Hi Duana,
My husband and I are expecting our second child in a few months, and we haven't found out the sex yet - if it's a boy, we're all set. For a girl, we both really love the name Wren, but it keeps popping up on these stupid "Hipster Baby Names" and "Names For Girls That Are Trendier Than You Think" lists. There is one other Wren (that we know of) in the town we live in, so it isn't like it's common or anything, but I am sort of repulsed by the idea of giving my child a hipster name, whatever that means. What do you think? Is this actually a thing?
Thanks!
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It’s interesting the different labels people use for different activities. Lainey and I have had the discussion about “douche” going on for a couple of days now, for example. This morning I had a spirited conversation about what constitutes “officious”. So words obviously mean different things to different people.
Wren, to me, is not a hipster name – which to me means “a name that suddenly shot to prominence in the last 5 years or so as ‘chill parents’ decided that it indicated intelligence or savvy”. Jasper yes, Wren no. What it is to me, if anything, is a “hippie” name – one that says you’re into nature, above the trends, and not terribly concerned with calling your daughter something hyper-feminine. All of which, to me, are positives. However, I can see how there could be a crunchy-granola association, so if that’s unappealing to you, know that.
The other thing of course is that people are idiots, and so your daughter might have a hard time explaining her name to people who don’t understand silent letters or etc. She may well, when she speaks on the phone to people, get correspondence addressed to Ren, as in McCormick.
Then again, who am I kidding? Your daughter (or son) is being born in 2014. She’s never going to talk on the phone ever.
One last thing about those “trendier than you think” lists – I find they’re very self-selecting. Like the people who admit they’d use Boris or Cecile or Wren are usually name nerds to begin with. People who think it doesn’t matter that much are still choosing Evelyn and Logan.