A Nickname Story: Joss

Joss Whedon via Wikipedia

Joss is a fascinating nickname to me. I'm not usually one who would consider using a unisex name, but I would love an opportunity to call my son OR daughter Joss. It's also a great given name, however the options of full names are plentiful and superb:

Boy Names
Joseph
Joshua
Josiah

Girl Names
Jocelyn
Josephine
Josette
Josie

Interestingly, Joss was the given name of 11 boys and 11 girls in 2011. There happen to be two celebrities (one male and one female) who are known as Joss: the (awesome) director/producer/writer Joss Whedon was born Joseph Hill Whedon and the singer/songwriter Joss Stone was born Jocelyn Eve Stoker. The name fits a baseball-wielding boy and a tutu-wearing girl. Whatever your preference, I do not see how parents can go wrong with this spunky choice.

Would you use Joss as a given name? If you like it as a nickname, which full name would you use?

Name Madness - Round 3

photo by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

Thank you to everyone who voted in Round 2! We had 44 responses this time and I'm so encouraged that the votes are increasing with each round. Round 2 had some close matches, one tie (involving Matilda again), and a few landslides (poor Sheldon). Here are the results (winner in bold):

#1
Claire 66%
Zoe 34%

#2
Ramona 52%
Elena 48%

#3
Josephine 55%
Genevieve 45%

#4
Celia 50%
Matilda 50%

#5
Hazel 48%
Penelope 52%

#6
Savannah 25%
Juliette 75%

#7
Camille 64%
Primrose 36%

#8
Willow 48%
Daphne 52%

#9
Pierce 41%
Declan 59%

#10
Thayer 39%
Nolan 61%

#11
Winston 41%
Conrad 59%

#12
Emmett 80%
Troy 20%

#13
Henry 86%
Axl 14%

#14
Luke 91%
Sheldon 9%

#15
Brody 66%
Saul 34%

#16
Frederick 25%
James 75%

Are you surprised that a certain name is still around? Are you disappointed that a certain name lost?

Using these results, I have created the ballot for Round 3. It's the Sweet Sixteen and voting is just going to get harder and harder as the number of names dwindle. You have the next week to VOTE! Round 3 ends Sunday, December 2. Please vote only once and for only one name in each match. Have fun!

Where Are They Now? - 1911 #21-30

Grace Kelly via Wikipedia

Continuing the Where Are They Now series, here is a look at the next 20 names in the Top 100 from 1911. You can review the Top 10 and #11-20 entries to compare.

1911 #21-30

21 Louis - #332 and steady (after rising to #20)
22 Fred - fell off the Top 1000 after 2002
23 Clarence - fell off the Top 1000 after 2010
24 Ralph - #953 and steady
25 Jack - #45 and steady (after falling to #179)
26 Carl - #591 and falling
27 David - #18 and falling (after rising to #1)
28 Howard - #960 and falling
29 Joe - #491 and falling
30 Samuel - #26 and steady (after falling to #72)

21 Irene - #689 and falling
22 Ruby - #109 and rising (after falling to #401)
23 Grace - #16 and rising (after falling to #397)
24 Annie - #386 and steady
25 Hazel - #211 and rising (after falling out of the Top 1000 for 20 years)
26 Virginia - #576 and steady
27 Thelma - fell off the Top 1000 after 1982
28 Martha - #772 and falling
29 Josephine - #182 and rising (after falling to #498)
30 Gertrude - fell off the Top 1000 after 1965

Jack and Samuel both fell and rose again since 1911. Ruby, Grace, and Josephine fell even further before turning things around. However, the biggest mover of the group is Hazel, falling completely out of the Top 1000 for twenty years, reentering in 1998 at #942, and rising quickly since. These names definitely fall in the "100 year rule" category. In this group of names, more have fallen out of the Top 1000 and we have our first reverse situation: David rose to #1 and then fell back within the hundred years.

I would like to see Virginia on the rise again. Do you see any of the other names making a comeback soon?

Women in the Senate

Hattie Caraway in 1914 via Wikipedia

The United States held its most recent election two weeks ago today, and 2013 will boast the beginning of a term that includes the most females in Senate history with twenty. That news prompted a name post of course!

Actually, what started rolling this ball was a picture of all the women of the Senate a friend posted on Facebook. That made me wonder about their names. I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that one of the earliest women in the Senate was named Hattie. THAT is what inspired me to post, since Hattie is my new name crush.

Hattie Caraway was a Senator for the state of Arkansas from 1931 to 1945, and the first female Senator to be elected and serve a full term.  She was born Hattie Ophelia Wyatt in 1878, which is before the Social Security Administration started recording name popularity, but in 1880 Hattie was ranked #27 and fell from there. Hattie's parents were William Carroll and Lucy Mildred; she married Thaddeus Horatius Caraway in 1902 and had three sons Paul, Forrest and Robert. She first entered politics by taking over her husband's Senate seat after he died in 1931. She then won a special election in 1932 to complete his term, won reelection later that same year as well as in the 1938 election, and then lost the 1944 election. She never served with more than one other woman while in the Senate.

