Monthly Favorites | Baby Names

Hello!

This is my final post of the week and In my act to bring something different to my blog this month, I thought about putting together a collection of my favorite baby names since the start of 2022.

If you have been on here a while, you might know I have a HUGE obsession with names; I’ve done a lot of things in the past, but my favorite thing is discussing what could be the next royal baby’s names. I’ve been wrong on Prince Louis of Cambridge, his cousin Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, and Prince Gabriel of Sweden, but I somewhat right for both Princess Eugenie’s son August Brooksbank and Prince Gabriel’s little brother Prince Julian of Sweden!

I love doing those types of posts, but I mainly create them to have fun, so with that, I thought I could come up with something that you as a reader might enjoy, but I would love to look back on to see what has changed in the future.

In 2019, I made up a Pinterest board that would help me keep track of all the names I came across each month, and I attempt to list my ultimate favorites on my name accounts on Facebook and Instagram at the end of the year. I have surprised myself quite a bit, but that’s kind of the point though. For this post, I will be including ALL of the names I’ve been into from January to March, as I say this, I could forget a few just before I publish the post in general. but everybody should be ready and updated for you today.

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January

Girls: Anne, Agnes, Arden, Amaryllis, Audra, Betty, Caroline, Cecilia, Chantal, Frances, Freya, Hannelore, Hedy, Henrietta, Hermione, Honor, Iris, Juniper, Lavinia, Leta, Lynlie, Maud, Monaco, Rue, Skylynn, Sophie, Taryn, Victoria, Wilhelmina, Winifred, Wren, Yuna, Zita

Boys: Adolphus, Athelstan, Barclays, Bridgemont, Dempsey, Ford, Isaiah, Joachim, Jon, Kade, Khair, Kohl, Lancaster, Ludo, Odin, Santos, Sherwood, Somerset, Ralph, Winston

Unisex: Asa, Denali, Shiloh, Joss, Lennox

February

Girls: Abigail, Adelaide, Amy, Andie, Ashlyn, Atlas, Arizona, Brielle, Brookline, Brynn, Bubbles, Carlyn, Colbie, Claudia, Daphne, Deirdre, Eleonore, Ethel, Fiona, Freya, Gertrude, Halla, Hannelore, Honor, Imogen, Isla, Ira, Ivy, Jane, Jessamine, Jo, Julissa, Kendall, Kiernan, Kira, Kyla, Laney, Leni, Letha, Liselle, Lovelyn, Mako, Mary, Mayim, Moira, Nercissa, Ocea, Oceanne, Orna, Ottilie, Remy, Riverlyn, Roseline, Runa, Salome, Sierra, Sophia, Soraya, Story, Suki, Verena, Yuna,

Boys: Aiden, Alfred, Alonso, Asher, Braylin, Brexson, Byron, Cameron, Caspian, Gregory, Hayden, Hunter, Falcon, Jaxon, Ledger, Leonidas, Mark, Maverick, Mosaic, Nevada, Neville, Nikos, Orlando, Ptolemy, Ryan, Spade, Spencer, Taurien

Unisex: Albany, Ashton, Eiffel, Emerson, Linwood, Noel, Sayre, Vesper

March

Girls: Adelaide, Alessia, Aoife, Astra, Avril, Beatrice, Catherine, Catriona, Cecilia, Clover, Davina, Dorothy, Edda, Edie, Eliza, Eloise, Ethel, Eydis, Freyja, Gwyneth, Hervor, Ida, Imogen, Ingrid, Kassandra, Katya, Ksenia, Libby, Lilian, Lilias, Lille, Loralei, Lotte, Lydia, Madeleine, Maeve, Magdalene, Mailin, Matilda, Millicent, Mimi, Moira, Noelle, Odessa, Oona, Parisa, Philippa, Posie, Primrose, Savannah, Soleil, Sophia, Sybil, Sybilla, Thea, Violet, Wylla, Yrsa

