your readers!

In the end, we decided we love Maelynn, and you and your readers were right to say STOP justifying (and saying it’s French – apparently it’s not as “securely” French as we thought!). Jackson and Maelynn. Jack and Mae. So great!

But… SURPRISE! It’s a boy! The ultrasound missed an important boy part… but it was discovered at a later ultrasound. That would have been VERY surprising at delivery! “It’s a… what?”

So the update on the Maelynn vs. Katelyn debate is… Dominic! Jackson and Dominic will be brothers, and maybe one day a little Maelynn will join them.

Or, more likely, maybe one day there will be another Swistle advice post: Maelynn vs. ________ (some other name we find we love).

Thank you so much for your help!

Baby Name to Consider: Ruby Rose Winter

43 Replies

Kristen writes:

Hello! Been reading your blog since the beginning, and am something of a name-enthusiast myself. My situation I feel is a bit unique in that our last name is a noun, a season– Winter. With our first two, Joel Robert and Charlotte Marie, we agreed- no nouns or other word-like names. I didn’t want their names to sound like a joke– we originally loved Cole but didn’t want “Cold Winter” jokes . However, we are planning number 3 now and planning ahead on names. My husband is loving his great great grandmother’s name: Ruby Rose Winter. My question is, when you hear the name, do you think “Oh, red, red, and a season?” Or does it sound like an ok combo because it is a family name? I’ve run this around in my brain too many times at this point to come to any type of logical solution.

When I hear the name, I think it sounds like a girl in a fairy tale—like Snow White, or Briar Rose. This is not to say I’d rule it out, especially if you don’t think you’ll call her by her first and middle names together: Ruby Winter is significantly less of an issue than Ruby Rose Winter.

It does help that it’s a family name. It would help even more if it were a family member your husband had known and been close to; since it’s someone he presumably never met, it’s harder to play up the family connection—but it would still help.

If it were me, I think I would prefer to stick to the original policy of no word-like names. On the other hand, I don’t think it would be wrong to change that policy if you both really want to.

This might be a good place for the “Would I want that as MY name?” exercise. I THINK I would grow weary of having a whimsical name—but I can also imagine really enjoying it.

Name update!

Hello there Swistle,
Reading the tale of the three Sylvies reminded me that I never did send an update on Ruby Rose Winter. The long and short of it was I wrote that when my third baby was merely a twinkle in my eye. Once I became pregnant last April, we were excited to use the name and felt good about Ruby Rose Winter, but two months later a cousin on my husband’s side named HER baby Ruby Rose W****. So we gave it up and struggled coming up with a name for our baby girl, only to find out it didn’t matter because the ultrasounds were misread. (We were sure the baby was a girl. We were very wrong.) Surprise, I delivered a baby boy, who had no name for awhile but is now Noah. So we have a Joel, Charlotte, and Noah. Thanks for all your readers’ encouragement, I felt very relieved at how many thought the name Ruby Rose was charming and enchanting and not ridiculous!

-Kristen

Baby Name to Consider: Lysander

27 Replies

Jemima writes:

I am a big fan of your blog – I’m not expecting (so this is not at all urgent) but I LOVE baby names. I have lists and lists of my favourites, and I love hearing your take on my favourite names.
I have a LOT of favourite girls names (Penelope, Georgiana, Anneliese, Geneva, Felicity) and a few favourite boys names (Theodore, Felix, Hugo, Gabriel), but my big question is about a boy name I have secretly loved for a while now. The name is Lysander. Is it usable? I read a book as a kid that had a great character called Lysander in it and I loved it. But does it sound too pretentious (Shakespeare)? Does it sound too ‘feminine’? Maybe a poll for readers – if they think Lysander is usable?
I think the nicknames Sander and Sandy are so cute, but I just don’t know if I can saddle a kid with the name Lysander.
I am not opposed to “different” names – I love having an uncommon name (Jemima). What do you think, Swistle?
Thanks so much,

It OUGHT to work: it’s similar to Alexander, which is very popular. And 31 new baby boys were named Lysander in 2011, so it’s not completely unused.

To me it looks and sounds more toward the feminine and fancy end of the boy-name spectrum. It has a Renaissance Fair sound; I’d put it in the same category as names such as Percival, Leopold, and Clarence.

I think the nickname Sander goes a long way to make the name more usable; I’d worry a little about Sandy, because my experience with that nickname has been limited to girls.

I like that it’s been around a long time. For unusual names, I vastly prefer the ones with long roots.

I think for myself, I would prefer to use the feminine form: Lysandra and Alysandra are both pretty, and I think it’s easier for girls to carry fancy/unusual names.

Let’s have a poll over to the right to see what we all think of it! And in the comments section we can discuss whether we think it’s usable. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results for “What do you think of the name Lysander?” (412 votes total):

I love it! I’d want to use it! – 24 votes (6%)
I like it! I’d want to consider it! – 54 votes (13%)
I like it for someone else’s baby – 113 votes (27%)
No particular opinion – 17 votes (4%)
Slight dislike – 113 votes (27%)
Strong dislike – 91 votes (22%)

Name to Consider: Blythe

32 Replies

L. writes:

The name Blythe has that spunky feel that I love, and I love the happy, joyous meaning. It seems classy and sophisticated. But, in practice, it’s difficult to say and sounds a bit like “blight” to me. Curious to see what others think of this name.

