Madewell, Binki and Dree

Last week I got the new Madewell lookbook in the mail. I took the girls outside with some smoothies and a blanket and looked at the catalog as they strolled around in the cool breeze (thank goodness!) 


  I zoned in on the names of two of the women featured in the publication: Binki Shapiro (of Little Joy) and Dree Hemingway (yup, Ernest's great granddaughter.)

Here's a song of Little Joy's. If you like to listen while you browse, just hit play and enjoy the scenery:

I like this song a lot.  I really love her voice.  It's just after dinner time now as I write. It's raining, my babies are pasted to the window watching it, and the song and rain sound pretty perfect together. 

That's Binki Shapiro. Her real name is Jordana, also quite lovely,  but I love her nickname. 

Here she is with her band, and in her home in NY:

Also, the name of her musician bandmate/boyfriend (from the Strokes and Little Joy) is note worthy for our purposes--Fabrizio Moretti.  Have you heard this name too much over the last decade, or does it sound fresh to you? I rather like it.  Of course I do; it ends in -o and can yeild the nickname Breezy!  I also think the nickname, Fab,is well, fab.

I like this interview with Binki, below!

That's Dree Hemingway below. I went looking to see if this was a shortening for a longer name, like Andrea. I found no such information, but I did find some freakin' awesome names associated with this girl and her family tree. 

Can we start with Ernest? I love this name; do you?

Ernest Miller Hemingway was married three times to Hadley, Pauline, and Martha, and almost married an Agnes. He had several children from his first two marriages: Jack "Bumby" (feels like Binki), Patrick and Gregory (who changed his name to Gloria.) Patrick was married to Henrietta. Bumby married Byra (who went by Puck.) Together Bumby and Byra had three girls: Joan (who went by Muffet), Margot Louise (who changed her name to Margaux) and Mariel Hadley (an actress.) Margot had two marriages to Errol  and Bernard. Mariel was married to Stephen and they had two daughters: Dree and Langley Fox. There was a cousin named Adiel in all of this, somewhere, too.

That's quite a bunch of names!

I should also say that Ernest reminds me of Ernestine, of course, which then reminds me of Hazel, because I frequented a bar in college called Ernestine and Hazel's, in Memphis, known for their soul burgers. Downstairs was a juke joint filled with sweaty, dancing kids and boomers. With it's constant flow of people moving in and out all night, "Love and Happiness", by Reverend Al Green got played at least twenty times a night. And I never got tired of it in five years.  The upstairs of E&H's was a slightly swankier  bar with private-ish rooms full of sofas, peeling paint and massively tall ceilings.  The old house-turned-bar used to be a brothel, I'm told.

The names from today's post inspiration:

Binki


Jordana


Fabrizio (Fab, Breezy)


Dree


Ernest or Earnest or Ernesto (Ernie, Nesto, or Nest. I love Ernest's name even if he didn't, which I read was because he didn't like Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and assumed he was named after it?)


Ernestine (Someone please have a baby girl named Ernestine and call her Nest or Nestie!)


Hazel


Miller (went to school with one. like it.)


Hemingway


Adiel


Fox


Langley


Stephen


Bernard


Errol 


Louise


Margot


Muffet


Joan


Byra


Puck


Bumby


Jack


Henrietta


Patrick


Gregory


Gloria (you know this is really growing on me. I mean, it's just so lovely to the ear. I'd love it as a middle name with something super snappy up front. I also really like Gloria Josephine, lately, nn-Glory)


Anges


Martha


Pauline


Hadley

   Do you like Little Joy? Are you fans of Hemingway?  What about the names in that bunch? I'll say it one last time, Earnest and Ernestine are  perfection. 

(images: madewell lookbook,binki fedora, binki suspenders, binki at home, little joy, binki and fab, dree)

Miranda July, hipsters, and month & season names

This article on Miranda July was sent to me recently by a close friend, who knows I love July--thank you, Kate-- and I so enjoyed it.  

Apparently there are people who hate Miranda July? Because she represents hipsterdom? I don't get it.  What is it then about hipsterdom that we hate? Can we talk about this? 

Hipster-Hate, let's do this. Let's break it on down. 

So you hate hipsters. okay.  Except this term is becoming a little too all-encompasing for my comfort. The thing is, I think we're running a little nuts on all of this hipster-hate and kind of throwing a lot of babies out with a fairly small tub full of bathwater.  There's a reason this anti-hipster thing originated. I get it. I really do.  


