Duana,
The other day one of my girlfriends and I were talking about baby names and she was telling me that she is having a lot of trouble coming up with names. I absolutely love reading all of your posts and thought who could be better to ask than you! She is pregnant with her 2nd and not sure if she is having a girl or a boy. Her first born was a girl and they named her Kona. Both her & her husbands names start with the letter K and she wants to keep the K trend up with the new baby. So she is looking for both boy and girl names that start with K and go well with their little "Hawaiian" baby Kona. I can't wait to see what you come up with! :)
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Here’s the thing with K names. Some of them – not all – have the tendency to become kutesy. I know you know what I mean. Certain names, like some of the ones endorsed by the family I would be fired for mentioning by name, are co-opted by the K letter and so even though there are many names that legitimately begin with letter #11, they’re sometimes given a lack of respect.
Having said that, there are a number of really lovely K names (and I should point out that the letter writer had a K name that is lovely and entirely legit, just in case there was any doubt that this was a subtweet-style…article). I have many times before highlighted how much I love Kai, which I always knew for a boy, but which I’ve seen for a girl, too.
Similarly, there’s a new baby in our circle called Kaito and I like it more every time I hear it. In fact, there are a lot of names of Japanese origin starting with K that are lovely and lyrical and go with Kona. But what if that’s not your thing?
Kieran, the original Gaelic boys’ name that’s accepted but not over-the-top adopted, is useful, and while I wouldn’t necessarily apply it to a girl myself, I can totally understand those who would, and it fits in with Kona and also all the trends of the various boys’ names today.
But what about girls? A lot of girls’ names beginning with K have been used to death, to put it kindly. Remind me to tell you all another time something amazing I heard yesterday about the name Kelly. So are there any that still feel fresh enough to be used?
I can’t in good conscience endorse Kalliope or Khaleesi, and you wouldn’t want me to (also, Nameberry tells me that Kennedy means “misshapen head”) but there are a few that are beautiful.
I went to school with a Kezia, which I’ve seen both with and without an extra H on the end. Kerala is lovely, neither overused nor sounding too close to anything that is, and it has no hints of a pronunciation problem.
Similarly to Kaito, I would lose my Gilmore Girls cred if I didn’t shout out Keiko. I’m not guaranteeing it means your child will grow up to be awesome and honest and will skank to Rancid before school in a charming Connecticut town, but you can hope.
Let me know what your friend thinks, and given that people always write to let me know what I missed, I’ll begin on Friday with a list of additional non-twee K suggestions.