I too am curious to know what people think of the name Blythe! I’ve seen it on a few name lists recently, which makes me think it may be coming into style. My own opinion is affected by how difficult I find the name to say aloud: for a name with only one syllable, it has so many sounds.

I looked it up on the Social Security Administration’s web site, and I see it hasn’t been in the Top 1000 for the entire online portion of the data (1880-2011). I looked in the individual year files for each decade, to get a sample of how many Blythes were born in various years):

1880: (none in data base)
1890: (none in data base)
1900: (none in data base)
1910: (none in data base)
1920: (none in data base)
1930: 7
1940: 8
1950: 22
1960: 22
1970: 50
1980: 47
1990: 73
2000: 60
2010: 85

And in 2011, there were 105.

The Oxford Dictionary of First Names says it’s a modern coinage, most likely based on the word blithe. To me it sounds French and elegant and wealthy (gold cigarette case, fur cape, lovely long neck with hair in a French twist)—but quite elderly, like Blanche: the hair I’m picturing is white. That’s the sort of impression that turns on a dime when the next batch of babies start receiving the name: I remember when the names Eloise and Ruby seemed elderly to me, and now not at all!

Let’s have a poll over to the right to see what everyone else thinks! [Poll closed; see results below.]

(Also see our follow-up post: How Do You Pronounce the Name Blythe?)

Poll results for “What do you think of the name Blythe?” (605 votes total):

I love it! I’d want to use it! – 67 votes (11%)
I like it! I’d want to consider it! – 126 votes (21%)
I like it for someone else’s baby – 242 votes (40%)
No particular opinion – 26 votes (4%)
Slight dislike – 93 votes (15%)
Strong dislike – 51 votes (8%)

Baby Name to Consider: Parsley

18 Replies

Heather writes:

I didn’t expect to be writing you pre-pregnancy but I have something I’m genuinely curious about. It concerns a name I found in a cute story I read once about a little girl named Patsy who tried the herb parsley and loved it so much that it was all she would eat. Her parents eventually changed her name to Parsley after her favourite food. It made me curious about why the name Parsley has never actually been tried when so many other spices and green plants are the source of beloved classics? There are the tried and true names Sage, Basil, Ivy, and Rosemary, and the spunkier Pepper, Anise and Cinnamon (though those are pretty brave choices). I’ve heard Bay and Sorrel on little boys. Ground cover plants like Tansy and Clover are being used, and they are just as unassuming looking as Parsley. I think it sounds quite sweet if you give it a chance. It has a lot of the same sounds as girls’ names Presley, Paisley, and Pemberly that are quite fashionable nowadays. What do you think? Is Parsley just too out there, and if so, what makes it that much crazier than Sage or Clover? Is it quirky and appealing or downright blegh? I find it fresh, though I can’t imagine being brave enough to use it myself. I’d love to know what you and your readers think.

Isn’t that funny, how certain jewel/flower/month/nature names get used completely routinely, and the others seem quirky almost to the point of bizarre? We can name babies April, May, and June all year long, but February and March would be startling. Rose and Lily and Violet seem like normal names, but Daffodil and Tulip don’t. Ruby and Pearl, sure!—but Quartz and Topaz are going to get comments.

I don’t know why some words get established as names and others don’t. I do know that it never seems to work to protest that things SHOULD work: either they do work, or else they don’t. Parsley SHOULD work: it definitely does sound like Paisley and Presley, and it definitely does sound sweet, and in theory it shouldn’t be any weirder than Sage or Rosemary. But right now my opinion is that it doesn’t work—that it goes beyond quirky and into comical, along with Garlic and Oregano. I think it would make a distinctive and excellent pet name, however.

Let’s have a poll over to the right to see what everyone else thinks. [Poll closed; see results below.] I’m using the same poll options as usual, but I’m noticing that some of the categories are a little shaky: like, what if you love the name but feel it’s absolutely unusable for a child? Choosing “strong dislike” seems inappropriate—and yet I think that’s what the right vote option would be. I will try to think of better and more accurate categories for future polls.

Poll results for “What do you think of the name Parsley?” (531 votes total):

I love it! I’d want to use it! – 3 votes (1%)
I like it! I’d want to consider it! – 13 votes (2%)
I like it for someone else’s baby – 68 votes (13%)
No particular opinion – 25 votes (5%)
Slight dislike – 157 votes (30%)
Strong dislike – 265 votes (50%)

Baby Name to Consider: Hooper

16 Replies

Bea writes:

I have been mulling over the name Hooper for the last little while and wondering if it is a name people would consider. It has so many things that are trending for it right now. It is a surname, which is ever popular right now. It also comes from the big book of medieval professions and matches names like Tanner and Cooper. It has also got the “er” ending. It has so many things going for it, but could it really catch on? I have a feeling that “Hooper Pooper” would taunt the child too much to make anyone consider it. I can’t decide if I like it or if I would even consider it for one my own boys. What do you think?