Boys: Archibald, Aldrich, Alastair, Atlas, Bruno, Calder, Cord, Elias, Ewen, Ezra, Fox, Finn, Gilbert, Hudson, James Jameson, Jasper, Leif, Levi, Loki, Mikey, Nolan, Pluto, Reginald, Rhys, Ryker, Riley, Rory, Silas, Sullivan, Thaddeus, Tobias, Willoughby

Unisex: Daisuke, Namir, Raleigh, Ronan

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As you might’ve noticed as you read each name, a lot were inspired by my recent reads. I’ve always loved the various styles authors will name their own characters. A lot are inspired the different eras in history, such as Vikings and their Norse mythology. I’ve finished two books that discuss many parts of their religion, so you have popular names like Odin, Freya/Freyja, Loki but then you have the main characters and even though you are writing about a fictional person, you still want them to have a name that readers can recognize as part of that group, and you get a mismatch of names you might know about and the rest are basically made up, like Halla, Taurein, Rollo, Revna, Runa, Hervor, Eydis, Asta, Calder, and Leif.

There is another group you should have noticed, and they are my Irish/Gaelic/Scottish style of names. I usually keep a nice array of names in the back of my mind of these types, but since March is about spring and of course, St. Patrick’s Day, my usual bag is suddenly larger as we continue on to the next month.

I love the traditional Gaelic names that can be difficult to pronounce for most people. I’ve been interested in everything Irish since 2014, so I’m happy to say I can say several names with ease now. I do have some trouble with others, but it is a slow process and I work on it every day Some of my favorite names of that language are Aoife, (Eva) Ewen, Imogen, Maeve, (Mae-vv) Moira, Oona, (On-na) Ronan, Willoughby (Will-o-be).

I hope you have enjoyed this post. I would like to do this again, keeping with the three months, so you can see how everything changes with the others. I also keep record of all of the name combinations I make from various name games on social media, so if you would like to see what I create with each month, let me know and I can update this post with the names of January through March.

Are you obsessed with names too? If you are, what styles are you most drawn to on a daily basis? Do you keep a list of favorites in a notebook or in your phone throughout the year(s)?

Life | Getting A Late Start

Hello there!

It seems so weird to be writing this post.

I have not felt inspired to talk about anything lately. I’ve been like this since the end of October. I made myself dive hard into Blogmas in December and I genuinely enjoyed the posts I did for those three weeks, but by Christmas, I knew I needed to take a longer break from blogging. At one point, I was even comfortable with the idea of never blogging again…

Technically I quit on the 23rd of December, so depending on when I’ll actually get this post out, it would be about two months of nothing to do with writing, publishing, and networking. This prospect is a frightening reality I am currently living with because all I know to do is blog. I may not get paid for my posts, but it doesn’t mean I don’t think of it as a job anyways, and I wonder if that’s also part of it; when I am “working” I feel like I have that constant need to do this or that and it has just taken away all of the fun it brought me in the early days.

I created this blog in May 2011, to give me a space to work on my writing style but the reason why I focused my attention on discussing disability topics is because I wanted to show people of various ages that you can have a wonderful life with a severe disability. I have fallen out of that a few times in the last 12 years of blogging, but I always found a way to come back stronger. The last five years, I have enjoyed how far I’ve come as a writer, I was taking chances and it felt amazing to see all of the hard work pay off.

For my birthday last November, I had this strange feeling inside and it felt like I was turning into a better version of myself. It was “strange” because when I began my 20’s, I sought out finding my soulmate, getting married and raising a family by a certain age like most young women do. It wasn’t until I hit 28 that I realized my overall dream of what I wanted to have as a life wasn’t going to come and although the realization hurt like hell at first, I felt like I could breathe better. Honestly, a lot of things changed at that age! I became an aunt for the first time, and I think it was a great wakeup call for me! I love babies and children, but I have never spent the day/night with them before so being around this little human has humbled me to the core.

