Victor

Victor means exactly what it seems to mean. That's "winner" or "victorious" for the less perceptive amongst you. The word is Latin, the name is Roman. When we hear the name Victor we might think of one of the saints who were named Victor, we might think of record company RCA Victor or we might think of author Victor Hugo. Fans of banjo genius Bela Fleck might even think of Victor Wooten. Classic movie fans will more likely think of actor Victor Mature. Early Christians liked this name quite a bit, and we evidently still like it a lot today. For more than 100 years now, this name has hovered just at the top 100 mark. This makes it a good name, simply because it's common enough not to be thought "odd," but not so common as to be overused. The usual nickname for Victor is Vic--a name that really grows on you once you know someone called Vic. Victor is an especially good name for a German Shepherd. Seriously.

Annette

Annette is, as all the other names sites say, a French "pet form" of Ann(e). Famous Annettes have included Annette Funicello, and Annette Bening. Although Annette is still currently in the top 1000 names for baby girls, its in the bottom 500, meaning, basically that it is in use, but not over-used. It was a much more popular name thoughout most of the 1900's, and in the 1960's was a top 100 name. This is probably why it is not so much in use today: baby girls born today might be the daughter of an Annette, or the granddaughter of an Annette, or perhaps the neice of an Annette. So my best guess would be that in most cases today that the name is given, it is as a middle name, maybe to honor the elder relative with the name. As a middle name, Annette is wonderful. Paired with either a one-syllable or three-syllable first name, it is musical. (It's not bad with a two-syllable first name, but the rule of thumb--which can, and should, be often broken-- is to give names of varying syllables--they usually just flow better. Two syllable names can follow other two syllable names more easily than one syllable names can follow one another though-- example, Katie Annette flows better than Lynn Jean. See?) Annette is definitely a name to keep in mind when naming a baby girl, just because it is such a great middle name, and because it does come with a little bit of versatility. A girl named Annette can also reasonbly claim to be Ann or Anne or Annie, or if she's feeling VERY retro she can be Nettie.

Heather

Most names can go into some category or another, or several categories in some cases. Examples include gem names like Ruby and Jasper, saint names, names that were surnames, and so on. One of those categories is flowers, or plants, and Heather is one of these names. Heather is a plant often associated with Scotland, and the heather page at Electric Scotland has some nice pictures of it, a great legend, and excellent information about the evolution of the word heather from Old Scottish to the present form. Actually that page probably contains more information about heather than anyone could ever need, but go there anyway for the legend and the pictures. It's very nice. The most famous Heather on the Internet is blogger Heather Armstrong, a.k.a. Dooce. And of course there's Heather Locklear, but Dooce is much more interesting. Really. Heather only started to be used regularly as a given name for baby girls in the 1930's, but had made it all the way to the top 10 in the 1970's. Its popularity has waned steadily since the 70's, but it is still in the top 300, so is certainly not out of use. The loss of popularity is almost certainly due to over-use (see the 1989 movie Heathers , with its clique of Heathers.)