Friday, November 11, 2011

bird name for baby




Who could forget the iconic Swan dress that Bjork (mom to Sindri and Isadora) wore? I also love this quote of her's on being with children. Swan, Bjork, Sindri and Isadora is a pretty awesome set of names, too! Back to the dresss-- it sure ruffled a lot of feathers, but it's no wonder we want to emulate birds, they're beautiful! And who hasn't dreamed of flying?

For more mixing of the avian and the human, check out these prints by Australian, Catherine Campbell of the shop My Folk Lover. (below)











I love this feather print by Danna Ray of Grounwork:
And I'm absolutely crazy about Leah Duncan's creations.  I have her pillows and tea towels on my wish list for the holidays.  I would be sad to see her 2011 calendar leave my wall if 2012 versions weren't already available here and here. Plus, the prints at the top of each calendar page can easily become 4 x 6 prints for framing, so you don't have to part with them at the end of the year. Leah also makes these terrific bird prints!





I love Canadian, Kate's, blog.  She recently had a baby girl, Alice Mae (such a pretty name!) Alice's nursery might just be one of my favorites ever.  Kate also makes beautiful, soft animals. Her Etsy shop, Tiny Warbler (love this bird name name, too!) is such a jewel.  Here are a couple of her soft birds:


Speaking of fantastic bird softies, Tel Avivian, Timor Cohen, makes the loveliest, eco-friendly birds and fills shop TIMO Handmade with so many other  lovelies, as well.  Recycled materials can yield such pretty things. I'm also so, so fond of the mice in the shop!



I'm loving these hand-painted, porcelain feather plates and small cups that Tuscon ceramic artist, Vanessa Villarreal has in her shop right now. 


And these mugs by Ricki Oltean can add such a pretty splash of bold color to your kitchen shelf. This design also comes on a portable, glass coffee cup with lid! There was never a better time or reason to replace that plastic one! 


Your little one might want to enjoy some pretend coffee or some real fruit tea with you.  Melissa Brown of Etsy shop, Cedar Pocket (how fantastic is this shop name?) had this in mind when she made this wheel-thrown mug for a two year old.  Gotta love pretty, mini cups for mini hands. Nona would drink this up. 

 How great are these  hand thrown mugs and egg cups (egg cups!) by Manchester shop, Fishink, made with Norwegian artist Tone Von Krogh?


And I'm loving this awesome wooden mobile by 
German shop snug studio (not to mention their bear, cloud and bus shaped wooden cutting boards!)



And finally, some jewelry!  Here's a vintage brass bird cuff by A Common Thread- shop:


 feather necklace by shop Dear June (love the name! and the scarves there, too.):



And that wraps up my collection of bird inspired art for Marginamia's official bird week! I hope our readers outside the U.S. enjoyed seeing artists from your necks of the woods. Etsy is a quite a place, yes? You have to love an international community of makers! 

Now lets talk names!

Wednesday I did a guest post over at Nameberry (so much fun!) There is one particular category from my post on bird names that I really want to talk about some more.   I mentioned Meadowlark there among several others that all share a particular element. Meadowlark, like Maryanne, is a smoosh. Maybelle, Annabelle, Marilou, Rosevine (which I suggested recently in a  consultation)-- all smooshes. 

Sometimes smooshing involves pushing two words together to form a completely new word (Greystone and Rosedew, for example), so the practice might not appeal to some for that reason alone. Other smooshes come to us pre-smooshed, like Lovebird and Goldfinch, so they couldn't be considered by anyone to be misspellings. And yes, I think they still qualify as examples of a smoosh if they come prepackaged as such. What do you guys think? 

 I definitely count myself a fan of a good smoosh.  And bird names are a smoosh lover's dream. I won't re-list all of the ones I talked about on nameberry, but here are some extra examples (some pre-packaged smooshes and some smooshed together by me): 
Goldfinch
Snowfinch
Mountainfinch
Rosefinch
Greenfinch
Songlark 
Sandlark
Sunlark
Skylark
Woodlark
Rustylark
Shorebird 
Seabird 
Blackbird
Lovebird
Songbird
Bellbird
Hummingbird 
Baywren
Nightjar
Feildfare 

Monday I interviewed bird house artist Jenn Wong, of Wongers, and I love her idea of taking names from a genus of birds (or the class, itself-- Aves) as well as individual species.  And while I don't really keep up with celebrities too much, my favorite celebrity baby name of the year was definitely Agnes Lark Bettany. Agnes Lark is perfection. It checks every box for me, really. So combining my love of the lark and Jenn's idea, here are some genus names of larks and finches that I think sound lovely:
Lullula
Aleamon
Alauda
Eremalauda 
Calandrella
Galerida
Loxia (finch)

And more names of bird species:
Brambling
Barbet
Crane
Downy
Dipper
Eagle
Falcon
Hawk
Inca
Kinglet
Kokako
Minla
Munia
Myna
Ouzel
Petrel
Plover
Pipit
Sibia
Swiftlet
Tern
Teal
Tawny (Owl)
Vanga
Yuhina

Still longing for more bird names? I mean, who could have enough of them, really? I haven't been the only one talking about bird names, lately:

Brittish Baby Names gives a lovely and in depth look at crows, doves, eagles, falcons, larks, sparrows, swallows, seagulls and all the names they inspire here. Usoa, Akos, and Ezio, for example, are such pleasant finds!

