One of my favorite things about England (is this an overstatement?  I really don’t think so) is the baby name landscape.  Sure, the accents are beautiful and the sprawling countryside is  breathtaking, but you can’t take those home with you.

Above is my little souvenir from the gift shop at the Black Country Museum (I will tell you about my actual trip to England soon, I promise, but you know, first thing’s first.)  Trevor’s parents and brothers and the girls were chomping at the bit to get to the museum itself, so I didn’t have time to adequately drool over this display.  Instead, I thought quick and took a picture.

You’ve maybe guessed by now that I am not calling your attention to how beautiful these cards are, but rather the fact that this rack represents the top 50 (or so) currently most popular names in the UK.  Now go back up and look.

Do you see?!

Here are some of the girls you wouldn’t find on a personalized sippy cup on this side of the Atlantic:

Alice,  Amelia, Charlotte, Daisy, Eleanor, Freya, Georgia, Imogen, Keira, Lucy, Millie, Phoebe, Poppy, Ruby, Scarlett

And though I didn’t get a full shot of the boys, there are a few keepers even in the first few rows:

Alfie, Archie, Callum, Cameron, Charlie, George, Harry, Harvey, Lewis

*Swoon*…

And that’s just in the top 50!  In real life, we also came across little ones called Myla and Lilly, Reuben and Barnaby.  Seriously, I could name a child *any one* of those names, and almost have on a few occasions.

One of the sweetest things for me (apart from the obvious family connections, of course) about taking the girls to their other half culture, is hearing them introduce themselves and be understood.  I was chatting with another mum (*I* even get a nicer name over there!) at Trevor’s parents’ church, and she was asking the girls’ names.  I introduced the little two first, since they were nearest, and then the woman’s husband who was standing nearby chimed in, “and these two are Pippa and Romilly.”  I was puzzled for a second, wondering if he was a friend of Trevor’s parents and already knew of the girls.  Then I finally asked,” how did you know that?”  to which he  replied, “I just asked them.”  I just beamed.  My girls said their names, and he got them, without any help from me whatsoever.

At least a few times I heard someone ask Pippa her name, and I braced myself to step in, spell, explain, repeat as I always have to do here in the US even though she says it perfectly.  Over there, almost without fail, her introduction was met with ” Oh, Pippa… as in Philippa!”

All of this left me to ponder, though, do I enjoy having unusually named children or pine for a bit more recognition (and fewer blank stares) when I introduce them?  I guess a bit of both.   It probably goes without saying after bestowing  four never-charted-in-the-US-Top-1000 names on our children that we like to think outside the box a little, but a little break from the constant explaining and clarifying was definitely refreshing.

Also, their names as a set are probably more cohesive here in the US (at least in my head) than they are in the UK.  While they all claim ‘British flavor’ and  ‘quirky style’ on this side of the pond, the view from Britain is somewhat different.

• Pippa was probably most common in the 60’s and 70’s in the UK, making her more like a “Judy” type name over here.
• Romilly is a recent up-and-comer in England, probably mosted prompted by a pop-culture bearer… dare I compare her to Madison?
• Beatrix probably has about the same image and popularity there as here: old-fashioned, literary, just a tiny smidge fusty… let’s liken her to Agatha.
• And Juniper, well, as much as I’d like to claim Britishness by way of being botanical (Brits have always been crazy about their flower names, as Daisy and Poppy attest above), Juniper probably sounds just as much a crazy hippy name to the Brits as Rainbow might.

So if over there, my kids names are all easily recognized, but heard collectively as, “These are my daughters Judy, Madison, Agatha and Rainbow”… I think we’d probably best just stay put, don’t you?