They’re short and classic enough to be easy to spell but unfashionable enough that we haven’t run into any others. By contrast, we know three Avas, an Ayva, an Ada, an Avi and an Ivy, three Milos and two Mileses, two Rubies, two Jacksons, two Dexters, a Dahlia, a Tahlia and a Delilah, a Nora, a Nola and a Lola, a Rowan and a Roan. Can you guess we’re in San Francisco?

I ran into toddler Theodore and Agatha at a cafe the other day, and was wholly charmed. There’s a Beckett and Cooper sibling set near us as well. Claire went to a summer camp in Marin and made friends with Isabella, Jessica, Olivia and Vivienne. I decided it was Golden Age Hollywood up there.

I do think farming our grandparents’ generation is a sound strategy. In my case this yields the not-yet-overplayed Doris, Elsie, Jean, Joan, Ruth and Thelma. I admit Mascha and Thusnelda would be a harder sell outside their native Austria, although Thusnelda goes by Nelly.

I had no idea my own name (Jocelyn) was so popular. Certainly wasn’t when I got it. My mother was a ‘no nickname’ mom for sure, and it took until high school for kids to start calling me Jo-Jo, which went to Jo shortly thereafter, and stuck.

These days, I like names to mean something positive + non-male derivitive for girls. Like Clara, maybe? Now I’m off on an etymology search.

AND: One of my cousins was named with the ‘nickname version’ — Abby. So I call her Babs for good measure. ^^ Any name can be nicknamed — if you play with the sounds long enough.

My name is Lydia. No middle name (the bane of my existence as a child). NO ONE was named Lydia when I was in school. The closest thing was when I met a kid at the pool named Olivia. Its still not super popular but I have heard people calling their kids in public, so its making somewhat of a comeback.

As much as I hated having an unusual name as a kid because I desperately wanted everything I owned to have my name printed on it like all my friends, when I hit my teens I decided I love it. I’m not like everyone else, and I got to have an uncommon name.

No one in my family has used super common names (in the past 10 years or so, the new generation, I have three uncle davids and two cousin davids). My sister’s son’s name is Callen and my cousin’s two kids are Luna and Zhoe. (okay, Zhoe’s fairly normal but you gotta love the funky spelling. I love odd spellings of common names. My kids are gonna hate me)

But my mom really wanted to name me Winter. Which I don’t hate. (in fact my pen name should I ever be published is Lydia Winters) I like Winter, Spring and Autumn as names, but not Summer. Probably because the only Summer I know is a stereotypical California blonde who is perky as hell. And nice. You gotta hate her.

What do you think about Apple Iogo? >:)

My own name is Jannette (after one great-grandmother, who was named for her aunts Jan + Nettie), and it is so frequently either misspelled or mispronounced, even when I try to explain that it’s just like Annette plus a J. Also, since everyone else born in 1975 was named Jennifer, I’ve learned to answer to just about any J-name.

But my middle name takes the cake: Zarouhe, for another great-grandmother. It’s a creatively-romanized version of the Armenian name for Sarah– normally spelled Zarouhi in English. It was a heavy name to carry around when I was a kid, since 1) I grew up in Minnesota, where there are 2 other Armenian families, 2) Armenia was not a country at the time, and 3) how do you pronounce that?

And to make it even more glommed-together-sounding, my last name is a Scandinavian Anderson/Larson/Peterson name– more common than “Smith” in the Upper Midwest.

I have a 13-yr-old cousin named Muriel and a 21-yr-old cousin named Elspeth, nickname Elsie.

My cousin (Angie, after the Rolling Stones song)’s new daughter is Nadiya Symone, which I can only describe as “Prince-y.” However, the Nadiya part does work ok with her Persian dad’s last name.

I’m a Candice, and I’ve always HATED the nickname Candy. Cand is okay. Dicey is allowable, if you really must. But Candy…no. Just no. I’m a person, not a sugary snack. Neither of my parents are wild about the nickname either, but they both liked the full name so much that they decided to use it anyway.

My favorite girl names: Jane, Lydia, Ramona, Sylvia, Lucille, Anastasia
Favorite boy names: Glenn (everyone I know says this is hideous and reminds them of a middle aged guy, but I don’t care), Arthur, Malcolm…I know there are more boy names that I like, but I can’t think of them right now.

I am sad that Dylan is so popular, because I’ve always liked it. Same with Eleanor for a girl. Not that I plan to have children anytime soon. I just have a weird fascination with names.

My grandmothers were Grace and Elsie, and I think Elsie is cute in a Maggie kind of way, although it sounds like a girl who never puts out. Grace always sounds like an upright churchgoing type to me – but then that was Elsie LOL.