Braith

Rugby Player Braith Anasta

When I was having a look at the entrants in the Bonds Baby Search competition recently, there was one boys name in particular that I noticed - Braith. This was mainly because I hadn't heard it before, and also because there seemed to be quite a few of them, particularly in the 0-9 month and the 10-25 month categories.

A quick Google search made it pretty clear that the inspiration behind the name must be Australian Rugby League player Braith Anasta. If you're a fan, please excuse me now for not really being aware of who he is. In my defense, I live in Victoria, where Aussie Rules - not rugby - is the ruling sport. And I'm admittedly not a huge sports fan, so don't tend to familiar with players unless they're constantly in the news. More often than not, if a player is making headlines it's not necessarily for positive reasons.

As far as players go, Braith seems to have stayed away from a lot of the issues and controversy that often surrounds high profile players. He started with the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2000, moved to the Sydney Roosters in 2005, and started playing with the Wests Tigers this year. In October 2012 he married actress Jodi Gordon, a former star of popular Australian soap 'Home and Away'. This probably helped a lot to boost his profile with females, especially when pictures of their Balinese wedding were published in leading Australian women's magazines.

Braith is reportedly a unisex name meaning 'freckled' or 'speckled', often interpreted as 'black and white' or 'red and white'. It is said to be a Welsh name, although I have seen a Welsh person say they've never heard it in use in Wales. There is however a history of Braith as a surname in England (near Edinburgh), where it may have been a precursor for town names such as Braithwell and Braithwaite. It's also thought that the name Brad possibly evolved as an alternate spelling of this name.

Braith is quite a rarity, with other bearers being 19th century German painter Anton Braith and a young female character in the video game 'Skyrim'. Variations I've seen used for boys are Braithe and Braithen, and I've also seen the suggestion that Braithwen could be an option for a girl. If you're looking for a more substantial name for your boy though I suggest that the town names Braithwell and Brathwaite would be the most attractive options. Braithwaite in particular is a relatively well known surname, and would likely transfer to use as a first name easily.

As far as "modern" sounding names go, Braith is a reasonably attractive one. It fits in well alongside other one syllable "AY" names, such as James, Blake or Zane, but manages to stand out from these too. It's also a good blend of masculine and soft. This may sound strange, but I could see Braith working well as a werewolf name in a book or movie (which I mean as a positive thing).

Braith may turn out to be a quick fading trend. But if Braith Anastas star continues on its current trajectory, we could be seeing more of this name in the future.

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!

Alcide

OK, so I have to confess something here. Alcide was my first pick for a werewolf name this month just so I'd have an excuse to post pictures of him. The hottest werewolf on HBO's 'True Blood', Alcide Herveaux is played by Joe Manganiello. If he looks familiar, that's because he also recently appeared as "superdude" Davis in 'What to Expect When You're Expecting', and as a male stripper in 'Magic Mike' with Matthew McConaughey.

What I find most interesting about Alcide is that it was not a name I had really heard before watching 'True Blood', and I think most of the people I know were in the same boat. At first, I thought that his name was possibly a nickname, because it sounded kind of like they were saying L.C. I remember having the conversation with a workmate and fellow fan about what his name really is, and we were both surprised when we found that it was indeed Alcide.

Alcide (pronounced AL-seed) is derived from the Greek word Alkeides, which means 'strong man'. In Greek mythology Alcide was the birth name of the greatest hero Heracles, more commonly known as Hercules. Hercules was considered to be a paragon of masculinity, which is likely where the meaning of the name Alcide comes from.

Alcide charted in America in the 1880's, but has been relatively unseen in the western world since then. It's most commonly used in Italy, where it was the name of the founder of the Christian Democratic Party and a famous footballer.

Alcide is unlikely to become the phenomenon that Jacob became after that other famous werewolf catapulted Jacob into the spotlight. But with a strong meaning and super-masculine example, Alcide is a manly choice for werewolf lovers.