::Team Twilight:: Baby Name for 2009 is... brace yourselves.

We here at The Love Shack might not agree with this but we do find it entertaining. Note to parents: Don't give your kid a name that is gonna get the shit kicked out of them in 3rd grade.


The Name of the Year, 2009 and the Winner is.....
Dec 10th 2009
By Laura Wattenberg

We've counted down the first and second runners up, and now it's time for the official 2009 Name of the Year. Brace yourselves, name enthusiasts, because it may not be what you're expecting....

Renesmee.

Yes, it's another Twilight name, which makes for a potent and timely launching pad. But the impact of Renesmee goes far beyond vampires. This name is the spark that lit a long-building cultural bonfire to usher in the Age of the Mashup Baby Name.

For those who have skipped the whole Twilight phenomenon, Renesmee is the child of the series' two young heroes, and thus half human and half vampire. Most importantly for our purposes she is named after her two grandmothers, Renée and Esme. (Her middle name, Carlie, comes from grandpas Carlisle and Charlie.)

Twilight author Stephenie Meyer has said that she chose the name because no normal human name would do for an otherworldly creature like Renesmee. It also strikes me as a realistic choice for a couple of teenage parents. Undead or not, they live in a time when creativity in baby name is prized, particularly by younger parents. What's more, they live in a celebrity-saturated world, in the long shadow of Bennifer.

When actors Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez started dating in 2002, the press christened the pair Bennifer. Since then, a portmanteau or "mashup" name has been de rigueur for every celebrity couple, real or fictional. (See yesterday's discussion of Tay Tay.) A young adult today has come of age surrounded by names like TomKat and Brangelina.

Renesmee, introduced at the end of 2008, brought a new name to our language. Real-life Renesmee sightings are increasing all the time. More importantly, though, it broke down the barriers between celebrity mashups and baby names. As a BabyNameWizard.com reader wrote, "I do know of several people that copied the idea and gave their children first or middle names that are mash-ups of the grandparents' names."

In Namipedia, I've seen a rising number of name submissions created from two parents' or grandparents' names. (I usually reject them, assuming that a name like Brendeth will only appeal to the narrow group of readers who also have parents named Brenda and Kenneth.) Our sister blog "Ask The Name Lady," too, is receiving more and more questions about how to combine family names like George and Edward.

Like all celebrity name trends, Renesmee's fashion power depends on the fact that the world was ready for it. To quote The Name Lady's column, "For centuries, the way to honor Grandpa George and Grandpa Edward was obvious. George Edward. Or Edward George, if you prefer. That's what a namesake is, right?" Renesmee became the name of the moment, and the Name of the Year, because parents today still love their relatives...but aren't willing to sacrifice their sense of style to show it.

http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2009/12/the-name-of-the-year-2009-pt-3-the-winner