What’s in a name?
Sean and Lorien Moyer pose for a photo at Christmas with their son, Benjamin.
Meredith Wright's daughter, Harper Olivia
Heather Kratsas and her daughter, Sophie
Lorien Moyer didn’t think she was going to name her child Benjamin. In fact, she and her husband Sean didn’t know whether they were having a boy or girl last year.
But after compiling a list of names, and contemplating taking Benjamin off the list, they had a son May 30. Two days later, they named him Benjamin.
A number of different factors go into naming a child, according to Dr. Holiday Adair, chair of the psychology department at California University of Pennsylvania.
They could include a parent’s wishes for their children, a desire for change from a parent’s own life circumstances, or a parent’s hope to set a course in life for their child.
“As with many decisions about parenting, choice of a baby name is probably some projection from the parents,” Adair said. “Meaning, what they had wished for in their own life; maybe that name exactly or a name like it.”
Some of the more popular names last year, according to Washington and St. Clair hospitals, were: Leah, Lily, Aria, Arianna, Emma, Ella, Madison, Sophia, Andrew, Noah, Jack, John, Jackson, Liam, James and Connor.
The most popular baby names nationally for 2014, according to the website Babycenter.com, were Sophia and Jackson. Rounding out the top five girls names were Emma, Olivia, Ava and Isabella, while the boys top five included Aiden, Liam, Lucas and Noah.
While the name Benjamin didn’t make the list, Moyer said she was OK with that.
“Though I think some of them are pretty or handsome names, we didn’t want to be a part of the trend of those names,” she said. Moyer is formerly of Washington and an assistant principal at Canon-McMillan High School.
While there is no family connection to Benjamin’s name, his middle name, Allen, is his father’s middle name.
“When we were putting names on our list, it was important to us that he could have a name that sounds good,” Moyer said. “If he was a baseball player, it would sound good, or if he wanted to be president. Of course, I was researching names like crazy.”
While unsure where the inspiration for Benjamin’s name and others on her list came from, Moyer said it may be because throughout her pregnancy she watched “Downton Abbey” and “Sherlock.”
“I don’t know if some of it was being inspired by the British,” she said with a laugh.
Sometimes randomness also factors into naming decisions, according to Adair.
Adair, whose sister’s names are also unusual, said her sister Shane’s name was taken from a wedding invitation sample and Cheance’s name was taken from her parents’ argument over how the French spelled it for a crossword puzzle.
“I was named Holiday, because the Holiday on Ice was coming to town and my mother did not want to name me ‘Fridge,'” she said. “My name would be Fridge Adair, my father’s idea.”
Parents also use family names, or may name their child after an honored person. This is usually the case for Greek families.
Heather Kratsas of Peters Township, whose husband is Greek, said Greek children usually carry a lineage name. But unlike some Greek families, she and her husband wanted to do something different.
“We decided not to do that, but we knew we wanted it to be a Greek name, but not a family name,” she said. “When we narrowed it down, it was four days before my due date.” Kratsas gave birth Jan. 4, 2014.
While Kratsas and her husband, Nick, eventually narrowed their list down to three names, she said her husband felt very strongly they couldn’t name the baby until after she was born and they had seen her for the very first time.
“I thought Nick was crazy, because I thought all babies look the same,” she said. “I made so much fun of him, but she seriously looks like a Sophie. Naming a kid was so overwhelming to us, because they have that name for the rest of their lives.”
Though her legal name is Sophia, the Kratsas family calls their daughter “Sophie” to be a little different. When the list of the most popular baby names came out for 2013, they almost changed their mind. But when they saw her, Kratsas said, they decided to stick with the name whether it was popular or not.
While Sophia was one of the more popular names of 2014, other parents went for something more unique.
Canonsburg Jennifer Conti named her daughter Ronnie, after her husband, father-in-law and stepfather. They were all named Ron.
“We had been in agreement that if the baby was a boy he would be Ronald III,” she said. “When we learned that we were having another girl, knowing she would be the last child we were going to have, I suggested to my husband that she could at least have his initials. After several weeks of being stressed over finding a name that we both liked with the initials RSC, I told my husband he could have naming rights to the baby.”
A few weeks later, Conti’s husband gave her a list of five possible first names – all Ronnie with different spellings with the exception of Ronna, which was also on the list. Ronnie’s middle name is Samina, taken from her dad’s middle name, Samuel.
Meredith Wright of Washington also had a girl in 2014, and she named her Harper Olivia. “We wanted her name to be unique,” she said. “I looked at baby books for months. When I saw the name Harper, I loved it. People tried to change my mind, but it didn’t work.”
Harper Olivia was born on May 4 but because of uncontrollable seizures, she passed away 28 days later.
“We still do not have an answer or diagnosis as to what caused the seizures,” Wright said. “We think of our beautiful little girl everyday and pray to be able to have another baby someday. We will always cherish our memories we had with Harper.”