In one of my many paradoxes and contradictions, I'm not in the maternal camp, yet I'm always pretty fascinated by the issue of baby names. Every year, lists of the most popular names for new babies are published, causing us to throw our hands up in the air in horror at the latest naming fashions, from chavvy horror to traditional to just quite frankly bonkers.
Today The Local (
link) published the list of the most popular baby names in Sweden for 2012. What immediately strikes me is that many of the names in the list don't sound that "Swedish" at all - William is top of the boys' list, where you can also names like Elliot, Kevin, Julian, Colin, Levi, Eddie and - wait for it - Elton (!).
Meanwhile, Alice tops the girls list where there are more conventional Swedish girls' names alongside the likes of Nellie, Tyra, Alicia, Nova and Siri.
On the whole though, some sense has prevailed, unlike in my own country where there is a horrendous fashion for mis-spelling names to make them that bit more original. Why call your daughter Abigail when you can call her...oh...Abbiegayle? Abi-Gale? Abby-Gail? Sounds like an Abi-fail to me.
Or maybe you want to keep it brief. Why give your son a name when you can call him AJ? CJ? DJ? TJ? Tee-Jay? Tea-Jae? Tea-Bag? (right, that's enough!!)
And don't start me on that 2012 crop of Kayden, Jayden, Jaydyn, Cian, Kayleb, Kristofer, Maddisyn, Mirren, Murron, Summer, Storm, Rain, Willow....the list is endless. And I pity those poor schoolteachers having to differentiate between Jaden, Jayden and Jaydyn!
What the hell, maybe I'm just bitter and twisted because Laura is out of fashion :)))
Anyway I'll stop now and direct you to a really funny old website
http://www.stupidkidnames.com/ which truly does what it says on the tin.
