5 Names To Know About This Week
Is Corral even a name?
Hello name lovers! Here are my top five notable names from around the internet that caught my eye this week.
1. Rhiannon
This legendary Welsh name is in the spotlight thanks to showbiz couple Jenna Dewan and Steve Kazee, who just welcomed a daughter named Rhiannon Lee Kathryn. As a Brit, I find this as surreal as Americans’ current love for Emma and Claire: like them, Rhiannon is mostly a Mum Name here, and ranked in the Top 100 in the early 1990s.
In the States, it’s a different story: Rhiannon has had several peaks and troughs since 1976 — the year of Fleetwood Mac’s single — but was never super-popular even at its height, making it more timeless. And I’m all for it!
If you want to know what Welsh kids are really getting called these days, here’s what I found on holiday in north Wales last week (in a children’s painting area!):
2. Cyrus
One of the biggest patterns the drive name trends is parents’ love for names that are just similar enough, yet just different enough, to the most popular picks. Cyrus is a good example of this, in this fascinating analysis of trends in name endings and suffixes. (It’s behind a login wall, but free of charge.)
If endings are your thing, also check out our own analysis of the most popular final letters of names this year.
Cyrus is a firm fixture in the Nameberry Top 100 — a sure sign that it’s likely to rise further still.
3. Patsy
A Scottish couple named their daughter Patsy, after her great-grandfather, and were horrified to realise her birth certificate called her Pasty instead. (I guess you could say they really had beef with the registrar… does that joke work outside Britain?)
Bad jokes aside, luckily the error was easily fixed, and I’ve learned that no other girls got this vintage nickname in Scotland last year, only 16 in England and Wales, and a mere 18 in the whole of America. These days, Patsy on its own is unique enough, even without any changes.
4. Ochre
A beautiful nature name, from the pigmented clay, that blends in perfectly with favorites like Onyx and Indigo, yet is surprisingly rare.
One warning: unlike this Redditor’s friend, it’s best if you know how to pronounce it.
5. Corral
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a mom chose Corral as one of her son’s nicknames, after he was born in a Golden Corral restaurant. Cowboy names are still on-trend, but this is one that’s never even been on the charts yet. As word names go, it’s a pretty cool one — I’d add it to our list of adventurous middle names. There are definitely worse restaurants to be named after!