Tuesday, July 29, 2008

What's in a name?

In our search of names we've scoured lists and books, and our imaginations to think of something perfect for our little boy or girl.  We're still not going to tell you any of our choices, especially after our first lesson in pregnancy - scroll down to the bit about Erin's mum.  But here is a bit of inspiration to our eventually answer.

Top ten baby names in UK in 2007:

1 Jack      
2 Thomas
3 Oliver
4 Joshua
5 Harry
6 Charlie
7 Daniel
8 William
9 James
10 Alfie

1 Grace
2 Ruby
3 Olivia
4 Emily
5 Jessica
6 Sophie
7 Chloe
8 Lily
9 Ella
10 Amilia

Boring. Or our friends and family have snagged them already.

And in the US:

1 Jacob 
2 Michael
3 Joshua
4 Ethan
5 Matthew
6 Daniel
7 Christopher 
8 Andrew
9 Anthony
10 William 

1 Emily
2 Emma
3 Madison
4 Isabella
5 Ava
6 Abigail
7 Olivia
8 Hannah
9 Sophia
10 Samantha

As bad.

If you want to check out when names have been popular, click on this. It's very entertaining. Hours, if not more than a century, of fun, in fact. 

Here's something else from the same author, she also wrote this.  Can you think of any more names that would be great if they weren't words already?  I have a theory - and this is not for the faint of heart - that some STIs and diseases would make great posh English names if they weren't STIs or diseases.  Try shouting Clamydia or Diarrhea in a British home counties accent. It works perfectly.  And they could be shortened to Clammy and Dee, or possibly Rea.

You can also find out the meaning of names to help with inspiration.  

I'm getting carried away, I was just about to write our top ten list of names.  But Erin says no. So I won't.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your comment about STI's (or STD's as we call them here in the US) is totally not off-base. I have a good friend whose sister works as a doctor in a low income women's clinic in Tennessee. She swears up and down that she had a patient that named her daughters "Syphilis" (pronounced si-FILL-us) and "Gonorrhea" (ga-NOR-re-ah) after a public heath poster that she saw in the waiting room. You can't make that stuff up.

Good luck with the naming! I know you guys will come up with something great. It is so much fun to read about your journey to parenthood.

Anonymous said...

And some names SOUND like STIs! I was Clyemnestra in a play in high school. Everyone called me VD for two months.
If it helps (it probably won't), baby names are something Tom and I have been talking about when we are bored on long car trips since before we were engaged. We still aren't sure. Messed up, huh?

Jay said...

Ellen, what are your favourites? I promise we won't steal them - unless they are the best nasmes ever.