On This Day

Famous people who share my birthday:

Ashton Kutcher
Chris Rock
Garth Brooks
James Spader
Sinclair Lewis
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Frederick Douglass
Charles Dickens
Anna Ivanova Romanova
John Deere

Many other people who are or were considered famous or important were born on this day. I only included the ones I've heard of and figured would be the most well known.

This Day in History:

1795 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
1836 "Sketches by Boz" (essays) published by Charles Dickens.
1862 Federal fleet attack on Roanoke Island, NC.
1905 Oklahoma admitted to statehood.
1933 Social-Democrat meeting in Berlin "As thousands cheer" Marxism is dead.
1935 Monopoly invented by Charles Darrow symbol Rich Uncle Pennybags.
1936 Felix the Cat, Cartoon Character, by Van Beuren from Otto Messmer.
1940 - "Pinocchio" world premiered at the Center Theatre in Manhattan.
1944 - During World War II, the Germans launched a counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy.
1945 General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
1962 President Kennedy begins blockade of Cuba.
1971 Women win the right to vote in Switzerland.
1983 1st female secretary of transportation sworn-in (Elizabeth Dole).
1991 - The Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti's first democratically elected president.
1993 Pebbles Flintstone & Bamm Bamm Rubble wed.
1999 - King Hussein of Jordan died. His son was sworn in as king four hours after the announcement that his father had died.

Many other things happened on this day, but I chose not to include them as that would make this list very long.

Today's Unknown Holidays:

Ballet Day
Daytona Pole Day
Man Day
Orthodox Meatfare Sunday
Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbor Day

The top song of 1973 was "Let's Get it On" by Marvin Gaye. (Other sources say it was "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", "You're So Vain", "Bad Bad Leroy Brown", "Crocodile Rock", "Life on Mars" and "Free Bird".) Click here for the top 50 songs of that year.

For name nerds like me, the top 10 names of 1973:

Boys: Michael, Christopher, Jason, James, David, John, Robert, Brian, William and Matthew.

Girls: Jennifer, Amy, Michelle, Kimberly, Lisa, Melissa, Angela, Heather, Stephanie and Rebecca.

Names

You Like Names that Are Retro and Fashionable

You like names that are from the past but becoming modern again.
Names with a strong history are very appealing to you.

You're a big believer in giving children very adult sounding names.
You're not a fan of made-up names or newfangled spellings.

Some female names you might like: Audrey, Emma, Fiona, Ava, Elena, Tessa, Emily, and Madeleine.

Some male names you might like: Brendan, Colin, Ethan, Liam, Sean, Dominic, Luke and Nathaniel

What Kind of Names Do You Like?

I'm a self-proclaimed name nerd with strong opinions about names. I'll try not to name any specific names that I dislike, even hate, so as not to offend anyone who has one of those names or who have given their children those names.

Types of names I dislike or hate: Clearly masculine names on girls, Mc/Mac names on girls (Mc means "son of"; Mac means either "son of" or "grandson of"; since girls aren't sons or grandsons, I don't like Mc/Mac names for them; plus they sound better as last names), non-traditional spellings (it just looks ignorant, in my opinion; sorry), last names as first names, non-name names (things found in nature, objects, attitudes or personality traits), with few exceptions.

My favorite names (besides my kids' names) are:

Girls: Tessa, Linnea (lyn-nay-uh), Fiona, Ava (what I would've named another girl if I'd had one), Elena (ee-lay-nuh), Anwen, Emily, Elliana, Katerina, Adriana (ay-dree-ah-nuh), Tatiana, Ariana, Elsa, Emma, Juliet, Madeleine, Aimee, Lisette, Gwendolen, Lila, Maya, Saoirse (seer-shuh; Irish; means "freedom"; a middle name choice if I'd had another girl), Roisin (ro-sheen; Irish; means "rose"; another middle name choice if I'd had another girl), Juliana, Aine (on-yuh; Irish), Ciara (keer-uh; Irish), Rhona, Anya (on-yuh), Emmaline, Audrey.

Boys: Declan (Irish; first name choice if we'd had another boy), Brendan (first name choice if we'd had another boy), Liam, Devin, Luke, Josiah, Nikolai, Dominic, Antonio, Alejandro, Ian, Jonah, Logan, Matthew, Evan, Brett, Dante, Nathan, Aidan, Nathaniel, Joseph, Jonathan, Dimitri, Demetrius, Ronan, Colin, Rhys (reese; Welsh), Malachy (mal-uh-key; Irish), Conall, Ethan.

It was names that brought me and a great group of ladies together about five years ago. We had met at BabyCenter at the name polls in the comments' section. After communicating there for awhile, we started a private group at YahooGroups in May of 2004 and have been chatting ever since.

We have been through a lot together. Births, deaths (including the spouse of one lady and the baby of another), celebrations, good times, bad times. We talk about everything from names to our families to sex to religion and politics to pretty much everything under the sun. We've sent each other Christmas cards, gifts, post cards, and other things. Some of us have met and spent time together. We're spread out across the country (California, Washington, Massachusetts, South Dakota, North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York) and one is in Canada. Four of them (Amber, Susanne, Carmen and Joni) are in my blogroll.

These ladies mean a lot to me. And I have being a name nerd to thank for bringing us together. :-)

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Kelly and I got groceries yesterday, went out to Bianca's for supper, and went to Borders for books. (Sean hasn't been feeling well and was at my mom's. He wouldn't have gone with us anyway. He doesn't like shopping. Not even for groceries.) I got The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe and Kelly got the first of the Warriors books, about warrior cats apparently. She's a few chapters into it and likes it.

Charlie went to South Carolina on Wednesday and hopes to be home by tonight. I want us to go on a date either tonight or tomorrow night, whenever he's able.