5 Baby Name Questions For You
Poll fingers at the ready!
Happy June! 🌞 This week, we’re thinking (and asking you) about summer names, Turkish names, bold unisex middles, and more.
But first, a message from our friends at CBR®!
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Now on with the names!
1. Ready for summer names?
Where I am, summer has well and truly arrived (finally!), putting me in the mood for summery names, and ones meaning sunshine or golden. If you’re feeling drawn to these too, it might be because of where you live: new research suggests that the local climate really does affect how much parents choose month or season baby names.
My son is really into flowers, so we talk a lot about what’s blooming now: names in season include Poppy, Daisy, Rose, Iris, Clover, Viola, Veronica. If you’re feeling fancy, Valerian or Columbine. Let’s also spare a thought for the flowers that are equally lovely, but not (yet?) baby name material, like Sunflower, Snapdragon, Foxglove, and Gladiolus.
We’ve had June baby names on the blog this week, so if you had to choose from the top ones…
2. Unisex middles: yea or nay?
If you do want to name your baby Sunflower, firstly hurrah! And secondly, the middle name spot might be the perfect place to put it.
We’ve been looking at the growing trend for adventurous unisex middle names, to add balance or a surprise twist to a gendered first name.
3. Would you still use Harper?
Now Harper has left the Top 10, there’s a new wave of last names for girls on the way. We’ve got dozens of stylish-but-uncommon ideas on the blog, but if we had to narrow it down to just a few…
4. Want to learn some Turkish?
This week I revisited Turkish names, which reminded me that many popular names in Turkey have beautiful meanings.
Ready to discover a few? Click the meaning to find out its Turkish equivalent.
Emerald 💚
Equal ⚖️
Friend 👯♀️
Honey 🫙
Hope 🤞🏼
Island 🏝️
Love 💞
Saint 😇
Sea 🌊
Universe 🌌
5. Do you love anyone this much?
This quote has divided name nerd opinions. Some would generously let their loved ones use their favorite names — à la Monica in Friends — while others lay an elaborate trail of smoke and mirrors to divert attention away from them.
Me, I’ll happily rave about most names, but there are a few special ones I rarely mention, just in case!
Finally, if you like to vote for fun, you’ll love the quick poll thread on the Nameberry forums. Be warned, it’s a bit addictive…
Mayani, H., Wagner, J.E. & Broxmeyer, H.E. Cord blood research, banking, and transplantation: achievements, challenges, and perspectives. Bone Marrow Transplant 55, 48–61 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-019-0546-9
Internal data on file.
I’m more than likely willing to talk about my favourite names on NB, but they are under lock and key off line. I refuse to speak about them with anyone else unless I am naming kids with that person.