“What new names have you heard lately? - News & Observer” plus 1

What new names have you heard lately? - News & Observer

Posted: 01 Feb 2010 05:23 AM PST

I started jotting down other names that were new ones on me and looking up their origins. Other recent selections from my personal undiscovered baby names list:

JARA or YARA - A German friend who lives in Madrid and is expecting recently told me that, if she has a girl, she plans to name her Jara or Yara, a name that works in both Spanish and German. This was a new one on me, and when I looked it up I discovered that Yara is an Arabic name meaning butterfly and also the name of a Brazilian goddess, while Jara (which can be pronounced with the Y or the J sound at the beginning) might be a variation of Yara or may be an unrelated Slovakian name that's also the name of the Hindu goddess of the household and happiness.

DARIEL - I met a woman recently who told me her grownup daughter's name was the very pretty Dariel, a name she invented. She was torn, she said, between Dara and Mariel, so she combined the two to make Dariel. Many such hybrid attempts are dismal, but this one is a success.

KESTER - I discovered Kester in my guilty pleasure reading of the London Telegraph birth announcements. It is, I discovered in nameberry's very own database, the Scottish form of Christopher. Very cute.

Nameberry (http://nameberry.com) is a baby-naming site produced by Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz, co-authors of 10 bestselling baby name guides, including the newest, "Beyond Ave and Aiden: The Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby."

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Kourtney Kardashian Explains Whe She And Scott Disick Named Their Baby Mason Dash - MTV.com

Posted: 05 Jan 2010 12:34 PM PST

By Cara Alwill

Celebrity baby names are always a hot topic. Stars seem to pick the most unique names for their bundles of joy, and let's be honest ... sometimes they are a bit, well, strange. But Kourtney Kardashian and boyfriend Scott Disick didn't just pull a name out of the hat when naming their new son, Mason Dash. In the current issue of Life & Style, the new parents talk about the meaning behind the name and why they chose it.

"The first time I started looking at baby names, Mason was the only one I liked," Kourtney tells the mag. "It was the only one that stuck with me. Right before he was born, I told my aunt we were thinking about going with that for a name. She told me that Mason means the same thing in English that Kardashian means in Armenian — stone worker. Another aunt told me my great uncle used to use the name Mason when he made dinner reservations, because Kardashian was too long. When I heard that, I thought, Oh my god, it's meant to be."

And while fans are most familiar with the name Dash from the Kardashian sisters' clothing boutique, Kourtney insists that's not where Baby Mason's middle name is derived. "Dash is not for my clothing store, as some people have suggested online," says Kourtney. "That would be stupid. Dash is short for Kardashian, and it was my father's nickname."

Kourtney and Scott admit that Mason Dash is not the only name this baby is called. He also goes by "Gorgeous, Precious, Munchkin, Angel," she tells the magazine. We're not surprised!

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