Mockingbird

Charity Wakefield, Eddie Izzard, Mason Cook, Portia de Rossi and Jerry O'Connell star in 'Mockingbird Lane'

I thought I'd round out this year's Halloween names with another fanciful, fun name - Mockingbird. Fans of the classic 60's television show 'The Munsters' may immediately recognise Mockingbird as a reference to the home of the Munster family, who lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Mockingbird Heights. 'Mockingbird Lane' is also the title of the new version of 'The Munsters' that aired on NBC 4 days ago.

The new 'Mockingbird Lane' follows a similar formula to the original, and contains the original characters of Grandpa, Herman, Lily, Marilyn and Eddie. For those unfamiliar with the original series, each of the characters is based on a character from a classic Monster movie, except Marilyn who is a "normal" teenage girl and therefore considered the "strange" one in the family. The Munsters were far from horrible though, leading a fairly typical family life similar to other television families at the time, such as the Cleavers.

As many bird names have been popping up in birth announcements lately (think Wren, Lark, Dove, Sparrow) it's not a huge leap to think that Mockingbird could also rise with them. I think Mockingbird could be a really cool middle name for a child - boy or girl - especially if you are looking for something a little more whimsical to balance out a sturdy, more traditional first name. Personally I probably wouldn't use it as a first name. It's a very literal interpretation of a bird name since it actually has the word bird in it. Plus mock is not necessarily seen as a positive word. Then there are those fun songs with the same name (Mock, yea-ah!, Ing, yea-ah!, Bird, yea-ah!).

But it's not totally unusable, otherwise I wouldn't have featured it today. The mockingbird also features in one of the most famous lullaby lines ever - "Hush little baby, don't say a word, papa's going to buy you a mockingbird". This gives it a much sweeter image. It's the state bird of Texas, said to have the prettiest song of any bird. There is a Marvel female superhero called Mockingbird. And of course there's that story called 'To Kill A Mockingbird'. In this story, the Mockingbird is said to symbolise innocence, a beautiful image for a child. If you're a fan, Mockingbird could also be a way to differentiate yourself from those using Atticus, Harper or Scout to honour the book.

And if your literary tastes tend more towards 'The Hunger Games' than 'To Kill A Mockingbird' you could always take it that extra step and go with Mockingjay instead :) Either one would be incredibly unique.