Baby Name Rant A blog devoted to the wonderful and wacky world of baby names! Hints and handy advice on naming your child, reviews on celebrity baby names and free personalized advice from a name consultant. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 20 0 4 990

Articles from Baby Name Rant

Thumbs down: Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory 2007-11-10 22:32:00 British Actors Damian Lewis and Helen McCrory welcomed their son: Gulliver.http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/11/actors-damian-l.htmlGrade: C +Comments: Gulliver. Huh? Out of all the names you could possible choose, they chose Gulliver? Huh? Gulliver is probably most well known from the stories, Gullivers Travels. Which was a SATIRE novel. It followed the adventure of Lemuel Gulliver. You know what Gulliver probably stood for? Gullible. And even if it doesn't, i'm sure there'll be plenty of people calling him Gullible Gulliver over the years. Poor kid. What will they call him for short? Gull? Gull is a pesky bird which lives on beaches and tries to steal food. They really thought about that one, didn't they.(On an off-topic note, their daughter is named Manon?? Manon??? Who names their little girl something that start with "Man"??? I understand there are names like Manuela, but they have a pretty feminine "ella" sound at the end. Thats just terrible. These people are serial offen ...

Unisex names. 2007-11-09 01:02:00 Another recent trend in naming children is that of using unisex names. Once, when Jordan or Dale were male names, they are now used commonly on girls.Is this right? Well, in some cases sure. Some boys names can be very cute on a girl, while others are not so. Similarly, a lot of unisex names don't work on boys because they now sound feminine.The problem with calling your daughter Brayden or your son Lane, is that in lists, such as school admin reports your daughter or son may be put in the boys or girls gym class.Some names which are used on girls are so masculine that there is little leeway for them to ever get a girlish nickname from them if they end up being a more girly girl.Unisex names can and do work. But should be used with caution. Names which seem just a little too feminine or masculine such as Morgan for a girl, could be paired with a feminine name such as Rose to soften the name.The way you spell it is also a big deal. Jesse, is a boys name. Jessie, is a girls name. Head f ...

Naming after countries. 2007-11-08 02:04:00 After an interesting naming of her son by Jaci Velisquezhttp://babynamerant.blogspot.com/2007/11/thumbs-down-jaci-velasquez.htmlIt may be interesting to look at the common trend of naming your child after a country or place.Names of big or well known countries can be plain weird.Names such as:Asiahttp://www.presstelegram.com/portlet/article/html/imageDisplay.jsp?contentItemRelationshipId=1464890Irelandhttp://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2007-04-19-baldwin-voicemail_N.htmKenyahttp://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808404374/photo/premiere/576883Can be a bit strange because of the connotations with them. Furthermore, Asia has some of the worst human rights abuses, while Kenya is a third world country where people are starving to death. Why would you want your childs name associated with those things? Its also pretty funny to see a privileged white girl named after a country with black starving people. Kind of a bit ignorant, really.Things like the location of the place also need to be taken into ...

Thumbs down: Jaci Velasquez 2007-11-08 01:46:00 Christian singer Jaci Velasquez welcomed her baby son: Zealand David.http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/11/jaci-velasquez.htmlGrade: C+Comments: Whoa. This takes naming children after places to a whole new level. Zealand?? What? I know people are calling their kids Brooklyn, Adelaide and Sydney, but Zealand? What the? And after choosing a very crazy first name, you pair it with David? One of the most plainest names for boys? Jeez. Poor kid. Thats like naming your child Treminia Jessica. It just doesn't work.. Furthermore, we've got some real bad sound patterning rules being broken here. The ending "D" sound in Zealand, and the starting "D" sound in David, run into each other. And because both names end in "D" it stops it from flowing nicely.What to work on for next time: Thinking more carefully about "unique" names after countries, pairing names more appropriately and sorting out sound patterns so names flow better. ...

