baby name - Dwight

that's right. i wrote the words "baby name" referring to the name "Dwight". you did read that correctly.  and yes i did post a photo of an old man in a post about baby names.  probably not my best idea.  but isn't the old man cute?  (he is)...  and wasn't he once a baby? (he was)...  probably a cute one.  named Dwight.  now isn't it growing on you just a little?

when a stack of index cards bearing the names and information of all the US presidents found its way into my life, i realized not only that i'm an idiot for not knowing anything about them, but also that there are some gems in there as names go...

 a Zachary as president in 1847?  Millard, Ulysses, and (happy sigh) Rutherford?  aw man...  Rutherford!  if i knew someone's kid was definitely going to be president, i would order them to name their son Rutherford!  and then Chester and Grover (!)... Woodrow, Hubert...  and Lyndon...  and Bill!  (okay, that last one was a bit of a joke, but i do think Billy is ready for a bit of a comeback).

which leads me to Dwight.  the only reason i really noticed it as a baby name while looking through the presidents is because this dude that sits next to me at work mentioned his nephew was named Dwight.  a seventeen year old named Dwight.  hearing the name as a real person younger than 120 years old got me excited.  someone actually had the balls to name their son this back in the 1990s?  i was impressed.  and very intrigued.  Dwight.  is it really that bad?  was there an important reason why it swan dove off the name charts after it's peak in the 1950s (surprisingly enough that was when Dwight D. was president)

anyhoo...  i'm just saying:  Dwight.  i think i even like it best for a girl.  and call her Ike!

The Results are In!!!....

for the best baby names of all my "friends" on Facebook.

I decided to do this as an activity to keep me off my farmville farm... and since I consider myself an expert in the baby name field, I thought it would be nice to give a shout out to those who, in my opinion, are winning at naming their babies.

Here are the results:

Top 5 boys:
1. McKinley (Mac)
2. Julian
3. Holden
4. Leo William (new son of Jess Datillo)
5. Mason Alexander

Top 5 girls:
1. Pascale (Paz)
2. Alena
3. Landon
4. Leah Drew
5. (t) Nora, Liza, Sasha, Juliette, and Amelia

Okay, so the five way tie is a little odd, but I seriously couldn’t pick one out of these five that is the best. They are all great in their own way.

My favorite name of both boys and girls is Pascale. I don’t really know Kelly, but she was in my sorority back in the day so that’s how we’re Facebook friends. I heard somewhere along the way that she named her daughter after her father, using his name. This is by far the best way to name a baby if you can pull it off (Carrie, we will no longer be friends if you name your daughter Bruce. Although… Bryce???). Pascale is a feminine version of the boys' name Pasquale and is used a lot in Europe. So it’s not made up and she goes by an adorable nickname, Paz. Great work, Kelly!!

The rest of the girls on the list are also pretty great. Alena is one of my all time favorite names, not just because of my sister Elena, but because it sounds beautiful, goes with most last names, isn’t made up, sounds classy, and is rarely used (maybe because of the different pronunciations? I just don’t understand it). Nora and Liza I love because they’re along that new trend of bringing back older names, but not the really common ones like Sophia, Grace, or Ella. Sasha just sounds amazing together, as does Amelia.

For boys, I chose Mac over my all time favorite human, Julian. Sorry, Lisa and Julian! But I just really like this name for a lot of reasons. I probably wouldn’t pick McKinley on my list if he didn’t go by the nickname Mac. It could be perceived as a bit feminine, but it is perfect with a masculine nickname. Also, I’m assuming this is a family name with some significance which gives it big points, but I still like it even if it’s not. I also like that his dad’s name is Matt which has the same sound as Mac, without naming them the same thing. Way to go, Lauren! Can’t wait to hear what she names #3 (2nd was a girl Anna called Annie).

Julian is especially great because I named him :) I love it like I love Elena. Just perfect in every way and I don’t understand why people don’t use it more. (although that’s what makes it special) Leo is amazing and would probably be higher on the list if I knew if it went with his last name (which I’m assuming isn’t Dattilo?) I’ve always loved the name Jason, so Mason is a nice twist to that overly-used-in-the-80s-so-no-one-uses-it-now name and with Alexander as a middle name, it’s a real winner.

