And Now a Digression for . . . Baby Names?

Next week, look forward to stock tips; the week after that . . . presidential politics!

Well, perhaps not. The digression for baby names results from the pregnancy of my law partner, who is also my wife (and who I will henceforth be referring to on this blawg as "the Senior Partner," in part to remedy a minor screw-up in the husbanding department, about which more later).

Anyway, the Senior Partner is pregnant with a future junior partner, and we have the solemn duty to give this person a name. The Senior Partner has been consulting 20,001 Names for Baby, by Carol Wallace; I've been consulting The American Language, by H.L. Mencken. My book is more entertaining. For example, in the chapter titled "Proper Names in America," I found a list of these Puritan boys' names that were "brought to America by immigrants to New England": Fear-not, Faint-not, Stand-fast, Increase, More-trial, Joy-again, From-above, Free-gifts, Be-faithful, More-fruit, Hope-still, Sin-deny, Dust, The-Lord-is-near, Fly-fornication, and Praise-God.

So far, all I know about our new baby's name is we're not drawing from the Puritans. A much more helpful source has been the Social Security Administration's Popular Baby Names page. From the SSA database, I learned that "Evan" has moved up in popularity from 72 to 57 over the past ten years; "Andrea" has decreased in popularity from 40 to 51. (Even so, Andrea still gets to be the Senior Partner.)

Comments

[Scheherazade]

May I recommend "Scheherazade"? It's worked for me....

[Jenna]

Do you know the sex of the new junior partner yet?

I'm partial to the name "Noah" for a boy (not for biblical reasons, but I just get visions of a certain ER actor I have a thing for).

For a girl, I like the names "Anna" and "Jasmine". Anna is my sister's name and I have loved Jasmine since watching Disney's Aladin (sp?) awhile back. It makes me feel like a kid again :)

[Wordlab]

There are hundreds of unusual names for babies suggested at Wordlab.

Given the legal background of the parents, might I suggest:

For a girl: Prudence

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day
The sun is up, the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out and play

Dear Prudence open up your eyes
Dear Prudence see the sunny skies
The wind is low the birds will sing
that you are part of everything
Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?

Look around round
Look around round round
Look around

Dear Prudence let me see you smile
Dear Prudence like a little child
The clouds will be a daisy chain
So let me see you smile again
Dear Prudence won't you let me see you smile?

--the Beatles

For a boy: Lawyer, like Lawyer Malloy

That's the only way to be sure he will grow up to be a lawyer.

[Sarah]

Praise-God Barebones's brother was If-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thy-Sins-Thou-Wouldst-Not-Have-Been-Saved. Now *there's* a no-nonsense baby name!

[Evan]

Sarah: You've proven once again that I was right to pass on the Puritan baby names. Although the name is quite timely, calling to mind a recent movie that was critically acclaimed throughout the world until the day it was released. (The life of a bigshot Hollywood director just can't be very easy. But I digress from my digression . . .)

[T P B, Esq.]

If it's a boy: it's gotta be either Fly-Fornication or Evelyn. The former, well, because it's Mencken. The latter because, well, look what such suffering did to Waugh.