Name that baby.

I find it ironic, and a bit sad, that the mayor of San Francisco--a man who is a champion of marriage rights for gays and lesbians--is getting a divorce himself. On the other hand, being a regular working stiff, I can't identify with the idea that your careers and your bicoastal marriage is what drove you apart...seems like a flimsy excuse that could be overcome if you seriously wanted to stay married.

On a lighter note, we're enjoying lots of discussion on the top baby names of 2004. Unfortunately, some names we liked for our (non-existent) baby are on there, so off the short list they will likely be. It's amazing to me what a process naming a baby is, how so many people like to create different spellings of relatively common names while others (myself included) abhor the practice. Meanwhile, in the UK, making up names is apparently all the rage. That's probably true all over; I read recently that there were more children in the US named Armani in 2003 than there were named Ann.

There won't be any Social Security for me when I'm 65 (or even 75, I'd wager), but those crazy kids at the SSA do publish a list of the most popular names, with the added bonus that you search for your own name to see how popular it is, and search for whatever name you want to give to your munchkin, to make sure he's not one of 13 Connors in his kindergarten class. I think Julia Roberts may have had a good idea with Hazel and Phinnaeus...there's not a lot of that going around yet.