Posts Updated 15th Feb 2015

Just a couple of updated posts I thought you might want to check out!

First, we answer the question of what one family names a third sibling when their first two sons are named Cooper and Mason.

Also, a few years ago I looked at the names of characters - better known as champions - from the online video game 'League of Legends'. They're constantly adding new playable characters so unfortunately my lists were a little outdated, but that has now been rectified. Some of my favourite additions to their legion of already cool and intriguing names are Braum and Zed for the guys and Kalista and Lissandra for the girls. See what you think - you can check put the full list of the Ladies here and the full list of Gents here.

Cooper & Mason

Occupational names don't have to mean a child has big shoes to fill.
Photo courtesy of GreatInspire.com

A good friend of mine gave birth to her second son last week! Baby Mason joins big brother Cooper, and Cooper looks just as proud as mum and dad - it's so sweet :)

As far as sibsets go, I love Cooper and Mason together. They are very well matched for a few reasons. Both are currently popular in Australia. Cooper is more popular here than in the US, while Mason is a less popular than the US, but here they are both top 20 names. Then of course they are both occupational names. And when so many occupational names end with "er", it's great to see two that match so well for style and popularity, but sound so individual.

Cooper means 'barrel maker' and as mentioned, Cooper is quite popular here in Australia. In 2011 it was positioned #6, which is fairly stable compared to the #7 position it held when this particular Cooper was born a few years ago. It enjoys a similar popularity in our close neighbour New Zealand (#12 in 2012), but is slightly less popular in the US, where it was #82 in 2011. It's also highly popular in Canada and Scotland.

I had a theory for a while that Cooper was getting popular as a name in the southern hemisphere because it is also the name of a popular brewery based in Adelaide South Australia, and it felt that as their beer started selling in the other states it started rising as a baby name. But I now think that is more like a coincidence - it's most likely it just gave it some extra exposure just as occupational names were on the rise (although it possibly helped to get approvals from fathers!). Cooper has also gotten a lot of exposure from other sources such as the Mario Brothers video games (remember the Koopas?), TV and movie characters (both as a last name and a first), singers, NFL players and actors (with Bradley Cooper being my favourite).

I think another aspect that has helped Cooper's popularity is the cool nickname Coop. Coop fits well with  the current rising trend of one syllable, strong sounding boys names. And then there's the super cute "super Cooper". These can more than make up for any "pooper scooper" references you may come across.

Mason has been a little less popular in Australia than Cooper has. He was #27 in 2011, and based on reports from their members, website babycenter.com is predicting that Mason rose in 2012. This was the case for New Zealand, where Mason rose from #15 in 2011 to #5 in 2012. In America, Mason entered the top 100 in 1997 and was already steadily rising when Kourtney Kardashian gave the name Mason to her first born in 2009. This gave the name an extra boost, sending it to #2 in America in 2011. It's also a top 100 name in Canada, England and Scotland.

Like Cooper, it has a great, strong sounding one syllable nickname in Mace. And also like Cooper, we are seeing it crop up in plenty of pop culture references. In particular, there are werewolf characters named Mason on both 'Wizards of Waverly Place' and 'The Vampire Diaries'.

Mason means 'worker in stone' and while it has a fairly unique sound for an occupational name, it has a very similar sound to past favourite Jason. People tend to love the meaning as they equate it with great strength and being a hard worker. It's thought by many to be a caring, smart, strong name for a handsome but modest guy.

It's a little hard to imagine at this point what name you could choose for subsequent children if you wanted to keep an occupational names with different sounds theme. Possible options could include Shepherd, Abbott, Bishop, Page/Paige, Reeve, Smith, Pilot, Poet, or even Wainwright. But then again, I'm not sure any of them have quite the same "current" feel as Cooper and Mason, so a third child might be the time to go down a "currently cool" path rather than surnames.

But that may be getting ahead of things a little bit. Cooper and Mason - a great sibset for any family :)

UPDATE - 15th Feb 2015

It seems we have an answer to the question of what would you name further siblings for Cooper and Mason. The friend that inspired this post gave birth to her third son this week, welcoming Archer into the world!

It's kind of nice to see them sticking with the theme, aptly labelled "medieval job names" by one of their other friends on Facebook. I remember Archer was actually one of the names being considered when she was pregnant with Cooper, so her and her husband have a very consistent taste and style. And they'll definitely have their hands full with three boys!

Great Sibsets - Archie & Harry

Prince Harry......with a puppy! Too cute!