This would somewhat happen again a year later, as I asked my cousins about how they knew they were attracted to others, and they proceeded to discuss being in relationships, and all throughout that conversation I wanted to throw up but ironically enough that was one visit I did not come home with the stomach flu… I was shocked that I really couldn’t sense myself entering a relationship and being comfortable about it at this point of my life, and I still don’t four months later! I’ve never been the type of person that would get married, I like the way of having a life partner instead.

Even though the new year is already here, we can always enter a new path at any time. It doesn’t always have to start on your birthday or NYE, and you can never make a mistake on your journey either. You can always come back after a setback so please try not to feel bad or foolish because tomorrow is a whole new day to begin anew.

If you have been reading this post all the way though, I appreciate you for your commitment. I would like to know how long you’ve been a part of my blog in the comments. You don’t have to say the exact date, but if you do indeed remember the day, you started visiting Got Meghan’s Blog, please list it down below.

Royal Baby | 32 Swedish Forward Baby Names!

Hello!

I am back for another baby name post, and today I am focusing on the Swedish Royal family. King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia’s son, Prince Carl Philip and his wife Princess Sofia will welcome their third little bundle of joy sometime in the next few weeks. When I was busy coming up with these posts, I wasn’t necessarily paying any attention on what season these babies would arrive, so there is a small chance that by the time this post does publish, the new Prince or Princess has already made its welcome to the royal house.

Back in 2016, I wrote a post just like this one for their second child, Prince Gabriel, and although the only part I got right was the letter “G” it, obviously, hasn’t stopped me from making any other name guesses of the future generations. During that time, I was thinking it would be a boy, mainly because both of the Prince’s sisters have had boys during their second pregnancies, however, with this one, I am definitely leaning into the color pink, so I tried to think of well beloved names on both sides of the family tree and hoped I was correct on more than one element.

For this post, I will be doing what I’ve done on my previous baby posts and picking out four names listed in the banner below, and including a middle name that could work with it too. I will also be giving you a little background on each name, plus my reasons behind my decision.

Birgitta Sofie

The name Birgitta is well beloved in the royal house of Bernadotte, as it is the first name of Prince Carl Philip’s great aunt Princess Birgitta of Sweden, Princess of Hohenzollern. If they do decide to use a name that is a bit popular among the public of Sweden, Birgitta or maybe even shortening it to Britta could be absolutely gorgeous for a modern day Swedish princess!

If they do end up having a daughter, I can see the name Sofia being apart of the full name but not a first. I’ve been wrong before and it was my main thought behind using Sofie as a middle and/or nickname! I feel this combination fits both the French and Swedish styles that you normally see throughout the rest of the royal family, and it works as Bridget Sophie too!

Kristina Madeleine Victoria

The name Christina in general is a big symbol of the Swedish monarchy. Just because they use the first letter “K” instead of a “C” is just basically moving on with the times, as Christina has an older quality while Kristina has a modern flair considering it is different compared to the king’s older sister Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson. There have been many other princesses with the name up and down history, but nothing is more amazing and possibly infamous than Queen Christina in the 17th Century.

I have to say, I don’t normally include multiple middle names in these posts, but with thinking about continuing a tradition, the royal Swedes are known to name their children after close family members and it would be an sweet way of the Prince to name this little girl after his own sisters: the Crown Princess and the Duchess of Hälsingland and Gästrikland!

Isabelle Maria

Isabelle or Isabel is a beautiful and very French way of the name Elizabeth or Elisabeth. Although, Elizabeth has been used in the past for both first and middle names, I just don’t think it will appear on this baby. I don’t have anything against it–my middle name is Elizabeth!–it unfortunately has the same look as Christina, this past tense feel of it just turns me off but I do love for Isabelle because it just has this elegant but loose magic that the other lacks at the moment.
As far as the middle name pairing, I think it works great with any variation of the name Mary. Personally, I love Maria because I’ve never been a huge fan of the same letter either beginning or ending, but the main reason why I believe it will feature somewhere is because it is the name of Princess Sofia’s mother. She is also my inspiration for Britta as her middle is actually Britt. I really would love it to see The Princess’s family recognized too!

