I really wish I’d had the guts to use the name Adeline for one of my girls. It was the name of one of my great-grandmothers—a sweet, white-haired old lady with horn-rimmed glasses, who used to sit in a little white chair in the corner of my grandmother’s living room, watching old movies and reading the newspaper when we came over for dinner on Sundays. She had worked as an organist for the local movie house, playing tunes to accompany silent films. In all, she was a pretty cool great-grandmother to have.
But I was afraid that Adeline was way too old-fashioned a name choice for a more modern, 21st century girl. Apparently, I shouldn’t have worried—it’s currently in the top 300 names, and it’s on the rise, thanks to its vintage pedigree and its close relationship to some of the uberpopular Abby/Addy names. (In fact, it’s had a meteoric rise since 2000, after bottoming out near the 1000 mark for nearly 50 years.) In fact, if you love some of those top 100 names like Abigail, Addison, Audrey, Madison or Madeline, Adeline might be a nice way to get that same feel, without dooming your daughter to be “Addison G.” for her entire school career.
Adeline is a French-German name which means “noble,” and is a variation on Adele. And it comes with an array of great nickname options: Addie, Lina, Adele, and my great-grandmother’s chosen nickname, Dell.
Adeline pairs up beautifully with some of the popular mono syllable middle names, like Mae, Quinn, Jane, Faith and Hope. You could also match it up with a two-syllable middle name, so long as your last name is short. Try it with Hannah, Luna or Olive.
So maybe even if I didn’t pick sweet Adeline for my babies, you can. Do you like the “Addy” names? What do you think of this new variation?
Photo: Pregnant woman via Ronald Summers/Shutterstock.com