Before 11-11-11 arrived last year, we brainstormed for 11-11-11-related baby names.
In exactly one month, it’ll be 12-12-12 — the very last triple-digit date of the century. So I thought it would be fun to play this game just one more time. :)
Let’s say your friend is having a 12-12-12 baby (gender unknown) and she’s looking for a name that reflects the baby’s unique birthdate.
What boy and girl names would you suggest to her?
Perhaps a name that starts with L (the 12th letter of alphabet)? A name from Twelfth Night? Something entirely different?
Image: Adapted from Ferry Street, Portaferry (09), October 2009 by Ardfern under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Wow 12 is tough. Ellen Klages YA novel, “Green Glass Sea”, has a character named Duodecima (Dewey). Dewey was born on 12/12 and her mathematician father named her after the Latin word for “twelve.” Since the character is embarrassed by her “weird” name, I’m not sure it’s a recommendable name. Maybe Douzaine, meaning “a dozen” in French, would work better?
Noon would work, too — (twelve noon, remember).
Dodeka (Dodi) might work slightly better than Duodecima. Although, personally I would use Ekosi (twenty), because it would be our 20th wedding anniversary!
Docena (doe say na) means dozen in Spanish and actually does sound pretty and similar to a name. Dosie would be an ok nickname.
A name from the 12 tribes of Israel works (or just Israel) for a boy.
You could do names either from the 1200s or the 12th century (1100s), AD or BC. Beatrice or Beatrix (of Swabia, rather interesting figure, she was married in 1212), Felix (a Saint who gave up all his possessions when he was young, went to live in the forest, and set up an order of monks to rescue captives – he died in 1212 and was venerated as a saint within a few years). From the 12th century you have Henry (King Henry I of England), David (David I of Scotland), Eleanor (of Aquitaine, though I find her rather brutal), Thomas or Becket for Thomas Becket, Constance (of Sicily). Helen and Theseus are names from the 1200s BC. Troy (I don’t like the name, but the 12th century is when Troy is supposed to have been destroyed). Penelope is supposed to have lived at this time (her husband Odysseus went to destroy Troy). Lots of great names in the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid which all deal with this time period.
Great ideas so far!
Maybe something like Xavier Isaac Ignatius or Xanthe Isabelle Isla (the initials would be XII = 12!).
Alternatively, Winter, Archer (in the Western Zodiac, 12 December falls on the sign Sagittarius)…
Norwegian boys name Tollef is sometimes thought to have been used for the twelfth child in a family, so that’s probably one I would consider. There’s no feminine variant though. ^^
Other than that, I like Noon and Duodecima. Also love the XII initials idea!
Or just December or Decembra :)
I like the name December for a girl. I’ve heard it used before. It didn’t seem to hurt actress January Jones from Madmen.
From metrical prefixes: Tera (10 ^ 12) and Pico (10 ^ -12).
I just heard that Packers fans will be celebrating 12-12-12 as Aaron Rogers Day. Perhaps some of the babies born that day will be named in honor of the quarterback who wears # 12?
Toutatis, maybe. For someone daring. :)
Nothing to do with the number 12, but has to do with a 12-12-12 event.
The asteroid 4179 Toutatis will make its closest approach to Earth on December 12th, 2012.
It was named for the Celtic god Toutatis.
The only 12-12-12 baby I’ve seen in the news so far: Forever Cierra Cotrice Smith.
Five 12:12 12-12-12 babies, four with names:
12:12 a.m.
-Austin Matthew, born to Tiffaney and Joshua Diles of Ohio
12:12 p.m.
-Noelle Joy, born to Colleen and Joe Klinker of Massachusetts
-Zoey, born to Robin Heaton of Nebraska
-Baby girl, born to Olivia and Michael Patterson of New York
–Carson Hurricane, born to superstorm Sandy-survivors Debbie and Joe Turner of New Jersey
Source: Babies born on 12-12-12 in Mass., NE, NJ, NY, Ohio
Twelve!
The German word for twelve is zwolf, so for a boy I’d go with Wolfgang or something similar. For a girl I like the Italian word for dozen, Dozinna, which lends itself to the nickname Zina.
Both names would totally fit in with current naming trends and the ‘twelve’ connection is there, but not so blatant that it would be a constant issue.