Melanie Maxwell Baby Update: Deborah Carol Is Here

[Hane]

1 hour ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

There’s this weird rule on name cycles. Deborah, Linda, and Sandra aren’t ready to come back yet. They likely will. But not right now. The generation before those women are the ones coming back. The mother’s of Deborah, Linda, and Sandra are the ones with names coming back in style. Women named Helen and Mabel likely had daughters with names like Deborah. Give it a decade or two. And those names will come back. 

True! My grandson, who is 11, is named Everett. Until he was born, the only Everett I knew was a 90-year-old man—and now little Everetts seem to be popping up all over. The Baby Name Voyager shows the name on the upswing. (When I was a new mom in the ‘70s, naming a baby Sophie would have been considered child abuse.)

And it’ll be a few years until we see the Donnas, Sharons, Janets, etc. of the ‘50s and ‘60s start showing up again—as I told my daughter, moms nowadays don’t want to name their babies after the bitch who grounded them for flunking algebra.

Edited May 14, 2019 by Hane
Linkity

[church_of_dog]

I know a very nice Deb and a completely kickass Debbie.  And probably a few others who aren't coming to mind right now.

Of course they are both 60-ish, of that era when the name was common.  (as am I, which is probably why I'm currently blanking on any other Debs I know )

[Lady Grass Lake]

Another Deborah here, I was born in 1952 and it was an extremely popular name back then, there were 6 in my Kindergarten class.  I also am an AMAZING person.  I went by my middle name of Sue until Middle School then went by Debby, but shortened it to Deb because Debby seemed too childish for a professional person in their 30's and 40's.   I like Carol for the middle name, seems like every Deborah/Debra I knew had middle names of Lynn or Ann.   

This is my opinion and I know people will disagree with, but I like  names that are feminine, I don't like ambiguous names that could go for either sex.  I also think the spellings should not be altered.  I once heard someone say if you can't find a pencil or a mug for sale with the traditional spelling, don't use a weird spelling.  I have gone through life with two last names that both have to be spelled for doctors, banks, and just about everything else , and are still misspelled even though I stress the correct spelling, it's a pain in the backside.    

Naming a child is a huge task, it's amazing how many people two parents dislike and have to be ruled out before you can find a name or names that everyone agrees on.  

 

 

 

 

[nausicaa]

9 hours ago, meee said:

A D name AND a C name. I should have guessed. And Deborah was my guess back when we were guessing names for Benjamin, but then I decided it was too old-fashioned. 

And I'm annoyed that they departed from the virtue middle name thing lol. 

They were sort of stuck with Deborah because of the Biblical name thing. Or else go with Dorcas (shudder) or Delilah (questionable Biblical story). And Damaris is waaay too cool and funky for the Maxwells. 

I'm also annoyed that they didn't use a virtue middle name. They could have used "Charity," "Constance" or "Chastity" if they needed a "C."

[meee]

6 minutes ago, nausicaa said:

They were sort of stuck with Deborah because of the Biblical name thing. Or else go with Dorcas (shudder) or Delilah (questionable Biblical story). And Damaris is waaay too cool and funky for the Maxwells. 

I'm also annoyed that they didn't use a virtue middle name. They could have used "Charity," "Constance" or "Chastity" if they needed a "C."

Well, I guessed Dorothy, which isn't entirely a biblical name, but then neither are Bethany or Christina.

[JermajestyDuggar]

2 minutes ago, meee said:

Well, I guessed Dorothy, which isn't entirely a biblical name, but then neither are Bethany or Christina.

Dorothy is more back in style because those named Dorothy gave birth to those named Deborah. 

[justmy2cents]

2 hours ago, singsingsing said:

 Hell, when my mum was pregnant with me, she liked the name Emma a lot, but thought it sounded too old-fashioned. Now Emma is the #1 most popular baby name for girls and has been for years. So you really never know.

That was my dilemma. I love the name Emma. It's what we called my grandmother instead of her formal name. After she passed away in the late 80's I was determined to use that name if I ever had a girl. Then 10 years later it started surging in popularity. By the time I had my daughter 8 years ago it seemed that every other girl born was named Emma. In the end I decided to give my daughter my grandmother's formal name and chose a different nickname. The moment I held my daughter I started calling her Emma. It just suits her and I don't care if it is wildly popular. She's actually the only Emma in the entire 2nd grade at her school. OTOH there are 3 or 4 Olivias.

