Working at WIC has introduced me to a whole range of names that I never would have imagined existed as names.
I have lived my entire life believing the Bible to be the best source for ideas in naming children.
After all, my siblings are Anna, Joshua, Daniel, John, Timothy, and Grace.
//On a side note, the boys in my family appear in Biblical order of appearance: Joshua comes before Daniel who comes before John who comes before Timothy–while the girls in my family appear in reverse order of appearance: Anna comes after Rebekah who comes after the first appearance of Grace. This was NOT planned.//
When trying to be unique, I still relied on Scripture for my names. I imagined daughters with Biblical place names as their first names: Bethel, Tirzah, Shiloh. (Davene has a beautiful Moriah.)
My second source of ideas for names was books, namely literature. Many of these names, of course, coincided with the Biblical names.
I could have a Jane, an Elizabeth, a William (I’m not pretentious enough to add the Fitz–and woe on the daughter named Kitty or Lydia.) I could have a Nancy, a Frank, or a Joe. I could have a Caroline, a Charles, a Laura, a Mary, or a Carrie. I could have Anne or Gilbert or Blythe (did you see what I just did there?)
The one book I never imagined getting names from was the thesaurus. But apparently, that is THE baby naming book of the decade.
Let’s give it a try. Start with a word, any word, and get looking.
I’ll start with HAPPY.
Thesaurus.com suggests “blessed, blest, blissful, blithe, can’t complain, captivated, cheerful, chipper, chirpy, content, contented, convivial, delighted, ecstatic, elated, exultant, flying high, gay, glad, gleeful, gratified, intoxicated, jolly, joyful, joyous, jubilant, laughing, light, lively, looking good, merry, mirthful, on cloud nine, overjoyed, peaceful, peppy, perky, playful, pleasant, pleased, sparkling, sunny, thrilled, tickled, tickled pink, up, upbeat, walking on air”.
Let’s get busy making naming trees now.
Blest would be a good name–but it would be even better if spelled B’lest. And its synonyms suggest: Adored (probably pronounced Uh-Door-AY-d), Divine (possibly spelled D’vine), and Celebrate.
Blissful’s synonyms are rich in possibility: Delighted (clearly the best way to spell this would be DeeLyte), Ecstatic (spell this Xtatik), Enchanted (probably pronounced “EN-shahn-T” with a silent “ed”), Heavenly (but this is too straightforward–best to spell it backwards as Yl-Neveah, pronounced “I-ul-Nuh-VAY-ah” or “Ill-Nuh-VAY-ah”), Rapturous (pronounced “Rap-TWO-russ”, of course.)
Give it a try. What names can YOU come up with?
Please note that all names are fictionalized. Any resemblance with actual WIC client names is entirely accidental. :-)
We actually know a little girl out here named Neveah….for exactly that reason. :-/
Yes–I first encountered the name five or six years ago when a preteen girl I was discipling had a niece by that name. She never spoke of her niece without explaining “My niece Neveah–that’s heaven spelled backward, you know.”
Neveah is actually in I think the top 20 (or at least top 50) names. *barf*! You should keep a list of all the most “interesting” names you encounter. I have a friend who worked in labor and delivery in an urban area and did this. At some point, she showed me the list…my word, I wouldn’t have believed most of them if I hadn’t had a first-hand source. I can’t remember most of them now, but the strangest one I can think of was Stycr (pronounced “Sticker”).
You are absolutely right about Neveah being pretty popular. It has been in the top 50 since ’06, peaking at 25 in 2010. While I do keep some strange names in my mind, I haven’t compiled a list since I feel like I would feel compelled to share them–and I don’t want to breach HIPAA. Instead, I’ve been taking notes on the apparent (or described) naming methods.
Hilarious! This put a big smile on my face!! :)
Josiah and David, by the way, LOVE the name Nevaeh. IF we have another baby, and IF it were a girl, and IF they got to choose a name for her, it would probably be that! However, that 3rd IF is fairly insurmountable, so I don’t think we’ll be having one of those. :)
It makes sense that kids would enjoy that name–especially if they know how it came to be. Nevertheless, I’m rather glad that the third IF is not likely to occur. :-)
Wondering if it’s rude/inappropriate to wonder…are you…thinking of baby names for any particular reason or just because you work at WIC.
I’ve actually seen the name Rehtaeh (don’t ask me how to pronounce it). It interested me because it’s Heather backwards.
I know the Cayden, Hayden, Jayden names are really big right now.
It is neither rude nor inappropriate to wonder. We are not pregnant, but my job at WIC gives me ample opportunity to notice and wonder at baby naming techniques. HIPAA means I can’t say the really unique names themselves–so I write things like this instead.
Although Daniel just informed me today that we should really name our first son George Washington Cincinnatus Garcia–so we can feel smug about being well-educated.
Ok, now THAT would be a pretty great name. Glad you didn’t find my questioning too impertinent. A bloggy friend I follow recently announced her engagement in a rather sneaky post about words. So, I naturally got a little curious.
I love to read the birth announcements in the newspaper for just this reason–to wonder at the names! :)
Oh–and I would’ve named one of my girls Blythe if we hadn’t chosen Bible names for all our children.