Hey Duana -
Long time reader, first time writer.
We are welcoming our second child in September and are still not clear on names. We have a nearly 2 year old named Fiona Lisette - Fiona for my Irish heritage and Lisette for my aunt Lisa and various Elizabeths in our families.
Fiona already shares a name with Princess Fiona from Shrek and a famous American Hippo, but we loved the name so much that we were able to get over it. I share a name with a various famous 90s TV character, and can testify that 50% of the time I tell someone my name - whether ordering a sandwich or at an interview - the speaker immediately references the show. No one mentions its association to one of the most influential pieces of 20th century literature . . . But I digress. We want our kids to have a names that avoid the media pitfalls that my name circles.
We had been throwing around lots of Shakespeare names, and really centered on Viola for her strength and Juliet simply because we love the name (and my husband dreams of yelling ‘Giulietta!’ ala Nurse from the Baz Luhrman adaptation.) We moved away from Viola because of its very similar form to Fiona, even though I love it as a concept. I also love Helena and had a grandmother Helene, but it doesn’t seem like a name for a child.
Our current front runner is Juliet Quinn, but what about just Quinn with something else as a middle name? Have Glee and Scandal already ruined Quinn? I also found that Juliet Quinn happens to be the name of a current high school TV character - something my history makes me question. Other girl names we love but question for popularity/family/hipster usage are Olivia, Isabella, Imogen, Magnolia, Beatrix, and Willa. I love the idea of another Irish name, but so many of them are not phonetic like Fiona is. What am I missing?
We really love Jasper as a boys name - my grandfather was a geologist, and it would pay homage to him. With our first, we had picked Griffin as our boy name but no longer love it. The child will have two middle names (with my Irish-lite one syllable last name that starts with L as the second middle) and my husband’s two syllable Anglicized French last name. With Fiona, we were able to give her two middle names with the same initial, something my husband loves and we would like to try to do with this kiddo as well. We were thinking of Leo, Levi, Lawrence, or maybe some B names like Bartholomew (which is a family name) or Beckett.
Last note - Hannah and Montana are definitely off the table.
Thanks for any input here,
C
Ohhh, C – I love this letter so much, and you have joined the ranks of people whose email titles are so incredible I rip them off wholesale.
I’m going to start by reminding you of a couple of things you already know – namesplaining, if you will, as follows:
Without knowing exactly how old you are, I’m willing to bet you had some sort of relationship with your name before the show, and that it was chosen because someone loved it or because of the literary associations, not because you were named after the Nickelodeon character, right? And – whatever you felt about your name before you realized there was a dominant pop-culture reference about it, that’s the true association with the name, though I understand you can’t live in a vacuum with stuff like that.
The other thing is that you’re basing your choices and name opinions on what’s popular right now, but as this column has long proven, writers tend to be name nerds – and you can’t predict what will happen when your child is 5 or 8 or 13. There may be a breakout character from some show/TikTok/song circle or whatever we care about then that will be the defining image of the name, even if it hasn’t been used up to now. Likewise, the name associations you have with some of the names you’ve listed are already faded from the minds of most people who aren’t mulling over this question with the same intensity you are. I don’t think either of the Quinns you mention are top of mind for most people when you think of their respective shows, and that goes double for the ‘Juliet Quinn’ character – so the short story here is, you can’t control everything and thus should choose the name you want.
That said, I would be wary of names that are being chosen by your daughters’ contemporaries, since unlike character names, those are much more likely to follow her throughout her life. Olivia and Isabella definitively still fall into this category (still!) as would Leo for a boy, I think - it’s not in the top 10 or anything, it stands to reason that people will turn to it as an alternative to still-#1 Liam.
So, you can’t predict which names are going to be character/popularity proof unless you choose names that already were popular and have faded. A Jennifer born today would be pretty likely to be the only one in her circles, and free from TV comparisons – but, of course, we don’t like names like that.
Which means we’re all the way back around to ‘choose the name you like!” Where Irish names are concerned, I hear you. A few that come to mind that fit your style, but also have pretty universally accepted English spellings include Una or Anya or Dara. Imogen also falls into this category, luckily for you. Or what about the beautiful but desperately underused Eve? Fiona and Eve are a beautiful combination that don’t sound exactly like one another. Nuala also falls into this category, as does Deirdre…
As for a boys’ name, Jasper is great, and I would shout from the rooftops if you also used Bartholomew, because I’ve been screeching about it since this column began – and guess why people haven’t wanted to use it? Yes, you know it – it’s because they had this association with a certain character, a character who should basically be middle aged right now.
You can’t win when you fight pop culture, or culture in general – ask the people who wrote to me a few years ago because their daughters were named Isis. You can only choose a name you love, help your children understand why you love it, and get ready to eyeroll when the new popular teen character of 2026 is Magnolia or Lawrence, and remind people that you got there first!
Let us know!
