What's In A Name?

Times being what they were, what they have been generations ago – there just was nothing too fancy about naming a girl at birth: Mary, Linda, Barbara, Ann, Katie, Catherine (and Katherine), Marie, Emily, Teresa, Tina, Patricia, Debra, Susan – you get the idea. Maybe it was the era of 1960s and early 1970s, encouraged in some social circles by free love and lots of drugs, that a generation of parents seemingly began to give nontraditional names to a lot of their daughters.

Through the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and beyond, we have really no bounds for what names parents give their infant children at birth.

And so, it was with research in mind that recently I came across an online list of the “66 Women To Watch In 2012” and I was not ever certain why 66 was chosen as opposed to a Top 100 or Top 50 list. The list provided a convenient checklist for what I term as nontraditional girls names.

So what’s in a name? Here are a few of the 66 women to watch this year, according to one writer:

No. 62 – Mercedes Masohn, who plays Isabel Zambada on the Fox network show “The Finders”. I simply like the name Mercedes and the name Isabel – a potent combination for sure.

No. 53 – Elsa Pataky, an actress who appears in the film “All Things To All Men”. I loved the character Ilsa Lund in the 1942 film classic “Casablanca” and who could not adore Ingrid Bergman who portrayed the similar-sounding “Ilsa”?

No. 48 – Catrinel Menghia, a Romanian model. Of course she is and it is the first time I saw the name “Catrinel” – she’s “Cat” or “Catty” for sure.

No. 31 – Noomi Rapace, a Swedish actress. Just shoot me to the ‘Noom, I mean to the moon.

No. 24 – Azealia Banks, a rap artist. Makes me think of the Azelea flower.

No. 20 – Lais Ribeiro, a Brazilian fashion model. Indeed.

No. 19 – Elsa Hosk, a Swedish fashion model. See No. 53

Not included among the list of 66 is someone I’d like to watch in 2012 and that’s Miami Heat cheerleader Odaymis Romero – as in all day, oh-day, this way Odaymis. I just think she has a really cool name. Perhaps there are some additional names not on any list to watch this year, like a few of my own personal favorites, such as:

• Sirius Lee, a Chinese chef and restaurant owner.
• Huron Angler, a professional women’s fishing tournament champion.
• Harbor Golightly, a northeast Ohio convention and visitor bureau director.
• Material Governance, local solid waste disposal district supervisor in SW Michigan.
• Kearny Frost, economic development director in NE Indiana; and
• Faber Stone, architect from Southern California.

What’s in a name indeed!