[nausicaa]

43 minutes ago, meee said:

Well, I guessed Dorothy, which isn't entirely a biblical name, but then neither are Bethany or Christina.

True, but I can see Steve having a conniption over "Dorothy" being too popish. "Bethany" and "Christina" both have nearly direct mentions in the Bible. And they didn't have a lot of female "B" options. Though, I am surprised they didn't pick "Chloe" over "Christina."

I love guessing their names based on the rules they've created. So if (big if) they have one more, my guess is a boy named "Caleb Elijah" or "Caleb Ezra" or a girl named "Eden Amity" or "Eunice Amity." (I'm assuming Eve is too racy for them?)

Edited May 14, 2019 by nausicaa

[Dru]

On 5/10/2019 at 2:51 PM, BookwormExtraordinaire said:

I think Caleb is a likely first name for a boy, with a middle name honouring Melanie’s father in some way (do we know his name?)

For a girl I think Deborah is likely, but I like Dorothy much better. Nathan and Melanie haven’t used Grace as a middle name for any of their children yet so that would be a logical choice even if the new baby has at least two cousins with that middle name. 

I know the ship sailed on it possibly being a boy, but Mel's dad is Roger Thomas. Mel's mom is Linda Carol.

[mango_fandango]

Well, Deborah it is!!

Imma edit the title in a minute.

[JermajestyDuggar]

48 minutes ago, justmy2cents said:

That was my dilemma. I love the name Emma. It's what we called my grandmother instead of her formal name. After she passed away in the late 80's I was determined to use that name if I ever had a girl. Then 10 years later it started surging in popularity. By the time I had my daughter 8 years ago it seemed that every other girl born was named Emma. In the end I decided to give my daughter my grandmother's formal name and chose a different nickname. The moment I held my daughter I started calling her Emma. It just suits her and I don't care if it is wildly popular. She's actually the only Emma in the entire 2nd grade at her school. OTOH there are 3 or 4 Olivias.

This is what’s hard about names. There are pockets across the US where some names are crazy popular and other places where the name isn’t very popular at all. Although my children’s names weren’t in the top 100 the year they were born, we have come across a few kids with the same name in our neighborhood. But I bet if we moved out west, we would find that their names are less popular. 

[PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea]

1 hour ago, Lady Grass Lake said:

  I also think the spellings should not be altered. 

 

 

 

The hard part is, there never was consistent spelling in English until about the late 1800s, and this included personal names. Catherine Parr (1500s) spelled her own name many ways: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Parr

Her signature is spelled "Kathryn," which now reads very 1980s to me!

That all said, my ears are personally grated by extraneous Y's in names, but it's nice to know that Medieval people also had Alice, Alyse, Alyce, Ales, etc. Joan could also be Jone, etc.

http://dmnes.org/name/Alice

 

PS - the DMNES blog is a real name nerd treasury. Twins in 16th century Warwickshire indeed! https://dmnes.wordpress.com/tag/alice/

[deborahlynn1979]

1 hour ago, Lady Grass Lake said:

 I like Carol for the middle name, seems like every Deborah/Debra I knew had middle names of Lynn or Ann.   

 

 

 

LOL, my middle name is Lynn and my mom is named Ann!

Edited May 14, 2019 by deborahlynn1979

[Maggie Mae]

1 hour ago, Lady Grass Lake said:

This is my opinion and I know people will disagree with, but I like  names that are feminine, I don't like ambiguous names that could go for either sex.  I also think the spellings should not be altered.  I once heard someone say if you can't find a pencil or a mug for sale with the traditional spelling, don't use a weird spelling. 

Much of my family is big into ambiguous names, and I don't really have a preference.  There's also the fact that names change, a lot of girls names used to be traditional "boy" names until fairly recently. Lindsay, Kelly, Jamie, even Ryann can be either sex. I have a doctor (male) whose name is Elisha and I also know a girl Elisha. I think it's best to not get too worked up about what kind of genitals or gender expression goes with each name. 

My name is never on mugs and while it's annoying and I sometimes hate my name, it's really not a huge deal to never be able to find a tchotchke with your name on it. Probably save some money on vacation, too! 

