Baby Names - You're kidding Right???

[mechtilde]

An interesting one in the birth announcements today:

Rhamiya Money (girl).

Money might be a family name though.  The paper didn't say.

It is a surname- a variant of Mooney. I was at school with a girl with that surname.

[Lynn2000]

Treasure, Aarre, is a pretty common Finnish male name. Hope and Faith (Toivo and Usko) are male names too and my cousin's son's name is Ilo, Joy.

That's cool! I like books like The Baby Name Wizard and Beyond Aiden & Ava that talk about name popularity trends and the perceptions of names (cool, old-fashioned, classic, etc.). The ones I find (in the US) are all about US popularity and perceptions, though. Does anyone know of other books/websites that give similar information about names from other countries? They would have to be English-language, which is limiting I'm sure (why would you be doing that much research into Finnish names if you didn't speak Finnish?). But the UK, Australia, and New Zealand are surely possibilities.

[Mal]

I recently issued a library card for a child named Nepomuk Waldemar (both first names). Even in Germany, these are some very wacky names to give to a newborn...

[Ereine]

Treasure, Aarre, is a pretty common Finnish male name. Hope and Faith (Toivo and Usko) are male names too and my cousin's son's name is Ilo, Joy.

That's cool! I like books like The Baby Name Wizard and Beyond Aiden & Ava that talk about name popularity trends and the perceptions of names (cool, old-fashioned, classic, etc.). The ones I find (in the US) are all about US popularity and perceptions, though. Does anyone know of other books/websites that give similar information about names from other countries? They would have to be English-language, which is limiting I'm sure (why would you be doing that much research into Finnish names if you didn't speak Finnish?). But the UK, Australia, and New Zealand are surely possibilities.

It doesn't talk about perceptions but if you're interested in name statistics, this one is in English and has all the first names that are in the population register (pretty much everyone born since the beginning of 20th century, if I remember correctly). There are lists of the most popular names and you can search for names (which is less useful, if you don't know Finnish names already but here are the statistics for Aarre for example). I really like that site, I find it interesting to see the naming trends, though as they also include middle names it doesn't really show what first names are popular. At the moment old-fashioned names are in, but not really romantic, old-fashioned names but the sort of short practical names that were popular in maybe 1920s (which means Urho, "brave", Jalo, "noble", Helmi, "pearl", Onni, "happiness" and names that don't mean anything in particular like Unto, Vilho, Eino). Nature names have been popular too, like super trendy Lumi (snow), Aamu (morning), Lilja (lily), Valo (light) and I've met one Tuisku (snow storm). 

[kglory]

Treasure, Aarre, is a pretty common Finnish male name. Hope and Faith (Toivo and Usko) are male names too and my cousin's son's name is Ilo, Joy.

That's cool! I like books like The Baby Name Wizard and Beyond Aiden & Ava that talk about name popularity trends and the perceptions of names (cool, old-fashioned, classic, etc.). The ones I find (in the US) are all about US popularity and perceptions, though. Does anyone know of other books/websites that give similar information about names from other countries? They would have to be English-language, which is limiting I'm sure (why would you be doing that much research into Finnish names if you didn't speak Finnish?). But the UK, Australia, and New Zealand are surely possibilities.

http://www.behindthename.com/top/ 

[Lynn2000]

It doesn't talk about perceptions but if you're interested in name statistics, this one is in English and has all the first names that are in the population register (pretty much everyone born since the beginning of 20th century, if I remember correctly). There are lists of the most popular names and you can search for names (which is less useful, if you don't know Finnish names already but here are the statistics for Aarre for example). I really like that site, I find it interesting to see the naming trends, though as they also include middle names it doesn't really show what first names are popular. At the moment old-fashioned names are in, but not really romantic, old-fashioned names but the sort of short practical names that were popular in maybe 1920s (which means Urho, "brave", Jalo, "noble", Helmi, "pearl", Onni, "happiness" and names that don't mean anything in particular like Unto, Vilho, Eino). Nature names have been popular too, like super trendy Lumi (snow), Aamu (morning), Lilja (lily), Valo (light) and I've met one Tuisku (snow storm).

Awesome! Thank you, that's really cool. Another question, for Ereine but also anyone--so if you say the name Aamu means "morning," does that mean, it's the Finnish way to say "morning," like "Nice morning, isn't it?" would contain the word "aamu"? Or do you mean that if you looked the name Aamu up in a name book, it would tell you it derives from an Old Finnish word meaning "morning"?

Here in the US we have both kinds of names. For example, Lily is a very popular name, and that's the actual name of the flower. My mom grows a lily in her garden (well, more than one, lilies). Susannah, which sadly is no longer very popular although I think it's a beautiful name, is Hebrew and means "lily" (though I don't know what twists and turns it has taken linguistically over the centuries). You would never know Susannah meant "lily" unless you looked it up, though--well, as far as I know, unless someone who speaks Hebrew tells me differently.

I think the vast majority of names used in the US have non-obvious meanings, although some "literal" names have become extremely popular/common--on the top 100 for girls from 2011 I see Lily, Grace, Brooklyn, Savannah, Genesis, Serenity, Autumn, Faith, Jasmine, Violet, Aria, Trinity, London, and Piper, all of which are words one might use in an ordinary sentence, or well-known place names. Plus there's names that in some ways are obvious but in other ways are divorced from their meaning--I doubt many people who name their child Taylor, for example, are trying to celebrate a particularly talented seamstress they knew once.

I think it's a mixed bag with people in the US knowing or being interested in what their names mean. For some parents the definition is really important, or at least a notable factor in the decision; for others, they're interested in specific names because of their popularity, pleasing sound, family connection, etc. and they don't think, "Rufus means 'redhead' but we're all blonds. Is that weird?"

