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)?

The Baby Name Tag – Extended

Howdy!

If you’re a frequent visitor to YouTube, there’s a big chance you’ve seen a lot of videos talking about baby names! It’s a tag open for anyone that either have their future children’s names picked out like me! I have decided to include two separate tags into one post, the first batch of questions comes from SJ Strum as she’s the one who created the tag in the first place. While, the second part comes from browsing my WordPress Reader and finding another large collection on Lucy Niblock’s blog. 

Since finding both of these tags, I’ve changed some of the questions below because for repeats and other little things, but for the most part, everything is still the same from the original layouts. When some of the questions ask for both genders, I’ve also decided to share what I’d use for the middle name(s) as well. I am a big fan of adding more than one name after the first, but don’t worry I don’t get too carried away with my choices though!

If you had a baby tomorrow, what would you call them? Boy & Girl

When I first read this question, the girl name popped out at me immediately! Sophie Rivers. I really love the name Sophie a lot, but I thought it was strange for me to choose “Rivers” as a middle name. Now for a boy, it was more difficult, but I did think of Luxor and the only reason why I’d pick it is because I love everything about Egypt!

What would you rename yourself keeping your same first initial?

When I was in middle school, I tried to make everyone call me “Monique” because nobody ever spelled it right and I just got tired of it all, and for some odd reason I thought this was a perfect fit! I actually remembering signing my name that way on a friend’s end-of-the-year-tye-dye-t-shirt. I really hope she no longer has that top because that’s just embarrassing!

What would you have been/wish you had been called if you were the opposite gender?

I’ve actually never known what my parents would have named me if I was a boy, so I had to ask her about this one. She told me, I would have been “Derek” and honestly, that’s not too bad compared to “Salem Rachelle” (my original name) and it is one of my favorite, casual boy name too!

Favorite Vintage baby name for boy and girl?

This is like the second worst question, because I love vintage baby names! For a girl, I have: Cecily Anne Victoria and the boy would be: Arthur Hugo Michael.

Favorite Nature baby name for boy and girl?

Apparently I like nature names a lot more than I thought I did! We had a cat named Wren years ago, and I still love that name so I’d probably go with Daisy Wren. I think thought be a really cute, girly name! For boys, I really enjoy the name Forest, but I feel it’s becoming popular again so my second favorite is Leif.

Favorite YouTuber’s name and/or baby name?

I love Jonathan and Anna SacconeJoly’s oldest daughter’s name: Emilia. It’s like the Italian version of my sister’s name! I also think Emilia Jane sounds so feminine too!

Recently I found Tania Licciardo-Toivola also known as the “mom of 10” the other day and I’ve been learning her children’s names and I’m actually loving them. I’m still missing at least two of them, but so far the names are Leonardo, Jerusalem, Cleopatra, Shakespeare, Nefertiti, Aphrodite, King James, and Omega. So, they’re really out there, but I actually really like them! I’ve always wanted to use Nefertiti in some way because she’s one of my favorite Queens ever, so I tend to put it as a middle name, but I really love that it’s front and center for her daughter.

Favorite Literary name?

I grew up in the early 90’s so the name “Jessica” was very popular in school, and even though I had to mesmerize about 8 different ones, I never lost my love of the name itself.

Favorite “O” name that isn’t Oliver or Olivia?

This is really difficult because I really love both Oliver and Olivia a lot, but the first boy name that popped into my head was Otto, and apparently it was pretty popular with several other people who took this tag too! It doesn’t hurt that it reminds you of Rocket Power, right? The girl “O” name I really like is Oona, which is Irish. I am really obsessed with Irish names! If that didn’t work, I’d exchange it with Olympia, which is Greek. I fall in love with this one long ago, so I see myself using it more than Oona unfortunately!

What did you wish you were called when you were younger?

I really like my name “Meghan” but I have never enjoyed having the letter “h” right in the smack dab in the middle. So, honestly, I would have kept it but maybe have it spelled just “Megan” to make things easier on everybody!

What name would you immediately VETO?

When I originally began working on this post, I bravely put that I didn’t have too many names I would veto, but after a few days and I searched for other names, my veto list actually grew so I managed to really surprise myself! The names I had mentioned for this question were: Nova and Sailor, but after thinking about it, I felt that I needed to add both Fergus and Tillie. It just reminds of an old lady in her 90’s! I don’t like Fergus because I just want to automatically change it to Ferguson!

What is your favorite boy and girl name from the Top UK names list?

