(no subject)

[katallison]

From time to time someone will rant a fine sulphurous rant about the goofy-ass names that people give their babies nowadays (this website often being referenced.) Should you ever feel such a rant coming on, my advice is to go to the Social Security Administration's list of top baby names throughout the decades, go to "Most Popular Names of the 1910's," and go down toward the bottom of the list. I mean, my lord; back in the sedate sane decade of 1910-20, people were naming children things like Exie, Emogene, Ozella, Delfina, Romaine (for girls), or Furman, Garnet, Waldemar, Pershing, Junious, Laurel (for boys). There's a wonderful assortment of non-Anglo names to be found, reflecting the fact that a century ago the US was still very much a nation of recent immigrants. Anyone looking to find unusual names, whether for a child or a character, might do worse than to scan these lists.

I am in general fascinated by the naming of things, and a wonderful website, if you share this interest, is here, one of those glorious weirdness of the web that allows us all to benefit from one person's obsession. Italian Profession Names, Natural Phenomena Named After Frank Zappa, Norway Farm Names, Quilt Block Names, Scottish Given Names of the 13th Century, Naming Your Homeschool, Subway Line Names, all these and a gazillion more.

Comments

on naming

[colleenkane.livejournal.com]

My father named both my brother and I. Channing is called after William Ellery Channing, the Unitarian minister whose writings were a sort of precursor to the American Transcendentalists. Apparently, Dad was reading 'Slavery' while Mum was in labour.

I was named after an Inuit/Irish girl that Dad used to date when he lived in Anahim Lake (BC) circa 1967. He wanted to spell it the Irish way (Cailí, pronounced the same) but my mother already had a three-year-old *boy* that people kept calling 'Shannon', she wasn't about to have people calling her daughter 'Colin'. The other finalist for my name was 'Miali' (Mee-AH-lee), which is Inuktitut, and basically means Mary.

Ah, Dad, the AnarchistPagan who went Native and never really came back. I need to call him. *g*

Colleen is a funny name, there still aren't many, and most people don't know that it's actually a word (in Ireland, you really won't find people naming their daughters Colleen). I'm surprised at the number of people who can't pronounce it - let alone spell it.

If, when, I find myself having children, my short list is: Anna, Elen, Mary, Libby, Oliver, Jack, Thomas and Kenneth. Which names will probably be considered unusual. ;)