Thumbs down: Milla Jovovich 2007-11-07 01:18:00 Actress Milla Jovovich has recently welcomed her daughter Ever Gabo.http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/11/milla-jovovich-.htmlGrade: C +Comments: As often seen, celebrity Milla has tried to come up with a 'cool' and 'unusual' name for her new daughter. Virtue names are increasingly popular lately, and while i'm not totally against them they have to be appropriate (i'll post more on this later). The name Ever is cute, but doesn't really work in this context and would probably be a lot sweeter as a middle name. Speaking of middle names Gabo??? What kind of middle name is that? Here in Australia people call Garbage men Garbo's which is pronounced the same way, what a terrible thing to name your daughter. I know sometimes people use maiden names in their history to name their children but this is highly innapropriate (more posts on this at a later date, too.)What to work on for next time: Seriously considering with virtue names are working (they're hard to place), and not choosi ...

Double the trouble. 2007-11-07 00:51:00 With the recent post detailing the twins of Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon and her twin boys:http://babynamerant.blogspot.com/2007/11/thumbs-down-garcelle-beauvais-nilon.htmlThe question of naming twins appropriately has arisen.My viewpoint on this is simple. Twins have to share a lot. They'll be in the same year level, share the same birthday and often have to share things such as clothes as they are the same size. Especially in the case of identical twins, the two children are often stereotyped as being similar. People often lump them into one category and think they are the same kind of people when they are most likely to be distinct individuals.With twins having to carry so many burdens of similarity like this, it is stupid to give them similar sounding names, or names starting with the same letter. Giving the kids similar names restricts them further from having their own identity and also leads to confusion.Case in point:http://www.twinsrealm.com/othrpics2.htmOn this link we see names ...

Thumbs down: Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon 2007-11-06 04:37:00 http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/10/garcelle-beau-1.htmlActress Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon welcomed twin boys Jax Joseph and Jaid Thomas.Grade: DComments: Wow, two chances, and still no results. Maybe she should have had triplets so at least there would be a chance of third time lucky. Jax is a terrible mis-spelling which may look trendy now but will look idiotic when he's a 60 year old grandpa. There are many subtle ways of using sound patterns in your child names, but alliteration (using two names starting with the same letter) is so tacky. Even worse is both the boys names start with J. Thats just cruel. (I'll give the topic of twins names later on.) And Jaid?? Are you kidding? Firstly its spelled retarded. And secondly, its a boy... some might thing its cute to give girls "unisex" and "tomboy" names but you want a girly son?? (More talk on unisex names, later, also). Poor kids. I wish they were named Jack, Joseph or Thomas.What to work on for next time: Properly spellings of nam ...

Thumbs up: Nancy Grace 2007-11-06 04:22:00 http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/11/nancy-grace-wel.htmlNancy Grace of CNN anchorwoman and lawyer fame has given birth to a set of twins, girl and boy.Names: John David and Lucy ElizabethGrade: A -Comments: Names which aren't crazily popular or trying to make her cool as she is a 'celebrity'. Both well thought out names named after special people in her life. Lucy and Elizabeth are adorable names, very sweet on a girl.Things to work on for next time: John David is teetering in boring. Not as common on babies now, and a big improvement on the too common Landon and Brandons but still. A little bland.As said earlier, Lucy and Elizabeth are lovely names but the sound patterns on them muck up a little. The ending "E" sound in Lucy and the starting "E" sound in Elizabeth run into each other. Not a MAJOR problem since they are different "E" sounds. ...

Random Y's 2007-11-06 03:56:00 Naming your little poppit can be a daunting task. Many factors come into play. Will this name suit my child in 20? 40? 60 years time? Will people like the name, will my mother like the name?One fashionable way of choosing names at the moment is making them "unique." The concept is that if no other darling little sunshine has the same name as your child then, wow, you've done a good job.(Just off topic a little, this really isn't possible. A unique name? In a world of billions? I don't think so.)However, a lot of unique names are seen as 'wacky' some future parents are taking to "tweak" spellings of already existing names.A popular way of mutilating girls names is to add a random "y" in.Names such as Madison or Indiana become Madyson or Indyana.Point in case: (double offenders!)http://www.kxmb.com/UserFiles/%7BAC2319CB-9805-43F7-B430-078E6FFBB4E5%7DFitterrer.jpgIs this not ridiculous? Don't want your child to be the ninth Madison in the class? Well hello, she is still Madison even ...