This may come as no surprise, but the Dada Drummer loves smart opinionated people. Yes, that includes you there. If you interact with the Drummer in real life and feel a warm sense of being loved in that relationship, then you can rest assured that you have been found non-stupid. Congrats.
I bring this up not to make you feel good (though that is an acceptable by-product) but because I want to talk about the non-stupid baby name book authors Linda Rosenkrantz and Pamela Redmond Satran. I love their many books. I sometimes don't share their opinions--and I get impatient with their tolerance of some tryndeeness!--but I always find them to be interesting. And sassy. The Drummer loves sass.
My favorite of their baby name books is Baby Names Now which has pithy essays on dozens of great (and not so great) names.
But the book that got me hooked was Beyond Jennifer and Jason. Now in newer edition, the book carries the title Beyond Jennifer and Jason, Madison and Montana.
I have gotten a kick over the years at Rosenkrantz and Satran's spin off "Beyond" books which include Beyond Shannon and Sean: An Enlightened Guide to Irish Baby Names, Beyond Sarah and Sam: An Enlightened Guide to Jewish Baby Names, and Beyond Charles and Diana: An Anglophile's Guide to Baby Names (that one's for you Leila!).
So I thought we could have a little fun inventing our own baby name guide book titles in the style of the "Beyond" books. What books do you think ought to be out there? What books do you think some idiots might be consulting for their stupid choices? What books do you fear actually exist! For example:
Beyond Braden and Jaden, Caden and Haden: New Rhymes for the New Age!
Beyond Austin and Dallas: An Enlightened Guide to Naming your Texan
Beyond Ebony and Violet: Color Names Now!
Let's hear yours!
13 comments:
I love this post. I am going to link to you. You wouldn't believe the number of people in Australia that call their kids Montana and Dakota!
Wie soll es den heissen? Bitte nicht Leon oder Marie
(It will be big in Deutschland, guaranteed!)
Beyond Eetu and Aino: Fine Finnish Firstnames for Firstborns
Beyond Friedrich, Karl, Maxim and Vlad: Bolshevik Babies Now!
(Vlad just scans better than Vladimir, don't you think?)
Beyond Basil and Sage: A Foodie's Guide to Edible Offspring.
Beyond Lance and Rod: A Fruedian guide to boy names for compensating daddies
Beyond Tina and Tonya: A Bowler's guide to cheaply embroidered names
Beyond Mason, Grant, and Veronica: Soap Opera names for All My Children
Jenseits Wassily, Franz, August, Albert und Marianne: Die Blaue Reiter Kinder Heute
(Huge in Deutschland, garantiert!)
(Yes, I know -- Drop the keyboard and back away from the computer...)
Beyond Mabel and Hoss: New Names for the Old West
Beyond Coco, Theo, Fluffy and Puff: What to Name Your Puffalump Now
Beyond Osler's Razor and The Spanish Medievalist: What to Name Your Blog Now
Beyond Four Horsemen, Buttery Nipples, Jolly Ranchers, and Lemon Drops: What to Name Your Ridiculous New Creation to Get Freshmen Drunk on Dia Now
The naming your texan SHOULD be a bestseller!!!!
I love it! Totes!
Beyond Happiness and Fatness: Popular names in african culture.
You are awesome!
Haha! I like the "Fine Finnish Firstnames". I'm Finnish, and we don't have an Eetu in our family, but we do have a Tutar. Poor woman.
What about "Beyond Rose and Ash: The nature lover's guide to transendental titles!"
*transcendental. whoops.
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