Heather writes:<\/p>\n
I didn’t expect to be writing you pre-pregnancy but I have something I’m genuinely curious about. It concerns a name I found in a cute story I read once about a little girl named Patsy who tried the herb parsley and loved it so much that it was all she would eat. Her parents eventually changed her name to Parsley after her favourite food. It made me curious about why the name Parsley has never actually been tried when so many other spices and green plants are the source of beloved classics? There are the tried and true names Sage, Basil, Ivy, and Rosemary, and the spunkier Pepper, Anise and Cinnamon (though those are pretty brave choices). I’ve heard Bay and Sorrel on little boys. Ground cover plants like Tansy and Clover are being used, and they are just as unassuming looking as Parsley. I think it sounds quite sweet if you give it a chance. It has a lot of the same sounds as girls’ names Presley, Paisley, and Pemberly that are quite fashionable nowadays. What do you think? Is Parsley just too out there, and if so, what makes it that much crazier than Sage or Clover? Is it quirky and appealing or downright blegh? I find it fresh, though I can’t imagine being brave enough to use it myself. I’d love to know what you and your readers think.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Isn’t that funny, how certain jewel\/flower\/month\/nature names get used completely routinely, and the others seem quirky almost to the point of bizarre? We can name babies April, May, and June all year long, but February and March would be startling. Rose and Lily and Violet seem like normal names, but Daffodil and Tulip don’t. Ruby and Pearl, sure!—but Quartz and Topaz are going to get comments.<\/p>\n
I don’t know why some words get established as names and others don’t. I do know that it never seems to work to protest that things SHOULD work: either they do work, or else they don’t. Parsley SHOULD work: it definitely does sound like Paisley and Presley, and it definitely does sound sweet, and in theory it shouldn’t be any weirder than Sage or Rosemary. But right now my opinion is that it doesn’t work—that it goes beyond quirky and into comical, along with Garlic and Oregano. I think it would make a distinctive and excellent pet name, however.<\/p>\n
Let’s have a poll over to the right to see what everyone else thinks. [Poll closed; see results below.] I’m using the same poll options as usual, but I’m noticing that some of the categories are a little shaky: like, what if you love the name but feel it’s absolutely unusable for a child? Choosing “strong dislike” seems inappropriate—and yet I think that’s what the right vote option would be. I will try to think of better and more accurate categories for future polls.<\/p>\n
Poll results for “What do you think of the name Parsley?”<\/b> (531 votes total):<\/p>\n
I love it! I’d want to use it! – 3 votes (1%)
I like it! I’d want to consider it! – 13 votes (2%)
I like it for someone else’s baby – 68 votes (13%)
No particular opinion – 25 votes (5%)
Slight dislike – 157 votes (30%)
Strong dislike – 265 votes (50%)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heather writes: I didn’t expect to be writing you pre-pregnancy but I have something I’m genuinely curious about. It concerns a name I found in a cute story I read once about a little girl named Patsy who tried the herb parsley and loved it so much that it was all she would eat. Her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-name-to-consider"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1zl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}