I think for a boy my favorite is Jack and for a girl, I really love Nora.

What is your least favorite boy and girl names from the Top US names list?

I’ve never liked Asher or Grayson for boys, maybe because they are so common nowadays. As for girls, this was a lot harder because generally I love girl names, so to find one or two girl names that I hate isn’t very ideal, but I don’t like Addison, which is strange because at one point I loved it!

If you had twins, what would you call them?

If they were both boys, they would be Mason David and Michael Brandon. Now if it was a girl and a boy, I would do Saint Isabella and Amerik Morgan. If I had two girls, then it would Emily Catherine and Leah Reverie.

You have four children, any gender, their names have to start with the same letter. What names would you choose?

Madeleine, Mason, Micah, and Magnus.

What’s your favorite celebrity’s baby name?

Since I love Celtic Woman a lot, and we’ve already established my love of Irish/Gaelic names. I really love both Mairead and Eabha a lot! Mairead means “pearl” and it’s pronounced as “MY–arade” while Eabha means “life” now the pronunciation is different as it’s “AY-va” like the name Ava.

What’s your favorite animals inspired name?

Besides Wren for a girl, I don’t like too many girly animal names, except for one other name. Sparrow! I’ve never cared for it as a boy name, but for girls it always makes me smile! However, I really love both Hawk and Robin for a boy. I am obsessed with hawks and robins and cardinals we see and use to remember my papaw. So, apparently I love birds!

What’s your favorite color inspired name?

Honestly I love the name Lavender, whether or not I’d actually use it for my future children or characters one day is still a mystery, but it’s really cute! I love Scarlett as well, but it has been used a lot lately. And then for a boy (or a girl) there’s Navy! I like that Jason Aldean and his wife Brittany, are naming their second child, a girl Navy Rome. I think it’s a beautiful, unisex combination!

What are your top 3 favorite boy names?

This has always been a VERY difficult answer, but my favorite three names are: Milo, Hudson, and Sebastian.

What are your top 3 favorite girl names?

I thought I’d have a better idea for my three favorite girl names but unfortunately I don’t, so I wouldn’t surprise me if I change my mind later on! Anyways, the names I love right now are: Harlow, Francesca, and Siobhan.

What is your ultimate guilty pleasure name?

Ooh! My ultimate guilty pleasure name! Honestly, I think it’s Charlotte or Elizabeth. I really enjoy old-timey names for babies, but when it comes to boys I like the outlandish ones like Aspen or Ever.

Choose a baby based on a food/drink

This was REALLY difficult, but I actually don’t like using food or drink inspired names but I do have an exception to one and that is Clementine and what’s interesting, is that when it comes to herbs and some spices I have a lot. I really love: Ginger, Anise, Basil, Caraway, Lavender, Saffron, Rosemary, Sage, and Thyme.

Choose a baby name based on a month

I’ve always wanted to use August in some way. I’ve had Levi August picked out since I was in middle school. I do love May but I would have to use it like Mae because of the way it’s used in my family, but those are the only two that I really liked.

Choose a baby name from a movie

Here we go again, another hard one to answer because I like to watch a lot of movies! For a girl it would be Mavis from Hotel Transylvania and then my boy name would probably be Benjamin after The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button!

Choose a name that’s already in your family

Oh boy! Since I know more about my mom’s side, I’ve realized that we tend to like the letters: E, L, and M a lot! I’d love to have as many family names as I can in some shape or form, but I’m not allowed to use the name Mary because my mom (who is one of the inspirations for using it in the first place) thinks it’s too old fashion for this generation. So I’ve had to find other names that were similar to it, like “Margaret” and as much as I love it, I’d still like to have “Mary” instead.

My three times great-aunts all had very unique names. The oldest was Regina and she didn’t pronounce it like everybody else would of course. It was “Ra-kee-na” and I have a combination that I’ve created recently that I really like, it’s Ava Regina Elizabeth. We have had a few Marys’ and so she’s the second reason for my inspiration there. I’d like to use it for Mary Louise. Third was Elsaleah, and her name is probably my favorite of the bunch. I’ve picked out to use it in Maud Elsaleah. And then finally we have Lula. She was given the middle name Thomas, and this was before unisex names were a thing! The only way I’d have it as Lula Rose.

Hope you have enjoyed this tag! If you decide to do it too, please send me a link of it after it’s published, okay? 

DIY: The Weird Backdrop

So my nana has officially started on our pumpkins and that’s not all!

