"All I Want for Christmas Is You."

This [link] is playing on a loop in the lobby so I've kind of had my fill of that song. It was cute the first few times.

I was just thinking out loud.

Oh no, I know what you're saying. My grandmother is always saying how weird the names of babies born at the hospital she volunteers at are, but of course she can never give an example, so I just assume she means non-English names.

But then I have met siblings named Stalin and Staliny, so. (They were not American. Or Bolsheviks, as far as I know.)

It's in the great tradition of Puritan virtue names. Oodles of Prudences and Temperence and my own Constance. Then there's Abide and Remembrance and Restore etc. Of course, there's also poor Zorrabable, which I think shows up in one of the Biblical begat lists as an ancestor/descendant of King David.

never mind, it was just me. Twitter is fine DON'T PANIC! OMG!!!!

There are a zillion baby names I would never name my own kid, but I love the various regional and cultural traditions. Like, there's a notoriously wacky streak in Mormon names (there's a whole web site about it: [link] and Southern women are often named either their mother's or grandmother's surname as a first name (I have met a Mercer), or given their mother's first name and called by their middle name (Carol Faulkner called Faulkner), and I love the creativity of many African-American names (my kids went to school with a Tyquavious and a Montavious.)

What does the -vious ending mean?

Southern women are often named either their mother's or grandmother's surname as a first name

My dad dated a Southern girl named Brown in college. It was her mother's maiden name.

I know a family (Southern, white, middle-class) with boys named Fear (after a Puritan ancestor), Caedmon, Gunnar, and Owen. I always sort of pity poor Owen in that mix.

I myself have a Puritan ancestor (female) named Experience. Which strikes me as very funny to name a baby, since she obviously had none!

I have no idea what -avious means, but it clearly sounded really cool to a whole swatch of parents.

I'm changing my name to Thomasavious.

eta: Although tommyrotavious flows nicely off the tongue....