What’s Your Name
The great name debate: Trendy vs. classic
August 12, 2011
Kristin Rushowy
TORONTO STAR
NOTE: This article has been edited from a previous version.
Marianne Wisenthal came up with an interesting way to make sure the names she and her husband shortlisted for a girl sounded right — not-too-girly, professional, someone who would be hard-working, interesting.
She asked her boss to call out the top three from her office, as if summoning someone for a meeting.
“Her preference was actually Ruby,” says Wisenthal. “But I was worried Ruby wouldn’t sound good by the time she turned 30.”
In the end, Wisenthal and husband Jodie Davis, both television producers, went with Marlow. But it was a real debate for the couple, one they put off until a few weeks before the baby was born.
“My husband really likes trendy names — if he had his way, we would have named her Brooklyn or Beckham or Madison. There’s nothing wrong with those names, but I didn’t want something super-trendy.”
Marlow George Wisenthal Davis was born on April 19 of this year at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, weighing 7 lbs., 7 oz.
“Once we saw her, it took about 30 seconds to name her,” says Wisenthal. “Marlow is a picturesque English village near my maternal grandparents’ house on the River Thames. I spent every summer of my childhood climbing the giant trees in the local park and it’s the source of many happy memories. It’s also where my husband was introduced to my wonderful grandfather a year before he passed away at 93.”
Davis wanted George as a first name — “not Georgie, Georgiana or Georgia. He thought it was really cool. It was his grandfather’s name, his father's middle name, his middle name, his nephew’s middle name” — but they instead used it as a middle name.
“I thought it was interesting but it was going to be a lifetime of confusion. My husband’s name has a girl’s spelling and I couldn’t believe he wanted to do that to our daughter. He said it was no big deal.”
When the couple sent out a birth announcement by email, “everyone was just telling us how it was the most interesting, unusual name.” But the relatives in England? “They were a little shocked. They said, ‘you’ve named her what? That’s a village.’”
Some old friends even asked Wisenthal if the middle name was after her childhood pet George, a “feisty black and white cat.” But no.
“To us, her name represents people and places we love.”
Did you give your child an interesting or unusual name? Email krushowy@thestar.ca