Armenian Baby Named for French President

Posted on 27 January 2012 | Leave a comment

Mr. and Mrs. Karapet Avetisian of Gyumri, Armenia, had a their first child, a baby boy, several days ago.

They named him Sarkozy Avetisian in honor of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Why?

As a thank-you to the French Senate for approving the Armenian genocide bill on January 23. The bill “criminalizes the assertion that the World War I slaughter of ethnic Armenians in Ottoman-era Turkey was not an act of genocide.”

Avetisian said:

We were going to give him the name of his grandfather but, after the French Senate passed this law in spite of the Turks’ threats, we decided to baptise him in honour of the French president.

Sarkozy is expected to sign the bill into law within the next week or two.

[Believe it or not, this isn't the first (or even the second!) French president-inspired Armenian baby name. In 2001, the year France officially recognized the Armenian killings as genocide in the first place, Armenian twins were named Jacques and Chirac after then-President Jacques Chirac.]

Sources:

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1 Baby, 26 Alphabetical Names

Posted on 27 January 2012 | 3 Comments

I’ve found long names, and alphabetical sibling names, but this could be the first alphabetical single name I’ve seen.

A baby girl born on December 19, 1882, in West Derby, Liverpool, to Arthur and Sarah Pepper was named Ann Bertha Cecelia Diana Emily Fanny Gertrude Hypatia Inez Jane Kate Louise Maud Nora Ophelia Quince Rebecca Starkey Tereza Ulysis Venus Winifred Xenophon Yetty Zeus Pepper.

Regarding the name, the Boston Evening Transcript quipped: “Apparently the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has little power in London.”

Source: “Jottings.” Boston Evening Transcript 3 Aug. 1889: 4.

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What’s in a Name? (poem)

Posted on 27 January 2012 | Leave a comment

By the Ogden Nash-like Richard Armour:

What shall we name the baby?
What name if a boy, if a girl?
If a girl, maybe Molly or Merla,
If a boy, maybe Erik or Earl.

Name if after a wealthy uncle,
And hope for a change in his will.
Will, in fact, might promote the suggestion,
Or Wilma might fill the bill.

Better still, call it Eks or Zero,
A just-for-the-present name.
Let it later choose what it wishes,
And thus you’ll escape the blame.

Other name-related poems I’ve posted include The Substitute, How They Named the Baby and Keeping My Name.

Source: “What’s in a Name?” Lakeland Ledger 29 Apr. 1979, Family Weekly section: 27.

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Unusual Noun-Names

Posted on 26 January 2012 | 1 Comment

In 1971, the editors of American Heritage asked readers to tell them about people who were “named after places, institutions, and events.” They offered examples like Wilmot Proviso Ragsdale, Legal Tender Coxey, Monongahela de Beaujeau and Illinois Central Wilson.

In 1972, the best of the submitted names were published. Here’s most of that list (with a few extra details):

Boston Raspberry, born circa 1900. While playing in a sandlot baseball game in Florida, he “clubbed the opposing shortstop to death with a bat after an argument over a called third strike.” He was sentenced to life in prison, but was later pardoned by Gov. Millard Fillmore Caldwell, “who said that anybody with a name like Boston Raspberry should have a full pardon.”

Budweiser Hawkins and Falstaff Hawkins. Brothers from Arkansas. “Budweiser Hawkins upheld tradition by naming his sons Falstaff, Budweiser, Ricardo Ron Rico and Jose Cuervo. A daughter was named, naturally, Virginia Dare. Young Falstaff Hawkins played last season for the Santa Monica City College basketball team, and his brother Bud played at nearby Pepperdine.” Bud is now Dr. Budweiser. His tagline: “The Weiser Way…To Wellness.”

Carbon Petroleum Dubbs, 1881-1962. Named Carbon at birth by his feather, oil magnate Jesse Dubbs. He added the middle name Petroleum as an adult. His children were named Carbon, Methyl and Ethyl.

Easter Lily Gates, born on Easter Sunday (April 21) in 1889. She was the Supervisor of Elections in Broward County, FL, from 1929 to 1969. “Hats were her trademark.”

Eiffel Tower Sutherland, born circa 1894. On 10 Oct 1952, the Miami News mentioned her in this one-sentence story: “Danville, Ind. — When Betty Jean Weesney, home from a recent European trip, brought back a souvenir replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it was the logical gift for just one friend–Eiffel Tower Sutherland.”

Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown, 1876-1948. Major League Baseball pitcher from Indiana. Born the year of the centennial. Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949.

