Oh, yes, the Fates–and now, the significances of their names:
Clotho: “The Spinner,” who spins the thread of life.
Lachesis: “Caster of Lots,” who measures the thread.
Atropos: “The Unbending,” who cuts the thread off.
The Graces:
Thalia: “Bloom”
Aglaia: “Brilliance”
Euphrosyne: “Joy”
The Norn, when represented as three sisters:
Urd: the past
Verdhandi: the present
Skuld: the future.
I recommend staying away from “Urd” and “Atropos” for your daughters. 
I find it interesting that nobody much has considered using non-European/non-Anglo names. I myself am the product of an Indian father and a Jewish/American mother, hence I am Akash Aaron Jayaprakash. I was teased merciliesly as a child (use your imagination) but have since come to accept my name with pride! I’m going to give my kids Indian/Jewish/Arabic names to reflect me and my fiancee’s heritage when they come along 7 years from now. (“Safia Mira Elizabeth Jayaprakash,” anyone? Or “David Surya Mohammed Jayprakash”? Hmmmmm…)
Before the groans start flying, consider this: teasing of foreign names doesn’t seem to be so prevalent anymore. At least my 6-year-old sister, Pooja, who would have been ripe for peer-destruction in my generation, hasn’t had a single person make fun of her name (and this in Utah, no less, hardly a bastion of cosmopolitanism!). Ditto with her African-American and Asian friends: “Aiko” and “LaShanna” and “Neepa” seem to be co-existing just fine with “Chelsea” and “Brianna” and “Ashley”; maybe America has changed somewhat?
Akash, Proud to Be Thus Named
P.S. If anyone DID make fun of my sister, I would show them their lungs! :mad:
Pooja, Pooja, Pooja.
Pooja is huge-a!
(heh heh heh.)
Actually, she’s small and beautiful. Now, if you would kindly send me your physical address, I will be by shortly to show you your lungs, as promised! 
No hard feelings–I think.
Akash
Who would NEVER insult a 6-year-old, even on the 'net
P.S. Don’t worry, your lungs are safe where they are.
One of my nieces (in Maine) is Makenna (I think that’s how it’s spelled for her). It’d be cute by itself, but her older brother are Matthew and Matteah. My sister-in-law intends to use another “M” name for her fourth. ugh
One of my nephews is Kristofer Mackenzie. I think the middle name came from Mackenzie Phillips of “One Day at a Time”.
With 24 niblings and a child of my own over the last 25 years, our family has a vast range of styles for names. They are (similar highlights are siblings):
[ul]
[li]Jason Travis (“J” names were big in the 70’s; Travis was a family friend[/li][li]Robin Amy (after her father Robert)[/li][li]Lindsey Anne[/li][li]Kirsten “Kirstie” (not after Ms. Alley)[/li][li]Daniel “Dan”[/li][li]Joshua &[/li][li]Samuel (J & S’s parents are missionaries which explains the Biblical theme)[/li][li]Erin[/li][li]Nicholas “Neeka” (Mother’s name is Mikki, yet she gets upset when they call him Nicky, so she found a Russian nickname instead)[/li][li]Kristofer Mackenzie “Kit”[/li][li]Elena (after our grandmother)[/li][li]Kelsey Lane (told my brother that it sounds like a Beatles song)[/li][li]Russell[/li][li]Lauren[/li][li]Holly[/li][li]Micah (Biblical)[/li][li]Katie[/li][li]Jasmine (from “Aladdin”?)[/li][li]Alexis[/li][li]Dallas[/li][li]Dakota (D & D are twins {boys, BTW})[/li][li]Matthew David[/li][li]Matteah[/li][li]Makenna[/li][li]Courtney Rochelle (Middle name after a friend)[/li][/ul]
I was very sure when we named our girl that we found a reference to a wife (or mistress even?) that had been the subject or dedicatee for a book of the James Joyce/Ezra Pound era.
I think it became more common in the US, from that point on, kind of like Zelda did for a time.
Now I can’t find it anywhere.
Any literati among us able to confirm that?
I just found it.
The Web is a marvelous beast.
Couldn’t find it with generic search engines, but the library reference shows Caitlin Thomas wrote an autobiography about her life with Dylan Thomas 1914-1953.
Published in Great Britain under the title “Caitlin: a warring absence”
From a Brit’s perspective most of the “unusual” names here seems pretty low rent but Jaime’s nice ! Maybe though it comes from the french “J’aime” meaning “I love/like” which would make it even sweeeter in my book tho’ would probably get you teased like hell on the continent or Quebec…
Drain Bead, I think the Neil is a wonderful one.
My boys names are: Robert Allen, Neil David, Thomas Jay, & Simon Richard.
My neices & nephews:
Markus, Mathias, Dominic, Klarrisa, Karl, Kyle, Kendra, Katherina & Andrew. All pretty tradional, if not a bit ethnic.
The name I absolutely love is Destiny Cheyenne, my best friends daughter’s name. I don’t know where she picked out Destiny, but the Cheyenne was my choice. 
(Destiny is becoming a very popular name for girls in the last few years)
My other girlfriend named her children Shannon Marie, Cheryl Nadine, John Michael, & Rachel Elizabeth.
Then, of course, there’s my name… Cloud. My parents were hippies. What can I say? :rolleyes:
I started this thread on General Questions rather than on MPSIMS because I wanted an answer to a (rather hard) question instead of just a list of interesting names that you’d heard. I’m not surprised by any single name given to a baby. There’s enough people in this country that I can believe that there’s a dozen people with any given name. I’m not surprised by there being a slow rise or fall in the popularity of any given name. What I am surprised by is the tendency for certain names to just come out of nowhere and suddenly be the most popular name for a baby that year.
Are there meetings held every year to which everyone except me is invited in which it’s decided what the next year’s most popular baby names are? If not, how can a totally made-up name suddenly become popular within a year? Or how can a name that’s been considered passe for decades suddenly come back within a year?
our friend’s kid plays little league and i swear there is a kid on his team named “COSMO”-we just refer to him as “KRAMER”