Signe Alexandra

I am actually a fan of Swedish names, and the moment I found Signe, I was hooked immediately! So, it is pronounced as “cig-knee” and can be spelled as ‘Signe’ or ‘Signy’ and could also be used as a sweet nickname for the rougher ‘Sigurd’ maybe. I like to think of it as the Swedish cousin of Australia’s own “Sydney” and I’m not even sorry about it either!

Honestly, between Birgitta, Kristina and Signe, they are all common names in Scandinavia, and I would really love it if the current royal family used more of their country’s baby names. I think it is time to fully allow their home grown names to shine out forward for the whole world to see finally its authentically and uniqueness.

My outlook on boy names is somewhat different than what I would think will happen, mainly because they’ve already had a nice thing going with using Alexander and Gabriel as first names. and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. What I really mean is, those names are like ‘normal, everyday’ type of names to the general public. I mean, I’m an American and this a different royal family then what most people know about, so despite the fact that I would like to see a traditional Swedish name up front, I can understand wanting to give the child a simple name that reflects both the royal family and what the future holds for this little prince.

Felix Johann

The name Felix already has a big following among fellow royal families, as there is one in Denmark and Luxembourg, so I think it’s only right for it to appear in Sweden. Felix is also big in households all over Scandinavia, so it would be a perfect fit all around I think! It has that likeable but traditional quality that I thought could work great with Alexander and Gabriel. Personally, my favorite part of it is, it’s masculine and short and these are two big factors for couples right now.

When I was trying to figure out a middle, I was instantly pulled into pairing it with longer and strong Scandi names like Oscar, Nicholas, and Johann. There are a wide array of names that could work great with Felix but I think we will have to see what .happens because this is where I have the most trouble are with male middle names!

Theodore Harald

Now with Theodore or Teodor as both spellings are common in Sweden, I feel more confident with this name to be on the Top 5 since it is an universal type of name. Despite the fact that people enjoy shorter names–a lot like the sweet quality that Theodore instantly brings to a child. Some couples love it for the cutesy flair on little boys and the amount of strength it will bring to him as he continues to get older, as it adds some seriousness for a man.

Again, middle names are difficult to decide on, but I thought about how close the Swedish family is to other monarchs on their borders, and with all of the health concerns on King Harald V of Norway, I think it would be really nice thing is to name their little guy Harald in tribute to the king. The Crown Princess has done that with her daughter and heiress, is named Princess Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary.; the last name Mary is for her godmother, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, so it can happen and has been lovely additions to the next generation.

Folke Philip

When I worked on my guesses for Prince Gabriel, I was hoping the name Folke would see the limelight because I think it is so neat! I’m still not 100% sure on how to pronounce it yet but I would still like it to be somewhere in his name. The same goes with Philip too, it would be really nice to allow their third son a chance to bear the name “Philip” like his father, but I would still like ‘Folke’ to be up front though!

Gustaf Viktor

Out of all of the names I listed above in my banner, the one name that I am sure will make an appearance is “Gustaf”. Why? Well, it is the second name of the current King of Sweden. Despite the fact that almost all of the king’s grandsons has the name “Carl” in their full names, it’s only Princess Madeleine’s son Prince Nicolas that actually has “Gustaf” instead!

Now originally, I had picked the name “Kristian” for the possible middle, and I was really proud for remembering it but just before I was going to talk about my decision there, I thought about naming in tribute for both the Norwegian and Swedish kings, we are forgetting, the royal family has four little princes as of right now and none of them are named after the Crown Princess yet. I thought this was an interesting aspect to keep in mind as I was comfortable with adding “Victoria” on the girl side, but what about creating a “Victor” in the lineup as well? I do think this would be a great combination too because it honors a current and future sequence of events that will be visible in this child’s lifetime.

