Cameo

Word names are now huge, and look to be getting only more and more popular. One of the word names for a girl that I've seen thrown into the mix is Cameo, and I have to say that this is my favourite of the bunch.

There are many reasons why I'm attracted to Cameo, so here they are in no particular order:

 # Cameo ends with the magical O sound (I'm sure there's a good joke there, but I'll leave that one alone) which is the "vowel sound of the moment" in Australia right now. Whether at the start (Olivia, Olive, Oliver, Oscar), in the middle (Chloe, Zoe, Noel, Jacob) or at the end (Cleo, Echo, Hugo, Leo), O is the vowel to have.

# Cameo comes with the cute girly but tomboyish nickname Cami, or even Cam.

# The word cameo is based on the Italian word 'cammeo', and is a delicate gem portrait carved in relief. So when I hear the word I picture this beautiful style of jewellery, which makes me smile. I like names with immediate positive connections.

# Cameo is also the term used for a brief appearance, such as when a huge star makes a quick appearance in a movie. Think Ryan Reynolds in 'Ted', or Dave Grohl in 'The Muppets'. It's a nice surprise when you're least expecting it - another reason to smile when you hear this word.

#Even though it's a part of the current word name trend, it's not actually new to use Cameo as a name. It was also briefly popular as a name in the late 18th and 19th centuries. So it's a 'new' but established name.

#Not many people are using it. I certainly haven't seen any Cameo's in the local birth announcements.

#The benefit of word names (in theory) are that people are already familiar with the word, so should be able to spell and pronounce the word without needing to ask how. Plus it's "real", not made up like a lot of names appear to be these days as parents strive to make old name stand out from the pack and seem new again. Sometimes this works, more often it just looks like you don't know how to spell.

So there you have it - turns out I have seven lucky reasons why Cameo would be a good name for a little girl. What's your favourite word name?