BBN Round-Up: Febuary 2009

Here's a Round-Up of articles & links for the month of Feb. 2009. Enjoy!



Name That Baby iPhone App: find a Name For Your Newborn By Shaking your iPhone
"Parents-to-be simply choose a gender and a starting letter, then give the iPhone a shake. Name That Baby delivers a scrollable list of baby names, complete with origins and descriptions, in whatever quantity the user chooses. Another shake produces additional names, until the perfect name is found."


Top 100 Baby Names of 2008
"And while I still have no idea what we'll pick, I thought perhaps others out there might find the top 100 baby names of 2008 interesting as well."


Malia and Sasha Obama Stir Up the Name Game for Parents
"'Celebrities do influence what parents name their children, and I consider the Obamas celebrities,' said Linda Murphy, editor in chief of BabyCenter.com...'New parents don't want to name their kids after celebrities, but they're very interested in what the celebrities name their children, if the names feel modern and sound interesting.'"


One of Baby's Names That of Paramedic Student
"A St. Catharines couple is so impressed by a student paramedic’s actions following their son’s birth, they’ve borrowed his name for their child."


What's New in Names
"Now, Dakota and Paris, kindly give your seats to Patience and Prosperity. The old place names are out, values and family in as baby-branding evolves."


Most Unfortunate Names Revealed"
"What do you call some of the most unlucky people in Britain? Justin Case, Barb Dwyer and Stan Still." (don't skip the comments on this one, folks! Hilarious.)


Chicago Cubs fan from Plainfield names baby girl Addison N. Clark
"The Plainfield man and his wife, Lauren, have named their firstborn child Addison N. Clark after Wrigley Field's famed location. The proud papa said he thought of the name years before the baby's Dec. 19 birth, but wasn't sure his wife—who was raised in a White Sox family—would go for it." (there's a photo of the baby on this page...she's adorable!)


Would You Buy Xylitol? Why Some Names Scare Us
"It's not just that all of these names are a nuisance to spell and a mouthful to pronounce — though they are. It's that they strike us as downright dangerous. That, at least, is the conclusion of a new study published in the journal Psychological Science — and it's a study that ought to give pause to any manufacturer with a product to brand or parent with a baby to name."


Ethan, Olivia and Ava Alberta's Top Baby Names
"Unique names last year included Brazen-Lee, Coal, Delorian, Gonzo, Jazzy, Jury, Natorious, Rexall, Sequoia, Stetson and Zeppelin for boys, and Anarchy, Castle, Harloquinn, Jetaime, Queen, Science, Taffy, Tree, Tyranny, Valkyrie and Whiteangel-Victoria for girls."


Report Looks At Impact of Names
"A new report says boys with odd-sounding names may be more prone to trouble than other boys. But some professional baby namers question how accurate this research is."


You Name It!
"As “Cholee” translates as “bra” in both Malay and Hindi, I fought hard the temptation to correct the teacher on the obvious misspelling of her name. After all, I’m already getting used to strange spellings and quirky names these days."


Parents Are Thinking Up Unusual Names
"However, choosing an unusual baby name requires some care. How can you choose a name that is distinctive, yet does not end up sounding ridiculous? Of course, you don't want your child to be at the receiving end of all the Waynes and Dylans in his school. Here are a few tips..."


Celebrity Pregnancies are Hard to Stomach
"Pregnancy might be all the rage in Hollywood these days, but celebrities aren't doing us any favors. We get the M.I.A.-fueled myth of the pregnant wonder woman. We get the scramble for celeb-approved baby gear - because surely your child can't live without a onesie worn by Coco Cox-Arquette. We get the infusion of baby names like 'Brooklyn' and 'Bronx'."


My Name? It's Really Terry Bull
"The study also unveiled wacky names in the US, including Carrie Oakey, Annette Curtain, a dentist called Les Plack and a doctor called Sumey, possibly at risk of lawsuits."


Baby Names: There Are So Many Options, There Are No Options
"Although my wife and I still don’t know what we are going to name our bundle of joy there are some criteria that must be met for our child’s name and I think they are good criteria for anyone who needs some help narrowing down their name list(s)."


Odd Names, Diseases Top Celebrity Stories
"In a fleeting moment of trendiness, I briefly considered the monikers Beavis and Pinecone before naming my son Daniel, but relented since I am not rich or famous enough to pay for a lifetime of therapy." (this is a very good article about children and Kawasaki's disease. I highly recommend it.)


Another Crazy Celebrity Baby Name
"The Hebrew word Merkabah means "chariot." Merkaba is also a Zulu word for a space/time/dimension vehicle. I guess that means you could technically take a Merkaba and fly to Mars. Far out!"


Codemasters Start Flamewar For the Name Jason
"So you’re having a new baby, eh? Well, if you happen to be a gamer you might want to check this article out, thoroughly. Codemasters has a new event underway that could reward parents for naming their kid ‘Jason’. So what’s the reward? A year’s worth of video games for the console of your choice."


Kevin Coster Has a New Son, Dull Factor Now 10
"Kevin Costner, we thank you for your selfless dedication to preserving an American tradition—that of vacuous, self-absorbed celebrities congratulating themselves for dreaming up pointless baby names."


And If It's a Girl, Benjamin Roethlisberger
"...the most cringe-making name in the story derived from our storied NFL team: a boy named Steeler Gerard Petrocky...Maybe he’ll get to share a tailgate party (or an analyst) with Tré Rivers Kemerer, whose name is a Romance language play on the Steelers’ former home field, Three Rivers Stadium. And we laughed when George on Seinfeld wanted to name his hypothetical baby 'Seven'!"


The Names We Do For Love
"After all, a name is the one thing that parents give a child that will stick with them the rest of their life. How's that for pressure?" (this is another one for comments---some great ones here, including many Bad Baby Names!)


For Ballplayers, What's in a (nick) Name?
"Yes, we have fallen into an unfortunate pattern of passing off simple shortenings or addings of 'ie' to last names as viable nicknames. Had George Herman Ruth played today, he would probably be referred to as "G-Ruth" or, much worse, 'Ruthie.'"


Doomed By Your Name?
"New research out of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania also looks at what names signify. However, unlike 'Freakonomics' -- which maintained that although a name might tell you something about a person's background, it wouldn't predict the outcome of his life -- the new study purports to show a link between name and outcome: The more unpopular your name, the more likely you are to land in juvenile hall."