Melanie’s Daily Words

So I’ve decided that I should probably start blogging with a purpose. That’s really the only way people ever get recognized through this medium. I have a slight idea of what I would blog about, too.

Names.

It’s sort of a fetish, obsession, love, pastime, hobby. I’m currently awaiting the birth of Ashlee Simpson-Wentz’s baby because I can’t imagine what such young, hip parents could come up with to bestow upon their child. They have some tough acts to follow, what with Harlow Winter Kate Madden (daughter of Nicole Richie and Joel Madden), Honor Marie Warren (daughter of Jessica Alba and Cash Warren), and Sunday Rose Kidman Urban (daughter of Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban), whose parents, by the way, thought it would be a good idea to name their child after a suicidal poet. Good call, ‘rents. That girl has so much to look forward to.

I suppose this love is closely related to my slight infatuation with the celebrity world. However, it really is my only source for unique and laughable names. I don’t know people who are having/naming children on a monthly basis, and I myself am not ready to take on the challenge myself. However, I’ve been in the recommending names business for almost 7 years now, and my ideas have been taken into consideration. My 8th grade English teacher was going to use the name I had chosen if her baby had been a girl. Emma Kathryn. The relationship I have with my best friend is based on our first meeting where we discussed the names we had chosen for our future children whilst dog-paddling in the high school pool during freshman P.E.

I think what got me interested in names is the idea that names help shape who we are. My life would be completely different had my parents named me Ashleigh or Kellie — and yes, spelling counts. I grew up with a huge cloud of peer pressure hanging over me, but I like to think that my individuality helped me go a different way, my name being part of that individuality. I got through all my years of elementary, middle, and high school without having to be known as Melanie B. in any classroom. I was never “one of many”, and I like to think I’m that way in the world. I’m unique, irreplaceable, if you will. Now that I’m in college, that has changed drastically. Even at this small school, I’ve encountered probably 15 new Melanies in just this semester alone. My uncle recently remarried a woman named Melanie, which complicates Christmas exchanges. However, because I spent so much of my life being the only Melanie, it’s almost a compliment when I find someone else with my name. And that’s exactly what it is: mine.

In case you’re wondering, (and I have no statistical information to back this up, and I don’t know where the following body gets their information…but) there is a website where you can see how many of “you” there are in America. Check out howmanyofme.com. It’s pretty cool. According to their database, there are 3 of me.

So I think I’m going to run with this idea. Let’s start a blog of names. Send me your name, tell me the names of your children and why you chose them. And traditions have to start somewhere, so here is mine.

The names of the day are:
Boy: Macon (French) — “mason”
Girl: Abra (Hebrew) — “mother of nations”

(All origins and name meanings brought to you by babynames.com.)

*Update*
Ashlee Simpson delivered a healthy baby boy! 7lbs. 11 oz. and 21.5 in. long.
The name, you ask? Brace yourself.
Bronx Mowgli Wentz. As in, J.Lo’s hometown borough and the kid raised by wolves…err…gray, species-neutral bears. At any rate, congratulations to the family!