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!

Book Review: I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai & Patricia McCormick

Howdy!

I think three days after I finished writing my reveiw on “Throne Of Glass” by Sarah J. Maas, I went exploring on Amazon’s free ebooks. After about a hour later of scrolling through the many pages, I found two books: I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai with Patricia McCormick and Explicit by Roxy Sloane. A little mix of biographical and erotica; two of my favorite subjects! Although I was more excited about this book compared to the other, but once I finished Malala’s book, I was able to shifted my direction to Roxy’s and I finally found balance again.

The book isn’t as different as I originally thought it would be. If you’re familiar with her first book, which came out almost immediately after she and her family came to the United Kingdom in 2012. At the time of this release, she had only written two books. This is the young reader’s edition and it has another author aiding her to continue spreading her story around the world. I have no idea if she has written any more books recently, so I apologize for that bit of information.

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I Am Malala is the memoir of a remarkable teenage girl who risked her life for the right to go to school. Raised in a changing Pakistan by an enlightened father from a poor background and a beautiful, illiterate mother from a political family, Malala was taught to stand up for what she believes.

I Am Malala tells her story of bravery and determination in the face of extremism, detailing the daily challenges of growing up in a world transformed by terror. Written for her peers with critically acclaimed author Patricia McCormick, this important book is about the value of speaking out against intolerance and hate. Its a message of hope from one girl who dreams of education for every girl in every country.

taken from Goodreads

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Since I finished reading “Women Of Scotland” in mid-March, I have been craving nothing but more stories of women all over the world, and I’m not only reading about them, I have been watching various documentaries about women’s lives. I want to try to imagine their hardships but their favorite things as well.

When I saw it on the feed, I was so excited, I literally shouted “YES!” after I clicked check out or whatever. I started on it rather quickly, but I only knew about 1% of Malala’s life. She was the Pakistani girl who was fighting for little girls and women like her to go to school. That’s it. I remember hearing about her on the news but that’s all I was able to hear and/or see about her and honestly, I feel pretty embarrassed that is all I knew up until I started reading this book.

I never imagined her life revolving around her family, her father especially, who is mentioned almost as much as Malala. She really holds him responsible for the drive to campaign against their own country, Pakistan, to allow their mothers, sisters, aunts, and wives go to school and educate themselves more on various subjects. They became targets of the Taliban, as they were the ones saying that women should be taking care of their families and living their lives more in an Islamic way. Wives and mothers should wear burkas, which are black clothes around their bodies from head to toe, to cover everything from the public. And little girls shouldn’t go to school, because once they hit the age of 12, they will be married to someone who could be ten times older than them and she would lose every part of her and have to care for the offspring of the match.

I have known about child marriages for a long, long time. As someone who is obsessed with learning about the 14th onward to 17th century, child marriages were common place in every sort of life. It didn’t matter if you were poor or rich, if you wanted to make ties bind or stronger, or else want money, daughters in ages of two towards eighteen were basically sold over to that person or family.

What gets me is that it is still taking place, I mean there are “arranged marriages” but nobody until the age of 13 needs to leave their family, school, etc to become someone’s wife and produce children at this point in their lives. My position on this subject isn’t just directed towards the women, you have to think if this is happening to young girls, there’s a chance that there young “men” who could be pulled into this lifestyle as well. Everyone is involved when it comes to money and possessions.

Anyways, back to the book. I find Malala to be a very lucky girl. She has survived at being shot at on a crowded bus, because she was speaking up for not only herself but her friends and the many generations of girls in the future who desperately want to attend school and learn more about the world around them and how they matter in a world at the moment. I think she is lucky that her family is as strong and courageous as she is, they want to fight with her and learn more about themselves too.

I highly recommend you buy this edition or her first book and really get yourself comfortable because it is a bumpy ride but I am so glad I found it and enjoyed expanding my knowledge about her culture a little bit more. I also love Malala for being so brave in her life so far. I hope she continues doing her thing for years to come.

Have you read “I Am Malala” or any other editions yet? What was the biggest thing you learned in her story?

VISIT MY “NAME PAIRINGS” BOARD ON PINTEREST!

Howdy!

It’s been a while! I have not blogged in a month. Well, technically, if I had held off for another week, it really would have been for a month. The last blog post that went up was my annual post of my papaw’s death and the last post I wrote was the one that’s coming tomorrow! I’m hoping to do another “Life Lately” post next week but we’ll see what happens.

