The Name Community!

Hi all!

Today, in an effort to educate myself on others in the naming community, I'll be posting links to other cool blogs about names. Here's a short list if you want to find more cool articles and opinion pieces!

Appellation Mountain - Abby Sandel

I've mentioned this site before, as an AM fangirl, but I think Abby's articles deserve more readers. Check out this fantastic article about gender and heritage baby naming - the comments provide more (often heated) opinions too: Why I Never Say "Save the Name for a Son"

Waltzing More Than Matilda - Anna Vivian

Here's an Australian perspective on naming in the English world. Check out this encouraging article on defending name choices from judgmental friends and family: Family Criticism Has Made Her Anxious About Baby Names

The Beauty of Names - Bree

A lovely blog with an emphasis on beautiful, elegant and historical names. I myself can never resist a Romanov sisters' shoutout: Long and Luxurious

Nameisms - Laura Emerson

Really cool in-depth looks at different names each day - etymology, history and celebrity namesakes included! Laura has a great article on the recent controversy over Atticus: Atticus: To Kill a Name

Baby Name Pondering - Brooke Cussans

Interesting a varied articles on names - this is what I hope one day to achieve! A recent article by Brooke is just badass: Post Apocalyptic Naming

Also sidenote: it looks like I accidentally appropriated the title of a Nameberry article from a couple weeks back: Name Trend: The I's Have It for Girls. Whoops! I'll try harder to avoid overlap.

Name Reference Sites

Here are some of my favorite sites to use when looking up names, meanings, and statistics!

Nameberry - My favorite baby name website, it has a fantastic, beautiful interface with interesting articles posted daily. Name information includes origin, famous people with the name, nicknames, related names, and comments for each. It's always my first stop when I hear a new name!

Behind the Name - This site is excellent or looking up origins, especially for obscure names not found on your average baby name site. They have excellent statistics by country, and really in-depth backstories for names. They also have a related site just about last names!

Social Security - Baby Names - The SSA collects the top 1000 names in the USA every year, which feeds statistics on most baby name websites. You can search by year, name, decade, etc. Not super user-friendly, but if there are statistics, this is the place to find them.

Baby Name Wizard - Name Voyager - This incredible interactive online graph lets you compare name popularity and statistics, search by beginning letters, and more! Want to see which decade had the most J-names? Or see whether the "El" beginning of names is on the decline? Check it out here!

Appellation Mountain - This site is run by Abby Sandel, a contributor to Nameberry and a professional name consultant. She puts up excellent lists, names of the day, and more!

What are your favorite name sites? Tell me in the comments!