States Rights Gist, 1831-1864, and States Rights Jones, Jr., 1920-2002. The first was a Confederate brigadier general from South Carolina, the second was a USMC Colonel from Mississippi.

Through Trial And Tribulation We Enter Into The Kingdom Of Heaven Lindloff, 1881-1947. Known as “Trib.” Son of German immigrants.

Sources:

  • “Appropriate Gift.” Miami Daily News 10 Oct. 1952: 2-A.
  • “As Wilmot Proviso Was Saying To Legal Tender…” American Heritage 22.5 (1971): 97.
  • “Contest Winners.” American Heritage 23.2 (1972): 109.
  • Drown, Michelle. “A Plot with a View.” Santa Barbara Independent 26 Oct. 2006.
  • “History-Making Folks Aren’t All Well-Known.” Miami Herald 1 Nov. 1990: 2G.
  • Peterson, Harold. “People.” Sports Illustrated 22 Jul. 1974.
  • “Riverside.” American Chemical Society.

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The Katina Spike – Caused by a Soap Opera?

Posted on 25 January 2012 | 1 Comment

The baby name Cotina was a top debut name in 1972, coming out of nowhere to be given to an impressive 109 baby girls that year:

  • 1970 – x (fewer than 5 baby girls named Cotina)
  • 1971 – x
  • 1972 – 109 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1973 – 65 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1974 – 33 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1975 – 13 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1976 – 5 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1977 – 6 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1978 – x

But that’s not all. The popularity of similar names — most notably Katina — spiked in ’72 as well:

Name 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975
Katina 96 2,747 2,469 766 506
Catina 15 1,370 1,236 329 174
Contina - 209 124 36 27
Cotina - 109 65 33 13
Katena - 27 28 - -
Kateena - 22 13 5 -
Cantina - 17 15 7 -
Catena - 15 8 5 -
Kattina - 15 - - -
Kotina - 12 8 - -
Katyna - 11 - - -
Cateena - 10 9 - -
Kontina - 10 - - -
Kantina - 9 6 5 -
Katinna - 7 6 - -
Cattina - 6 9 - -
Catinna - - 11 - -

Why?

It took me a while to come up with a decent theory for this one, as the only person the search engines kept directing me to was Greek actress Katina Paxinou (1900-1973).

I was stuck until, in a decades-old Village Voice article, I spotted a reference to a fictional soap-opera baby named Katina. She was “born” in early 1972 on the CBS soap Where the Heart Is (1969-1973).

Expectant parents tend to pay particular attention to TV babies, and soap operas have historically influenced baby name rankings quite a bit, so the double-whammy of a baby born on a soap opera must have had some sort of impact.

Then again, I can’t explain why the variant “Contina” jumped so much higher than, say, “Katena” or “Kateena,” which are much more Katina-like. So perhaps I’m missing something.

Does anyone out there remember Where the Heart Is? Do you think the soap was popular enough to have started a short-lived Katina craze in the early ’70s?

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Avoiding Low-Status Baby Names

Posted on 24 January 2012 | 7 Comments

Name researcher David Figlio says that adults of low socio-economic status tend to give their babies low-status names, and that low-status names put children at a disadvantage in school.

How do you spot a “low status” name? One way is to look for extraneous exotic consonants. Figlio says:

The higher the Scrabble score of the name, imagine the exotic consonants: X, J, Q, K, Z. It’s extremely rare for college graduates to give a child a name with two high point letters. High school drop-outs are 30 times more likely to give a kid a name with two high Scrabble point consonants. For example, the name ‘Alexander.’ A parent who is a high school drop-out is dramatically more likely to spell that name Alexzander. So the x/z combination in the middle of the name.

Source: How Your Name Influences Your Success

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Posted in Baby Names, Boy Names, Studies

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Do D-Names = an Early Death?

Posted on 24 January 2012 | 2 Comments

Did you know that there’s a scholarly journal called Death Studies? Uplifting, isn’t it?

Anyway, several years ago Death Studies published a paper about the relationship between initials and longevity.

It looked at the first initials and the lifespans of people in several groups (athletes, doctors, lawyers) and determined that people with D-names actually had slightly shorter lifespans than other people.

From the abstract:

There was a progressive decrease in longevity associated with names beginning with A to D when all athletes were combined. In each sport, athletes whose first names began with the letter D lived fewer years than those whose names collectively began with E to Z. Doctors and lawyers whose first names began with D also died earlier than those whose names began with E to Z but differences were not statistically significant. A Cox-regression survival analysis for athletes comparing those with names beginning with A, B, C and D vs. E to Z indicated that only those whose names began with D (median survival = 68.1 years) differed significantly from those with E to Z names (median survival = 69.9 years).

