411
The latest buzz.
TRENDS
thename
name
game
ANAH DUKE WASN’T ONE OF THOSE
MOMS with a baby name picked
out years in advance. So when the
Calgary mom-to-be was faced
with naming her first child, the pressure
was on. “I remember at one point thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s going to have that
name for the rest of her life.’”
Since her name is mispronounced daily
(it’s Dah-na, not Day-na) and her last
name is prone to nicknames (a couple of
friends call her Daisy—get it?), Duke
wanted something simple but unique,
cutesy-nickname-free and meaningful. By
chance, Duke, a wildlife biologist who used
to track wolves, came across Tala. “It’s
actually a native word for ‘stalking wolf,’”
explains Duke, a tidbit her now four-yearold revels in telling anyone who’ll listen.
Duke claims she wasn’t influenced
by trends, but many of us are. In fact,
Duke’s daughter’s name is part of the
biggest—and most ironic—baby name
fad since the 1960s: originality. These
days the rush to be distinctive is fierce,
says BabyNameWizard.com’s expert, Laura
Wattenberg. “Parents are trying harder
and harder to differentiate themselves
from one another.”
As such, even the most popular names—
topping the last decade’s lists were Emma
and Jacob—are a fraction of what
they were. They’re being slowly replaced
with creative alternatives: new spellings
(Abbigayle), locations (Brooklyn), letter
order (Nevaeh—heaven backwards), dividing (Alex and Zander for twins) and even
blending (Twilight’s Renesmee, a mash of
Renee and Esme). If all of these sound
wacky, you might instead choose a traditional name. But even these are trendy—
Ava and Olivia, for example, are 100 times
BY ROSEMARY COUNTER
Search the meanings, origins and
trends behind more than 60,000
names in our baby name finder
at canadianfamily.ca/babynames
more popular than ever and sit firmly in
the top 10. Jessica and Tiffany, popular
throughout the ’80s, are now too close for
comfort; Gertrude and Edna, however,
have yet to make a comeback. But, like
shoulder pads, never say never.
“Names are like fashion—what goes
around comes around,” says Carla MacKay,
author of Canadian Baby Names (Lone
Pine). Even the stuffiest name, she says,
can be resurrected in an instant by
pop culture. For example, actress Michelle
Williams and the late actor Heath Ledger
named their daughter Matilda and the
name immediately spiked in popularity.
But parents are by no means passive culture sponges; they’re quick to sense trends
and jump off the bandwagon in search of
something new. For Duke, a second baby
called for a more traditional name—still
TOP PICKS FOR 2011
Sophia and Aiden may have been the
most popular names in 2010, but look for some newcomers to make their way onto the top 100
list, says Carla MacKay. “There is a trend toward ancient names. One girl’s name I’ve spotted
a few times is Seraphina, which is the name of Jennifer Garner’s and Ben Affleck’s youngest
daughter. Additionally, these names are in step with the ‘us’ ending that’s popular for boys right
now, with names like Atticus and Cassius becoming more common.” MacKay says to also look
for Finn, the name of Cory Monteith’s character on Glee, and Charlotte, KaDee (how’s that
for a creative spelling?) Strickland’s character on Private Practice, to grow in ubiquity as well.
16 | CANADIAN FAMILY | MARCH 2011
meaningful and unique, but this time it had
to roll smoothly off the tongue with Tala.
Though it hadn’t even come up during
her first name search, Maisie was the clear
winner for round two. Duke liked its oldfashioned feel and the double M with her
middle name, Micah.
When she sent out the birth announcement, Duke spelled her youngest daughter’s name with a Y. After she mailed it,
however, Duke decided the name didn’t
look right. “I don’t know why I changed it,”
she admits, but she’s glad she did. As is
Toronto mom Barbara Sommerville, who
initially named her youngest Joshua. A
few hours after his birth, though, she
informed family and friends she and her
husband had changed it to Matthew. “He
just didn’t look like a Joshua to me.”
Both Sommerville and Duke followed
the best expert naming advice there is, and
it has nothing to do with trends: Go with
your gut. And are the moms thrilled with
their name choices? Of course. Like for
most parents, it can be a hard decision, but
as soon as you pick a name, you may never
be able to imagine your child as anything
else. Or, as Duke puts it: “Tala is such a
Tala, and Maisie is such a Maisie.” CF
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL ALBERSTAT. ONESIE, MINI MIOCHE. CHAIR, WEST ELM.
D
Choosing a
moniker for your
newbie can be
daunting. Here’s
how to pick the
perfect one for
your babe