So, what do you think of the combos I’ve listed in this post? Do you think any will be on this child’s full name? If you have any guesses that you want to share with me, please tell me in the comments!

Royal Baby | 32 Romantically Royal Names!

Hello!

EDITED: I wrote this post last month and was curious whether or not I would be able to get this out before Her Royal Highness gave birth, but I put out a poll on my name account on Instagram the evening when the news broke that they had welcomed a son, and I had a large amount of people who said they would like the post to go out as it was suppose to, so thanks to them, I am sharing with you all of the names and pairings I’ve had in my head for the past several months.

Well, 2021 will be a HUGE year for the British and Swedish royal families, as there are four different families (not counting Pippa Matthews because she is the sister to The Duchess of Cambridge!) who are expecting new additions in the spring. You know how much I love guessing and creating combinations for the royals, so I am so pumped to be doing this again!

For this post, I am focusing on Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank first child. Of course, like the majority of the English royals, they don’t say what the gender is to the public until the birth so I am using the same format as I have with both Prince Louis of Cambridge and Archie Mountbatton-Windsor. There will be four sections of names but in the aesthetic I think The Brooksbank’s will look into for their child.

I was really excited to hear that Princess Eugenie was pregnant. I follow her on Instagram so when the picture of her holding a pair of Koala booties was absolutely adorable! It actually didn’t take me very long to create a list of names that I thought could appear in the child’s name, but I wanted to look beyond my usual assumptions and focus on what this young couple could be thinking about, so I began to look into them a little more and we’ll have to see how right or wrong I was in the end.

Princess Eugenie went to Newcastle University in 2009, studying Art History and English Literature, which is how I came up with the idea of putting together a romantically-pleasing list of names that could be a winner. However, I still wanted to look to what Jack could enjoy as well, so I felt really good including vintage names into the mix. The way I have created this, is that the literacy type names are on the left side of each sex, while the more aristocratic/royalty names are on the right side. I tried to my best to include well-used family names and switched some spellings around too! I will list four names that I think will look really cute and fun and give you some information about each other, So, in total, there will be eight names and pairings for both genders.

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Jane Margaret

I think the name Jane is a very unused name in the royals; it was only used once with Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII. She was the one who gave the king what he’s always wanted, a son but sadly she passed away a week after giving birth to the future Edward VI. The King was very saddened to hear that she had died, but considering how he treated his wives at all, it is unsure what her future would have been like if she had lived and how the Tudor dynasty would have unfolded.

Jane is somewhat in the middle of popular lists, but since it is a one syllable and feminine type of name, I feel like it is really nice for a first daughter. I find it very cute but strong as far as talking about literature: you have Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and the author Jane Austen who bridges the gap between romance in the aristocratic world of the 18th Century and the feminist mindset too. I really think if at least one royal couple gave it a shot, their daughter would really appreciate it!

The reason why I decided to pair it up with Margaret, is because it is her mother’s middle name. It would be a subtle way to keep her close and I also believe, like Jane, is underrated with the royals. There isn’t anybody in the immediate line of succession with the name so it could be a nice way of bringing it back home within the York family tree too.

Mabel Alexandra

The name Mabel has been growing in popularity in the last couple of years, so if the couple wanted to do a more “in” type of name as a first, then I think it is not only a lovely name but winner overall.

For me personally, I have always have an love/hate relationship with Mabel. I have known about it for several years now, mainly because of a sitcom my family and I used to watch all the time called Mad About You. The main couple: Jamie and Paul Buchman name their own daughter Mabel because of an old saying Jamie’s mother use to say to her daughters, the anagram is “Mother Always Bring Extra Love” but unfortunately, I have never liked it enough to put it on my list. I do love how it is short and sweet, but with it’s growing fanbase, I’ve sort of had to put it at the lowest placement.

