Handmaid’s Tale is baaaaaack, and the first episodes of the 3rd season were everything I dreamed they’d be. If you’re watching, you’ll know why I’m so emotionally exhausted after each episode and still haunted by it the next day. If you don’t know, the dystopian drama tells the story of women who have been enslaved and forced to live under totalitarian rule as “handmaids.” Led by an extremely literal interpretation of the Bible, the handmaids are forced into sexual servitude by their Commanders and the Commanders’ infertile wives to bear children for them.
No, it’s not easy to watch, but it’s fascinating. AND, most interestingly for us, the show tells us a lot about naming and how names function within systems of power. When the handmaids become the property of the men who now control them, their former names are erased and replaced with a combination of the word “of” and their Commander’s name. The show’s main character, for example, is Offred, a name that shows her servitude to Commander “Fred” Waterford. This naming convention highlights the relationship between names, control, and identity, and the empowerment that comes from reclaiming names. When Offred first reveals her true name, she’s alone and making a promise to herself that she will survive, a scene that links her desire to be free with speaking her name aloud.
The emphasis on religion in the show comes through in other character names, as well. There’s Alma, Dolores, Eden, Hannah, Isaac, Naomi, and the list goes on. While the show is dark, there’s name inspiration to be found, especially for parents wanting a biblical baby name outside the top 10.
We’re even inspired by the show’s credits, where actress names Clea DuVall and Ever Carradine have us obsessed.
Keanu Reeves has been everywhere lately, as he should be. I can’t wait to see him in Netflix’s Always Be My Maybe and I finally watched the first John Wick movie this week. But can I just say, I’m high-key excited for the third installment of the Bill and Ted movies, Face the Music, if only because I have such warm memories of the first two. This time around, Bill and Ted are joined by their daughters, Billie and Thea. (I couldn’t help but be struck by the names when I saw the news–great names, and both still under the radar.)
Meet the world’s most excellent daughters! Bill’s daughter, Thea Preston, played by @Sweaving, and Ted’s daughter, Billie Logan, played by Brigette Lundy-Paine. Who’s ready to Face the Music?? ⚡️🎸 #BillAndTed pic.twitter.com/dl6GYzp4oG
— Bill & Ted 3 (@BillandTed3) June 5, 2019
And they named their daughters after one another! Now how cute is that? As Bill and Ted would say, this is most excellent.
Former Bachelor alums Arie & Lauren Luyendyk revealed their first-born daughter’s name a couple weeks ago:
Alessi Ren.
Not Alessia. Not Alessa.
And now we know why they chose it. Arie and Lauren recently spoke to People about their buzzworthy name choice. Apparently, Lauren loved Alessia, a name she’d found online, but it was Arie who suggested they drop the -a. Middle name Ren is a shortened version of mom’s name. While it might’ve been an afterthought to drop the -a from Alessia, we think Arie and Lauren are onto something.
For the past decade, the -a ending has dominated the Social Security Administration’s list of top female names, the -n ending taking over the male list.
But as our ears are searching for fresher sounds (we’re more than a decade deep in the Age of Aidan), we’re turning our attention to the new “it” vowel ending– the i.
When we take a look at the names that increased in popularity most from 2017 to 2018, we see the -ani ending prominent in the female list:
- Keilani
- Kailani
- Ailani
- Kaylani
- Malani
- Kehlani
- Milani
- Nalani
- Dani
- Alani
- Meilani
- Imani
- Amani
- Leilani
And -ari on the male side:
- Amari
- Dakari
- Jabari
- Kamari
- Omari
- Ari
- Khari
The SSA lists don’t lie, and with the boost of celebrity influence (mini-Jenner Stormi and now Alessi), we think the -i ending is a sign of what’s to come.
In more celebrity baby name news, country singer Randy Houser and his wife Tatiana welcomed their new baby boy this week: Huckleberry Randolph Houser! Whether they got their inspiration from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the fruit of the same name, or from Doc Holliday’s famous line in the movie Tombstone (“I’m your huckleberry”), we think it’s an awfully cute name with a southern feel, which seems appropriate for a country singer’s family! And as a sibling to big brother West Houser, Baby Huck sounds like a perfect complement to the happy family!
And from celebrity lives to mine… Not sure why this is, but I seem to be surrounded by little Phoenixes. The last two times I was at public playgrounds–in two different states, I might add–there was a kid named Phoenix running around. This got me thinking: Is the name Phoenix more popular than I think it is? Or do I hang out in the same places as people who name their kids Phoenix? So I did my thing and went to the SSA site.
While Phoenix isn’t exactly popular, it’s steadily crawling up the rankings. Ranked the 876th most popular name in the US in 2000, it’s now up to 252 in 2018. Anyone out there with a little Phoenix? What unusual names do you hear all the time by you?
Finally, we recently asked on our Instagram (if you aren’t following, please do!) what themed name lists we should do next. And we love your suggestions: Vintage Names, Unique Nature Names, Spanish Names, Southern/Country Names, and Land Formation Names. We’re feeling inspired, so stay tuned! And let us know in the comments if there are any other themes you’d like us to tackle.