I don't like the name because it always makes me think of 'addle egg', as in the line from Shakespeare's Troilus & Cressida: "If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the shell." I do think the non-English pronunciations are prettier, though, with the long I sound in the second syllable instead of long A.
Albin Owings Kuhn (1916-2010) was the first chancellor of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). The library at UMBC is named after him (Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery).
The year before Doctor Who, "Allons-y, Alonzo" appeared as dialogue in the movie Pierrot le Fou (1965) by Jean-Luc Godard, although it's possible that it's a common francophone pun.
I think this is an excellent name. It's feminine without being prissy or frilly, and it's unusual enough that a child born in 2018 would likely be the only Althea in her school, let alone her class.
I really like the name Annette now, but I have a mildly amusing story about it. You know that song from Grease called "Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee"? One of the lines from the song is, "Keep your filthy paws off my silky drawers / Would you pull that crap with Annette?," referring to Annette Funicello, who was a popular actress during the time period when Grease takes place (around 1960). But I first heard that song when I was 10, in 1984, and I wasn't exactly up on my mid-century teen cinema stars. So for many years, I thought the line was, "Would you pull that crap with a net?" I pictured a teenage boy trying to take off a girl's underwear with a fishing net until I was about 17 years old, and I didn't know how on earth that would work. Anyway, Annette is a solid name and I can imagine it coming back in vogue soon. It has a cool-girl vibe, I think. Kind of rockabilly, like Kitty and Millie. I'd be impressed if I met a little Annette.
Child actors Pam & Pat Ogles played a character named Ariadne Pennington in the Elvis Presley movie Follow That Dream. She's such a minor character that the children are not credited, but it's so rare to hear the beautiful Greek name Ariadne that it caught my attention.
There is good news on that front: according to Wolfram Alpha, a statistically insignificant number of people are named Beavis or Bevis in the United States. I did a little research and found that Mike Judge knew a kid growing up named Bobby Beavis who inspired the Beavis character, so it was a surname. What a relief!
This name makes me think of a passage from Lolita, when Humbert is upset that Lolita (full name Dolores Haze, Lolita is the subject of his indecent infatuation, given that she is 12 and he is 40) is being sent away to summer camp: "Should I disguise myself as a somber old-fashioned girl, gawky Mlle Humbert, and put up my tent on the outskirts of Camp Q, in the hope that its russet nymphets would clamor: “Let us adopt that deep-voiced D.P., ” and drag the sad, shyly smiling Berthe au Grand Pied to their rustic hearth. Berthe will sleep with Dolores Haze!"
Buster Murdaugh was born Richard Alexander Murdaugh in April 1993. His great-grandfather, Randolph Murdaugh, Jr. (b.1915, d.1998), also went by the nickname Buster. Buster is the elder son of Alex Murdaugh, who infamously murdered his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in June 2021.
I like Casey when it's spelled this way, like the surname. I like it for any gender. I dislike the invented spellings like Kacie and Kaycee. KC is okay as a nickname if the person's initials are K.C., though.
I love the ˈklɑːrə pronunciation much more than the ˈklærə pronunciation, but both are nice. I don't usually care about the meaning of names, but this one resonates with me.
I looked up Cory and Corey on Wolfram Alpha, and I am surprised to learn that the most common age of a U.S. male named Cory or Corey is 21. (This data is for 2018.) I would have thought at least a decade older, because it seems like such a 1980s name to me. I like the sound of Cory, but I think it will be a long time before it comes back into style.
As surnames-as-given-names go, I think Courtney is one of the better ones. I've known more women than men named Courtney, but I have known several guys with the name. I'd like to see it given to more boys.
Elif Shafak is a British-Turkish author and one of the most prominent contemporary writers in the world. She was born on October 25, 1971, in France but spent her early years in Turkey. Shafak writes in both English and Turkish and is known for her thought-provoking novels that explore complex themes such as identity, multiculturalism, gender, and the human experience. Elif Shafak's writing is known for its rich storytelling, deep character development, and exploration of cultural and social issues. She has received numerous awards and nominations for her work, and she is considered a prominent voice in contemporary literature. Additionally, she is an advocate for free speech and human rights and often speaks out on these issues.
