A Couple of Baby Name AHAs!

Last week, a friend (thanks B!) sent me a very cool article from iVillage about my #1 fav topic - baby names.  The article (here) lists ten categories of baby names (think places, spiritual, antique, etc.) and what choosing a name from each category says about the parent.  For example, parents who choose places as names (i.e. Brooklyn, London, Paris, etc.) envision their child in the limelight.   There's probably definitely no scientific research behind the assertions, but I thoroughly enjoyed them.

This short, sweet article, beyond providing some entertainment, provided two serious AHA! moments for me.  For those of you who don't know what an AHA! moment is, shame on you and I'll explain.  It's Oprah's term for an epiphany.  She made it up and I think it's now in the dictionary or at least the urban dictionary.  It's AHA! as in "I get it!", which is literally how Oprah defines it in her video explanation below.  So strange that this video exists on Youtube.

My first AHA! moment inspired by the iVillage article was the realization that my theory on uniqueness being the single most important factor in choosing a baby name (remember this post?) is not true.  Well, it's not true for everyone.  People have many reasons for choosing their perfect baby name, many of which are totally unrelated to uniqueness.  Aha!  There's more than one end goal for finding the perfect baby name and there's more than one path to get there.

Here are the categories of names listing in the iVillage article:

• Place Names
• Religious Names
• Vintage Names
• Nature Names
• Political Names
• Celebrity Driven Names
• Pop-Culture Inspired Names
• Ethnic Names
• Family Names
• Really Unique Names - this is my category, right?

Here's the other, more significant AHA! - I don't prioritize uniqueness in my baby name preferences.  I don't fall into the "really unique names" category.  What's that?!  Hold up now...

The article, understandably, listed names like Apple and Pilot Inspektor as really unique names.  I don't like either as I've previously mentioned (here).  There both a bit too out there for me.  Too unique.  On the other hand, I'm don't like Isabella or Jacob (the most popular names of 2011).  They're too common for me.  Not unique enough.  But, here is where the AHA! really hit home, if I'm forced between Jacob and Pilot Inspektor, I'm going with Jacob.  Turns out that uniqueness is more of a secondary concern for me.  I know, I'm baffled too. 

This double AHA! left me totally confused about what type of baby namer I am.  For a woman who's written about baby names several dozen times, this was concerning.  I was suddenly without a baby name identity.

Don't feel too bad for me...pretty confident you didn't...all that happened was a daily trip over to Nameberry.com to search around and rediscover who I am.  The process was quite quick and here are the results: my taste is vintage, classic and traditional with consideration (not absolute prioritization) of how popular the name is according to the SSN website.

What type of baby names do you like?  Any of the categories listed by iVillage?  Maybe you're a mesh of more than one or fall into a category overlooked by iVillage?

Baby Season

In Wedding Crashers, Vince Vaughn's announced to Owen Wilson, "It's wedding season, kid!" and shortly thereafter the wedding crashing began.  You know what "wedding season" is, right?  You've heard the term.  You've probably used the term.  It's a pop culture staple when it comes to wedding talk.  Well, that's what I thought until I checked Urban Dictionary, the holy grail of all pop culture terms.  I had expected to find "wedding season" with a definition that went something like this: the time of year, between late spring to early fall, when the weather is at its best and people get married in droves.  I expected a reference to Wedding Crashers and maybe something about open bars and bridezillas. 

I was shocked to find that there is NO definition for wedding season on Urban Dictionary.  Huh?!  You can, however, find the definition to Bean Season.  You really do learn something new every day... 

With Easter right around the corner,
I think it's arguably Jelly Bean Season.

I'm going to depart tradition and say that, even without an Urban Dictionary definition, wedding season is a term.  And it's not only a term but it's also a reality in enough people's lives that a whole movie was based on it. 

What's decidedly NOT a term is "baby season".  Weather has no impact on baby making and thus there is no season affiliated with baby births.  Ummm, again, that's what I thought.  Turns out there is sort of a baby shower season - late Spring.  Statistically speaking, the most babies are born in the summer with August usually winning out as the biggest birthday month.  This finding has proven to be remarkably consistent over the years.  Nine months before summer times is late fall/winter time.  So it would seem that when the weather gets cold there is a spike in indoor activities...

As you know, Next Stop Baby is about the time in life when wedding season is over and baby craze begins.  But I guess it could have been about when wedding season is over and baby season begins.  Just doesn't have as nice a ring to it.

Have these statistics proven to be true for you?  Do you find yourself going to April/May/June baby showers for June/July/August due dates?  I found a bunch of interesting birth statistics over at BabyCenter.com (here) that are definitely worth checking out.