This post is about a project I’ve somehow created while I was on hiatus. You all should know by now how much I love baby names. I’ve talked about my favorite styles on here before, but at the end of March I was looking through Pinterest at various boards of other people who make those adorable wood name signs and as I would continue to pin and scroll through the many, many names I kind of found myself somewhat bored with my limited choices so one night I thought, “well I can’t find what I want, I might as well create them!” I have to add I’m not doing wood signs like them, I’m purely using my Paint software on my laptop to make things easier on myself. What I thought would be a cute little board of my favorite name pairings turned into a board full of 400+ names in a matter of a few weeks!

Originally I made the board of names I have always loved and have in my phone’s notes. After that, I found others on a baby names Facebook group I recently joined and anything I enjoy in the local newspaper, on Nameberry’s birth announcements, etc. Finally, after all of those inspirations, I would even literally come up with in the middle of the night, and yes, it happens a lot! I also went back and forth about creating little mini boards for the different sexes, I even have a board of both unisex and unique styles too! Ultimately it just kind of got out of control to the point now my whole lower half of my body hurts after about an hour or so!

Here are some of my recent uploads to the board.

Click here to visit the official board of baby names!

I myself have a wide array of styles, I always tend to stay in between classical and quirky ones. Since doing this, I’ve also realized that I have a LOT of constantly used names, such as “Catherine,” “Rose,” “Alexandra,” and “David.” I tend to overuse several of my family’s names as well. I mainly do that to see what all could fit with each name. It’s one of the most frustrating thing about older names, sometimes you just get stuck and began to experiment with all sort of combinations.

Unfortunately, I don’t really pay that much attention to meanings. It would just depend on the name itself because I have looked up some of them in the past so I have a few stored up in my brain. If you’re interested in a name and have issues what kind of middle name(s) could fit with your chosen favorite, you can always talk to me on my blog’s Facebook page. Send me a message to my inbox and we’ll figure it out together! You could also scroll through the many others in the boards too, and see if you like anything in there too!

What is your favorite of the 6 names posted above? If you’ve visited the Pinterest board already, do you like any in the mini sections? If you want, you could send me requests too!

Bumping Into Strange Boys

It’s hard to say how this started…

I was in this hipster looking little diner, minding my business with a couple of my friends. We were eating the Americana type of food. The type that you’ll have to do about 100 pull ups and squats afterwards. The taste of the cheese burgers and fries would make it seem worth it though!

We were only there for about a half hour, which seemed longer to me. Maybe it only seemed longer because the conversations between my friends and I weren’t very stimulus. They were too busy talking about the attractions like the lush park we just came back from visiting and where they had planned on going to next. As much as I was having fun with my girls and getting away from our normal lives. My mind was elsewhere.

We all had finished with our food when this group of guys came strolling in, full of energy and laughs! They were so loud that I was glad that they decided to come around when we were just about to leave the place. As soon as I started grabbing my coat off my chair, I was startled by one of their sneakers. I am very sensitive to hearing certain sounds, and this squeak was loud inside my head! I dropped my jacket and when I went to pick it up off the checkered floor another set of hands grabbed it from the other side at the same time and as we stood up together, our eyes never losing contact with each other.

“Hi.” this fairly good looking man looked up and said to me.
“Hello.” I said back at him with a slight smile on my face.
“Are you okay? Do you need some help putting this on?” He said, pulling my coat away from my hand and attempting to put it over my shoulders.
“Oh, no! It’s okay. I’m not cold right now.” Obviously! “but thank you!” I said back to him.

This strange guy looked as though he had just found his whole world, but I’m far from ever being an angel. He looked cute with his baby face charm and piercing green eyes. I’m usually a blue eyes kind of girl too. He looked so young, but I couldn’t help feel attracted to him in a tiny way. He had me written all over him, he just didn’t know it yet—Oh snap out of it Catie!

“Well, do I get a name to a pretty face?” This voice appeared back into my conscious.
“Oh, sorry! Sometimes I just space out! My name is Catie.” I said in a panic, gosh, does he realize how I’ve been staring at him!
“It’s all right. My name is Devon.” He said, looking over at my friends who were now staring at me like I was part of the statue they were looking at in the park earlier. “Where are you ladies from?” He said and the rest of his posse circled around us.
“We’re from a small town.” Jessica said, trying not to reveal too much of ourselves to them.
“Okay, well that doesn’t really help! Where? Do you live outside of NYC?” One of his friends said trying to push the topic a little more.
“No, we live in Boston!” Tracy said in a shrieking voice. Jess and I took our focus off the hunks in front of us for a second and turned to look at Tracy. “Look, sorry about to break up your little love fest. but we gotta go! Come on girls!” She said while tugging onto Jessi’s left hand and pushing me with all her might away from Devon’s gaze. I couldn’t blame her, by that time I was already imagining what he looks like without his shirt on! Tracy was moving so fast that I braced myself with impact of the front door. Thankfully, there was a gentleman ready and willing to open it for three crazy, lovesick girls from Boston!