A special shout out goes to Lindsay for getting both a boy and girl name on the top 5 list. I even like her third’s name, Luke, which has always been my favorite, but is becoming too popular these days to make my list.

Here are my honorable mention girls: Chloe Jade (I picked the middle name, but couldn’t choose it because Chloe is now in the top 10. Sorry Lisa!!), Avery, Bryn, Ellie, Camryn, Cecelia, Kendall, Riley, and Teagan.

And honorable mention boys: Callan, Chase, Mason, Nathan John, RJ, Thabo Sean, Tommy, and Wade.

is this a joke?

okay, so i need to go back onto the topic of baby names for just a minute after discovering this "article" on babycenter.com from back in 2005.

(yes, i read about baby names. i've been doing it since the 6th grade. we all know this, but i still feel i need the caveat.)

here are some highlights from this article:

"We're particularly impressed with the BabyCenter parents who used apostrophes to come up with unusual, clever, and musical-sounding names."

they are encouraging this??? look at this horrendous list with the following heading:

"Revamp a classic name with a little punctuational flair. We dig these very creative apostrophe-enhanced spellings from 2005"



Rach'El??
De'Liberately?? THAT'S NOT EVEN A NAME!!

it's one thing to have crazy people on baby name polls (dear Yahoo Answers Baby Names, thank you for all the countless hours of killing-time-at-work entertainment. love, andrea), but when these are somewhat "qualified" people (if Editor's Choice means the "we" in this article are editors at the popular/somewhat credible website about babies) making these suggestions to the public... then we have a problem.

how does little Rach'El even learn how to spell her name, let alone learn how to correct people on how to spell it? "mommy, how come apostrophe isn't in the alphabet?" and by the time she's 12, i'm sure she's either already visited the judge to change her name or is on drugs to forget all the stress that comes from having to spell your name to people all day long... "no, no... it's R-A-C-H-apostrophe-capital E-L". how could that poor girl not want to shoot herself every time someone has to spell it (or pronounce it? no one knows what to do with their voice when they see an apostrophe that's not an O' at the beginning of a last name.) just so sad...

and if that's not enough for one article, here is the next section:

"Food for thought
When Gwyneth Paltrow had her daughter, Apple, in May 2004 she opened the door for a variety of tasty treats that serve as great baby names. Our favorites from 2005:



my only comment on this is... couldn't they have at least spelled Caramel correctly??

there should be laws against this stuff.

(as a shout out to where i discovered the exciting world of Yahoo Answers Baby Names, check out this blog on bad baby names... hilarious. although he really needs to write on it more!)

ASL words of the week

since today is tuesday and i have sign language classes on tuesday, i'm giving my sign language words of the week. if i'm learning it, everyone else i know should too! i actually gave allison a lesson last night. it's really a lot of fun!

anyway, so here is "where" and "who". of all the images on the world wide web of these words, i chose this guy to be my go-to guy. for "where" you actually wave your finger back and forth and for "who", you curl your index finger in and out. both signs work much better if you have a confused look on your face.




side note: Victoria and Andrea overtook Destiny yesterday and today Andrea has taken over Victoria for the #9 spot in top baby girls' names in san francisco. game on, Ashley...

new baby name website - "updated constantly"

and if you think for one minute i haven't checked this website once to twice every day since i discovered it... you would be wrong. especially when i discovered Andrea was the #8 girl name in san francisco so far this year. although since by today it's already down to #10 the excitement is fading. apparently more parents in my city have named their kids Ashley and Destiny in the last 2 days than Andrea. Destiny!! the real name of the no-talent-ass-clown who ruined the name Maile for me.

anyway, it's a site that hospitals use as baby announcements and to order newborn photos or something. it's pretty cool, but only gives the top 10 names of any area (state, city, or hospital level). it would reeeally be cool if it had all the names... so you could look up how many of each name were born in the town near you. no one wants their kid to be Tanner P. or Tanner F. in kindergarten class! (or on the bachelorette??)

hopefully the website will get more involved with this, but so far it is a very exciting discovery for someone like me who claims to be a baby naming consultant. (and the supreme justice of baby naming for one family!!)