Y’all Pick Weird Names
Posted on May 22nd, 2008 in goofiness, pregnancy for dads
Well, thanks for all the suggestions for names from children’s books. Sadly, the mean English judge discarded a bunch of them out of hand, although Paula Abdul said they were all cool choices and wanted to use every single one.
Here are the Name Idol standings, so far:
Wilbur
Sadly, one of Fern’s pets is already named Wilbur, and it’s a robotic vacuum cleaner. Fern will already be pushing her baby brother’s buttons — no need to encourage it so literally.
Charlotte
Well, yeah, that’s the obvious one, but, y’know. She’s the spider. Eeew.
Anything from Bridge to Terabithia
…is out. I hated that book, and I’m a huge fan of children’s literature. Why, oh why did they kill off the cool girl? What the hell was the point of that? To show how much of a complex having your best friend killed in childhood can cause in later life? Man, I felt totally betrayed by that book.
The Narina kids, the Little Women
We’re nearing 40, so I’m worried about the pressure here. Would we need to get a Peter, a Susan, an Edmund, and a Lucy, and in that order? (We ruled out “Greg” and “Marcia” for the same reason… I doubt we’d have been able to keep breeding long enough to get around to little Cindy, plus then she’d send a stand-in to family reunions.)
Sparticus. Hippolyte. Oreo.
You were kidding, right?
Right?
All the rest are still in the running. I think I have to re-read about Ramona and Matilda… those are sounding good. Keep the suggestions coming, though!
Yeah, I Twitter, don't laugh. 
May 22nd, 2008 8:32 am
This is one of my favorite games! Here are some thoughts . . .
Stuart, Louis or Serena (to continue the E.B. White tradition)
Arden, Beatrice and Violet are some of my favorite names from Shakespeare’s plays. (Okay, Arden is the name of a forest not a character, but still . . .)
Alice (the reference is, I assume, obvious)
Gretel (I am not as fond of Hansel, but . . . to each his own, right?)
Celeste, Flora, Alexander, Arthur (great names from the Babar stories . . .)
Astrid (the first name of the author of the Pippi Longstocking books.)
Okay. I’ll stop now.
May 22nd, 2008 9:18 am
How about Stuart for a boy (Stuart Little)
I like Ramona and Matilda. Along the Ramona theme, there’s also Beverly (the series was written by Beverly Cleary)
Mary - from The Secret Garden (I think her name was Mary)
I know someone who just had a grand daughter they named Mayzie.. which immediately made me think of Horton Hatches the Egg from Dr. Suess which I think is exactly where they got the name.
May 22nd, 2008 10:10 am
Pearl and Oliver
May 22nd, 2008 10:31 am
Lawandaneetia
May 22nd, 2008 11:12 am
Alright, I’m a glutton for punishment so I’ll throw out some more…
I know you’re mad at Katherine Paterson for killing off the girl in “Bridge to Terabithia”, but “The Great Gilly Hopkins” is a treasure trove of interesting names - Galadriel, Ellis, Courtney, Maime, Trotter, William, Teague, Randolph, Agnes, etc. But per Wikipedia this is a frequently banned book, so I imagine you wouldn’t approve.
Max (”Where the Wild Things Are”)
Heidi
Madeleine
Arthur
Basil
Amelia (Bedilia, though she’s kindof a flake)
This is exhausting! The number of kids you have might very well be limited to the number of cheeky yet wholesome leading characters that exist in children’s literature…
May 22nd, 2008 2:17 pm
Lyra - from the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Lovely name and she’s COOL in the books!
May 22nd, 2008 8:46 pm
I’m suck on Jonas and Charlotte. I also LOVE the idea of Alice - old world and literary. I also love Stella and Violet, but can’t get the Willie Wonka cliche out of my brain with that one. “Violet, you’re turning VIOLET!!!!”
Ramona is the responsible one….
Beatrice (Beezus) is the little sis and I LOVE it!
Oliver - yes!
Romeo?!
Juliet?!
Or as my ex once suggested, Caesar?
Victoria?
Gabriel (Gabe) Cool name, you must admit!
Or my absolute favorite student name of all time and I swear it’s true: Jeremiah. (They all called him J.J., but not me because this kid had a GREAT name and I just loved it!!!!!!!!) You NEVER hear that one anymore!!!!!
I, too, am children’s lit freak so so the better the name, the more interesting the character. I spend a great deal of time explaining to my kids the meanings behind the names in books and why the authors made those very purposeful choices.
How about something Greek?
Too bad Juno was a movie - it is a great name and was a great movie, but the recognition kinda killed it!
May 22nd, 2008 10:25 pm
Hmm…
I went with Ivy for my little girl, but I was seriously considering Audrey; you may have either name if you like.
Boy names were harder for us…our son is Sander (pronounced like ‘wander’) but we were considering Marius, Evan, and jokingly referred to the fetus as “steve” because it’s a funny name for a baby.
And I like Oscar too.
Good luck!!
May 23rd, 2008 9:17 am
Fern and Alice is such a cute pairing. But I’m inordinately excited that you like my suggestion of Ramona.
I adored “My Side of the Mountain” as a kid, the hero’s name is Sam. Same author (Jean George) wrote “Julie of the Wolves” another survival tale, heroine Julie.
“A Wrinkle in Time” has heroic kids too, Meg, Charles, and Calvin.
June 2nd, 2008 9:44 am
OK, I see you’ve rejected Hippolyte already, but I’ll still point out you have her listed under boys’ names, when in fact she was queen of the Amazons. That would add an extra spectacular to an already poor choice.
June 2nd, 2008 4:55 pm
Oh, man, I knew I’d screw one up. I knew that one, too, but trust you to catch it for me!
Although I’m pretty sure there was a male Queen of the Amazons at our last Polk Street fair, it’s probably not something to strive for.
June 8th, 2008 11:34 am
Girls:
Lottie, Lavinia, Ermangarde(Little Princess)
Estella (Great Expectations)
Boys:
Paddington, (Paddington Bear series)
Neil, (an admirer of pirates in Treasure Island)
Elazer, Ashby, Gershom, Eaton (The Witch of Blackbird Pond)
Philip Pirrip (Great Expectations)
I picked uber classics. Good luck with picking names, must be fun!
September 9th, 2008 10:05 am
I like the name Krister. (For a boy OR girl) It’s swedish. Rare name. Not short for Christopher and Chris isnt short for Krister. It’s just plain KRISTER.
Great website!
October 31st, 2008 9:59 pm
The Moorchild - Saaski. It’s a “different” sort of name, but I really like it. You can read a bit about the book here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moorchild or here: http://myreadingproject.blogspot.com/2006/09/moorchild.html
A few other good ones, and perhaps more normal but still uncommon names, are Mariel and Mara - from the Redwall series (Mariel of Redwall and Salamandastron). Series website is http://www.redwall.org/
You also seem to be missing Anne of Green Gables.
November 2nd, 2008 6:11 pm
I thought of another - Crysta from FernGully: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fern_Gully
Okay, so it’s a movie, not a book, but I thought I’d throw it out there anyway.
November 10th, 2008 5:39 am
aside from the fact that I am in love with these blogs and your daughter being the most stunning child ever(I obviously haven’t had any of my own yet)…my future daughter will be named Cambria. It’s part of a favourite band’s name, but also a character from graphic novels. I’m not sure why I love it, but I do…perhaps a bit harsh/different to what you’re aiming for…
I love the name Fern, also.