I am a HUGE lover of combining both small with long, almost regel like names together, so, pairing it with Alexandra is both beautiful but gives the little girl a strong, masculine type of name. The nearest royal with the name is Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogvily. It is also one of the Queen’s middle names, and of course, we have to look at Alexandra of Denmark, Princess of Wales, and eventual Queen to her husband King Edward VII.

Beatrix Victoria

Okay, I think out of all the names in the banner, I feel like this one has a better chance of being used out of any other name. Princess Eugenie is the younger sister to Princess Beatrice, and I feel like they are incredibly close and it would only be right to say that this variation would be high on their list. The “rix” at the end gives it a more literacy type of style, because of the children’s author Beatrix Potter, and I also think this way has a lot of moxie compared to the other spelling. I actually have an old friend who is also using this way, for her second daughter so it is definitely a trend at the moment.

Now I think placing two powerhouse names together is very interesting and also honors the Victorian era to a T! It actually rolls off your tongue pretty well, but the main reason why I decided to combine it is because Victoria is the last middle for the Princess. I think it would be a nice way of keeping a tradition but mainly because it is easier to say than her own name: Eugenie. I mean, I have a difficult time saying her name, and I think it would be interesting to switch it with Victoria or maybe Helena too.

Elizabeth Ophelia

Princess Eugenie has a very close bond with her paternal grandparents, I think it is fair to keep the name Elizabeth on a higher spot because of this, but mostly because it is pretty low on almost all of the name charts. There is the fact that it is used more as a middle name than a first, so if they were to use it as a first with this generation it would probably have the same effect that Princess Charlotte had when she was born in 2013. If they didn’t want such a robust type of name, maybe Isabel/Isabelle/Isabella could be a nice variation too. It would still work with the classic trend going on in Great Britain too.

Speaking of trends, it was slightly easier to picture the name Ophelia for Eugenie and Jack’s baby than any other couple, mostly for the fact that it was created by William Shakespeare. It comes from Hamlet, and I think it’s gorgeous and fun for a distant royal; that is one thing that Eugenie and Jack have going for them, they don’t have to basically use popular and traditional royal names, but since she did study art and literature, I think it is far to say that this than any other Shakespearian name is contender.

If they do indeed have a boy, I believe they could use one or the other of its grandfather’s names, but it probably wouldn’t be as a first. The reason why is because of the obvious scandal with the Duke of York, The name Andrew is still a family name that has ties to the Duke of Edinburgh’s line, but again I just don’t see it coming up as a first, but with a different way of spelling could make it work without drawing that uneasy comparison to Prince Andrew.

After the birth of Prince Louis in 2018, a lot of people were surprised by the fact that Louis is one of their eldest son’s middle names. The public was shocked by this, but it actually didn’t necessarily freak me out because it has been done over many generations with the royals, for example, all of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s sons (including one of their daughters’) have the name Albert. The first boy was named Albert Edward, but the other three all had the name towards the end. Their fourth daughter Princess Louise had a feminine variation: Alberta as part of her whole name too! So, naming their son George could be used but having it in the front could be interesting because they could be accused of basically stealing although I’ve just explained how this has happened before and is a beloved way of giving back so to speak.

Asa Nicholas

It was very difficult narrowing two male names from the left side of the banner, mainly because there are so many interesting choices that resemble the type of aesthetic I’m going for in the post, but the name Asa was actually kind of natural, mainly because it is very different compared to all of the other names. Asa has grown in popularity in the last few years, but it is original and I think it would be cool to see a name like this, grow within the royal families.

For the middle, Nicholas was just the first one to pop into my head. I wouldn’t normally combine two names that feature an “s” so close but as soon as it came together, I started to realize how angelic and adorable the names are together. The name itself has strong ties to the Saxe, Coburg and Gotha bloodline and the former Russian royal family: Romanovs. Tsar Nicholas II and his British wife, Tsarina Alexandra (born as Princess Alix of Hesse, daughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse).

