February 9, 2007
Shiloh Nouvel Runner-Up For “Name Of The Year”
The American Name Society, which is the leading academic organization in the United States for the study of names, has picked “Shiloh Nouvel” as a runner-up in its 2006 “Name of the Year” contest. The winning name was “Pluto.”
At its January meeeting in Anaheim, the Name Society voted Shiloh Nouvel into its top five names, noting that:
“This name symbolized the cult of celebrity gossip. When this child was born in Namibia in May, many joked that this was the most anticipated birth since the Christ child, and then “Brangelina” gave her a Messiah-like name, with a biblically significant place name first and “new” in the middle. The rarity and creativity of the given names, combined with the hyphenated surname, to exemplify the characteristics of today’s celebrity baby names for many Americans.”
Wow, pretty serious stuff there from the American Name Society. They also gave a nod to Suri, (Suri Cruise in case you just returned from Mars), which was one of the 12 finalists, commenting that all
“the speculation surrounding the name is another example of the present cult of celebrity.”
No kidding. They went on to mention that some people (conspiracy theorists?) thought that Suri was actually named for L. Ron Hubbard’s hometown of Surrey in England. Surrey is not a town. It’s a county. Still, I enjoyed the fact that even the American Name Society is enjoying the speculation.
Technorati Tags: celebrity baby names, baby names, celebrity gossip, celebrity babies, American Name Society, Shiloh Nouvel, Suri Cruise, Pluto, L. Ron Hubbard
what a name for a baby Shiloh omg!!