Elif Batuman is a Turkish-American writer and journalist. She was born on June 29, 1977, in New York City, USA. Batuman is best known for her works of fiction and non-fiction. Her novel The Idiot was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2018. She has written for publications such as The New Yorker and The New York Times.
I think Frances is a venerable name, although not exactly pretty to my ears. However, I like the nickname Francie a lot. Maybe because I had a great-aunt Francie (whose real name was the Polish Franciszka) and she was kind and funny. Also because A Tree Grows in Brooklyn's main character is Francie Nolan, and that's my favorite book. Her full name is Mary Frances Nolan.
One of my favorites. In fact, I have a cat named Genevieve. I love the French pronunciation a bit more than the English, but I thought it would be pretentious for me to use the French version.
I like Glen a lot, and I definitely prefer this spelling. I think it will come back into style eventually, but it's too soon. The most common age of a man named Glen in the U.S. is 53, and the most common age of a man named Glenn in the U.S. is 48. [Data from Wolfram Alpha, for the year 2018.] So I'd give it 20 or 30 years before it is popular for babies again. And I can also imagine it going to the girls (unfortunately).
I actually kind of like it (as a nickname for Harold, Harry, or a similar name). It's sounds kindly to me, like a friendly and warm grandfather or great-uncle. I can equally imagine it on a little boy; it has a spritely, curious energy. My first thought is of the obstreperous computer, HAL 9000, in the film 2001, but it's not negative enough for me to discount the name. I would be happy to see this mid-20th century nickname revived for the current age.
Beautiful if pronounced the same as the letters (I-O), but I don't like ee-aw. That's too much like "Eeyore." I think it would be hard to have this name because when your name is written in sans serif typography, some people will think it's "Lo". But it's a very cool name, nevertheless.
I was just in a baby gallery on a hospital website, and there were three new babies named Kateri in the past two weeks. They all look like white babies, but of course, it's not possible to tell from a photo. Le sigh.
Laura is one of the prettiest names. It's soft but not wispy, and it has historical staying power. I also like Laurel, but I'm not fond of Lauren, which seems very dated to girls born in the 1980s.
I really love the name Lola. I would use it as a nickname for Laura or a related name. I have only known a few people named Lola and I liked all of them. They were not strippers or sex workers, but even if they were, I wouldn't look down on them or think they were bad people. I do, however, think quite poorly of people who call other humans "trashy" just for having a particular name or job.
Maile Meloy, author of several novels and short story collections, born in Helena, Montana, U.S.A. in 1972. Her brother is Decemberists singer Colin Meloy.
I distinctly remember the first time I met a girl named Paige. I was five, and she was our new neighbor kid up the street. But her name didn't quite stick in my head because it was previously unknown to me, and when my mom asked me what my new friend's name was, I said, "Book." Oops. But I really like the name Paige now. I think it sounds like a name for a clever, genial person. It has a steady, mature quality to it.
In the 1968 John Updike novel, Couples, Piet Hanema is a house builder and the main protagonist of the story. He is American but his parents were from the Netherlands.
I think it's such a cool name. It makes me think of a stylish, intelligent Jewish woman from North America. I picture someone who is confident and creative but also a humanitarian when I hear the name Shifra.
Thornton Dial (1928-2016) was a pioneering African-American artist from Alabama who came to prominence in the late 1980s. Dial's body of work exhibits formal variety through expressive, densely-composed assemblages of found materials, often executed on a monumental scale. His range of subjects embraces a broad sweep of history, from human rights to natural disasters and current events. He is also the founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, an organization dedicated to the preservation and documentation of African American art.
I think it's very pretty, but I agree with several others that it feels dated to people born in the 1960s at the moment. It has been hovering near 150th place on the U.S. girls' chart for the past 30 years, and I doubt it will ever get much higher than that, unless it comes to prominence through celebrity or a beloved character in tv/film/books. I would be pleased to meet a child named Valerie, and she's almost guaranteed to be the only Valerie in her class, or even in her whole school.
Yotam Assaf Ottolenghi (born 14 December 1968) is an Israeli-born British chef, restaurateur, and food writer. His acclaimed cookbooks include Plenty (2010), Jerusalem (2012), and Ottolenghi Simple (2018).