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Growing up, many of my friends had middle names of Lynn, Ann, Marie, or Jo. Nowadays it seems the most popular middle name is Grace. 

[Maggie Mae]

It's weird to me how I can think Dorothy and Gretchen are cute but Deborah seems so frumpy and dated to me. (Sorry Deborahs!) I imagine it's because it's the name of a misliked relative and former boss, but I dunno. I also don't know if I find Deborah better than Deb or Debbie, they all seem so meh to me. 

Of course, I am like the one person who doesn't make fun of Apple Martin (Gwynth Paltrow's daughter)'s name. I thought it was cute then and I think it's cute now. So my taste is likely suspect and people should name their kids what they want. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

59 minutes ago, Maggie Mae said:

It's weird to me how I can think Dorothy and Gretchen are cute but Deborah seems so frumpy and dated to me. (Sorry Deborahs!) I imagine it's because it's the name of a misliked relative and former boss, but I dunno. I also don't know if I find Deborah better than Deb or Debbie, they all seem so meh to me. 

Of course, I am like the one person who doesn't make fun of Apple Martin (Gwynth Paltrow's daughter)'s name. I thought it was cute then and I think it's cute now. So my taste is likely suspect and people should name their kids what they want. 

I think it’s because a lot of the Dorothy’s have died but there are lots of Deborah’s we can currently think of. My mom’s best friend is a Debbie. My Girl Scout leader was a Debbie. One of my elementary school teachers had the first name Deborah. I have plenty of associations with the name. But I know of very few Dorothy’s now that I’m sitting here thinking about it. 

[ThisOrdinaryTime]

13 hours ago, Granwych said:

Oy.  The two Deborahs that I know just happen to be raging bitches. 

hope that e everything goes well with the family.

*whispers* my mother-in-law ?

(With apologies to the lovely Deborahs in this thread. I do know some sweet ones too!)

Edited May 14, 2019 by ThisOrdinaryTime
another thought

[kpmom]

2 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

It's weird to me how I can think Dorothy and Gretchen are cute but Deborah seems so frumpy and dated to me. (Sorry Deborahs!) I imagine it's because it's the name of a misliked relative and former boss, but I dunno.

 

I had an awful former boss named "Debi" (short for Deborah, of course) too. 

She does come in handy  for those "Who was your least favorite boss?" security questions, though.

Edited May 14, 2019 by kpmom
Making a little more sense.

[Lady Grass Lake]

For all the Deborah's out there, how do you pronounce it?  My Mother insisted I am  Da Bore Ah (emphasis on the Bore) and not Debra.   

[SolomonFundy]

13 hours ago, nausicaa said:

True, but I can see Steve having a conniption over "Dorothy" being too popish. "Bethany" and "Christina" both have nearly direct mentions in the Bible. And they didn't have a lot of female "B" options. Though, I am surprised they didn't pick "Chloe" over "Christina."

I love guessing their names based on the rules they've created. So if (big if) they have one more, my guess is a boy named "Caleb Elijah" or "Caleb Ezra" or a girl named "Eden Amity" or "Eunice Amity." (I'm assuming Eve is too racy for them?)

I'm glad someone else has the same sickness that I do. I also came up with a pet name selection for the theoretical next Melanie and Nathan spawn!

Girl: Esther Glory

Boy: Caleb Emmanuel

I'll go on the record here and say that IF they have another baby, and IF it's a boy, I'll bake and eat a raspberry shame pie if they don't name it "Caleb". It's utterly inevitable. 

[mango_fandango]

One of my English teachers was called Deborah. Obviously to us she was Mrs Jones (not her real name) so no idea how it was pronounced.

Teri said in a reply to a comment that they pronounce it Deb-ra.

 I think there’s another fundie mom who’s got a daughter called Deborah, I think Caroline Allen of The Modest Mom blog? We don’t really discuss her here but she’s probably been mentioned at some point. 

[PlentyOfJesusFishInTheSea]

A lot of my high school friends' moms were Deborahs. I think they all pronounced it Debra and many went by Debbie. I guess it was mega-popular in Ontario circa 1960 or so?

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Wow. I didn't expect Deborah to be the name.

[tabitha2]

Like has been mentioned  There aren’t that many D female Biblical names to choose from. Delilah and Dorcas ? Obvious reason. Damaris is pretty but very grand and heavy for a baby girl.