A Violet Opportunity

Violet Affleck out with Mom and Dad

I was talking to one of the moms from Edward's kindy the other day who has 3 kids and is expecting again. After general chitchat about both our pregnancys I asked her about names. She said "We are looking for something quite uncommon, just like our other kids names". And what are her other kids names? Harrison, India and Summer.

I told her that Edward might have indeed been a Harrison if it had been solely up to me but that Nathan thought it was just too popular. He was in the top 50 names for the year Edward was born (I checked now and he was ranked 24th) so we opted for the unranked Edward. She didn't seem to know that Harrison was such a high flyer.

I also mentioned that Summer and Sienna are amoung our (evergrowing) favourites when she asked. Her response was "I loved Sienna for Summer but we just couldn't have an India and then a Sienna." I checked the stats for my state for the year her little daughter was born abdSummer ranked 23rd, Sienna 8th. What!?!?!?! Since when did 15 places count for all that much? Summer even outranked Sarah at 29, Sophia at 30, Elizabeth at 33, Kate at 47 and ALL the variants of Caitlin! So much for unpopular.

Even the least common of her kids names, India, bears great correlation to the very popular Indiana, who now sits at 47 for us West Aussies.

Tut, Tut, Tut. Why won't people do proper research? If your looking for an uncommon name I would very strongly suggest having a long hard look at the trends and stats. Otherwise you just might find your 'rare' choice isn't rare at all.

So I had a good look at all the names on my list. The habit we have been getting into recently will either be our making or our breaking. We write any names that take our fancy on a white board I put in the lounge, next to the TV, so we have too look at it every day when we flick on the news. Its great! It gives me something to look at during the add breaks plus, we have a big pool to pick from. But anyways, I picked my favourites and had a look at their rankings. It was the best thing I could have possibly done to educate myself. I got some pleasant and some not so pleasant suprises.

For the Boys:

• Did you know that Christopher didn't rank at all in West Aus. !? And his name-cousin Christian ranked 76. I think its safe to use him don't you?
• Oliver was ranked 4th which is sad because he was a big favourite of mine though Olivia was 11th so that might be usable with the nickname Olive.
• Not many more surprises with my boy favourites except for Alexander. He ranked 26th. Yes! I'm happy about this one - just when he cracked it into the top 10 in the States!

For the Girls:

• Madeline didn't rank (but they do only do top 50 occurances). And even if she did,most people pronounce her like mad-e-lin, whereas I prefer mad-e-lie-n (rhyming with crime).
• His favourite girl, Phoebe, ranked 49th.
• My beautiful Imogen is 24th. I shed a tear or two over this one.
• No Isabel's Isabelle's Isabell's or Isabele's appeared anywhere! Which is fantastic because I am just enamoured with scottish Isobel (with a definate 'Oh' sound) and fellow -bel ender Claribel. Though, predictably, Isabella its hot stuff at rank 8.
• One of our strongest honarary middle name possibilites, dissapointingly, was 10th on the charts, Matilda.

And one last one that really took me by surprise:

• Sweet little Violet didn't chart in the top 50 occurances in West Aus. nor in the national statistics. This was quite a shock for me. I always thought, perhaps a little biasedly, that Australia usually, was a bit ahead on the baby name trend front. I did a post a couple of weeks back detailing all the little darling names Aus. has in our top 100 that have escaped popularity in the US. Well since that post, it appears that the US had taken our lead and added a couple of those Australian Favourites to their top 1000, like Gemma and Callum for example. Well it looks like you Yanks have beaten us to this one. I think I might bump Miss. Violet up my list after this discovery.

Shows the importance of doing research, I guess. But I know all you reading this all ready know that. That's why your reading this of course.

Names in the Papers This Week

Saturday's paper is the perfect time to share with the world birth notices and are often used to thank friends and family and doctors and congratulate those closest to you. Within these birth notices we see the trends and rising names. Here are some of the names this week

Boys names

Riley/ Ryley x5

Archer x2

Maximillian

Tomas

Harrison 2x

Malachy


Girls names

Ryley x3

Grace x2

Mia

Sionne

Lucinda

Autumn-Lilly

Bliss

Lilly- Lillian x4

The names appearing with boys as always it a mix between new, old and strange. Riley/Ryley for girls and boys is so so so popular. For me though it will always be associated with a horse of my cousins who threw me off and starting crazily cantering around and around the field with me on it aged 10 at the time. I'm not liking the change in spelling of the classic "Thomas" for me it should be spelt with a 'h' it looks strange and uncouth as if they just don't care. Malachy now this is definitely different if a tad strange. It is an Irish saint though and went with Hamish (Hamish Malachy) so i guess we can take a punt and guess there Irish and let it slide. I'm liking Archer though and can see its rising.

Girls names seem to be using allot of hyphenating to throw 2 names together the parents love. I don't mind it but often the names don't mesh and sound like first and middle name. I'm loving Lilly and thinking Lucinda is quite cute with the nickname Lucy. Grace is very popular one family not even wanting the their daughters nickname to stem form grace and going straight for Gracie- sorta cute but when older wouldn't it be nice to have the option between grace and Gracie?

'Han-son' Names That End in Son

Names that end in 'son' are becoming more and more popular. They usually mean 'son of someone' However, some of these names (bold) possess a different meaning. I think the 'son' names are perfectly usable names. Call me boring but my faves are Harrison and Jackson, Edward was going to be a Harrison for a little while too! :)

Anderson

Anson

Batson

Benson

Branson

Bronson

Bryson

Dawson

Dyson

Eddison

Ellison

Emerson

Ferguson

Garrison

Garson

Gibson

Greyson

Harrison

Hudson

Jackson

Jamison

Jason

Jefferson

Johnson

Judson

Kyson

Lawson

Mason

Morrison

Nelson

Olson

Orson

Robinson

Samson

Tyson

Vinson

Watson

Wilkinson

Wilson

There are also female names that end in 'son'. You may be surprised to find out that some of your treasured feminine names are actually derived from masculine names and mean 'son of someone' like Addison and Madison.

Addison

Alison

Carson

Kelson

Madison

Sasson

Season

PS. Don't you think Season is an adorable little girls name!