I was very surprised to go to the Social Security Administration data base and not find the name Hooper AT ALL in the 2011 stats. (Names are only in the data base if they’re given to at least 5 girls or at least 5 boys, so this means Hooper was used 0-4 times.) Cooper, for comparison, was given to 5,140 new baby boys and 106 new baby girls in 2011.

In 2010, there were 5 new baby boys named Hooper. In 2009, it’s not in the data base. In 2008, there were 6 new baby boys named Hooper. Why so low?

I could see people being turned away by the Hooper/pooper rhyme—but the name Cooper has the exact same issue and is nevertheless fairly common: #82 in 2011.

Could it be that Hooper has too strong an association with…basketball hoops? Or with Hoosiers? But it seems like those could just as easily be positive as negative, and Cooper has a similar association with chicken coops.

Or is it that it sounds too much like the word whoop? Maybe it’s Cooper’s strong leading consonant sound that makes it more useable.

My primary association with Hooper is Mr. Hooper’s store on Sesame Street. For me, it’s a strong positive association.

Let’s have a poll over to the right to see what everyone else thinks. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results for “What do you think of the name Hooper?” (423 votes total):

I love it! I’d want to use it! – 3 votes (1%)
I like it! I’d want to consider it! – 16 votes (4%)
I like it for someone else’s baby – 82 votes (19%)
No particular opinion – 28 votes (7%)
Slight dislike – 150 votes (35%)
Strong dislike – 144 votes (34%)

Baby Name to Consider: Even

14 Replies

Jenna writes:

A few weeks ago, our family went to check-out day of a summer camp. The kids were all signing autograph books. One teenager, Evan, asked my daughter to sign his book. My husband happened to peek over her shoulder and asked, “Ah, does everyone know that your name isn’t spelled that way?” The boy looked at his book and shrugged. “Probably not, but it’s a cool name anyway!”

What the other campers had been writing: Even.

So I offer it up to you, Swistle. Is this a name possibility waiting to be sprung on the world?

1. It’s like Evan (obviously) and Steven/Stephen and Ruben. But it’s also like Eden and Eve and Eva. Is it a boy’s name or a girl’s name? Would comments like, “Get Even!” sound extra funny on the playground? Maybe it’s a good androgynous name that goes well as a middle name (like True or Blue)?

Thanks, as always, for the insight!

This name SHOULD work. It’s a nice sound and, as you say, similar to Steven and Eva and Eden. And it’s similar in meaning-style to the name Ever, which is catching on.

The reason I think it doesn’t work and is unlikely to catch on is that it looks too much like a misspelling/respelling of the name Evan. I think it would be not impossible but challenging to get people to pronounce it a different way. And the word “even” doesn’t have quite the dreamy/significant sound of a word like “ever” or “Eden.”

What does everyone else think? Let’s have a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results for “What do you think of the name Even?” (428 votes total):

I love it! I’d want to use it! – 4 votes (1%)
I like it! I’d want to consider it! – 12 votes (3%)
I like it for someone else’s baby – 63 votes (15%)
No particular opinion – 26 votes (6%)
Slight dislike – 137 votes (32%)
Strong dislike – 186 votes (43%)

Baby Name to Consider: Nicaya

16 Replies

N. writes:

I have read your blog for quite some time now. I am not expecting, nor will be for a few years at least! However, I have a question for you. I am one of those that watches Dance Moms. Earlier this week a girl appeared on the show with, what I thought to be, an interesting name. Her name is Nicaya (pronounced Nick-Kai-Uh). I kind of love it. It combines two names I really like – Nicole and Kaia, without seeming too out there and also giving cute nickname options. What do you think of it? Does it sound too made up? I’m curious about what you and your readers think!

I think it’s a pretty smart combination. I looked in the Social Security Administrations data base to see what other spellings I could find:

Nakiyah 59
Nakiya 42
Nakia 41
Nakiah 20
Nakyah 15
Nikiya 15
Nikiyah 12
Nakya 11
Nikia 11
Nakeya 8
Nakaya 7
Nikiah 7
Nikya 6
Nikaiyah 5
Nikyah 5

Some of those might be more like nicky-ah or nick-KEE-ah.

There were also several spellings of Nikayla, which seems similar.

Let’s have a poll over to the right [poll closed; see results below]; it’ll be a little tricky, because the particular spelling might greatly influence how we’d vote—so just pretend the poll mentions whatever spelling you like best. And in the comments section we can discuss what those favorite spellings are. It’s a little tricky to find a spelling that makes the pronunciation clear.

Poll results for “What do you think of the name Nicaya?” (503 votes total):

I love it! I’d want to use it! – 4 votes (1%)
I like it! I’d want to consider it! – 13 votes (3%)
I like it for someone else’s baby – 85 votes (17%)
No particular opinion – 32 votes (6%)
Slight dislike – 184 votes (37%)
Strong dislike – 184 votes (37%)