An unfortunate consequence of the name letter effect?

Source: Abel, Ernest L. and Michael L. Krugerb. “Athletes, Doctors, and Lawyers with First Names Beginning with “D” Die Sooner.” Death Studies 34.1 (2009): 71-81. (via Are David, Dan and Doug going to die young?)

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Posted in Baby Names, Studies

Japanese Names Getting Harder to Read

Posted on 23 January 2012 | 3 Comments

Yesterday I read an informative article about Japanese name trends called What to call baby? by Tomoko Otake. The part I found most interesting was…

[A] further headache awaiting many babies as they grow up is that an increasing number of parents are exploiting a loophole in the law that fails to dictate how kanji in names are to be read and pronounced using kana.

Since most kanji can convey numerous meanings, and so be read in numerous ways, parents trying to make their offspring stand out are opting for unconventional ways in kana to read the kanji used for their name. Consequently, they are often anointing them with a name that, when read in kanji, others can only guess at.

In other words, a single name (written down) can morph into multiple names (when said aloud). One popular boy name, for example, can be read as Hiroto, Haruto, Yamato, Daito, Taiga, Sora, Taito, Daito or Masato. Last year’s most popular girl name can be read as Hina, Haruna, Hinata, Yua, Yuua, Yuina or Yume.

Because Japan does not have a custom of putting kana alongside people’s kanji names in many official records, including the family register, this has caused untold confusion and has led to mistakes being made in identifying people by government officials, teachers and so on.

Yet some parents have taken the quest for uniqueness even further by assigning names whose kana pronunciation cannot even be guessed by anyone not told what it is.

This rarely happens with English names, but I do know of one case: a nurse friend of mine told me about a newborn baby girl named Cindy whose mother insisted the name was pronounced “Sidney.” Or perhaps it was Sidney pronounced “Cindy” — I can’t remember. Regardless, the written and spoken forms didn’t match up. I wonder how that worked out…

One more tidbit from the article:

Another consideration for the Toriis, as for many other parents in Japan, was to use kanji that would not involve too many strokes, because if they chose ones that were too heavy-looking, or congested, it would be time-consuming to write in school exams, which would leave less time for the child to tackle the questions.

I bet some English-speaking parents have bestowed short names for the same reason — potential academic edge, however slight.

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Arbutus, the Flower Name You’ve Never Heard Of

Posted on 23 January 2012 | 3 Comments

arbutusLily, Daisy, Jasmine, Rose…Arbutus?

When I first saw Arbutus on the SSA’s baby name list, I’ll admit I had no idea what I was looking at. A myth name? A misspelling?

Turns out it’s a flower name.

“Arbutus,” the Latin word for strawberry tree, today commonly refers to the fragrant trailing arbutus, which was once (but is no longer) classified in the genus Arbutus.

Trailing arbutus (a.k.a. Epigaea repens, mayflower) is the official floral emblem of both Massachuetts and Nova Scotia.

The name Arbutus was given to dozens of baby girls every year from the 1910s to the 1940s. In 1927, it ranked 1,081st — within spitting distance of the top 1,000 (just 8 babies away).

[Some people even got "Trailing Arbutus" as a name. I've found two women in West Virginia marriage records named Trailing Arbutus, and H. L. Mencken mentions a Trailing Arbutus -- last name Vines, sadly -- in Tennessee.]

But the name Arbutus is rarely bestowed nowadays. It’s not stylish-sounding, it features the undesirable letter sequence b-u-t, and (I’m guessing) not many people know it refers to a flower.

Do you like the name Arbutus? Would you ever consider using it?

Image: Epigaea repens II by dogtooth77

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Baby Name Surveys: Decision-Making, Persuasion

Posted on 21 January 2012 | Leave a comment

I’ve been writing about baby name decision-making and baby name persuasion for a while now, but I’ve neglected to any collect input on these topics from the thousands of many baby-namers who visit this site every day.

To rectify this, I’ve created two short Google Doc surveys for people who want to share their experiences either deciding on a baby name or persuading their partner to like a baby name:

And I’ve made the results public-access, so that everyone can check them out:

The more responses the better, so please spread the word! Can’t wait to see what insights we collect, and whether any patterns emerge…

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Posted in Baby Names, Decision-Making, How to Choose a Baby Name, Persuasion