Bewitching Names gives us a detailed look at a word name relating to birds. 

And again, here's Nameberry's original 2008 post on the topic, the 2011 post, and their list of birdies. 

What do you think, readers? Would you use any of these? What would you put with them? Any more bird name posts out there that I'm missing? I'd love to add them! Any favorite birdies flying from the hands of makers? 

This was absolutely one of my funnest blogging weeks ever!
An extra thank you to Jenn Wong of Wongoers. I've been excitedly holding her wonderful interview for weeks so I could group it with the other birdie posts for one happy flock. It wouldn't have been bird week without it!  Thanks, Jenn!

Thank you to Linda and Pam at Nameberry and, of course, all the lovely berries for having me over this week! 

And thanks to all of you readers for sharing in the fun and tolerating my many bird puns! I'm such a geek with this topic, I tell ya.  I'll see you all next week.

 Happy Friday!

And Happy 11/11/11! 




(bjork image)

11 comments:

  1. I just posted about one of my favorite bird names -- Crake. From your wonderful list, I particularly like Lullula and Petrel.

    Some others I like -- Crossbill, Kittiwake, Avocet, Chickadee, Ibis, Murrelet, Oriole, Parula, Peregrine, Waxwing, Willet, Siskin, Vermillion, Roseate and Pomarine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. eponymia -- Kittiwake, Murrelet and Ibis are so great! Some of these were covered in my Nameberry article, so that's why they don't appear here. Great additions, thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love Finch... reminds me of Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird.

    Oh, and, in high school, I had a crush on a boy named Crow Lord. Not kidding! That was his name. He was so fair, too - blonde haired, blue eyed, which you wouldn't expect of a "crow lord." Ha.

    I've enjoyed bird week! Have a great weekend! xo.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you. :) I appreciate your response.

    (And, I have to add, all those great -finch smooshes really have me liking the name Finch on its own as well.)

    ReplyDelete
  5. How come no one ever mentions Chickadee as a bird name? I just love it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Another bird post. I'm in heaven! There are so many great lark and finch smooshes. Some great ideas. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Crow Lord. just wow.

    Sara, someone actually mentioned Chickadee as a nickname for Charlotte in the comments on my post on nameberry! I think that's adorable.

    I love the sound of it. I think my mind just tends to take less seriously names that I've heard used as nicknames. It's like they already have a sort of human name context, rather than being totally open for us to mold into a new use as a name. So, personally, this is one I might save for middle name or nickname.

    Also from the nameberry post, I want to mention (again) Willet and Whimbrel. I only mentioned them briefly there in the long list, but I love them so, so much. I'd love to see a boy Whimbrel called 'Whim'. I have a dear friend named Whim, and I think it's just as practical and wearable as Will, and similar to it on so many other levels, as well. Willet is a beautiful option for those who love -ette names, and it has the great W beginning. And I also raved about Nightingale in the comments of that post, too. But again, I'll state my love for it for a little boy. I like the idea of calling him 'Night'. Ahh, Whim and Night.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Funny you should post this; I was just thinking the other day how I love bird names! My favourites at the moment are Lark, Wren and Sparrow, but some of the names in this post I've never heard of and am loving! How gorgeous is Sunlark? And Lullula, Crane, Inca, Pipit and Teal (I actually heard this on a little girl once- gorgeous!). I also think Cygnet could be quite sweet. It reminds me of Sigrid, which is one of my all-time favourite names. And I totally agree with you about Agnes Lark. I've seen a lot of comments about how Agnes is such an ugly, old lady name but.... are you kidding me? So many popular names these days have been being used for decades! (Ruby, Ava, Emily...) I just love the heavy, classic, elegant feel of Agnes, it's definitely one of my faves at the moment, and with the light, carefree Lark? Perfection.
    PS The craziest bird name I've ever heard was a girl I met called Eagleheart Bird. Pretty intense.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dude! Jessie May! Okay, I would love to know more about your social circles. You know so many people with super interesting names! Sorry to pry, but I'm super intrigued. Of course, you may not want to share--totally fine and I hope I've not offended! I think it's a great testament to there being a community for every type of name; people shouldn't shy away from less common ones! Yes, Eagleheart Bird is super intense, but you really have encountered some true gems of names out there in the real world. And Sigrid? Oh man, she's a favorite of mine, too. How I love her!

    ReplyDelete
  10. My name is Flynn Kestrel, Kestrel for an Australian bird of prey (my mum's have bird), Flynn for John Flynn- of Australia's 'Royal Flying Doctor Service'. I also have a very birdy last name (sounds a lot like dove) so I've always been very attached to bird names. My son's name is Reid Dovey and I'm pregnant with our second and we're trying to come up with options. We have decided to go with Wren as a middle name, to echo my birdy past, and also because it makes all other names sound so good- for example Edith Wren, Ruben Wren, Indigo Wren, Cohen Wren, Jules Wren, Scarlet Wren, Ivy Wren, Sadie Wren, Elka Wren... Bliss! Now to narrow them down to just one boy and one girl name. Eek!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks for the comment -- what a fantastic collection of names! Gosh, Edith Wren, Elka Wren, and Ruben Wren (!!!) really stand out to me. I so love a slightly clunky, vintage classic upfront with Wren, especially when it's alliterative. If *I* were narrowing it down to one for each gender, I can safely say I'd go with Ruben and Elka (wins out just slightly over Edith for it's pairing with your son's name).

      Delete