“A record year for babies — and names - Edson Leader” plus 1

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A record year for babies — and names - Edson Leader

Posted: 23 Feb 2010 08:04 AM PST

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Victoria's Secrets

Posted 1 hour ago

By Victoria Carnaghan

The province released its baby numbers last week and I just couldn't resist writing about them.

It seems there was a veritable boom in 2009, with numbers of newborns jumping to a record high of 51,443 last year, beating out the previous record of 50,543 in 2008 and 48,589 in 2007.

But what really interests me are the names. As a community journalist I write down a lot of names during any given week. The first day of journalism school students are taught a cardinal rule: Don't spell names wrong.

What's in a name? Identity, history, heritage and family, I learned. So, I try my hardest to get everyone's names right in the paper; some would say with varying success (I still have a heck of a time with 'Gomulka,' sorry Jim!). Because I cover the youth beat, I find I really have to concentrate to properly notate all these new and creative names that are popping up these days. (For example, I had a Klayre last week that I had to really focus on.)

And if this year's baby names are any indicator I will continue to have my work cut out for me.

Luckily, they start off easy. According to the province's vital statistics branch, Ethan and Olivia topped the charts for number one boy and girl names last year.

But what's interesting are the "theme" names that cropped up in the last 12 months. Apparently, astrology, history, mythology and literature influenced some new parents. Names like Archimedes, Cyrano, Draco, Michelangelo and Neptune were chosen for boys; and Calliope, Cinderella, Gemini, Hermione, Pandora and Virgo came out for girls.

There were also celebrity names. Four boys were named Presley, two were named Orlando, and one each for Costello, Obama and Sutherland were registered. There was a Grace-Kelly, a Lennon and a Sigourney for the girls.

In the ever-popular geography department, there was a Cairo, Egypt, Nashville, Oakland, Reno, Rome and Venice for boys and Alabama, Britain, Jerusalem, Maligne, Montana, Manhattan and Persia for girls.

Finally, there were the made-up names. A testament to the creativity of the human mind? Most definitely. A reporter's nightmare? Yes indeed. There were Argyll, Bison, Boss, Chaos, Cherubim, Dice, Helix, Kal-El, Lightning, Morpheous and Mystery for some newborn males and Albertarose, Amazyn, Comfort, Epic, Fury, Fyre, Halleluya, Infiniti, Mischiefs, Mystique, Peanut, Twinkle, Victory and Whysper for little girls.

We'll see how I and others do at getting these names down, but at least for now they make a great story.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

What's in a name? - North Platte Telegraph

Posted: 23 Feb 2010 02:16 AM PST

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