February falls right in the middle of the coldest months of the year and it is also the month of love and romance.  If you’re having (or making) a baby in February, here are 175 Valentine inspired names to consider from around the world. 

175 Names of Love

Abiba – the beloved one – African

Adelpha - Beloved Sister - Greek

Adora Beloved One – Latin, Greek, Old German

After having taken a close look at the recent release of the Top Baby Names of 2011, I had some fun doing a little bit of research about the names of the Yummy Mummy Club Bloggers.

May marks the release of the Top Baby Names, according to the data collected by US Social Security Administration. There is not a Canadian equivalent available of this data, but given the close relation of our culture, I’m quite confident that the results would be similar.

I see baby names every day and some days, weeks, and months, I note that some are more popular than others, and the popularity of some names grow while others fade. The Top 10 Baby Names, according to the US Social Security Administration, held few surprises for me. 

Social Media provides a space for me to work and play. I have always seen it as an open field—an opportunity throughout the course of my day, evening, or insomnia-laden night to meet, discuss, source, promote, and learn. One of the first people that I ‘met’ on Twitter was Samantha Ettus (@SamanthaEttus). Samantha is a leader and expert on personal branding and working moms.

If you recieved the above-pictured birth announcement, would you call your friend to congratulated them on the birth of the son? Their daughter? Or would you remain neutral and say baby? (image provided by Lindsay Brewda of Grace Announements)

It’s Juno weekend in Canada and we’re getting ready to honour and celebrate our country’s diverse and talented music community. Last week was Canadian Music Week and I had the chance to talk with two musical Dads.

When we are faced with deciding what to eat from a restaurant menu that offers everything from all-day breakfast to chicken fingers and fries to filet mignon, some of us become virtually paralyzed. You’re at a table of 4 and your meal comes, the one that you put so much thought and consideration into and of course, you want what your friend is having instead. There is so much too choose from. I think that the same can be said for baby names, but you can’t always send it back or come back next week and try something different.

I love names that are unique when they hold special meaning. I recently sought out Trista Sutter, of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, to talk names. Trista was the runner-up on the first season of The Bachelor and was the first Bachelorette the following year.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Of course I've found some interesting facts about his name for you:

His name is Theodor Seuss Geisel. Theodor is his father's name too.

He was known as "Ted" to his family and friends.

Seuss is his mother's maiden name.

Seuss, as we all say it, "Seuss" is the anglicized pronunciation of the German surname that he has noted rhymes with 'voice.' Zoyce.

Iconic artist and philanthropist Paul McCartney will be joined by Tony Bennett, the Cast from The Beatles “Love” by Cirque Du Soleil, Coldplay, Duane Eddy, Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys and Diana Krall as the 2012 MusiCares Person of the Year during the 2012 Grammy Awards celebrating his exceptional artistic achievements as well as his philanthropic work. The Grammy Awards airs this Sunday, February 12^th.

Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan welcomed their baby boy into the world on Tuesday February 7th in Los Angeles. He surprised his wife earlier this year when he revealed the baby’s gender on Jay Leno’s night show.  But he managed to keep the name to himself until after he was born: Exton Elias Downey. The couple have yet to reveal the meaning behind the unique name choice. It could be that the Downeys are fans of Shakespeare and chose the name based on Sir Pierce of Exton from his Richard II.

I met Chrystina and her son Lev at The Babytime Show last spring. We had a long talk about his name and the meaning behind it. I have held on to this special name story to share at just the right moment. With Valentine's Day coming up, I thought the timing was perfect to share the story about how little Lev was given his name, as told by his Mom:

Here's the story behind our son, Lev's, name. I must admit, it's a good one :)



There are 100s of celebrities who have changed their names because they needed something easier, shorter, more exotic, less ethnic.

These are the ones whose stories I love:

 Miley Cyrus – born Destiny Hope Cyrus

A happy kid, she was given the nickname “Smiley Miley.” It stuck. She officially changed her name in 2008.

Many different things go into the mix when parents set out to choose a name for their baby.  You want it to fit you, your family, your brand.  Our loves, our past, our hopes, our philosophies are deeply tied not to the names that we have ourselves, but to the names that we give our children.  

Your children's names are really the first thing that you give them that they will have for the rest of their lives. There are those mothers among us who have known what names they would give to their children since they were young, while others only start the selection process once they find out that that they are pregnant.

As you get to know me, you'll understand that I'm less interested in the celebrityishness and more about the meaning behind a name. In my last post on Beyonce and Jay-Z's new baby girl, Blue Ivy, I gave more attention to the significance of Ivy amid much confusion online on whether her name was Ivy Blue or Blue Ivy. Beyonce herself might both started and stopped the debate with the following Tweets.

First there was this:

Beyonce announced her pregnancy at the MTV Video Awards with a not-so-subtle rub of her belly, garnering the most tweets about a specific subject in the history of Twitter. That record may have been shattered late last night when she gave birth to her daughter. An on-again, off-again insomniac, I was online when it started and within minutes it was a trending topic and was soon hailed as the youngest trending topic to date. Quite a fitting entrance for the offspring of  "The Queen of Everything" and "Hova."

You know that feeling you get when you are completely sure that you have arrived in the right place but you didn’t always know that that is where you were heading? That’s me, right now. Welcome to my new blog—I am the resident Baby Name Expert for The Yummy Mummy Club.