My point is that I'm curious about how it is in other cultures--if names are mostly non-obvious in meaning or literal, how strongly the meaning factors into the choice, etc.. I find that kind of thing really interesting.

ETA: I love Behind the Name! I didn't realize they'd started putting in popularity graphs, too... There goes my afternoon!

[veryfluffy]

I have a new student whose given name is Precious.

I've not met her parents, but I keep imagining Gollum...

There is a reporter on IRN called Precious Watson

Precious Ramotswe, the main character in the wonderful No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series from Alexander McCall Smith.

[Elfmama]

You have to remember, when reading baby name books or websites, that a lot of names have been sanitized and/or given a completely fictitious meaning.  "Kennedy" for instance, does not mean "armored head." It means "ugly head."  "Hollister" does not mean "from the holly wood"; it means "brothel keeper."

[Lynn2000]

You have to remember, when reading baby name books or websites, that a lot of names have been sanitized and/or given a completely fictitious meaning.  "Kennedy" for instance, does not mean "armored head." It means "ugly head."  "Hollister" does not mean "from the holly wood"; it means "brothel keeper."

LOL! True, I have seen various definitions given for the same name in different places, and even complaints that some languages they allegedly derive from are in some sense made up. Something about how "Old Teutonic" just meant "German," but in certain times and places people really didn't want to acknowledge the vast number of popular names that were German, so they made up this term that sounded more like they came from Beowulf's companions or something. So at least from the US research perspective, if you have a meaning that is deeply important to you, you need to check around to make sure it's firmly attached to that name.

[Elfmama]

You have to remember, when reading baby name books or websites, that a lot of names have been sanitized and/or given a completely fictitious meaning.  "Kennedy" for instance, does not mean "armored head." It means "ugly head."  "Hollister" does not mean "from the holly wood"; it means "brothel keeper."

LOL! True, I have seen various definitions given for the same name in different places, and even complaints that some languages they allegedly derive from are in some sense made up. Something about how "Old Teutonic" just meant "German," but in certain times and places people really didn't want to acknowledge the vast number of popular names that were German, so they made up this term that sounded more like they came from Beowulf's companions or something. So at least from the US research perspective, if you have a meaning that is deeply important to you, you need to check around to make sure it's firmly attached to that name.

Yep.  Any name source that uses "Teutonic" or "Celtic" is almost certain to make other stuff up as well. 

[Ereine]

It doesn't talk about perceptions but if you're interested in name statistics, this one is in English and has all the first names that are in the population register (pretty much everyone born since the beginning of 20th century, if I remember correctly). There are lists of the most popular names and you can search for names (which is less useful, if you don't know Finnish names already but here are the statistics for Aarre for example). I really like that site, I find it interesting to see the naming trends, though as they also include middle names it doesn't really show what first names are popular. At the moment old-fashioned names are in, but not really romantic, old-fashioned names but the sort of short practical names that were popular in maybe 1920s (which means Urho, "brave", Jalo, "noble", Helmi, "pearl", Onni, "happiness" and names that don't mean anything in particular like Unto, Vilho, Eino). Nature names have been popular too, like super trendy Lumi (snow), Aamu (morning), Lilja (lily), Valo (light) and I've met one Tuisku (snow storm).

Awesome! Thank you, that's really cool. Another question, for Ereine but also anyone--so if you say the name Aamu means "morning," does that mean, it's the Finnish way to say "morning," like "Nice morning, isn't it?" would contain the word "aamu"? Or do you mean that if you looked the name Aamu up in a name book, it would tell you it derives from an Old Finnish word meaning "morning"?

It's actually the other way around, Aamu is the modern word for morning and for a greeting you would say "hyvää huomenta" where huomen is an old-fashioned word for morning. I think that names with literal meanings are pretty common in Finland, partly I believe because of a nationalistic (in the sense of building a nation) movement in the late 19th century when Finland was a very oppressed part of Russia. Before that it was a part of Sweden for centuries and Finnish language for mostly for servants and crafts people. So people became interested in building a Finnish national identity and part of it was inventing Finnish names (before that I think that the names tended to be Finnish versions of international biblical or other religious names, like my name Katri which shares root with Katherine and its variants). Some of them where pagan names (or meant to sound like them) and some were just Finnish words which symbolized the sort of things they found important (like Taisto, fight/war, Tarmo, vigor) and I think that nature names were popular because nature was seen as a large part of our identity. Some of the names are words that are used in everyday language (like Tuuli, wind, Meri, sea, Satu, fairytale) and some are more old-fashioned or poetic (like Suvi, summer, when kesä is the modern word or Lempi, love and rakkaus is the modern word) but I think that they tend to be mostly words whose meanings people would understand and not derived from some ancient word. 

[ladyknight1]

Butler and Landers for boys names. Twins in their late teens.

[Lynn2000]

Thanks, Ereine! That's so neat.

[iridaceae]

You have to remember, when reading baby name books or websites, that a lot of names have been sanitized and/or given a completely fictitious meaning.  "Kennedy" for instance, does not mean "armored head." It means "ugly head."  "Hollister" does not mean "from the holly wood"; it means "brothel keeper."

You mean Madison doesn't mean daughter of Maud? *puts hand to forehead,  faints*

It's a bit out of date but Leslie Dunkling's The New American Baby Name book,  which focusses on the UK,  talks about popularity and trends.

[starry diadem]

It's a bit out of date but Leslie Dunkling's The New American Baby Name book,  which focusses on the UK,  talks about popularity and trends.

Perhaps she needs to revist her book title to avoid her readers having the moment of confusion I just experenced!