Valentine Ferguson

Every part of me really wanted to chose a totally different name but the name Valentine is probably one of the most romantic names you could give a child. I have only started to enjoy it less than a year ago, because I’ve never been a huge fan of the “holiday” of sorts, but I really enjoy it for boys rather than girls. I think it does something, almost radiates everything the beginning of the February tries to bring out amongst the general public. However, I think it’s one of those names that work for all stages in a person’s life; it’s adorable on babies and is handsome on grumpy old men too.

My only issue with it was figuring out what to pair it up with, and I was really drawn to use the surname Ferguson because I feel like we always forget about spousal’s family names. In this case, Ferguson is Princess Eugenie’s mother’s maiden name. When the Duchess of Cambridge announced she’s pregnant, we all hoped that maybe we’ll see “Spencer” is featured in the child’s full name, but so far it’s not going to happen, so, I thought it would be interesting to see this one pop up as an unexpected surprise for everyone!

Henry Thomas

This one was inspired by the strong relationship the Princess has with her cousin, Prince Harry. They have always had a close bond and when I heard that she and Jack were going to move to Frogmore Cottage, in Windsor, I truly thought it was a sweet gesture because there are a large amount of royals who are living at Kensington Palace, including the Cambridge family, so it was easy enough to understand how much the young couple need their own place to live while adjusting to becoming a family of three.

Now there is another name that I think is an equal company as the Duke of Sussex. Thomas Brockbank is the elder brother of Jack. Of course, we don’t exactly know how good of a relationship they have since the wedding but I still think that the name could be used as well. The name isn’t as popular among the royals, so it would be really neat to see the classic pop in as a newcomer!

Philip Edmund

Princess Eugenie is very fond of her paternal grandfather: The Duke of Edinburgh. She speaks really lovingly towards him in a documentary directed towards The Queen’s 90th birthday a few years ago. So, I have really high hopes that maybe we all see Philip come back around with the great-grandchildren. and if it turns out that it is a girl, then Philippa would be a special way of keeping him close to her heart too.

I always hope that this name comes back into the royal family and it is Edmund. This is such a classic and very old name as the last royal who had it as a first was Prince Edmund, Duke of Somerset in 1499, the sixth child of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. I do consider this name as romantic because it has grown out of favor over the years but is still included in the annual name charts for England and Wales. It is also a nice alternative to the ever popular Edward too, so I genuinely hope that maybe it will come back around some day.

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Whenever I do these types of posts, I always feel bad that I hadn’t included a lot of the father’s interests, but with the royals, especially if they are lower on the list of succession like Princess Eugenie, figuring out they hobbies and style isn’t as easy to pin point and that was the main reason for looking at the Princess a little closer and using what she does outside of being the granddaughter of The Queen!

Another thing I have to remind myself is that I purely do this for fun. I don’t get paid to do this and honestly, I wouldn’t want to because that’s just really odd and I feel like I would lose interest into the whole thing because it does look way more complicated to create the entire post, and that includes the banner too! I don’t mind being wrong or right–although it does feel good sometimes!–but as a lover of names, you always wonder what everybody has on their lists and sometimes you get lucky and are asked to help the parents-to-be too, which can be intimidating at times too, So yeah, that’s why I continue to come up with these type of posts.

Do you have any guesses on what Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack are going to new their little bear? What kind of style do you believe could make an appearance?

Book Review: “The German Midwife” by Mandy Robotham

Well, here we are!

This is my last book review to be included in my “20 Books In 2020” reading challenge. I saw this one day while I was scrolling through KU and something about the cover just made me click it and read the blurb, and once I did that I was instantly intrigued with the concept. What if Evan Braun had had a child? This question would play with me while I was reading and after I had finished it.

