I like Dimitri, JZ, and it makes me think of a character I like very much. He's a good guy, smart, with a good ear. Also, a raging coke and alcohol habit. Baggage much? Almost like when Dennis Miller named his boy Holden. Um, no. I know I'm gonna fuck up such kids as I have, but no reason to start them out pre-fucked. Plus it would take a special last name to carry Dimitri Karras as first and middle. ETA:-t, so sorry!

Nora, I don't eat anything that's been around longer than 3 days. Your refrigeration rules may vary.

It's from Monday, and refrigerated since? I would totally eat it.

It's from Monday, and refrigerated since? I would totally eat it.

note to self: brenda says EAT IT.

Potential JZ Sproglet Names to go with Actual Last Name

• Daniel
• Gabriel
• Dominic
• Philip

Mini-meara, mostly name-related:

My theory is that certain names start becoming popular as certain sounds become popular. Like, the "ayl" thing from a few years ago, where there were suddenly a ton of Kaylas and Baylees and Taylors, and an upswing in the number of Haileys.. Now, there seems to be a thing for girls names ending in -a or -ah.

This is definitely part of it, and is especially clear with newer and/or invented names, e.g. Jaden, Braden, Caden, etc. But you can see it with traditional names--first Emily became super-popular, then parents turned to Emma for a similar but fresher-sounding choice. And you're also seeing other traditional E-names without the Em sound, like Eleanor and Evelyn, making a comeback. Annabel is still fairly uncommon (which was part of the appeal), but I think it's become more common in the last few years piggybacking on Isabel's popularity.

Names I talked Robert out of include Alastair (Alice is not a boy's name, Cooper nonwithstanding) and Atticus. Names he talked me out of include Callum and Thaddeus.

Oh, I love Alistair. I doubt I could ever talk Dylan into it, so I might change James from my first novel to Alistair, since he shows up a bit in the second novel, and if I sometimes stumble over having James and Jack in the same scene, I'm sure my readers will, too. I also like Callum, and love Thaddeus--I've met exactly one person with the name, and he was a tall, dark, handsome, and super-charming army officer.

I'm a goober. I'd have to name my Jack either John or Jackson. I couldn't just name him Jack.

You're not a goober, you're a right-thinking woman. Jack is a nickname. t /old-school name purist

I tried recently sitting down and making a list of all my favorite male authors, just to see if there was one I'd want to name a theoretical child after, and I swear half of them were either Paul or David. Throw in a handful of Johns and Jameses and some Williams and you've got practically the entire male side of the Western canon. It's remarkably un-varied.

I've always had a yen for Lewis as a middle name because of CS, though my friend T. from college said what I should really do was name my son Clive Staples and call him Jack.

If we ever have a boy, I'd like to incorporate Edmund somewhere in his name, because my dad was Kelly Edmon, but I'm not sure whether it'd be a first or a middle, nor what we'd put with it. If the ultrasound had been wrong about Annabel, she would've been Brendan, but it's not so much a name I'm crazy about as one neither of us had objections to.

Alton is the one true Food Network host. Emeril is of the devil and Racheal Ray is his cohort in evil. Iron Chef America is oodles of fun, especially when it's Iron Chef Batalli, who snarks back at Alton's commentary.

Love the Alton-Mario snark! Love Alton. Hate Rachael Ray. Her voice is nails on a chalkboard for me. Emeril's style annoys me, but I'd love to sample his cooking and I've heard he's a fine human being.

Gabriel

Ooh! Favorite name and an excellent first-last match!

I like it, too. It would be assonant without feeling like a cartoon character's name.

Ooh! Favorite name and an excellent first-last match!

I know!

If Lily had been a boy, that would have been her name. Of course, it's good she's a girl, because that's also Cool Comic Book guy's name, and that would have just been awkward.

Heh, Susan. I love that Lewis re-named himself at the age of, what, two? Three?

Naming is just endlessly fascinating to me: babies, ancestors, the very concept that naming something clarifies and defines (and sometimes traps) it for both the namer and for the thing named, the power inherent in bestowing a name, or rejecting the one given and claiming another. There's a fantasy novel whose name I can't now recall, by a friend of Lewis's named Charles Williams, about an impending apocalypse in which the universe is disintegrating into formless chaos, and doom is averted by the act of Naming.

That does it, JZ. You're just going to have to produce a boychild so people on the internets can have our name prefs indulged.