Once outside away from the group of boys, I grabbed my jacket off my shoulders and put it through my arms and got a whiff of musky scent that he had left behind. It definitely wasn’t the normal teenage cologne I’m used to smelling at my house full of pre-teen brothers, but it smelled of something much older! I cherished that smell for hours, walking in the cold air with my crazy friends. I was back to my old self, distracted by missed opportunities!

I was just in the mood to write something last night and this was the ending result of one of many prompts you can find on Pinterest! I ended a free write type of thing before the blog chat started! 

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Skull Inspired Wishlist

I’ve got two months left until my birthday! A few of you are probably looking at that sentence and going, “Meghan, September isn’t over yet!!” When your date of birth lands on the first of the month once a new month begins it’s perfectly acceptable to take that month out completely! Now that I have that part of the way, I can say that this really isn’t a birthday wishlist. I’ve been inspired by other bloggers and their different themed wishlists. One day I’ll have a cat themed wishlist on here, just you watch and see!

Back in late July, I made a homeware wishlist of different things to help my nana and I to bake things in her kitchen. I went looking for things that would be good for people who can’t grip as good as they used to, my grandparents are getting older and gripping certain stuff like pens and kitchen utensils are getting more and more difficult to do. So that’s why I wanted to do that post but by the time I had finished the post, it seemed too chaotic and I didn’t see a way to fix it so I just ended up getting rid of it. I might recreate a similar post one day, but right now we’re talking about skulls! One of my favorite things that apparently I don’t have enough of in my closet! I have like three shirts with skulls on them, that are not band related and I have two pants with different types of skulls on them. Like I said before, I don’t have enough! My mom would probably disagree but I know I wouldn’t hear a peak from my dad because he’s just as bad as me!

Skull Cut-Out Shoulder Top – Hot Topic //Skull Pink Floral Kimono – Hot Topic //Black Bow Headband – Hot Topic //Skull & Rose Watercolor Wallet – Hot Topic// Evil Skull Bank – Spencer’s

When I was going to find different things to include on this wishlist, I told myself “no band tees” because as much as I want new ones, I have enough! I think I had to tell myself about ten times while scrolling through both Hot Topic and Spencer’s. I had a lot of problems with what I wanted to include in this post. If you’ve read my previous wishlist posts before, you know I try to keep everything under $20 and this one I didn’t care what the price range was, I just went with what I liked for once! if you love skulls just as much as I do, you can click on each link underneath the picture and purchase the item(s) you like the most.

I went on four different websites, but ultimately got lucky with Hot Topic and Spencer’s. Let’s start with the shirts I’ve selected. I found the one on the left first. I actually love shirts like this, that have cut outs or fall off the shoulders completely, with Arthrogryposis, our shoulders are a little awkwardly shaped. They’re much smaller and so necklines that are wide are like our worst enemies. I’ve always had trouble keeping my shirts up on my shoulders. By the time I was in middle school, I had given up on fixing them and just letting them off. I love the cut outs on this shirt. If you click on the link, the back of the shirt has small cut outs. It’s pretty awesome! Another thing that drew me into the shirt was that fact it’s not just skulls, it’s got roses on it! I’ve never been a big fan of roses but I feel it’s most used flower to include with skulls. So I deal with it. The next one isn’t a shirt or jacket per se, it’s a kimono and I love how these are becoming a popular fashion trend! They’re light and soft, which would be perfect for my hands as they can be sensitive to different textures. I just loved this one! It’s so pretty, even though it’s pink! I like how I managed to pick two different items that have some girly touches to them!

Now onto the accessories! This was another thing I had to tell myself to stay away from but I mean it as stay from the jewelry! I have more than enough bracelets to last me a few years! I’ll say I have all these bracelets and I don’t even wear that much as I’d like to. I think I’m more afraid to wear my spikey ones because I’ve been told by different family members that they could be used as weapons! Anyways, I had to get creative with selecting other stuff. My hair is in that awkward placement where it’s not short, but not long enough yet to be put up in a ponytail so we’ve resorted to using headbands, but I only have a plain black one. I found this one and I kind of fell in love with it. It has skulls. It has a bow and it’s black! What else do you need? One of the things that women and girls have are purses in different sizes and quirky designs. I’ve had a few in my lifetime, but I’ve never had a wallet and I feel like that wallet was pretty cool! Not dark, but unique or I could just get that shiny gold skull on the left side of it. It’s a bank, can’t say it’s a “piggy” bank because it’s not a pig but look at it!! I love it! It’s so me right?!?!

So what do we think about everything I’ve included into this post? What would you buy first?