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)?

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?

Life Lately | Tulips, Royals, & Blog Schedule

Howdy!

It has been a LONG freaking time since I’ve done one of these blog posts. I always tell myself I need to do more of them or at least have mom buy a thick spine journal so I can get things out but it never happens!

Here’s the interesting part of this, I thought about writing this first than getting to work on Friday’s post, which will be a diary entry directed to my lovely papaw. For today, I am focusing on good things–not saying talking about/to my papaw isn’t good–and I am hoping to unleash a lot of things that have been roaming around in my mind lately! It will be separated by three sections so I hope everyone enjoys themselves and give me your thoughts at the end.

Spring Is Coming!

I like winter, and always have, mostly because snow makes me happy although I never go out and play in it or run through with my wheelchair. This year, we haven’t had a lot of snow and like my mom mentioned to me the other day, she said since we didn’t have a bunch of snow like in previous years, the bugs will be awful because they didn’t necessarily die. I am okay with the occasional fly or in our case, ladybugs but yeah, I could do without the wasps! I’m not a fan of bees either, but we need them to survive apparently!

One thing that I definitely missed during the colder months is my mom buying flowers for our house. I guess we kind of got into a routine of having new flowers throughout every two weeks. I am actually fine with fake flowers, but having something like fresh flowers can really help your mood. At least, it has in my case when my mom bought me some very beautiful tulips one day.

I am not just obsessed with sunflowers, I like a variety of flowers like daisies, roses and tulips. I do talk about my love of sunflowers quite a bit and because of that nobody really knows about the others. So, after my mom found out that I adored tulips, she found these $12.99 tulips in a fairly large vase. My dad didn’t really like the price of them but since then we have all become a little obsessed with them. They change every day. They continue to flourish but we’ve been watching one of them because it’s been a little overzealous on how high he becomes that for a while he began to lean down and we have started to make jokes about it like “I’ve stood up all day. I need a break!” My mom and I can be a little weird sometimes

Since having the flowers in my room, I have been looking forward to spring. My room is located by all of our trees and I have really missed the greenery that surrounds me, but I have enjoyed seeing the moon through my window at night.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex

I know you’re probably tired of seeing everybody discuss the royals right now. If you want to ignore this section, you can. I don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about the drama, but I do want to talk about my thoughts on it.

I have been following the British Royal Family since The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were married, so around 2011. My mom has been reading up about them since Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer. And yes, she absolutely hated Camila, The Duchess of Cornwell. I actually do not, mainly because I am a supporter of Anne Boleyn, as she was also a mistress to a senior royal.

For the case of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, I always felt they would be different. They would move into the modern world as royals, but I did not think this would happen at all! When The Queen gave Harry and Meghan the title of “Duke and Duchess of Sussex” was interesting because the last time a royal was given this peerage was Queen Victoria’s uncle Prince Augustus Frederick. Although he had the title of ‘Duke Sussex’ neither one of his wives were allowed to be called a duchess, but what is interesting is that they were not given permission of the crown which at the time of his first wife, George III was still alive. Prince Augustus and his first wife welcomed two children, but were not recognized so they were not awarded any titles as their many cousins.

Prince Harry asked the queen for permission to marry Meghan, but their son Archie does not carry the title of Viscount like say Harry’s uncle Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex’s son James, as he is known as a Viscount.  I understand their right to want to lead a more private life for Archie’s sake, but the separation of leaving as senior royals threw me for a loop! To me, I think this would have been easier on everyone if Harry declined the title of Duke when he and Meghan first married.

When Anne, The Princess Royal first married her first husband, he was offered a title but declined thus their children: Peter and Zara, along with their descendants do not have royal titles. A lot of people will say this happened because Anne is a woman, but at the time of the marriage, Charles was not married at all. She was the only child of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh to wed. Here we have Prince William as the oldest son of The Prince of Wales, married with three children. All three were present when Harry and Meghan married, so why didn’t he say no? A part of me wonders on the fact of possible backlash to the world if Meghan, a biracial woman, wasn’t allowed to be called a duchess. Shrugs.

The Blog Schedule

After what happened while I was doing my A-Z Disability Challenge series, I honestly wanted to give myself a massive break. Since I can’t stop blogging, I figured I needed to find a solution to make it easier and also keep it fun for the both of us. Once January began, I took off for two weeks and do other things that were not related to blogging. It was relaxing, but I did not envision to keep this trend alive for as long as I thought I would. However, I have quite enjoyed myself in these breaks, mostly because I can focus my attention on reading my books in my off time.

The schedule (including a post for Mon, Tues, and Wed) will continue this way until I decide that I need another week for more posts. As of right now, two weeks is doing really good for me. I am still skeptical of this, but I am getting the hang out of it.

I think I am done writing this post now. I thought I would add a few more things about my life, but as I said above, I also have my papaw’s letter to do as well. I think I will include bits about my nephew Nolan in there because I know he’d enjoy it. Well, I hope you are having a great week!