I’ve decided to save the pumpkin post until the weekend. I’ve been interested in finding great backdrops for certain things to make the post stand out. I’ve seen so many people use blankets, table cloths, etc as their backdrop. Different fabrics do work amazing, but I’ve also seen quite a few people use other stuff to make whatever they may talk about in that actual post give it some texture, I’ve seen bloggers use marbles, flowers, and candles. Both ways are fantastic and bring out a very cozy feeling to the post. A few months ago, I started taking pictures of different objects and I noticed that I was very limited on backdrops. I did have this very cool and rocker chic fabric that our neighbor gave me one day earlier this year, but somehow I’ve manged to lose it. I can’t use my sheet because of the lighting and my phone. That’s why I’ve been showing you everything with a notebook behind it.

This was so easy to do and there’s a big chance that you have everything on hand already! I’ve done collages before, but I’ve actually never done one were I’ve left and loved it. When I was in high school, for my senior year I had to do a collage of pictures, I made two. I made one for me that ended up being ruined after we rolled it up. I made the other for my nana, it’s a full collage of Adam Lambert. She loved it! Still does! Both of those collages weren’t as “neat” as this one though, my inner OCD played a big part in this today, so everything had to match up together. In a nutshell, everything on this cardboard is everything I like. If I can find a music magazine sometime soon, I might actually do the back side too. I can’t wait to start using this for my book reviews and for other things in the future!

Recently, I found a blogger with a very unique way to make your own backdrop for photos. I’ve been keeping it very close to my heart and even showed it to my nana, she liked the idea and thought it would be interesting to make. Since she likes my blog anyway, she’ll be happy to do something for it. Luckily for the both of us, we had everything on hand that we would have needed for the actual project. Before I go into the directions of how we made it, I thought I’d include the link of the other blogger who originally made it and inspired me to do it for myself. Chroma Me Silly was the blogger I got the idea from and when I discovered on how easy it looked, I immediately wanted to do it. One day I actually told her that I wanted to do it on Twitter, so I hope I’ve made her proud on actually finishing it. Everything is mostly the same as hers, but I didn’t use fashion magazines. I was originally going to but I didn’t find anything that caught my eye to put on my cardboard. I bet you’re getting tired of me talking about the fact I got a Country Living magazine over the weekend and I don’t blame you, I’m so sorry! This magazine gave me two ideas, first the pumpkins, and then I saw the vintage phones…

What We Used: 

• A large sheet of cardboard, I basically recycled the sheet that came with the neon pieces of paper that my sister got to decorated the back of our doors.
• I used weird pictures (of course!) CL magazine had a section of “collections” and it was about vintage phones. I was regretting I didn’t buy a second copy, we used different pages of the magazine too, such as a side of lightly decorated bed and lastly half an arm of a Halloween section in the back.
• When we finally established which sections was going to be used, my nana cut them out and took out the excess off. I was actually supposed to do this part but we kept talking while she was doing this and I guess we both forgot about it.
• My nana has a big tub of glue, we used Elmer’s glue and she didn’t have a small paint brush to put it on the backs of the pictures, so my nana was smart and got creative herself and I used a normal size Q-Tip as my paint bush. It actually worked very well for me!
• We glued the vintage phones on opposite sides for starters, then we finished with gluing the rest in the middle. I only coated the middle on the four sides of each one. I did that to make sure it stays there and if we need to, we can glue the sides down later. Somehow I manged not to get all over my toes.
• Now the cardboard is still at my nana’s sitting up somewhere safe (hopefully!) drying up! Here is a picture of the final product!

Keep an eye for the next post this weekend! Enjoy your day or evening! ♥

A Modern Day Girl With An Old Fashion Mind.

Since watching The Vampire Diaries and the writers showing the Salvatore brothers going back in time in 1800s and seeing Katherine/Nina Dobrev in a BIG poofy dress and wearing a tight corset I get kinda jealous because I’d love to wear a dress like a like. This wedding dress is what I want to wear at my wedding, but since I sit in my wheelchair I can’t have a BIG poofy dress cause that would look dumb.

I am in love with vintage clothing! I love dresses with big poofs. I love flashy dresses with some squences on it. I love the time period 1920-40s clothing. Those times especially in the 20s was the time of Blues and Jazz. So to show you what I mean. Think Christina Aguilera’s album “Back To Basics” especially her song “Ain’t No Other Man” the music video. Sparkly high heels, red lipstick, a little hat, fur coat, and flashy dress. Women during that time that were rich knew they were the shit. They were divas.