It's a Family Name

Songbird?

I'm a little late to jump on the bandwagon with this name, but while waiting for my hair color to take at the salon, I read an article about  Nicole Ritchie and Pete Wentz naming their child Sparrow James Midnight. Maybe they hope that because he's named after a bird, he'll have a great ability to sing? Maybe they thought that if folks name their kids Robin, that it'd be okay to name their child Sparrow?

Don't you mean Evian?

Nope, it's Evijan. I found this on a list of "cool" made up names. I can see the poor kid now, having to explain his or her name:

No, my parents did not misspell 'Evian,' and I am not named after the water.

Although, I think I'd rather be named after the water...

Atlanta Knew

This is the name of John Taylor and Amanda de Cadenet's little girl, John being the bass player in Duran Duran. Wow, I actually found a name that falls into two categories, city names, and celebrity names! I'd seriously love to hear the story behind this name. I mean, Atlanta's a cool city and all, but that doesn't make it right to give your child that name. Besides, it might bring back bad memories of getting stuck in the Atlanta airport, or having to run faster than the speed of light to catch your connecting flight.

But I digress. I can't pass over her middle name, Knew. I guess it's catchy and all. Her friends can go around saying "Atlanta knew this, that, and the other thing." But what value is there in giving your child a past tense verb for a middle name?

Welcome!

It's a Family Name is a blog devoted to unique names, like mine (Starratt). All my life, I've had to explain my name, where it came from ("it's a family name"), spell it, repeat it...but I wouldn't have it any other way. As such, names fascinate me, especially celebrity baby names that seem like they were picked out of a hat of random words. So, this is a blog dedicated to the unique names of the world. If you happen to find this blog, and you have a name you think has a story, I'd love for you to post it. Perhaps someday, it will appear in a book (with your permission, of course).

Houston, we have a problem

Okay, so I saw a post on some forum asking about baby names that were vetoed, and the woman said she had to veto Houston for a boy's name, because they already had a girl named Savannah, which is a great name. But, as she said, she didn't want all of her children to be named after cities. Agreed!

Apple

It’s a well-known fact that celebrities like to give their children outlandish names. I think the first one I remember being odd was Apple, the first child for actress Gwyneth Paltrow and musician Chris Martin. Well, okay, it wasn’t the first bizarre name I remember. But for some reason, it struck me as odd to name your child after a fruit. At the time, they just said, “it’s a cool name.” I also remember reading somewhere that they thought an apple was sweet, and they couldn’t think of anything sweeter than their new daughter. Or, that she was “the apple of their eyes.” So, that justifies giving your child the name of a fruit? If so, is she more of a Golden Delicious or Granny Smith type of apple? Time will only tell…

Anyway, no one else (celebrities) that I know of has done this again, thank goodness. It’s one thing to give your child a unique name. It’s another to associate them with fruit, as delicious as fruit may be.

Starratt

That's my name! It’s pronounced, “stare-at” for lack of a better way of putting it. I’ve met only one other person with my name, and it was a guy. His response upon learning we have the same name was something like this:

this is very strange for me, because all the men in my family are named Starratt.

I laughed and said,

this is weird for me, because I’ve never met anyone with my name!

We had our picture taken. Whatever happened to that picture, I’ll never know. But it’s something I’ll always remember.

It is a family name, if you hadn’t guessed by now. My parents thought I was going to be a boy, and had all of these boy’s names picked out. So when I was born, they had to find a girl’s name. With my dad being southern, and family names being of utmost importance in that culture, a few names were suggested: Rebecca, Sarah, Monimia, and Starratt. There may have been others, but I don’t know. All I have to say is, I’m glad they passed on Monimia. And I’m glad they chose Starratt. Yes, it was hard growing up with an unusual name, but it’s been well worth it.

I never had any keychains, license plates, or anything with my name on it that wasn’t handmade by a family friend when I was a kid. People always asked me where my name came from, how it was spelled, what it meant, etc. I could answer the first two, but never the last until I was in college when I found an old, dusty book of surnames. Perfect! I could finally find out what my name meant. Turns out it’s Scottish. Not surprising, since most of my heritage lies in the British Isles. What did interest me is that its origins lie in a lowland town in Ayrshire called Stairaird, and roughly translated it means “bridge over bogs.” Erm, okay. Although I guess it’s a very useful name, considering there are lots of moors (a.k.a., bogs) in Scotland. But it’s not what I thought it would mean. Well, I never had any idea what it meant, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with…bogs.

Anyway, this is the story of my name. I hope to find more like mine on the Interwebs, because like I said…there’s always a story to everyone’s name.