Betty

I’m Betty. Thirtysome-odd years ago, I bestowed the dull if classic handle “Bunny” upon a blue stuffed rabbit who, bless his heart, forgave me this rather uninspired first foray into naming.

From this humble beginning, I’ve developed an abiding interest in the names of people, words, streets, pets and inanimate objects, and have diversified my tastes extensively. Now mother to children NOT named “Boy”, “Other Boy,” or “Baby on the Way,” I am a student of name trends and their socioeconomic and demographic implications, and a bit of a fetishist on the subject.

My personal penchant is for names with a history that still ‘fit’ into the era in which they’re being used. I scour cross-cultural mythologies, literature, history books, and obscure song lyrics looking for names that have caché both in the present and across the time-space continuum. I like recognizable names and standard spellings, but if a name suddenly pops across my radar more than ten times in a year, I begin to yawn.

I’m drawn to the quirky and unusual, the just-about-to-break-the-big-leagues. If I like a name, you can pretty much be guaranteed that it’ll be way cool for a few years, and – for name fetishists like me, at least – a wee bit tired in ten. And by then, I’ll be loving on something utterly new…but still classic.