I think the reason is that the human soul is just fundamentally irritated by insincerity. We need sincerity. We crave it, and the flamboyant-yet-unaware-ironic-and-snooty display that is the hipster parade is just annoying. It is.   But I fear that the reason the hipster-hate thrives as it does is something all together different from this point of origin, a beast that would like to keep all cultural divergence at bay by neatly packaging it all under a label so undesirable that even those who would otherwise happily diverge are afraid to do so anymore out of fear of being....not authentically cool enough? (ha!) 

You think bikes without brakes are dumb (me, too; I get it. But this doesn't mean we all have to eat hamburgers at baseball games while listening to Journey and reading US weekly, or (more importantly) that behaviors and preferences outside that set are pretentious.

  It's such a tiny, tiny sub-subculture of all that is known as subculture that is guilty of the most annoying offenses, yet it's all starting to be treated the same, even (and often especially) by people who like things that hipsters are reported as liking: "Don't call me a hipster! Oh Hell no! Look at me! I'm watching Friends reruns and listening to Britney Spears! I'm well-rounded! I'm endearing! I'm down-to-earth! I'm authentic and full of unexpected surprises!"  

Um, what's happening to us?  We can be and like all sorts of things authentically. I can authentically love Sufjan Stevens, Indie (gasp) movies, and Hemingway.  Heck, people can be authentically quirky, even; not all eccentricities are affectations.  Not all things marginal are simply a pretentious show designed to advertise coolness, right?  Snap out of it, people. 

Marginamia celebrates thoughtfulness, beauty, depth of character and often things which are more marginal. This is an entire blog based on the existence of this intersection of virtues. This intersection exists.   

July is critiqued for the very sort of pretense that is counter to what she's trying to create. I've read such similar, unfitting critiques lately about unusual names. Parents who use odd names must be hyper-concerned with their own images, with being cool, they must not care about their children's futures. They are damning their kids to playground mockery and joblessness.  They are accused of using (really?) their children for their own creative giggles and proof of their superiority, for neglecting their kids' well being in support of their own shallow entertainment. Wait. Wha? This is getting a little crazy, right?  

Marginal doesn't equal shallow, insincere, or self-obsessed. It can. So can lots of other things. Thank goodness we can evaluate individual cases with thought, so we don't have to use lazy catch-alls with no regard for context. 

Except, even being thoughtful about what we name our kids is catching heat. We're not supposed to care. I'm not surprised; thinking too much about anything gets a bad rap.  But being anti-thoughtful is never a good thing. It isn't over thoughtfulness that we suffer from today. I understand that we don't want to place undue value on something (names) or pretend that it stands in for something more substantive--misplaced values are a real problem in our culture-- but caring is not creepy, so long as we understand our subject's role.

Miranda July is thoughtful about her work, the topics she covers, and how her explorations will resonate with and connect to people, which is in pretty stark contrast to the alienation that results from attitudes of superiority and hipsterdom. 

For example, her site, Learning to Love You More, was developed, in part, to get people out there interacting with each other. This is a great example of how something can be light but meaningful. It's quirky, sure, but totally sincere, thoughtful and centered on human connection. That's why I chose to participate in it, myself! 

That's my own photo above, which was in the accompanying book and museum tour. It was based on an assignment (the entire website/tour/book is assignment based)to photograph two strangers holding hands.  The women in the picture ended up befriending one another, and we all had the most lovely chat together. 


I had just moved to Honolulu, hadn't really met anyone, and needed to get out and connect with people, though I was in a really shy place in my life. It was a perfect exercise for me, just to get me used to approaching people, and more importantly, approaching people based on my interests.  This photo represents the start of a beautiful journey of friend-making, and I think it's that kind of thing that the project had in mind, not just some shallow attempt to be cute and weird.

I'm rereading her book of short stories now, No one Belongs Here More Than You, and am enjoying the stories just as much as the first time.

I can't wait to see her new movie, The Future

I've watched Me You and Everyone We Know more times than I can count, and it's soundtrack has been the soundtrack to much of the babymooning in this house. 

The first time I saw it was with my husband in a small movie theater in Hawaii. It was just the two of us and a bus full of senior citizens, most of them old ladies. How perfect is that? During the "poop back and forth forever" bit, I think we actually landed on the floor slapping each other and cackling, in a room full of the utter shock and silence that is a nursing home response to such material.   