Today's sibset is inspired by an old workmate of mine. Anita and her husband Fraser moved here to Australia a few years ago from Scotland in the U.K. One of the reasons for the move was because they thought Australia would be a great place to raise a family (which I totally agree with, of course!), and they are now the proud parents of two beautiful boys. Big brother Archie is now 2 years old (almost 3), and Harry was born at the start of this year.

Archie and Harry are both such charming names, and complement each other extremely well. They're popular both here and in the U.K. While the names are firm favourites in the UK, and quite popular here in Australia, they are still to be embraced in America. In 2011 Archie was #24 on the England and Wales charts, while Harry took the number 1 position. In Australia Archie was #39 and Harry #40, and in America Archie was #1910 and Harry was #709 in 2011.  So if you live in the US and are a fan of British-sounding names, here are two great options you can get behind before everyone else discovers how great they are too.

Archie comes from the Teutonic name Archibald, and means 'bold, noble'. It could be a great alternative to Archer, a top #500 name in the US and number #12 in Australia. Anita tells me that Fraser suggested  Archie's name for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he was inspired by the soccer player (yes, I realise it's football to almost every other country in the world, but we have something here called Aussie Rules Football) Archie Gemmill. Archie Gemmill had a great career, but is best remembered for scoring the winning goal against the Netherlands in the 1978 FIFA world cup. The goal made him a national hero in Scotland, and was even mentioned in the cult film 'Trainspotting'. Which brings us to their second reason for choosing Archie - as Scots, it struck them as a great name to honour their Scottish roots.

Harry was also inspired by a famous figure - Prince Harry. Anita tells me he was a bit of a last minute pick (which is an understatement to say the least - she was still looking at baby naming books while she was in labour), but just seemed right as she is a bit of a royalist at heart and has always had a soft spot for Harry and his older brother William. Harry was traditionally a nickname for Henry, a German name meaning 'estate ruler'. Henry has been the name of many Kings of England, and is actually the birth name of Prince Harry. But somehow Harry seems to suit his cheeky but charming personality so much better. Of course there is also that incredibly famous Harry Potter, and the irrepressibly cute Harry Styles from British boy band sensation 'One Direction'. So the great thing is that with so many great Harry's to look up to people won't necessarily assume that you had the boy wizard in mind if you should choose to use Harry.

I love that both are nicknames that have become accepted as great names in their own right. They give off a warm, friendly and approachable vibe that makes them great picks that work extremely well together. And I know I'm not the only one who thinks so. I realised the other day that the celebrant who married me and my husband also has boys name Archie and Harry. It's definitely a winning combination.

Great Sibsets - The Averys

Mother Nicole Avery with her children Moss, Eamonn, Mable, Stirling and Magnus

Today an article in my local paper - The Herald Sun - caught my eye. Not for the story, but for the enchanting names of the children in the family in the accompanying photo. The family's children are named Moss (13), Eamonn (11), Mable (8), Stirling (6) and Magnus (3). Each is a great name in its own right, so let's have a quick look at each of them.

Moss - One of the great nature names that works for boys and girls. Moss has the same “oss” sound as the very popular Forrest, and the very cool Frost, but without the abrupt “t” ending. It’s that little more cutting edge. You just need to get people to think of it in terms of legendary race car driver Stirling Moss, rather than lichen growing on a tree.

Eamonn – Eamonn and Eamon (Eamonn is the original spelling, but Eamon is more popular) have had a bit of a jump in popularity in Australia since swimmer Eamon Sullivan came to our attention after winning a gold medal, a silver medal and breaking a Commonwealth record at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. Eamonn (or more popular spelling Eamon) is an Irish variation of Edmund. It means ‘rich protector’ and is pronounced AY-mon. Despite it’s similarity to other mega popular favourites Aiden and Ethan, Eamon is yet to appear on the top 100 in Australia or top 1000 in the US, so currently remains a great alternative if you’re looking for a less popular name.

Mable – I have to say that Mable (or Mabel) is a name that is slowly growing on me. As it seems to be with a lot of people, as Mabel has been slowly moving up the US charts in the last few years and should crack the top 1000 in the next year or two if it continues the way it has been. Mabel (pronounced MAY-bel) is an English name derived from the Latin Amabel and means ‘lovable’. And lovable it is. I actually prefer the less popular Mable spelling, maybe because it has the word “able” and looks so similar to Fable, which I also love. As a nature name fan though, I’d probably be more likely to lean towards Maple myself.