There have been 39 women in the Senate since 1789 and five new female Senators were elected last week. Here are their first names, middle names when found, and birth year (and anything else I found interesting):

Rebecca Ann 1835
Hattie Ophelia 1978
Rose 1892
Dixie 1882 (parents were Payton and Isabel)
Gladys Shields 1890 (Shields was her mother's maiden name)
Vera Sarah 1889
Margaret Madeline 1897
Eva 1892
Hazel Pearl 1888
Maurine 1907
Elaine Lucille 1929 (parents were Errol and Myrl)
Muriel Fay 1912
Maryon 1925
Nancy 1932 (her mother's name was Theo)
Paula 1927 (her father was Paul and mother was Leone)
Barbara Ann 1936
Jocelyn 1922 (her mother was Magdalena)
Dianne Emiel 1933
Barbara 1940
Patricia Lynn "Patty" 1950
Carol Elizabeth 1947
Kathryn Ann "Kay" 1943
Olympia Jean 1947 (her father immigrated from Greece)
Sheila 1945
Susan Margaret 1952
Mary Loretta 1955*
Blanche Meyers 1960
Maria 1958
Jean Anne 1933 (parents were Reginald and Alvina)
Hillary Diane 1947
Deborah Ann "Debbie" 1950
Lisa Ann 1957
Mary Elizabeth Alexander "Liddy" 1936
Amy Jean 1960
Claire Conner 1953
Cynthia Jeanne 1947
Janet Kay 1953 (her father was Josie Perry "Joe")
Kirsten Elizabeth 1966 (her mother was Polly Edwina)
Kelly 1968
Debra "Deb" 1951
Tammy Suzanne 1962
Mary Katherine "Heidi" 1955
Mazie Keiko 1947
Elizabeth 1949

*Mary's parents were Verna and Maurice "Moon" and she was one of nine kids: Mary, Mark, Melanie, Michelle, Mitchell, Madeleine, Martin, Melinda, and Maurice, Jr.

Maybe I'll do the House of Representatives next.  ;)

Besides Wikipedia, I also gathered information from the Women in Congress website.

Name Madness - Round 2

photo by Leo Reynolds via Flickr

The results from Round 1 are in! I'm pleased to announce that thirty-nine people voted in this round, an increase from the twenty who voted last round. There were some big wins as well as a couple of ties, and you will now find out that tie-breaker goes to ME! There were also a few people who voted for both names in certain matches and in those cases, the percentages do not equal 100%. I understand some of these matches are hard, but please only vote for one name! Both ties were in matches where someone voted for both options. Here are the tallies for Round 1 (winners in bold):

#1
Virginia 26%
Claire 74%

#2
Bay 44%
Zoe 56%

#3
Ramona 51%
Margaret 51%

#4
Elena 85%
Regina 15%

#5
Anastasia 41%
Josephine 59%

#6
Edith 18%
Genevieve 82%

#7
Haddie 41%
Celia 59%

#8
Matilda 51%
Caroline 51%

#9
Mallory 28%
Hazel 72%

#10
Auden 23%
Penelope 77%

#11
Savannah 59%
Britta 41%

#12
Juliette 56%
Serena 46%

#13
Marian 38%
Camille 62%

#14
Astrid 41%
Primrose 59%

#15
Willow 72%
Arya 28%

#16
Daphne 72%
Hermoine 31%

#17
Deacon 36%
Pierce 64%

#18
Declan 51%
Hugo 49%

#19
Thayer 59%
Artie 41%

#20
Nolan 85%
Hoyt 15%

#21
Toby 26%
Winston 54%

#22
Conrad 72%
Archie 28%

#23
Emmett 77%
Damon 23%

#24
Gunnar 36%
Troy 64%

#25
Henry 87%
Tyrion 13%

#26
Gaius 38%
Axl 62%

#27
Luke 79%
Dexter 21%

#28
Sheldon 69%
Sherlock 31%

#29
Brody 56%
Malcolm 44%

#30
Brick 33%
Saul 67%

#31
Bertram 10%
Frederick 90%

#32
Cedric 44%
James 56%

What do you think? Any surprises? Any disappointments? I was a little sad to see Haddie go (although I prefer Hattie), and I wonder if you all really like Frederick or really dislike Bertram.

Using these results, I have created the ballot for Round 2. More great matches await you. You have the next week to VOTE! Round 2 ends Sunday, November 25. Please vote only once and for only one name in each match. Have fun!