Today marks BBN's first birthday, as was a year ago today that I wrote the first post Before There Was Ava. This week has certainly made me reflect on my first year of blogging and has posed many questions. Have I learnt anything new? What have I most enjoyed? Would I do it differently if I started again? Any regrets?
I'll be completely honest — I started blogging mostly on a whim. That is not to say that I wasn't serious about the subject of names, I just had no real idea of where I wanted to go with a name blog or what I really wanted to do with one. It was something that I had considered trying for a while, having participated in the "name community" for nearly ten years, but it was only last April that I finally decided to take the plunge. I need to thank my father actually. His "why don't you give it a go?" was what finally gave me a much needed spurt of confidence to try. Credit also goes to Pam and Linda from Nameberry who, back in 2009, graciously asked me to write a guest post on Cornish names. Having two such influential and inspiration women — giants in the field of naming — ask for my thoughts was hugely exciting, and proved to me that I could write about names, if only I tried.
The blog has, I feel, changed a lot over the year. My aim when I started was to look at British names (a broad and ambiguous term if ever there was one) not just from a contemporary perspective, but also a historical one. I started the year compiling the 2009 statistics into the combined spellings and hyphen names, and threw out a few lists and names of the week — but for the most part I was stumbling around blindly.
With the wisdom of a year behind me, I do think I am more confident with writing and have a much better understanding of what this blog actually is. The content is still slightly erratic, but unashamedly so. I like to cover a variety of subjects but it is a lot more focused now. Quality over quantity, I hope.
The best part of this blog is that it opened me up to a world of name bloggers. Lou from Mer de Noms was the first person to comment on the blog back in its very early days. She gave me confidence and helped me feel part of a community. Thank you! Anna from Waltzing More Than Matilda gave me a model for how to combine name commentary and statistics in an interesting way, and both Lou and Anna opened me up the world of name blogging — and what an exciting world it is. Abby from Appellation Mountain is a true inspiration. She loves names and writes beautifully. Added to that she is also incredibly generous; most of this blog's traffic has come from her site. Kay from Nook of Names is wonderfully wise and unselfish; her insight has helped me gain my own "voice" in blogging. Isadora (Bewiching Names) and Elisabeth (You Can't Call It It) have also provided much inspiration and a model for how to blog about names without losing the bigger picture. There are so many other wonderful blogs: Baby Names from Yesteryear, Eponymia, Marginamia and Ich und die Namen are just a little younger than BBN, but they are everything I wish this blog had been at the beginning.
My biggest thank you goes to all the people who read this blog and come back again. I feel humbled that people want to read this blog, and incredibly blessed to have the wonderfully insightful and loyal readers that visit this site regularly. There are things that I want to do in the next year of blogging which I hope will prove interesting and useful. I particularly want to take more of an active role in the research and compiling of data, particularly from historical sources, and start looking more at regional influences.
And regrets? Someone asked me about name regret the other day and it made me think about the name regret I sometimes have about the blog's name. I'll admit to not being very creative when it comes to names for things — people yes, brands no. I would love to have come up with a witty play on words, but even after a whole year, I have yet to come up with one. "British Names" was what this blog was all about, but that sounded too short and defunct as a name. "Baby" was added in reluctantly. I don't think names are for babies, they are for people, but British Baby Names had an alliterative flow that worked better. And, on balance, although I may wish for more creativity in that area, "British Baby Names" is what it says on the tin, and I think I can live with that.