If you are interested in historical fiction, especially if it is set in the depths of World War II with all of its ugly history dealing with an evil dictator like Adolf Hitler and of course with the aftermath of the Holocaust and its survivors. There are very few times that a book itself would read like if you were sitting in a movie theater watching it on the biggest screen and the volume blasted as loud as it can to pull you into it ever more.

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An enthralling new tale of courage, betrayal and survival in the hardest of circumstances that readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Secret Orphan and My Name is Eva will love.

Germany, 1944. A prisoner in the camps, Anke Hoff is doing what she can to keep her pregnant campmates and their newborns alive.

But when Anke’s work is noticed, she is chosen for a task more dangerous than she could ever have imagined. Eva Braun is pregnant with the Führer’s child, and Anke is assigned as her midwife.

Before long, Anke is faced with an impossible choice. Does she serve the Reich she loathes and keep the baby alive? Or does she sacrifice an innocent child for the good of a broken world?

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When I first started reading it on July 20th, my only note I put on the status update on Goodreads was “On chapter 6 and it’s already a doozy!” I am familiar with the hardships that the Jews dealt with during their time either hiding from the SS soldiers and being starved and worked to death in various camps all over Europe. While I was in high school, I took a course called “Novels” and we read Elie Weisel’s Night. This was the first time I ever read a book about a survivor’s time in the concertation camps and I literally thought I would never read a book from that time period ever again.

After reading about Enjeela and Malala’s stories escaping their war-torn homelands earlier this year, I figured I couldn’t necessarily talk myself out of not reading a book set in this time frame.

Our main character Anke Hoff, is the everyday woman in the mid-1940’s, she was young but trapped in the gray area of being a German but not supporting Adolf Hitler and The Reich. She was also helping all women–including Jewish–give birth to their children. The story is given to you in two different parts, so you begin with the character about Irena, a Jewish woman giving birth in a crowded and nasty hut full of other women, including Anke and her helper Rosa. You learn about the ins and outs of bringing a baby into the world and how Jewish babies were stripped away from their mothers and put to death for all to hear in the camp.

The second part of the story are these diary-like entries, they include dates and estimated locations. These tell the story of Anke’s life before ending up in the camps. You get to see everything that happens within a hospital before the war erupted and how she is captured by the Gestapo and eventually sent to a camp. At first, this section was my least favorite because I thought it would be too much information for the reader, including myself to separate while reading about her current living situation. However, it was in this part that talked about how the Nazi doctors and officials treated babies with physical disabilities. This is the reason why in my first note I said “it was a doozy” because I wasn’t necessarily expecting it, but while I was sad to learn what would happen to this innocent babies, it really gave me a sense of who Anke was as not only a midwife but a human being at this time.

In a way to luminate that Anke is a regular woman, the author set up a love interest, and I will be honest, I wasn’t much of a fan for it in the beginning, but when we learn more about Dieter Stenz, the quicker I was willing to overlook my initial reaction to him. As the story was ending and we learn what happens to him, my emotions were all over the place! It also didn’t help that this was the final book in my Goodreads challenge for the year. If you didn’t know by now, I finished 20 books in eight months!

The final thing I enjoyed about this story was that the author Mandy Robotham, is actually a real midwife. This made me really happy to learn this in the beginning because I knew she would include anything she has learned throughout her medical schooling and career as a midwife too. It also made me realize that everything that was discussed about childbirth inside the camps and domestic life in the 1930’s and 40’s could be true in some form despite the fact that the story is fictionalized. So, if you are interested in learning about midwifery, enjoy reading historical fiction and/or a good ‘what if’ kind of story, then you will love this book; if you decide to read it, please let me know your thoughts about it.

If you have read Mandy Robotham’s first novel “The German Midwife” or “A Woman Of War” as it was titled in the United Kingdom? What were your thoughts about Anke Hoff’s story?