Stirling – Is an English name meaning ‘genuine, of high quality’. I personally prefer the original spelling of Sterling for a couple of reasons. 1 - I think it looks nicer. And 2 - Stirling, with Moss, in the same family, is a little much. I wonder if they are fans of the racing driver, or just thought the names sounded good together without realising the connection. At least they are not in order, or even sequential. Apart from that small quibble, I really like the name. It sounds a little bit posh, a little bit tough, and the "ing" ending sets it apart from pretty much all other popular names, male or female.

Magnus – this name is all quiet strength to me. Like his siblings, Magnus is not a hugely popular name now, but is slowly climbing. Magnus is a Latin name meaning ‘greatest’. It’s been a popular name for Scandinavian royalty and is in the top ten in Denmark and Norway. It has appeared in some popular tales such as in Anne Rice’s ‘Vampire Chronicles’, Charles Dickens’s ‘The Pickwick Papers’ and Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’. But it could be said that it is also benefiting from ‘The Hunger Games’ phenomenon. Many of the characters in this series have been given Roman/Latin names such as Cato, Flavius and Darius, so this could have sparked a renewed interest in related names such as Magnus.

All five are great names, and I like that while there isn’t really a pattern they seem to have the same vibe. Possibly a little heavy on the M’s, but the effect is diluted by having the M names interspersed with the others, so it’s not overpowering. The result overall is utterly charming. What do you think – have the Avery’s made great choices? Would you have done the same?

Great Sibsets - The Halliwells

No, not Gerri Halliwell aka Ginger Spice. The other Halliwells - Prue, Piper, Phoebe and Paige, the magical sisters from the TV series 'Charmed'.

Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combes), Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) and Paige (Rose McGowan)

For those who haven't heard of this, sibset is baby naming speak for sets of siblings. It seems that these days not only do we want the 'perfect' names for our children, but we want our childrens names to sound like they 'go together' when we do the family roll call :-) I think this combo was one of the first that ever made me think about having an element that links brothers and sisters names together.

Originally, Prue (short for Prudence) Piper and Phoebe were the 'charmed' ones - three sisters destined to be the greatest witches of all time, most powerful when they were together. After Prue's death, it was found that the girls had another half sister, conveniently also with a P name - Paige. So Piper didn't have to change the name of her nightclub (it was called P3). There are three main reasons why I think this worked so well in this instance:

• The show started before the "matching-first-initials" craze was made famous (and let's face it, slightly trashy) by the Duggars and Kardashians.
• There are only four few of them, so it wasn't an overkill and they didn't have to start having similar sounding names (Joshua, Josiah, Johannah and Josie in the same family?!)
• They are all beautiful, 'proper' names. No changing letters to fit a theme (Kortney, Khloe, Jinger?). Here's a closer look at each of them.

Prue - This short form is the only thing that made me notice the beauty of the name Prudence. It's a lovely, old fashioned virtue name, with a cute, spunky nickname. It's not on the rise yet, but might be as the huge success of 'The Hunger Games' has put names such as Rue and Prim (short for Primrose) on the radar for many people. Prue has a similar feel and sound, so may be up for people who love these but want to steer clear of any obvious connections to the franchise.

Piper - Piper is an occupational name which leaped up the charts thanks mainly to this show. It was virtually unheard of at the start of the 1990's, but started to chart a year after the show started. It has steadily climbed since then, with Pyper now seeing some use as a variation. Piper is a fun, happy sounding and spunky name, while still sounding classy, which has likely contributed to it's popularity.

Phoebe - In the 90's, this name was seen on both 'Charmed' and the hugely popular 'Friends'. Already on the rise before this, these shows helped to push Phoebe up the charts. Phoebe has Greek origins - she was once known as the goddess of the moon - and has the beautiful meaning of 'radiant, shining one'. It's one of those names that nothing else sounds similar to. Phoebe is unique and makes people think of a fun loving, warm and caring individual.

Paige - an occupational name, the 'i' makes this an appealing looking name and less like the traditional word page, which conjures up entirely different images. Classy but not snotty sounding, I have a lot of love for Paige. Which I've mentioned before, so I won't bang on about it :-)

Matching first initials may still seem like a bad idea to many - I guess there could be problems with having 3 or 4 different B Smiths at the same school for example. But past those school days, it's a nice link that your children will always have with each other, something special that they share beyond the joy of simply being brothers and sisters.