In the recent article (mentioned above), Miranda admits that she changed her name to July. I think it works as a first name, as well, and I want to really focus on that idea for names today.  Months, days, seasons, why not?  Unless, of course, you're too cool to care. 

January (I don't watch Madmen yet, but this star's name is lovely)

February (Feb)

March (so lovely)

April 

May (The virtues of this name will never expire)

June 

July (the namesake of today's inspiration, and a fantastic choice. Love this on a little boy.)

August (super stylish, and getting a lot of use now.)

September (I worked with one years ago. She fit her name perfectly.)

October (I like this. Toby, Tober anyone?)

November (This is one of the prettiest words around. Someone should give it's beauty to a person.)

December (Decy, Ber, Cember are all lovely)

Spring (love it)

Summer (knew a lot of Summers growing up)

Autumn (still lovely)

Winter (I knew one in college and find it pretty and refreshing)

Soltice (Solie, Sosi, Sol...really love them all.)

There are certainly many season and month inspired names, as well, but those are for another post!

What do you all think about Miranda July's stuff? Love it? Hate it? 


What about these names? Are there any that feel particularly fresh and usable? 


How do you feel about the criticisms of odd names and the scrutiny of parents who elect to use them?

(images: 1, 2, dancing/beaching july,  july in car, hand on fire, lady friends holding hands--mine, kiss,  the future movie, books on stove, me you and everyone)

Girl's Gone Child Twin Names

ETA: the twins have arrived.(See this post for musings on their chosen names, and keep reading below to see what we guessed and view names of a similar spirit.)

Sometime after our second was born, I discovered the world of Mommy blogs. Naturally, I stumbled across Girl's Gone Child and was so pleased to find some thoughtfully named children and the honest writing of Rebecca Woolf.  Woolf also writes for Huffington Post, Babble, and has written a book, Rockabye, From Wild to Child.

Some months later, I went back to discover that this family was expecting twins. I immediately began wondering about what they might be named, given that her first two kids are named Archer and Fable. and given I'm a name nerd.

I was lured back to the blog over and over when she enticed us with her throw-away name list, gave the babes the womb names, Rhythm and Blues, and continued dropping little hints as to what their names might be. 

Elisabeth at YCII opened up this discussion. It turns out that I'm not the only one to wonder and wonder about what other people are naming their children.

 Here were my guesses/wishes for this family (in the comments of Elisabeth's post):

Reve (rev)- French for ‘dream’.

Lullaby (Luby, Lulu, Lully)- If anyone can pull this off, it’s them!

Hallow (too close to Hal? or maybe a tribute?) 

Vigil (could see this paired with Reve.)

Fleet

Arrow (too much with Arher?)

Domino

Orchard (too close to Archer, but for someone…)

Maple

Vetiver (but for the ending.)

Yarrow (-o sound!)

Peace names:

Nitsa

Concordia (Coco, Dia, Cordi)

Zulema (Zuzu)

Poetry/music related:

Sappho

Meter

Wilde

Gita(song)

Ballad

From Myth:

Clotho (Clo) another -o ending! 

Anemone

Clytie

Calypso  

Cassiopeia 

I'd love to see these sets: 

Reve Condcordia Wilde and Vigil Verbena

Clotho Zulema and Thisbe Dove  

Yarrow Reve and Vesper Virginia  

Gita Pomeline and Maple Calliope 

Arrow Zephyrine and Reve Nitsa

Then Rebecca started giving us more clues;Here is a roundup of clues:

*The  names start with letters R and B

*Names have shorter nickname options

*Matching but not matchy-matchy 

 *the babes are forces of nature

*the names are "the essences of themselves"

*at least one has a 'peace' middle name.

My final(ish) guesses:

Reverie, Rhapsody, Rosalie, Romilda,  Rimona, Rapid, Rudelle, Rapture, Romance 

Ballad or the French Ballade, Bijou, Bernadette, Billow, Begonia, Beata, Beryl, Bedelia, Bael, Bravura, Bellamy  

For middle names, I'm putting my bets on:

Salome, 

Concordia, 

Zulema,  and 

Irene/Nitza 

 I definitely found some new names through pondering this, and dreamt up combos for her that I wouldn't mind using on my own future children, which is not all together surprising - something tells me one of her girls and one of mine are going to be sharing a name!  

We'll see shortly!  

And Rebecca Woolf, Happy remaning pregnancy, birthing and babymooning! I can't wait to hear these beautiful names! 

(all photos from Girl's Gone Child)