Roses and Cellar Doors

I've already done a post on named stars , as well as one on names that mean 'star' . However, that overlooks one very narrow cat...

Handsome Cal ! How have I forgotten you? While  Cal  is starting to gain use on its own, it's still down below the Top 1000. Traditional...

I know, it seems weird to group those together. But, Dolly & Dotty were nicknames for Dorothy thanks to that R-to-L/T/D shift that Middl...

It occurred to me the other day that I do a lot of 'names by construction' posts for girls, but not really many for boys. So then I ...

Poor Molly . Is she a nickname, or a full given name? I guess the answer is 'both': Molly was originally a regional pronunciation of...

Rose , of course, is perfectly fine on its own. But, as Rosalie  regains popularity, it may pave the way for other Rose-names. Everyone know...

That's a double-V, not a W. ;) Evie  is one of the fasting-rising nicknames, from traditional picks like  Evelyn, Eva, & Evangeline...

Perhaps a bit of a cheat, as tons  of names contain the letter Y. However, almost none have it as an initial letter...in English, anyway. I...

Cam  is one of the few nicknames I can easily see on either gender. Whether sort for Cameron  and Camden  for boys, or Cameron  and Camilla ...

I've dedicated quite a few posts to names that stand out. But what if you want a name that's modern, but not too weird or derivative...

It's amazing how many ways a new name can come about. While diminutives becoming names in their own right is something we're all fa...

With all the names that Nell  is historically short for, it's surprising it's not more popular. The usual suspects include Helen , E...

It occurred to me the other day that I is a most underused vowel. If you're watching the final round of Wheel of Fortune , no one ever p...

Elijah  is a name I looked up on a whim, and was amazed by the diversity of its variants. It's another Biblical name, but unlike most cl...

Callie  is another example of a nickname that's become reasonably popular on its own. Originally a nickname for Caroline , I suspect it...

(or in rare cases, a boy-version). Most names that you can think of likely have both an established male & female version, or are consi...

George . It's one of those names where the consensus is split pretty evenly--some think it's purely boring, stodgy old-man, and some...

It appears that the holiday shopping season is upon us again (and getting earlier every year, it seems), which got me thinking about Christm...

Jacob --a seeming contradiction; both traditional and trendy. It was a top name back when the SSA started keeping track over 120 years ago, ...

Watching languages develop & diverge is fascinating--or at least, that's what I tell myself when even I see a crazy alternative spel...